Blueprints to Freedom: An Ode to Bayard Rustin

Winner San Diego Critics Circle Award for Outstanding New Play
Play Description
In the political and racial upheaval of 1963, Bayard Rustin — the brilliant proponent of non-violent civil resistance — is pushed to orchestrate an unprecedented march on Washington D.C. for jobs and freedom. Exiled from the Civil Rights movement by both internal and external forces, Rustin grapples with his last chance for professional restoration and spiritual redemption as he masterminds “a tribute to the ancestors.”
Production Info
Cast: 5 total (1 female, 4 male, bit parts: a chorus of ancestors)Full Length Drama (about 100 minutes)
Multiple Sets
Period Costumes
- Reviews
- About the Author(s)
- About the Book
- Special Notes
Press Quotes
“In Michael Benjamin Washington’s absorbing new play about an all-but-forgotten civil rights leader, one of the biggest moments in the fight for racial equality comes off despite — or perhaps because of — a crisis of faith. Faith, in fact, becomes a key motif coursing through BLUEPRINTS TO FREEDOM: An Ode to Bayard Rustin. There’s the faith that other African-American activists place in Rustin to organize the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, despite plenty of agonized mutual history. There’s the broader faith in the idea that such an action can make a difference, with discrimination and segregation still pervasive in America 100 years after the Emancipation Proclamation. And then there’s Rustin’s own deep Christian faith, shattered (by his count) 669 days before the play begins, when he was forced to quit the Southern Christian Leadership Council over worries about publicity concerning his private life. Rustin, a pillar of the civil-rights movement who died in 1987, was a gay man (more or less openly so) in a time when that was difficult even for someone not already facing bigotry. That aspect of his identity helps explain why his name has faded from our nation’s roll call of those who led the movement in the 1960s. The play … is an often lyrical, dialogue-rich piece of work whose political sweep and sense of building momentum is reminiscent of ALL THE WAY, Robert Schenkkan’s 2014 Tony Award-winner about President Johnson’s push to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964 … [There is] humor, too. When Rustin’s bright young assistant, Miriam Caldwell, asks Rustin and his mentor, A Philip Randolph, why they speak so formally, Randolph replies that it’s a nod of respect to their ancestors. Rustin’s response: ‘I do it to confuse white people.’ (After a pause, he adds: ‘I speak this way aloud because I speak this way to God.’) Despite the triumphant notes around the march, which drew a quarter-million people, there’s a storm yet to come in BLUEPRINTS. There’s always another storm to come, as the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement can attest today. BLUEPRINTS bears witness that history matters, too.” —James Hebert, The San Diego Union-Tribune
Book Information
Publisher | BPPI |
---|---|
Publication Date | 5/12/2023 |
Pages | 74 |
ISBN | 9780881459692 |
Special Notes
If original stage producers credits appear in bold below, all licensees are required to include them in the following form on the title page in all programs distributed in connection with performances of the Play and in all advertising in which the full cast appears in size of type not less than ten percent (10%) of the size of the title of the Play:
The World Premiere of BLUEPRINTS TO FREEDOM: AN ODE TO BAYARD RUSTIN
Produced in 2015 by La Jolla Playhouse
Christopher Ashley, Artistic Director & Michael S. Rosenberg, Managing Director
and
Kansas City Repertory Theatre
Eric Rosen, Artistic Director & Angela Lee Gieras, Executive Director
In addition, the following must appear within all programs distributed in connection with performances of the Play:
by special arrangement with Broadway Play Publishing Inc, NYC
www.broadwayplaypublishing.com