The Seat Next to the King

By Steven Elliott Jackson

In 1964, a white man walks into a public restroom in a Washington, DC park looking for sex. The next man who enters is a black man.

The Seat Next to the King explores the lives of two men who literally sat next to the most powerful men in America. Bayard Rustin, a friend to Martin Luther King Jr. and the organizer of the March on Washington, and Walter Jenkins, top aide and friend to President Lyndon Johnson, meet in that restroom, although neither knows the other's identity yet. Each is a symbol of hope and change in 1964, and each is conflicted about his sexuality.

The two men move to a motel on the outskirts of the park, where they begin to confide in each other, a revealing of their lives which evolves into an intimate evening of release.

They won't see each other again for eighteen years, when they meet by chance -- in another restroom -- near the end of their lives, during an era when the hope of a better world has vanished.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Scirocco Drama
• Release date: Jul 21, 2022
• ISBN: 9781990737879

Steven Elliott Jackson

Steven Elliott Jackson is an award-winning playwright and artistic director of Minmar Gaslight Productions and its family theatre company, 3 Little Bears Productions with his partner Todd Davies and Stephen English. His play The Seat Next to the King won Best New Play and Patron's Pick at The Toronto Fringe in 2017 and his play The State of Tennessee placed second in the same contest in 2007. Previous playwriting credits include: Brothers and Arms (2010, Toronto Fringe), The Dark Part of the Snow (2011, Mount Marty College, Yankton, SD), Real Life Superhero (2012, Winchester Street Theatre), The State of Tennessee (2013, Theatre Passe Muraille), Rapunzel (adaptation from the work of Geri Gans, 2014, Toronto Fringe), Threesome: An Evening of One-Acts (2016, Red Sandcastle Theatre). Steven was born and raised in the very small town of Minto, Manitoba and went to the University of Regina to study theatre and film before moving to Toronto.

Book preview

Cover: The seat next to the king by Steven Elliott Jackson, published under Scirocco Drama, shows men's urinals in the public restroom. The pipes are rusted out and the urinals are dirty at best. A small drawing is seen on the wall depicting the silhouette of a man in white seeing below, at the silhouette of a man in black standing next to him, while using the urinals.

The Seat Next to the King

Steven Elliott Jackson

The Seat Next to the King

first published 2018 by Scirocco Drama

An imprint of J. Gordon Shillingford Publishing Inc.

© 2018 Steven Elliott Jackson

Scirocco Drama Editor: Glenda MacFarlane

Cover design by Terry Gallagher/Doowah Design

Author photo by Brian Rogers

Production photos by Foreshots Photography

Printed and bound in Canada on 100% post-consumer recycled paper.

We acknowledge the financial support of the Manitoba Arts Council and

The Canada Council for the Arts for our publishing program.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, for any reason, by any means, without the permission of the publisher. This play is fully protected under the copyright laws of Canada and all other countries of the Copyright Union and is subject to royalty. Changes to the text are expressly forbidden without written consent of the author. Rights to produce, film, record in whole or in part, in any medium or in any language, by any group, amateur or professional, are retained by the author.

For permission to perform The Seat Next to the King, please contact

Steven Elliott Jackson at [e-mail]

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Jackson, Steven Elliott, 1976-, author

The seat next to the king / Steven Elliott Jackson.

ISBN 978-1-927922-41-5 (softcover)

I. Title.

PS8619.A24475S43 2018C812'.6C2018-900977-2

J. Gordon Shillingford Publishing

P.O. Box 86, RPO Corydon Avenue, Winnipeg, MB Canada R3M 3S3

Dedicated to my parents and brother,

who never stopped believing

in this Canadian boy who loved U.S. presidents,

and to my partner, Todd,

who encourages my fascination with American history.

A black and white photograph of the author Steven Elliott Jackson, posing in an unbuttoned shirt. He sports a thick moustache and a long beard and is wearing a black thread with a pendant.

Steven Elliott Jackson

Steven Elliott Jackson is an award-winning playwright and artistic director of Minmar Gaslight Productions (and its family theatre company, 3 Little Bears Productions) along with his partner Todd Davies and Stephen English. His play The Seat Next to the King won the Best New Play award and the Patron’s Pick award at the Toronto Fringe in 2017. (His play The State of Tennessee placed second for the same award in 2007.) Previous playwriting credits include: Brothers and Arms (2010, Toronto Fringe), The Dark Part of the Snow (2011, Mount Marty College, Yankton, SD), Real Life Superhero (2012, Winchester Street Theatre), The State of Tennessee (2013, Theatre Passe Muraille), Rapunzel (adaptation from the work of Geri Gans, 2014, Toronto Fringe), and Threesome: An Evening of One-Acts (2016, Red Sandcastle Theatre).

Steven was born and raised in the very small town of Minto, Manitoba, and went to the University of Brandon and the University of Regina to study theatre and film before moving to Toronto.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to the Toronto Fringe Festival, Kelly Straughan, Lucy Eveleigh, The Theatre Centre, Aislinn Rose, Franco Bondi, Stage Centre Productions, Michael James Burgess, Loraine Kimsa, Diane Cruise, Mary Blackstone,

Reviews for The Seat Next to the King

[Jamie · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Great Queer content by a Canadian writer! A must read