The actors performing "The Day Harlem Saved Dr. King" are doing so in a unique and sacred space – inside a church that sits just blocks away from where Martin Luther King Jr. was nearly murdered in Harlem some six decades ago. It's a chapter in civil rights history that the play's director, Michael Green, says is all but forgotten.

"As we started promoting the play, we found out a lot of residents in Harlem either had a vague memory that something happened to King here, but a lot had no idea that King was stabbed in Harlem and came close to actually losing his life," Green said.

Green says he chose the Williams Institutional CME Church because King had a booksigning there shortly before he was stabbed at Bloomsteins Department Store on 125th Street. He was 29 years old at time.  

There are a lot of colorful characters in this production, but King is not one of them. Instead, the performance focuses on the reaction of everyday people.

"The fortitude of the people of Harlem – the fact that thousands of people came to the hospital – that's something we try to recreate, that history," Green said.

A real-life journalist was among the stunned Harlem crowd in 1958: the first host of The Today Show, Dave Garroway, portrayed by Timothy Mullins.

"There’s a lot of stuff in history that gets dried out. It's a little clichéd. But to go back as an actor and play in those moments is kind of wonderful," Mullins said.

"It's the most fun that’s I’ve had in the theater," said actress Beverly Brichett.

"The Day Harlem Saved Dr. King" is not a downer, despite the seriousness of its subject. Shades of Truth Theater and New Heritage Theater Group pull off a quite a feat: finding humor during one of Harlem's darkest days.

The characters are vividly portrayed, and the underlying message of the play comes through loud and clear: When Dr. King was down, it was Harlem that lifted him up.