Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. met once, briefly, just long enough to shake hands at a public event and be on their respective ways. The Meeting imagines what the two icons of the Civil Rights Movement would talk about if they had an hourlong one-on-one.
Set in 1965, Jeff Stetson’s play is presented as the expected clash of ideologies between the nonviolence-preaching King, a Southern Baptist, and the Muslim convert X, who was convinced that fighting for equality and respect was necessary for beaten-down African Americans.
Yet as the current production at Stageworks Theatre makes clear, the two had more in common than history tells us. Both men, who would, in short order, be assassinated for their beliefs and actions, desired the same result.
Stetson crafted his dialogue from his subjects’ speeches, letters and interviews.
“There’s two things I would like the audience to take away,” said Marc Coleman, who plays King. “One is how to have a discourse, a conversation, with someone that you disagree with. That’s something I feel is lost in today’s age.
“And also, their actual philosophies. There are two different ways you can go about your problems, and they are Martin Luther King and Malcom X. But they’re both needed. They’re both important, essential.”
Added actor Lance Markeith Felton: “As the person playing Malcolm, I want people to recognize that love takes anger. Some things have to upset you, stir you, move you. What you do with that anger, and how you place that anger, is the choice. And that’s where something crosses a line.
“You can be angry that things are not going the way that you foresee; I think that idealism has a place in society, but we also have to learn where we place that love, place that anger and frustration, in order to make change.”
Both actors were familiar with Stetson’s play. During their junior and senior years at Tampa’s Blake High School (well over a dozen years ago), as representatives of the theater program they performed scenes from The Meeting in other schools, churches and libraries. Sometimes they did the entire show.
Felton is Stageworks’ Playwright-in-Residence; he suggested a full production of The Meeting to Artistic Director Karla Hartley, who added it to the 2025-26 season.
They invited friend and colleague Rory Lawrence, creator of the Tampa Bay Theatre Festival, to direct.
Lawrence said he’d become used to handling all aspects of shows he directs, so he balked when Felton said Coleman, his acting partner from the Blake days, would be playing Dr. King. Lawrence had never met him or seen him onstage.
“We went to dinner,” Lawrence recalled, “and all I had to do was sit down and talk to Marc, and I said yeah. And when we got to working, I didn’t have to beg these guys to research, I didn’t have to beg them to create in rehearsal, which is a director’s dream.’
“A lot of actors, they just read their lines. But they were discussing the monologues, and what should be done … I don’t think it was because they were invested in it before. I think now that they’re older, they said ‘let’s really jump into it.’ In the past, I don’t think they dug into these characters this deep.”
Explained Coleman: “Through our research, we came to the realization that they both became a little less radical in their way of thinking. Malcolm X particularly when he went to the Middle East and Mecca, where he saw Black and white Jews, and Muslims and Christians, all kind of co-mingling.
“And Martin Luther King, because of the backlash of he was getting from a lot of his supporters. At the end of the non-violence movement, a lot of them were saying ‘Man, this is not working out. We’re getting beat out here on a regular basis.’”
Because X and King died during the turbulent ‘60s, neither actors nor director had firsthand knowledge of the events discussed in The Meeting. However, Lawrence got an earful from his church congregation when he took a moment to talk about his upcoming play.
“People approached me and said ‘I was alive when all this was happening,’” the director recalled. “One guy, he’s coming to the show with his whole family next week, he said ‘These marches that you’re showing? You’re showing some of the key stuff, but we did this all the time. They were a dime a dozen. You didn’t see it on TV, but we were doing this constantly.’
“I never thought about that. I’ve learned a lot through the duration of this play.”
Lawrence and Felton co-authored a short introductory scene, set in a contemporary poetry open mic, that gives The Meeting a present-day foreshadowing.
Both actors appear in this scene, as does Demetre Taylor, who’ll re-appear later as Malcolm X’s bodyguard and confidant Rashad.
Felton, who is also a prolific writer and rapper, sees The Meeting as not only historically important, but a milestone in bay area theater.
“I’ve always felt that this community said ‘We don’t know where the artists of color are at to fill a cast,’” he declared. “And so, this was the first strike in like, hey, we are out here, we exist and this is the kind of work we’re trying to do.”
He’s particularly proud of the nuances he and Coleman have discovered for their characters. “My dad always tells me that when you get into a negotiation, it’s not adversarial. You’re not going back and forth with somebody to win over them. You’re in a dance. It’s about guiding both parties to the outcome that they want.
“And they always say, if both parties are not a little bit annoyed after a negotiation, then it wasn’t a good negotiation.”
The Meeting runs through May 3. Visit the Stageworks website for showtimes and tickets.
This content provided in partnership with StPeteCatalyst.com
