For actor Melvin Abston, “Broke-ology” has taken on a real-life relevance.
“This play is special,” Abston says.
The first time the actor played the role of William King, two years ago in Sacramento, California, Abston was in the midst of caring for his aging father.
“In fact, I had to bring my father with me because I was his primary caregiver,” he says. “I would literally go from rehearsal, run out of rehearsal on breaks, make sure he had lunch, make sure he had his meds and that he was comfortable — so I was living that life.”
In the play, family patriarch William King also deals with getting older. As his health declines and his independence slips away, King’s two adult sons face the prospect of how to take care of him.
“This show on so many levels has become a real touchstone in my life,” he says.
Abston’s latest performance as King comes thanks to a new production of “Broke-ology,” staged in the area for the first time in 15 years, at Kansas City Repertory Theatre.
The play was written by Kansas City, Kansas, native Nathan Louis Jackson, who died in 2023. Scenes from his hometown are a common thread in Jackson’s work, which spanned theater and television.
Abston says the play’s message still moves people, and brings audiences into Jackson’s world, two years after the playwright’s death. The magic of theater, he says, is an opportunity to walk in someone else's shoes.
“I think theater is one of those last bastions of the potential for strangers to come together, have a shared experience,” Abston says. “They're all sitting in the dark next to each other, feeling things. And for that couple of hours, that brief little bubble of humanity, everybody's on the same page.”
‘Inspiring and also disheartening’
Jackson, the playwright, spent six years as artist-in-residence at KC Rep, from 2013 to 2019, where they produced four of his plays. The Kansas State University and Juilliard School graduate received national acclaim, winning the Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award twice and receiving the Mark Twain Comedy Playwriting Award in 2005.
Jackson died unexpectedly at the age of 44. After his death, the Kennedy Center created a National Playwriting Award in his name.
Francois Battiste, who directs the current production, worked closely with Jackson when “Broke-ology” was staged for the first time in 2009, playing Ennis, one of William King’s sons, at Lincoln Center Theater.
“To see how it still is very much relevant today is both inspiring and also disheartening,” Battiste says.
“It resonates so well because we're still wrestling with a lot of the issues,” he adds. “We’re still dealing with health care and the crisis there, and not being able to pay for the type of care that one needs.”
Still, for Battiste, the play’s message is one of resilience, not despair.
“What it means to me is that we contain multitudes. We are able to deal with tragedy and turn that into triumph,” he says. “It does require love, and commitment, and perseverance, and pulling together in order to overcome a lot of life's challenges.”
“Broke-ology” runs now through March 2 at Kansas City Repertory Theatre’s Copaken Stage, 1 H&R Block Way, Kansas City, Missouri 64105. From March 6 to March 16, “Broke-ology” will go on a metrowide tour for KC Rep for All.
KC Rep is a financial supporter of KCUR. Our journalism is editorially independent of funders.
