C: Is for Career's on the Rise

Careers come out of Juilliard. Katori Hall a recent graduate of the Julliard playwriting program will make her Broadway debut with the play “The Mountaintop,” a two-character play that imagines a surprising turn of events for the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., on the night before his assassination. Ms. Hall was the 2009-10 recipient of the Playwrights of New York Fellowship, an annual prize administered by the Lark Play Development Center, worth an estimated $80,000. Her 2007 play, "Hoodoo Love," had an Off Broadway run at the Cherry Lane Theater. “The Mountaintop,” received critically praise when it was preformed in London last summer, earning a 2010 Olivier Award nominations for best new play and lead actress Lorraine Burroughs. The production also received Evening Standard Award nomination for most promising playwright and lead actor David Harewood. Producers Jean Doumanian and Sonia Friedman said in a statement they were eager to capitalize on its success by moving ahead on Broadway. They said they were in negotiations with Kenny Leon to direct. He will be represented on Broadway later this year directing the revival of August Wilson’s “Fences.” Ms. Hall states her inspiration for the play came partly from her mother, who grew up near the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, where Dr. King was assassinated, and regretted not going to hear him speak on the day before he was killed. The play’s characters are Dr. King and a woman who at first seems to be a hotel maid. Casting, performance dates and a theater are yet to be announced.