With ‘Blueprints to Freedom,’ Kansas City Repertory Theatre depicts vivid moment in civil rights history

The role of Bayard Rustin in the 1960s civil rights movement is the focus of “Blueprints to Freedom: An Ode to Bayard Rustin,” an ambitious play by Michael Benjamin Washington receiving a joint world-premiere production at Kansas City Repertory Theatre’s downtown venue.

Washington also plays Rustin in this production with La Jolla Playhouse, and he gives us a compelling performance as an exceptionally articulate strategist who worked behind the scenes because he was gay. It’s the story of a complicated man coming to terms with his sexual identity and his relationship to a God he too often finds unresponsive and indifferent.

Performed without an intermission, most of the play takes place in the office where Rustin has been charged with organizing the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Toward the end, scenic designer Neil Patel’s realistic set temporarily morphs into an abstract area that incorporates details of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool and the Washington Monument.

A large chalkboard becomes a visual aid to the audience as key goals and concepts appear through the magic of projections.

The characters include civil rights leader A. Philip Randolph (played with expansive Shakespearean authority by the excellent Antonio T.J. Johnson); a human-scale Martin Luther King Jr. (vividly portrayed by Ro Boddie); Davis Platt Jr., Rustin’s ex-lover (played sympathetically by the charismatic Mat Hostetler); and the fictional Miriam Caldwell, Rustin’s secretary (an entertaining Mandi Masden).

Director Lucie Tiberghien keeps the action moving at a nice clip as we watch spirited debates about the political considerations underpinning the march as well as Rustin’s inevitably controversial sexuality. Gospel music interludes cover scene transitions and at one point Washington himself performs a spiritual at an upright piano.

Washington may be guilty of cramming too much social commentary into his relatively short play — Platt argues for the gay rights movement to come while Miriam lobbies for recognition of women’s contributions. Add Rustin’s spiritual epiphany late in the piece, and you have a show that shifts focus unpredictably.

Despite the burden of a few too many preachy/teachy moments, the production is elevated by the actors, who bring enormous integrity to the stage. And the play itself prompts sober reflection on where we’ve been and where we might be headed.

This story was originally published October 24, 2015 at 1:55 PM with the headline "With ‘Blueprints to Freedom,’ Kansas City Repertory Theatre depicts vivid moment in civil rights history."