The University Record, October 30, 1995
I am a Man opens next week at TruebloodTheatre
“T.O. is not a fictional character. It was T.O. who started the union, and T.O. who called the strike. T.O. started the ball rolling and the ball rolled over him,” says Charles “OyamO” Gordon describing I Am A Man, his acclaimed drama about the 1968 strike by sanitation workers in Memphis, Tenn., that climaxed in the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.
I Am A Man will be presented by the Department of Theatre and Drama at 8 p.m. Nov. 9, 10, 11, 16, 17 and 18; and at 2 p.m. Nov. 12 and 19 in Trueblood Theatre, Frieze Building.
Gordon, who is associate professor of English language and literature and of theatre, calls the play a “dramatic fiction based upon history.”
“Many of its players and incidents are composites of actual people and events,” he says, but the play is a work of fiction.
I Am A Man has been called a “mercilessly intelligent drama” in The Washington Times, “feisty and evocative” by Theater Week, and the dialogue has been heralded as “the American Voice” in The Washington Post.
The play will be directed by Renee A. Simmons, assistant professor of theatre and drama.
Tickets, $12 general admission and $6 for students, are on sale at the Michigan League Ticket Office and will be available at the Trueblood Theatre Box Office one hour before curtain on performance dates.
