Taking His Love of Acting to a Higher Stage

In 1982, Ben Harney won the Tony Award for best actor in a musical for his role in Broadway’s “Dreamgirls,” capping a long musical theater career that began at age 18 and has included roles in “Purlie,” “Pippin,” “Ain’t Misbehavin’ ” and “The Wiz.”

The Tony was not, however, the highlight of that year for the 43-year-old actor, who currently stars as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in a new play called “Slow Down the Night” at the West Angeles Christian Center in the Crenshaw district. (The play runs through March 17.)

It was around 1982 that Harney stepped back from big-budget show biz to become involved in Christian ministry, teaching and coaching, working with disadvantaged kids and limiting himself to acting projects he found spiritually uplifting. Harney added that a serious thyroid problem that caused changes in his body and his voice also made him pause to rethink his life.

“I reached a point where--I have a real heart and concern for families, and for youth, and the more I became involved in working through a ministry, the more I realized how powerful the entertainment industry was, and how irresponsible it was,” Harney said in a recent conversation in the pews of West Angeles Church of God in Christ, across the street from the theater that is part of the church’s arts and educational complex. He was joined by playwright Anthony LaPeau and the play’s 26-year-old producer-director Damon Lamont Eskridge.

“After winning a Tony Award, a lot of projects come across your desk, and when you start sorting through them and you realize that none of them is advancing anything, they are just rehashing or denigrating things that you feel of value, you are left with a choice: You either turn off that switch and say: ‘I’m going to work, I’m going to stay afloat, I’m going to make money’--or something else.”

This time, the something else is “Slow Down the Night,” a fictional account of the night before King’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech. Harney has received strongly positive reviews for his performance. In the play, LaPeau speculates on the events that might have taken place during a historically documented meeting of King and five other members of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, in Washington, D.C., the night before the historic march on Washington on Aug. 28, 1963.

LaPeau wanted to show the human frailties behind the icon. “People have some impression that [King] was above it all, always so sure, so definite, so direct,” he mused. “But in essence, he wasn’t that way at all. . . . People who knew him say he was a gentle man, he wasn’t always so aggressive--a humble man. I wondered: ‘What was on his mind that night?’ ”

The show is produced on a shoestring budget, sponsored by the church of which Eskridge is a member. Originally conceived by LaPeau as a musical, 25 original songs were cut and the book condensed into a one-act play. The difference, Eskridge says wryly, is “about $20,000.”

Eskridge, a San Diego native who trained at the La Jolla Playhouse Conservatory and has performed and understudied extensively at the San Diego Repertory Theatre and the Old Globe, found it difficult to land roles in Los Angeles because he was not a known face from movies or TV.

“So I said: I’m going to take my little paychecks and put some money aside, and do my own show. . . . I wanted three things: to educate, entertain and move people to some kind of action. I decided if it didn’t do at least two of those things, it wasn’t worth it.” He is in discussion with San Diego Repertory about presenting “Slow Down the Night” there in the future.

The young producer was nervous about presenting the script to a major Broadway star, but says: “I had seen [Harney] in ‘Sing Me One More Song,’ ” a musical presented locally and written by Chip Fields Hurd. “I didn’t know him at all, but I had prayed on it, and I said: ‘I’m going to ask this man to play Martin Luther King.’ I don’t know him, I don’t have a big budget, and I don’t know why on earth he would want to do it, but my spirit said to ask.”

Harney moved his family to Los Angeles in 1994 to perform in a musical that was never produced, but he decided to stay. He said he took the role because “if I had to point to someone who made an impression on my life, a public figure, King was the one. His death was major for me. It sent shock waves of many kinds through my life. I definitely love that this entertains and teaches.”

Harney, LaPeau and Eskridge have had difficulty persuading neighborhood residents and the church’s congregation to sample the drama--but they are willing to persevere despite small audiences. Harney said that, as a minister, he tries to instill that kind of faith in his young students.

“We are living in a culture where we are so led by the visual, and what is promoted in the media, that the attitude becomes: ‘I don’t have to go through normalcy in life--I can look for exemptions. And I expect them, and when I look for them and they are not there, I am angry,’ ” Harney said. “No! You stick. You commit.

“When you think of the people who were important in your life, prettiness was not a factor. They might have been old, fat and toothless--but they were there.”

* “Slow Down the Night,” West Angeles Christian Arts Center, 3020 Crenshaw Blvd., Los Angeles. Fridays, Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays,2 and 7:30 p.m. Ends March 17. $10-$12.50. (213) 733-8707. Running time: 1 hour, 45 minutes.