Jacqee Gafford's play is set in a Kansas City beatuy shop on the day Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed.By Sylvia Maria Gross
Kansas City, MO – Theater director Jacqee Gafford was 12 years old and living in South Dakota when the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. But in South Dakota, she says his death was barely a blip on the radar screen. Here in Kansas City there was intense reaction, culminating in riots. Because she didn?t live through it here, Gafford re-created the day of King?s death in a play, set in a beauty shop in Kansas City. She first produced Nothing Comes to Sleepers 3 years ago with the InPlay Theater Company. On Friday, a new production opens at the Just Off Broadway Theater, in time for Dr. King?s Birthday. Sylvia Maria Gross recorded some scenes at a recent rehearsal.
Actors include Bianca Brown, Lillie Mitchum, Donette Reese, Brian Spurlock, Lynn King, Tim Burks, Dennis Jackson, Karen French and Rebecca Dempsey.
Jacqee Gafford?s play Nothing Comes to Sleepers is on stage at the Just Off Broadway Theater Company over the next two weekends.