The Meeting

In this moving and thought-provoking work, playwright Jeff Stetson imagines for us what a clandestine meeting might have been like between two of the most influential men of their times: Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X.

February, 1965. A shabby Harlem hotel room becomes the backdrop for this momentous confrontation between King, Baptist minister, Nobel Prize winner, and champion of non-violent protest, and Malcolm, advocate of self defense through any means necessary, and himself the center of fractional warring within his own Muslim faith. Within a week, Malcolm will be assassinated, and in three short years Dr. King will also become martyred to the crusade for freedom. But in this historic moment, the audience becomes privy to what might have been. The play examines both the public and private lives: the clash of the ideas and tactics for the advancement of freedom, and the humanity of two devout men of faith, loving fathers and husbands, and leaders willing to lay down their lives for the cause of justice.

Wesley Lawrence Taylor plays Malcolm X. Born and bred in Boston, he is a graduate of the New Theatre Conservatory and has studied voice at the Linklate Studio. Some of his favorite roles have been: "Hoke" in "Driving Miss Daisy" with Wharf Rat Productions; "Peter" in "Zoo Story" with New Theatre Conservatory; "Crooks" in "Of Mice and Men" with Stanley B. Theater Company; "Dale Harding" in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest" with Spiral Stage; and "Mook" in "Native Speech" with Molasses Tank Production.

Jeff Robinson plays Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. A St. Louis, Missouri native and award-winning saxophonist, composer, radio DJ, actor, director, playwright, and poet, Robinson is a music composition alum of Berklee College of Music.

Michael Nurse plays "Rashad." A native of London, Nurse first caught the acting bug watching British pantomime. He performed theatrically in high school and later attended Emerson College where he appeared in such shows as "A Day of Absence," "A Streetcar Named Desire," "Othello," and "The Lady's Not for Burning." Nurse premiered professionally with the Abibisunsum Theater Company in “The Story Ananse Told,” with the Hapstead Players in “Romeo and Juliet,” with R.O.S.E. Players in “Macbeth,” and with the Harvard University Theater in “The Venus Hottentot.” He has also appeared in the films Glory, Mystic River, Dark Assassin, Field of Dreams, The Departed, Celtic Pride, and Fever Pitch.