ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT

Alice Childress is the playwright of Trouble in Mind. She was born in 1920 and raised in Harlem, New York City. Alice Childress is a black playwright and actor. She and studied acting with the American Negro Theater in the 1940s. In 1949, she wrote, produced, and starred in her debut play, “Florence,” a dramatic work about a black mother who helps her daughter pursue an acting profession after encountering an insensitive white actress in a train station. She is renowned for telling truthful tales of Black people’s enduring optimism.

ABOUT THE PLAY

In 1955, a group of black actors and white actors gather to rehearse a new Broadway play about a lynching in the American South, named Chaos in Belleville. The play is well meaning: to persuade the white audience to empathize with the plight of Black people, however not as enlightened as the white playwright thinks it might be. In this integrated rehearsal room, tensions rise as theatrical practices and racial politics intertwine in this comedic and deeply-moving play. Trouble In Mind, which was first performed in 1955 and was later rewritten and reissued in 1971, won the Obie Award in 1956 for best original off-Broadway play.

JOIN PLAY DATE

Play Date is a monthly play reading activity, held on the third Thursday of each month.  We read one play from around the world together. The play reading is followed by a group discussion about the play. Anyone is welcome to join and practice reading out loud, regardless of experience or level of English comprehension. With Play Date, learning English becomes fun. This is a place where you can practice speaking out loud, expand your vocabulary and meet new people. Play Date is produced by Crane Creations Theatre Company. Crane Creations is an immigrant led professional theatre company located in Mississauga, Ontario Canada. Join us for our next Play Date!