January 27, 2004
Play About James Baldwin Is Feb. 6
EVANSTON, Ill. --- A one-man play tracing the fervent life of
writer and civil rights activist James Baldwin will be performed
by Tony Award nominated actor Calvin Levels at 7 p.m. Friday, Feb.
6, in the Mussetter-Struble Theatre at Northwestern University.
Admission to the performance is free but tickets must be reserved
in advance. The theatre is located in the Theatre and Interpretation
Center at 1949 Campus Drive on the Evanston campus.
“James Baldwin: Down from the Mountaintop” is written
and performed by Levels, a member of The Actors Studio who studied
with Lee Strasberg. His play traces Baldwin’s childhood in
Harlem to his relationships, rivalries and associations with Martin
Luther King Jr., Richard Wright, Marlon Brando, Truman Capote,
Malcolm X and other formidable figures in the literary world and
the struggle for civil rights.
Born in 1924,
Baldwin by 14 was a fiery young minister at the Fireside Pentecostal
Church. After graduating from high school,
he worked as a journalist writing for The Nation, Commentary and
Partisan Review. His first novel, “Go Tell It on the Mountain,” was
based in part on his experiences as a teenage minister in Harlem.
After living in Paris for almost a decade, Baldwin returned to
the U.S. and joined Martin Luther King Jr. and Medgar Evers in
the civil rights movement of the fifties and sixties.
Actor Levels has worked with theaters across the country, including
the Ensemble Studio Theatre, Lincoln Center Theatre and the Music
Box Theatre on Broadway. He received the Theatre World Award for
Outstanding New Talent and was nominated for the New York Drama
Desk Award.
To reserve
tickets for the admission-free performance, call Northwestern’s
Department of African American Studies at (847) 491-5122. |