When GableStage producing artistic director Bari Newport decided to produce “King James” by Rajiv Joseph, she knew she wanted to work with people who had a connection to LeBron James and the Miami Heat. “King James” is about the way two men bond and create a friendship through their shared love of basketball and James.
“One of our requirements for finding a director was that they had to have been in Miami for one of the Miami Heat’s championships with LeBron,” Newport said. “I wanted to hear first-hand experiences about Miami absolutely erupting when the Miami Heat won in 2012 and 2013.”
Newport found that experience in Ruben Carrazana, a native of Miami who now lives in Chicago.
“I remember being outside the stadium with some friends and there are very vivid memories that I have about what happened when that stadium erupted and the people came pouring out into the streets, and people were standing on cars and people painted in their team's colors,” Carrazana said. “There's nothing quite like that celebration. Sports isn't a huge part of my life right now – I don't remember the last time that I watched a basketball game from beginning to end. But that energy is infectious and it's something that sticks with you even years later.”
THE LOVE OF THE GAME
Carrazana is not the only basketball fan involved in “King James.” The two-person play features Melvin Huffnagle, a theater professor at Florida International University, who made his GableStage debut last year in “August Wilson’s How I Learned What I Learned,” and was recently honored with a Silver Palm Award for his performance; and Gregg Weiner, a multi-Carbonell Award winner who has done nearly 20 shows at GableStage.
Huffnagle played football in college and is also a basketball fan.
“Since LeBron came, there's always been this argument, Jordan or LeBron,” he said. “Jordan's always going to be the best. Always. No disrespect to LeBron; I love him, especially early in his career. I love the philanthropic work he does off the court. I think it's fantastic. He's definitely a generational talent when it comes to sport. He's iconic. So yeah, I got nothing but love for LeBron.”
“I'm a huge basketball fan and of the Miami Heat since the inception of the franchise,” said Weiner, who fell in love with “King James” as soon as he read the play. “I connected to the time LeBron spent here. I was here, I was going to games, I was experiencing the jubilation.”
BONDING OVER BASKETBALL
Plays or movies or books or songs about sports are rarely about sports, but have a greater, universal theme.
“’Rocky’ is not a movie about boxing and ‘Moneyball’ is not about baseball,” said Carrazana. “I'm not the biggest sports fan in the world but I can find something really meaningful and worthwhile in those stories.”
The main story in “King James” is how two men are brought together by their love for the game.
“The friendship and the bond that's created, you don't often see that on stage or anywhere,” Weiner said. “We are starting to see it more and more as toxic masculinity is being called out for what it is. Men are more vulnerable in public and they're sharing their feelings more and it's more acceptable.”
“What I love about it is there are not many plays written about men and their loneliness, especially later in their lives,” Huffnagle said. “To be able to tackle something that touches on that topic is really cool. The friendship is about basketball, and the sport is the glue that keeps that relationship together, which often happens with a lot of men. Sports, oftentimes, can be a catalyst to allow men to have this cathartic thing where they just release their emotions with each other.”
HOMECOMINGS
Both Carrazano and Weiner trace their theatrical roots to years spent both learning and working their craft at GableStage.
When Carrazana was in high school, he worked at GableStage, building sets, and working with house management, and stage direction, and even worked on shows featuring Weiner. His return to Miami for “King James” marks the first show his family will see that he directed.
“King James” is also a homecoming for Weiner, who went to college at New World School of the Arts and lived in Miami for many years before going off to work in New York, California, and other parts of Florida. Weiner was a GableStage mainstay under founding artistic director Joe Adler, who passed away in April 2020. Weiner was working with Adler on “The Price” by Arthur Miller when the pandemic happened. “The Price” was later produced in 2021 with Newport directing, using Adler’s notes. That was Weiner’s last production at GableStage until “King James” brought him back to Miami.
“I definitely feel like GableStage is a home for me, theatrically and creatively,” said Weiner. “There's a freedom that I just feel organically, and I think that comes from familiarity and the faith Bari has in me and my talent, and the people around that that I knew there, four or five years ago before Joe passed. It's a very safe, warm, creative environment. And I miss Joe, every moment of it, but I don't pine on it because I don't have time and Joe wasn't a fan of that bullshit.”
SCHOOL SHOWS
Through a partnership with the Miami-Dade County Cultural Passport Program, there will be two student matinees in which 300 students will see “King James.”
Carrazana was one of those students at those school matinees, and those shows were his first experience with professional theater.
“Art was not really a part of my family's life growing up,” Carrazana said. “When I was younger, the only time I would see theater was through field trips at GableStage. Schools were bused over to the theater, so I have memories of seeing things like a production of the ‘Diary of Anne Frank.’ That was really my first exposure to professional theater.
Weiner experienced those school shows in the opposite way, by performing in the shows the students saw.
“To this day they’re some of the best experiences I've had, performing and talking back to students afterwards,” Weiner said. “We had 20- or 30-minute talkbacks and some of the questions were just fantastic. This show, I think, is going to go over great for them. Because it's such a cool little play and it's funny as hell. And it’s super relatable, even if you're in high school,”
“Sometimes kids are the hardest crowd,” said Huffnagle, who has also performed at the student matinees. “They're anxious, they're giggly, they're chatty amongst each other. But then, you get 10 minutes in and it's dead silent. And you know you have them and then you take them along for the ride. And then at the end of the ride, they're just, like, oh my goodness, that was so cool. That is so rewarding for me. Theater is a great teaching tool. When you have a chance to educate in a different way using this vulnerable medium of theater, it's always rewarding. That's why I do it. That's why I love it.”