Magnolia, atlanta and dr. Martin luther king jr. a ... - Goodman Theatre

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IN THE ALBERT ers organized the March on Washington— an event which culminated in King’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech: We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children. It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro’s legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. On March 1, 1963, 72 days after Ivan Allen Jr. erected the Peyton Wall barricades, the Fulton County Superior Court ruled the signs unconstitutional and Atlanta’s city hall was granted four days to remove them. Ivan Allen Jr. ordered them removed 20 minutes later. That same year, Allen moved to dismantle other walls that divided his city: he lobbied successfully for Atlanta’s first black firemen, empowered black policemen to arrest whites, desegregated Atlanta’s baseball park, downtown theaters and municipal swimming pools and requested that downtown businesses desegregate to “maintain the city’s healthy climate.” Today, 40 years after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s death, as we welcome the first African American president into the White House, Taylor’s play reminds us how much of Dr. King’s dream has been realized—and how much is still left to be achieved. LEFT: Photo of Peachtree Street courtesy of Geographic Places, Lane Brothers Photographers Collection and Tracy O’Neill Collection, Special Collections Department, Georgia State University Library. Where Peachtree Street Meets Sweet Auburn in 2009 Although Atlanta was the birthplace of the Civil Rights Movement and is known as the capital of the New South, it is second only to Chicago as the city with the most segregated housing patterns in the United States. During the period in which Magnolia takes place, segregation was embodied by the difference between the city’s two major streets: Peachtree Street and Sweet Auburn. Once the center of black life in Atlanta, Sweet Auburn was—and still is—an innercity neighborhood victim to inner-city problems. In 1992, Sweet Auburn was named one of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places, which prompted the creation of the Historic District Development Corporation (HDDC) to help preserve the area’s cultural and political history, beginning with the birthplace of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The HDDC has since worked to develop the neighborhood while constructing affordable housing to maintain its lower-income residents. Once the major street for Atlanta’s wealthy white population, Peachtree has inspired 71 other ‘Peachtree’ streets throughout the city. The original Peachtree Street has often been compared to Broadway, even inspiring Frank Sinatra to sing, “There’s nothing can compare with/Strolling along Peachtree Street with my baby on my arm.” Atlanta developed around Peachtree Street, where the majority of its municipal buildings and historical landmarks were located, and it continues to evolve today. In 2007, Mayor Shirley Franklin made public a $1 billion, 20-year proposal to construct modern architecture, restaurants, bars, shops and apartments where some of Atlanta’s most majestic homes once stood. While Sweet Auburn and Peachtree once represented two distinct Atlantas, today both streets are developing into vibrant commercial, residential and historic roads that will one day lead to one integrated city. While blacks and whites are not yet neighbors in the capital of the New South, the distance between them has been steadily diminishing since Peyton Wall was torn down more than four decades ago. Peachtree Street today. Photo courtesy of Flip Chalfant. 6
An Interview with Playwright Regina Taylor In a recent conversation with Goodman Literary Manager Tanya Palmer, playwright and Goodman Artistic Associate Regina Taylor discussed her new play, Magnolia, which is set in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1962–1963, the year that Atlanta mayor Ivan Allen Jr. erected a barrier to slow the progress of integration. Tanya Palmer: I understand that your research for Magnolia involved conducting first-hand interviews with people in Atlanta about their memories of the 1960s. Was the story of Peyton Wall part of the play from the beginning, or did it come out of the interviews? Dr. King’s dream has been fulfilled in some ways? The presidential election of a black senator from Illinois makes this play wonderfully exciting to me right now, especially to be presenting it in Chicago. TP: One of the interesting things about the play being set in Atlanta is that while it is clearly a southern city, Atlanta approached civil rights and desegregation differently than other southern cities. Can you talk a little bit about that difference? REGINA TAYLOR RT: Atlanta was known as the black mecca of the South, just as Chicago was considered the black mecca of the North. Very clear lines separated the races in both cities, but both Atlanta and Chicago also had very prosperous black communities with strong hierarchies of people wielding power. Atlanta had Daddy King [Martin Luther King Sr.] and many other people who could wield power on both sides of the line. It was a city in which black people could own Regina Taylor: I wanted to write a play that could be produced in memory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and honor his dreams on the 40th anniversary of his death, so I started by researching the history of his birthplace, Atlanta. Peyton Wall came up in my research, and I thought ‘Oh! I didn’t know about that!’ The play takes place in 1963, during a time of change and hope when the country was on the precipice of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s mountain—dreaming about the hopes and promises of the future. During the previous year, John Glenn had orbited the earth for the first time. When he returned to earth and touched American soil, he found the landscape shifting and the times changing. America had elected Kennedy the first Roman Catholic president and during that time, the invisible walls that had always divided the country and Atlanta, specifically, were becoming very visible and concrete. Writing this piece about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream has been interesting, because as I was writing Magnolia, Barack Obama was elected president. And that is what propels the piece as I continue to work on it. How do we look at Atlanta, Georgia, in 1963, now that ANNA D. SHAPIRO received the 2008 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play for August: Osage County. Directing credits at Steppenwolf Theatre Company (where she became an ensemble member in 2005) include The Pain and the Itch, I Never Sang for My Father, Man from Nebraska, Until We Find Each Other, The Drawer Boy and Side Man. Other credits include Our Town at Lookingglass Theatre Company, A Number at A Contemporary Theatre, Iron at Manhattan Theatre Club, A Fair Country at Huntington Theatre Company and Trafficking in Broken Hearts at Atlantic Theatre Company. Ms. Shapiro is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama and Columbia College and the recipient of a 1996 Princess Grace Award. She joined the faculty of Northwestern University as head of the Graduate Directing Program in 2002. 7
Page 1 and 2: March - May 2009 Magnolia, atlanta
Page 3 and 4: IN THE ALBERT From the Artistic Dir
Page 5 and 6: OPPOSITE: Photo of Dr. Martin Luthe
Page 7: The Civil Rights Movement, 1954-196
Page 11 and 12: Suzanne Douglas and Jason Delane in
Page 13 and 14: NA: And is that mode more about hei
Page 15 and 16: Once Upon a Time… The Story of
Page 17 and 18: Taking the Stage: A Celebration of
Page 19 and 20: Ruined Opens at Manhattan Theatre C
Page 21 and 22: The Goodman Receives Second Joyce A
Page 23 and 24: Goodman Preferred Hotel: Hotel Sax

Magnolia, atlanta and dr. Martin luther king jr. a ... - Goodman Theatre

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