The cast of Ten/Thirty Four

On April 4, 1968, this city melted into an incurable blaze from the H Street Corridor to 14th and U Streets NW as broadcasters announced the death of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. No longer content to choke down the inequalities of their generation, rioters tore the nation’s capital to shreds over three harrowing days, injuring more than 1,000 people and destroying nearly as many storefronts. It took 13,000 federal troops to contain the crisis, and even they couldn’t stop the deaths of 12 D.C. residents.

Some forty years later, playwright K.W. Kuchar felt it was time those moments were brought to the stage. After more than two years of research, Kuchar’s completed work, Ten/thirtyfour, will make its world premiere as part of the Capital Fringe Festival on Saturday at the Warehouse Theatre. Kuchar talked to DCist about his work’s upcoming premiere and his trek into one of the District’s darkest times.

Is this the first piece you’ve written?

This is the world premiere, kind of, of my play-writing career as well as Ten/thirtyfour. I’ve been directing for a number of years, locally. I’ve directed for the DC Actors’ Center, for some local community theater projects, for Adventure Theatre, and I’ve also been directing educationally for about five years since moving here from Wisconsin. Like I said, Ten/thirtyfour is the first thing I’ve completed as a playwright to the point where it needed to start to be workshopped and start to premiere onstage.