Matthew Hardwick brings his first stage play, “The Measure of a Man” to the RiverCenter’s Bill Heard Theatre Friday.
The play features four young men who work as barbers. They share stories and discuss their lives with each other.
“It has a message in it -- the importance of family, in particular the importance of the role of a man in the family,” Hardwick said.
Demond Wilson -- who played Fred Sanford’s long-suffering son, Lamont Sanford, on “Sanford and Son” -- is in the show.
Hardwick contacted Wilson with a simple e-mail.
“He agreed to read the script,” Hardwick said. “He told me that he gets a lot of scripts and this one was one of the most well-written scripts.”
Hardwick says he’s been writing as long as he can remember, but this is his first venture into writing a stage play.
“I was inspired to write about it, based on my relationship with my pastor,” he said. “He serves as my mentor. It’s about the support you have to have from an older man, a mentor.”
For the play, he cast Daniel Simmons, Hardwick’s real-life pastor whom he’s known all his life.
Simmons is making his stage debut and says, “Acting is new for me.” But he can be seen in “Courageous,” the latest Christian-based film from Sherwood Pictures, the company that released “Fireproof” and “Facing the Giants.” It was filmed in the Albany area, and it’s set to be released Sept. 30.
“They did it in Albany,” Simmons said. “They proved you don’t have to do it in Los Angeles and you don’t have to do it in Atlanta. You can do it in Southwest Georgia.”
Simmons is a full-time pastor at Mount Zion Baptist Church in Albany.
Simmons sees himself in “The Measure of a Man,” script.
“I saw the script and it had my name written all over it,” he said.
The pastor loves the fact that the message is for young men: You have to take responsibility for your actions. And older men have to teach them that.
The play was presented in Albany last month and the response was overwhelming, Hardwick said. That’s what got Hardwick, 35, thinking about putting a tour together.
It will make a stop at the Heard Theatre Friday night, then it will travel to Montgomery Saturday.
He’s negotiating getting the play in other cities including Atlanta, Macon, Augusta, Savannah, Birmingham, Huntsville, Charlotte, Orlando, Tampa and Jacksonville, Fla.
Hardwick and his wife, Kawana, have two children, Daja, who is in the 10th grade and Matthew, 4.
Hardwick’s next play is a sequel to this one, he said, and is already written.
“I see so many young men who are not measuring up,” Hardwick said. “They have poor relationships with their fathers. That’s really the reason I wrote this. I want to inspire these young men.”
