In March 2011 Stanford’s Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute collaborated with the Palestinian National Theater, Al Hakawati, to produce the first play about Martin Luther King, Jr., to be performed in Arabic. My play, “Passages of Martin Luther King,” opened on Tuesday evening, March 22, for four performances in East Jerusalem before moving to various West Bank venues through April 5.



The Palestinian version of "Passages" was directed by Kamal El-Basha and featured eight Palestinian actors portraying King, his parents, his wife, Coretta, and other historical figures, such as Malcolm X and President John F. Kennedy. Six African-American singers, including four with Stanford ties, arrived on March 13, 2011, to participate in the production, performing church and freedom songs associated with King’s life.



Stanford alum and Drama Department lecturer Aleta Hayes (’91) served as the play’s choreographer, working closely with the singers, who depicted the choir of King’s Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta as well as Freedom Fighters. The choir of King’s included P. Michael Williams, Steven Wilson, former Stanford undergraduates Ré Phillips (’10) and Chelsi Butler (’09), as well as musical director September Penn, who was joined by her husband, Ivan Penn, a former Knight journalism fellow at Stanford.



Phillips, Butler, and Penn also participated in the National Theatre of China’s 2007 international premiere of “Passages” staged in Beijing in 2007. The play, based on Carson’s extensive research as editor of King’s papers, was first performed in 1993 by Stanford’s Drama Department.



Noted filmmaker Connie Field accompanied the American performers and recorded the unique cultural exchange using a Palestinian crew. Field’s previous films include “Freedom on My Mind,” a documentary on the Mississippi civil rights struggle that was nominated for an Academy Award, and a recent series, "Have You Heard from Johannesburg," tracing the rise of the international anti-apartheid movement.



The Palestinian cast featured Ramzi Maqdisi in the role of Martin and Mahmoud Awad as "Daddy King." The cast also included Georgiana Asfour as Coretta, Rjaae Sandouka as President John F. Kenned, Firas Frah as Malcolm X, Nidal Al Jubbah as Stokely Carmichael, Mohammad Al Bash as a freedom fighter, Mik Kuhlman as the American director, and Yasmin Hamar as her assistant.