Mark Clayton Southers has been working on "The Gammage Project" for two years and directing the play through rehearsals as it readies for a Thursday opening. There was a moment when he let his actors do some freestyle acting, just to have a little fun, before getting back to the play.
"That's going to be the most fun we have," he said. "It's a real tough piece. I found myself almost tearing up over dialogue I've heard eight, 10 times when the actress delivered it [in rehearsal]. It was heart-wrenching, because you never know when something like this can happen to a family member."
Mr. Gammage, the 31-year-old cousin of former Steeler Ray Seals, died during a traffic stop in a confrontation with five police officers on Oct. 12, 1995. Mr. Miles, then a senior at Pittsburgh CAPA, was stopped in his Homewood neighborhood on Jan. 12, 2010, and ended up badly beaten by several officers. In both cases, the injured party was black, the officers were white.
Mr. Miles' physical wounds have healed, but outrage over his ordeal and the Gammage tragedy remains.
"I wanted to write a play about the Jonny Gammage incident ever since it happened," said Mr. Favorini, founding chair of Pitt's Department of Theatre Arts. "The immediate trigger for saying 'now's the time to write it' is because there are some eerie parallels between the two cases."...