Trouble in Mind -- Staged Reading
By Alice Childress
Directed by Sandra Adell
The Department of Afro-American Studies at the UW-Madison and the Kathie Rasmussen Women’s Theatre (Krass) invite you to a staged reading:
About the Play
An Obie-winning play originally produced Off Broadway in 1955, the play has had numerous recent revivals. Both satire and commentary, this hilarious backstage comedy addresses racism in the 1950s theater world with observations that remain relevant today. Interestingly, within the play, African American actors ask for script changes to make their play reflect their reality; in real life, Broadway producers asked Childress for script changes to make her play more upbeat. She declined.About the Playwright
Alice Childress (October 12, 1916 – August 14, 1994) was an American playwright, actor, and author, acknowledged as "the only African-American woman to have written, produced, and published plays for four decades." Childress wrote: "My writing attempts to interpret the 'ordinary' because they are not ordinary. Each human is uniquely different . . . the human pattern is never cast twice. We are uncommonly and marvelously intricate in thought and action, our problems are most complex and, too often, silently borne." Childress was an activist who formed an off-Broadway union for actors.CAST
Wiletta Mayer--Theola Carter
Millie Davis--Nyajai Ellison
John Nevins--Ricardo Cortez de la Cruz
Judy Sears--Katherine Norman
Sheldon Forrester--Melvin Hinton
Al Manners----Paul Lorentz
Bill’OWray--Brent Holmes
Eddie Fenten—-Donald Dexter
Henry--Sam White
Stage Directions--Martha E. White
Produced by Kathie Rasmussen Women's Theatre at U.W. - Madison Room 7191 Helen C. White Hall, 600 N Park St Madison, WI 53706
Performances: March 10, 2018
Performance Times:
1pm - 3pmFree admission
Call 608-663-5814 for reservations or more information.
