An important work from one of the first black women to have a play professionally produced in America: Alice Childress’ Trouble in Mind opens for its Long Island premiere this weekend at the Babylon Citizens Council on the Arts. Trouble in Mind tells the story of veteran stage actress Wiletta Mayer and her battle with her hotshot white director and his less-than-progressive play. This 1955 play – which finally premiered on Broadway in 2021 – is a funny, moving, and heartbreaking look at racism, identity, and ego in the high-stakes world of New York theatre.
“At first, Trouble in Mind is a bitter and snarky meta-comedy, poking fun at the conventional roles black actors have to play onstage (and off) in order to secure a career in the theatre industry,” according to EastLine’s associate artistic director Paul DeFilippo. “Trouble In Mind gives a glimpse into actors and their lives through a not-always-heard perspective,” says Sheilah Barksdale who plays Childress’ protagonist Wiletta. DeFilippo continues, “Trouble in Mind gives us the gift of hindsight, allowing us to witness the corrosive theatre industry of 1950s Broadway through the eyes of an author who lived to tell the tale and, seventy years later, is still getting the last laugh.”
Performances will take place at the BACCA Center in Lindenhurst starting on April 6th and running through the 21st. Tickets are $25 and can be purchased at eastline.ludus.com. More information is available at eastlinetheatre.org or by calling 516-749-5047.
Trouble in Mind by Alice Childress is directed by Nicole Savin and presented by EastLine Theatre in partnership with the Babylon Citizens Council on the Arts. Costumes are by Lyn Adler-Ciorciari, assisted by Wendy Pollak Grimm. Stage management is by Michelle Savin.
The cast features Sheilah Barksdale, Brad Hamler, Howard Heller, Kate Jergensen, Isaiah Joseph, Genesis Rosado, James Santora, Harrison Vogel, and Van Whitaker
EastLine Theatre is a nonprofit theatre company that BroadwayWorld calls ‘Long Island’s best kept secret’. EastLine aims to create theatre in unlikely spaces while re-examining the canon, exploring modern plays, and bringing original works to the attention of the community.
EastLine returns to the BACCA Center after a sold out immersive-style run of The Diary of Anne Frank. EastLine’s production of Trouble in Mind is part of BACCA’s 50th Anniversary Celebration. In recent years, EastLine has produced Prospero (Live!), an original musical based on The Tempest; the Long Island premiere of Paula Vogel’s Indecent; a production of Treasure Island that BroadwayWorld said was “bursting at the seams with imagination”; and a production of In the Next Room by Sarah Ruhl that Long Island Theatre Scene said “raises the bar of creativity for all theaters.” EastLine will return to Lindenhurst in August with the classic comedy Harvey, by Mary Chase.
