Kwaku Okyere (left) as Bayard Rustin and Conor Ling as Walter Jenkins in a scene from Steven Elliott Jackson’s The Seat Next to the King at the 2017 Toronto Fringe Festival. Directed by Tanisha Taitt. Photo by ForeshotsPhotography.com
The Seat Next to the King
Root Sky Productions Presents
The Seat Next to the King
A Play by Steven Elliott Jackson
July 17-28, 2020
Winnipeg Fringe Festival
Winnipeg, Manitoba
Director: Ari Weinberg
Producers: Dale Lakevold & Rory Runnells
The Seat Next to the King
Best New Play and Patron’s Pick at the 2017 Toronto Fringe Festival
The Play: The time is 1964. Two men looking for sex meet in a public restroom in a Washington, DC, park. One man is white. The other man is black. One man is Walter Jenkins, friend and top aide to President Lyndon B. Johnson. The other man is Bayard Rustin, civil rights organizer and friend of Martin Luther King, Jr. Their homosexuality brings Walter and Bayard together – and threatens everything they stand for.
Root Sky Productions
Root Sky Productions was formed in 1997 by Dale Lakevold and Darrell Racine to produce theatre and other arts projects that involve cultural and political material. The company is devoted to producing work on Aboriginal and Metis subjects, especially for rural and northern audiences.