The last sermon that Martin Luther King Jr. preached— the second-to-last speech he ever gave—has gone down in history as “the Drum Major Instinct,” a warning against “a desire to be out front, a desire to lead the parade, a desire to be first.” As King told his congregation, Jesus reordered that instinct by giving a “new definition” of greatness: If you want to be first, you have to serve.
The sermon has since become the basis of a theatrical production by the people behind the acclaimed Antigone in Ferguson, although Theater of War Productions artistic director Bryan Doerries cautions that it’s not a play per se. “With Antigone, we were bringing the Black church into Greek tragedy,” he says. “Here, we’re bringing theater into the Black church.”
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In the case of the production of The Drum Major Instinct in St. Louis on October 2, that involves a staging inside the New Sunny Mount Missionary Baptist Church in the city’s Mark Twain neighborhood. It involves a choir composed of 75 St. Louisans—educators, activists, and police officers—singing original music composed by Phil Woodmore, a local musician, choir director, and composer who’s worked with organizations including COCA, the Muny, and the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department Choir. And it brings in actor Chad Coleman, best known as Cutty on The Wire, to deliver the sermon just as Dr. King once did.
The theatrics run 70 minutes, but equally important to Doerries is what follows: a conversation reflecting on the play, kicked off by five members of the community chosen not for their high profiles, but because they reflect St. Louis (think: a high school, a police officer). Two co-facilitators will take things from there. “It’s not an ancillary discussion,” Doerries stresses. “It’s the main event.”
Theater of War Productions first debuted The Drum Major Instinct in 2017, and it’s played everywhere from St. Louis to Greece. But the one-night-only October 2 production will be the first time it’s being staged in person since the onset of the pandemic, and Doerries notes that it’s being shared from St. Louis to the world thanks to the company’s use of Zoom webinars. “It’s a democratized medium,” he says. “You can be in direct dialogue with people in a different physical space. During the pandemic, we had as many as 87 countries tuning in at the same time.”
The New Sunny Mount Missionary Baptist Church staging is part of the Cultural Week of Action on Race and Democracy now underway in St. Louis, hosted by Race Forward and Americans for the Arts. Doerries says the organizers called him with a big ask: “Could you get the band back together?” He called Woodmore, and the rest will soon be history.
Whether in person or through Zoom, the production is free to attend, but registration is encouraged. See eventbrite.com for more details.
