Trouble in Mind | Trouble in Mind

At a glance:

Author: Alice Childress
First Published: 1971
Type of Work: Play
Type of Plot: Problem play
Time of Work: 1957
Setting: New York City
Principal Characters: Wiletta Mayer, Al Manners, Sheldon Forrester, Millie Davis, John Nevins, Judy Sears, Bill O’Wray
Genres: Social realism, Satire, Drama
Subjects: 1950’s, African Americans, New York, North America or North Americans, Northeast, U.S., United States or Americans, Acting or actors, Racism, Sexism, New York City, Drama or dramatists
Locales: New York, NY

Trouble in Mind takes place on a Broadway stage where a group of actors are rehearsing a predictable Southern melodrama, Chaos in Belleville, written and produced by whites and filled with racial stereotypes. Wiletta Mayer enters, speaking kindly to an elderly doorman who recognizes her from a musical in which she played years ago. A moment later John Nevins appears, thrilled with this opportunity. Wiletta advises the young man from her experience in white-dominated theater: He must not acknowledge he has studied drama, which might sound presumptuous,...

Trouble in Mind | Trouble in Mind

At a glance:

The Play

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