Coming up in the MidSouth, the dream of one day working in entertainment was fresh in this Delta boy’s mind. Back in February of 2008, I was given the opportunity to perform Martin Luther King Jr’s famous “Mountaintop Speech” at Oakshire Elementary School in the Whitehaven area of Memphis, TN. Though my young 3rd-grade self did not completely understand the monumental piece, the performance I gave had a community impact. My Southern Baptist Church upbringing enabled me to fall into an electrifying cadence of the speech that surprised the parents, school leadership and, most importantly, a local civil rights leader who was at the Black History Program. They asked my parents if I could come to the Lorraine Motel for an event celebrating Dr. King. My parents agreed. A week later I performed at the Lorraine Motel which aired on the local Memphis news, and the spark of creating was lit. That day kick-started a passion that has ultimately landed me at Tipping Point Theatre Company, bringing the MidSouth to the Midwest.

The Mountaintop does more than explore a fictional account of the final night on Earth for Dr.King; this play explores the humanity of the famous civil rights leader. We are allowed to pull back the worldly perfection around how Dr. King is perceived in society to see the perfect imperfection of him as a person. One of the key ideas that this play explores is that you don’t have to be perfect to be a creator of change.  In the fight for civil rights in this country, the thing that we often focus on is the leaders of the movement. This centralization of momentum is damaging for movements and that can be tracked historically. Like Katori Hall states in the script “The tall tree is felled first.” Though this is true we must remember that one tree alone doesn’t make a forest. I hope that patrons feel empowered to be creators of change themselves. 

We all have a weight to carry in this race that no one is exempt from, which is something Dr. King knew well. The baton must pass on, and we all must do our part to make sure it is never dropped.

Vincent Ford Jr. | Director

Associate Artist, Tipping Point Theatre