Trouble in Mind

 Trouble in Mind
Roundabout Theatre Company
American Airlines Theatre
December 26, 2021 

Photo courtesy of Roundabout Theatre Company

Roundabout Theatre Company’s production of Alice Childress’s Trouble in Mind is a revelation.  The play received high acclaim when it was first produced Off-Broadway in 1955.  It was scheduled to move to Broadway, but was cancelled when Ms. Childress refused to make significant changes.  She chose not to soften the story that illustrated the racism in the theatre and film industry.  After sixty-six years, Trouble in Mind has received it’s well deserved Broadway production.  It is a well crafter play with strongly developed characters that make a powerfully clear statement about the untruths depicted in American entertainment.

Wiletta Mayer (played by LaChanze) enters the theater for the first rehearsal of a play she is working on.  She meets the doorman, Henry (played by Simon Jones), who remembers her from a production he set the lights for a number of years prior.  He treats her like a star.  She meets John (played by Reynaldo Piniella), an up and coming, young actor.  She schools him on how to behave when in rehearsal with a white director.  Millie Davis and Sheldon Forrester (played by Jessica Frances Dukes and Chuck Cooper) join the rehearsal.  They are old friends with Wiletta.  When the director, Al Manners (played by Michael Zegen) arrives, he is a no-nonsense task master.  He pushes Wiletta and the rest of the cast to find the truth in their acting, yet the material they are working on does not contain truths worth their effort.  The cast all works at giving the director what he asks for during rehearsal, but when a scene where the character played by John Nevins is going to be dragged off and lynched, Wiletta pushes hard to make changes in the play that are more truthful for the characters. 

LaChanze as Wiletta Mayer
Photo courtesy of Roundabout Theatre Company

LaChanze portrays Wiletta with grace, poise, and zest.  The character is an experienced performer with a yearning to play a serious role.  When the conflict erupts, LaChanze plays the moment with strength, wisdom, and conviction.  Michael Zegen’s character of the director, Al Manners, comes back to her logically and rationally.  These two actors skillfully play this scene, keeping their composure to the very last moment.  This is an amazingly written scene and LaChanze and Mr. Zegen do it supreme justice.  

Michael Zegen, LaChanze, & Chuck Cooper
Photo courtesy of Roundabout Theatre Company

Chuck Cooper has a riveting monologue in Act II.  The action stops as his character tells of a lynching he witnessed as a young boy.  Mr. Cooper takes the audience deep into his character’s traumatic childhood memory.  It is a powerful moment and brilliantly delivered.

Jessica Frances Dukes is feisty as Millie Davis.  Reynaldo Piniella is charming as John Nevins.  There are also strong performances from Simon Jones, Victoria Oliver (u.s.), Alex Mickiewicz, and Don Stephenson. 

Trouble in Mind is playing at the American Airlines Theatre through January 9.  The performances are powerful and the writing is magnificent.  Don’t miss it.  

Domenick Danza

By the Way, Meet Vera Stark

By the Way, Meet Vera Stark

Signature Theatre

The Pershing Square Signature Center

February 23, 2019

Photo courtesy of Signature Theatre

In By the Way, Meet Vera Stark playwright Lynn Nottage tackles the racial stereotypes generated by the early years of Hollywood.  Together with Director Kamilah Forbes, they put a mirror to the audience for a deep look at how these images still live inside our minds today.  Although first produced in 2011, this play has a timely voice.  The Signature Theatre production brings together an impeccable cast and design team to celebrate Ms. Nottage’s poignant and powerful writing.

Act I opens in Hollywood in 1933.  We are in the posh living room of movie start Gloria Mitchel (played by Jenni Barber).  She is preparing for a screen test with her maid, Vera Stark (played by Jessica Frances Dukes).  While Gloria is nervous, scattered, and high strung, Vera is grounded, focused, and strong-willed.  Vera wants to be a movie actress, yet the color of her skin creates great limitation for her in the movie industry.  In her small apartment she commiserates with her roommate Lottie (played by Heather Alicia Simms), while her second, fair-skinned roommate, Anna Mae (played by Carra Patterson), goes on a date with a white movie director.  Vera meets Leroy Barksdale (played by Warner Miller) while waiting for Gloria to complete her screen test.  Leroy is a musician who claims to be the “Guy Friday” for the film’s director, but turns out to be his chauffer.  All the characters collide at a Hollywood party hosted by Gloria, where their lives and careers are propelled into the lime light.

Warren Miller & Jessica Frances Dukes
Photo courtesy of Signature Theatre

Act II fast forward to 2003.  Vera Stark had success as a film actress, and a retrospective on her career is being presented.  The focus is on the movie she made with Gloria Mitchell in 1933.  The host, Herb Forrester (also played by Warner Miller) shows a 1973 television interview where Vera and Gloria are reunited and come close to spilling a few secrets of Hollywood glamour.

Jessica Francis Duke is captivating as Vera Stark.  She is direct and truthful in the early Hollywood scenes.  Her character’s optimism and determination keep the first act moving.  She and Warner Miller have an amazing chemistry.  Their scenes together are riveting.  They play each and every moment with scintillating musicality.  Ms. Dukes makes a brilliant transition in the portrayal of Vera in 1973.  Her presence is powerful, and her interpretation is rich in subtext that reveals volumes.

Jessica Frances Dukes & Jenni Barber
Photo courtesy of Signature Theatre

In the final scene, Ms. Nottage makes a bold statement about the courage and integrity of black women in early Hollywood.  Ms. Dukes and Ms. Barber play this moment to perfection, giving an eternal voice to the courage and self-awareness of these pioneers.

The Signature Theatre production of By the Way, Meet Vera Stark has been extended.  It is playing at The Pershing Square Signature Center through March 10.  Do whatever you can to get a ticket.  It is not to be missed.

Domenick Danza