New Haven Independent

He’s starring as JFK, Malcolm X, and Congressman Adam Clayton Powell in Bregamos Theater’s latest offering, a one-man show, “Remembering the 1960s.” The Fair Haven-based community troup is staging the play at the Yale Peabody Museum’s third floor lecture hall Thursday through Saturday.

The play, conceived and performed by Bullock, consists largely of the original words of these three outspoken men all of whom, Bullock points out, were assassinated - the first two by bullets and Powell by what the actor calls character assassination. They all three talked about hope, as Obama does, but it was a hope hitched to struggle, risk, and staking out dangerous new territory.

The actor, who is also an English teacher and writer in Manhattan, has been performing this piece since 1992. But, he said, there is probably no moment more timely for a performance, he said, than this primary season.

Bullock uses minimal props: a muffler against the cold to evoke JFK’s inaugural address on a bitter January day in 1960, the owl-eyed intellectual glasses that belie the 8th grade education of the brilliant Malcolm X, and the pastor’s vestments, along with the bottle of Jack Daniels for Adam Clayton Powell’s high living man of the cloth. The actor evokes, with minimal means and generous portions of eloquent speeches, an era when words genuinely seemed to matter.

Both Democratic presidential candidates today, he told a reporter during rehearsal in the spacious new Bregamos rehearsal space in Erector Square (which Bregamos’ founder Rafael Ramos, pictured, showed off with pride), ride on the shoulders of what happened in the 1960s. Here are some brief excerpts of the interview:

Independent: JFK and perhaps MLK are often linked as exemplary leaders of that era. But JFK, Malcolm, and a flamboyant Harlem congressman? What prompted you to link these three?

Bullock: I grew up in Philadelphia in the 1960s, and I had uncles interested in these three men. Kennedy was assassinated on Nov. 22, 1963, and Malcolm on Feb. 21, 1965. My uncles gave me records, long-playing records of their speeches and those of Powell as well. I was a football player but I also had this interest in hearing the speeches of these men. It’s stayed with me, so there’s an autobiographical origin for sure.

Independent: You’ve obviously performed this many times. What do you still mainly get out of it yourself, and what do you want people to get out of it?

Bullock: “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country” — JFK. “I’m not advocating violence, but when you stick a knife in me nine inches and withdraw it six inches, that’s not progress” — Malcolm. And when Powell says that he rejects “burn, baby, burn,” and insists instead on “learn, baby, learn,” because you can’t have black power without green power … well, all that’s very moving for me still. Spiritually inspiring. And I think I’d like audiences to get some of that.

Independent: As someone immersed in the words of the era, do you think the Obama/JFK comparison holds water?

Bullock: Yes, it does. But oddly, I think the comparison is strong with Bobby Kennedy. It was Bobby Kennedy who promised in 1968 to get us out of the war in Vietnam as Obama is promising about Iraq. There was really that great surge of young people for Bobby. Then, of course, he was assassinated too.

Independent: So where else does Obama come out of in your view?

Bullock: I was born in 1956. Personally, neither of the candidates, Obama or Clinton, would be here if it hadn’t been for JFK and Malcolm, and even a guy like Powell, who was hounded out of office for just being himself, outspoken, a minister, a high liver, but a man of God too. And I think Jesse Jacskon’s run in 1984 also did its part to make it possible. But when I was a kid, no, I never thought an African-American could run for president. Maybe now Obama is what we need.

“Remembering the 1960s” runs Thursday at 8 p.m. , Friday at 8 p.m., and Saturday at 1 and 3 pm. Admission is $15 at the door at the Peabody’s third-floor lecture hall. For further information, the contact is Bregamos Theater Company: 643-2314

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