By Katori Hall
Directed by Jamil A.C. Mangan
Playhouse on Park
2026
Set Designer: Patti Panyakaew
Costume Designer: Vilinda McGregor
Lighting Designer: Matthew Weisgable
Sound Designer: Carter Mangan Jr
Projection Designer: Christian Killada
Props & Set Dressing: Judi Manfre
Stage Manager: Rebecca Donaghy
The play recreates the majesty of the man as he climed to "The Mountaintop" to proclaim his dream of freedom and equality for his people. Like Moses, who never lived to see the Promised Land, Martin Luther King, Jr. tragically never lived to see his dream become a reality. "The Mountaintop" by Katori Hall, taken from his impressive and impassioned speech "I've Been to the Mountaintop," imagines the night before his assasination. He is visited by a maid named Camae, who shares cigarettes and philosophical insights with him, until a surprise twist leads the story toward a more otherworldly conclusion.
The set design concept begins with a realistic room 306 at the Lorrain Motel in 1968, framed by a white box and a glimpse of the outside world beyond its walls. As the play gradually shifts into a more metaphysical realm, the "box within a box" is revealed, and the structure of reality itself beings to fracture and open.
Stu on Broadway - “Patti Panyakaew's set design has a claustrophobic and disheveled authenticity."
Kimolee Eryn - “Patti Panyakaew's scenic design, coupled with Vilinda McGregor's costume design, achieves a high degree of period authenticity. The color palette--salmon curtains, powderblue door, and mustard carpet--creates a period-accurate tone and nostalgic warmth against the backdrop of the production, weaving through historical accuracy and the playwright's liberties."
Laura B. Hayden - “Scenic designer Patti Panyakaew plants the drama in an easily recognizable late sixties motel. The single guest room will no doubt be familiar to any baby-boomer who--back in the day--family vacationed in a room similarly furnished with a pair of double beds covered in patterned, tangerine-hued bedspreads, functional furniture, and a prerequisite exterior door that opened to the parking lot."
Photo Credits: Christian Killada and Meredith Longo
Design Concept Sketches