Trouble in Mind

“A theater always makes me feel that way…gotta get still for a second.”

Though Wiletta tells John later in the act that Black people aren’t in theater, it’s clear from this quote that she doesn’t fully believe it. Wiletta tries to act like theater is a job she does not care about to play the game of appeasing the white people in charge, but she still holds a steadfast reverence for the theater. This reverence is key to the turn in her character arc, when she decides that she can no longer perform in plays that contradict her beliefs.

“You was singin’ a number, with lights changin’ all around you.”

While the reader never learns what Brownskin Melody (the show that Wiletta sang in long ago), is about, it is clearly linked to a better memory of Wiletta’s experience on stage. The motif of Blues Music, often accompanied by a rainbow of lights, begins to intrude on Wiletta as she battles with her decision of whether to move forward with Chaos in Belleville or not. This is the Wiletta that Henry remembers, and the Wiletta that is seen again by the end of the play.

 “Show business, it’s just a business. Colored folks ain’t in no theater.”

When the eager young John Nevins arrives for rehearsal, Wiletta is quick to dampen his excitement and expectations over being in a Broadway show.