For the past four weeks, the campus has been buzzing with Black History Month events put on by the Black Student Union. For one of last week’s events, they asked for help from SCOPE to put on The Meeting. On Tuesday February 21, students filled Dodds Auditorium in anticipation to watch the show. As students sat in their seats waiting for the show to begin, they wondered what the ambiguous title really stood for. The play filled all that in and provided so much more than entertainment.
The show was based on a simple change in history when our nation was dealing with civil rights for African-Americans. What if Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X had met before either was assassinated? Both were big civil rights leaders that wanted African-Americans to be treated as equally as other Americans and both changed American views for the better. The play went through different civil rights protests to show how they could have changed, what conversations would have been like between Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm, and so much more to show how the fight for civil rights for African Americans would have gone. It truly was a play of no other.
The Black Student Union and SCOPE brought the play to campus to enlighten students about the struggles of African-Americans. But the real stars of the night were the actors in the play and the writer who brought it all together. The writer, Jeff Stetson, the mind that brought two great civil rights leaders together, has received a Louis B. Mayer Award, eight NAACP Theater Awards, and more as the play travelled through Asia, Europe, and of course the United States. And the actors put on a great performance as they each portrayed their roles. The two main characters had the toughest jobs but did fantastic as Malcolm X, played by Ersky Freeman, and Martin Luther King Jr., played by Shelby Wallace. The writing and acting were absolutely a perfect pair as they educated university students.
The Black Student Union worked hard to put on events all throughout the month of February, and SCOPE was pleased to help to bring such an incredible play to show university students.
