Trouble in Mind

Trouble in Mind is a 1955 play written by Alice Childress. It had its Off-Broadway debut in New York City that same year. The play, which critiques the racist portrayal of Black characters in American media (both stage and screen), was initially set to premiere on Broadway in 1957. However, when Childress refused to change the play so that it was more palatable for the white audiences she was critiquing, the premiere was canceled. The show premiered in London in 1992 at the Tricycle Theatre and ran again in 2017 in Bath and London. The show would not reach American audiences again until 2021, when it premiered on Broadway at the American Airlines Theater. It was nominated for five Tony Awards that year, including Best Revival of a Play and Best Actress in a Play for LaChanze, who played Wiletta. The rediscovery of Trouble in Mind led to more awareness for Childress’s other plays, such as Wedding Band: A Love/Hate Story in Black and White, which was performed in New York at the Theatre for a New Audience in 2022, for the first time since 1972.

The edition of Trouble in Mind used for this guide was published by Theatre Communications Group in 2021.

Content Warning: This play tackles themes of racism and sexism and has a few racially offensive terms used to describe Black people, including the n-word. Such slurs are censored within this guide.

Plot Summary

Trouble in Mind takes place in a Broadway Theater in New York City, 1957, on the morning of the first rehearsal of a new play. The first to the theater is Wiletta Mayer, a middle-aged Black actress. After loudly banging on the door, an elderly man of Irish descent, Henry, lets her into the building. He recalls that he’s seen Wiletta before, years ago when he worked on the lights for a show she sang in called Brownskin Melody. Though Wiletta does not remember Henry, she takes to the old man and befriends him almost instantly.

Soon after, the other actors arrive. John Nevins, a young Black actor, enters and can hardly disguise his excitement. Wiletta learns they are both from Newport News, Virginia, and she takes John under her wing. John asks Wiletta if she likes the script, and she admits that it isn’t any good, but that he should keep his mouth shut on the matter. She tells him that, to survive as a Black person in this business, he needs to do everything he can to stay on the white director’s side. John seems unsure of this, but listens nonetheless. Two more Black actors, Millie, 35, and Sheldon, an elderly character actor, trickle in, followed shortly by Judy, a young, sheltered, white actress from Connecticut who has recently graduated from Yale.

Millie starts to express her discomfort with her role, the last in a long line of stereotypical characters wearing stereotypical costumes. Judy, the most visibly nervous of the group, tells the story of how she got the role, despite making a multitude of clumsy mistakes during her audition. This rubs Millie the wrong way, and her agitation is only fueled as Sheldon recites his lines and reveals that his character, too, is loaded with stereotypes.

Al Manners, the director, and Eddie Fenton, the stage manager (both white), enter with a friendly banter. Manners sends Eddie out to get coffee for the cast. He makes sure the cast has all met and makes a big show of his friendship with Wiletta, with whom he shot a movie, and Sheldon, who he directed in a film about the Civil War. Once everyone has gotten acquainted, Manners begins rehearsal. The trouble is, none of the actors realize that his shouting at Judy when she moves in the wrong direction, followed by his demanding Wiletta to clean up the stage, is all part of an exercise. Manners claims his actions are intended to make the actors actually feel heated about the injustice they experienced. This is the first instance that starts to get under Wiletta’s skin, and she finds it increasingly difficult to abide Manners’s insistence toward her to “justify” her acting.

As rehearsal continues, it is revealed just how egregiously racist the script is: Each of the Black characters falls into different tropes that make them look helpless, uneducated, and dependent on white people to be “saved.” Judy is clearly uncomfortable with some of the words she is supposed to say, and it is debated whether a case could be made for that verbiage from an artistic standpoint. Sheldon agrees with Manners, desperate to keep him pleased, and John follows his example.

When they get to a song that Wiletta’s character is supposed to sing, Manners starts interrogating her about the meaning of the moment, determined for her to get to the “truth” of it within herself. The constant questions about justifying it, as opposed to performing it in the way she knows Manners wants it, nearly send Wiletta to the breaking point. When everyone leaves, the audience gets a glimpse of the fighting spirit within Wiletta. It becomes clear that soon she will have to choose between her dream of being an actress and deciding that she’s had enough.

The second act opens on a new day and introduces another white actor: Bill O’Wray. The character he plays in the show, Renard, is a bold and strong man, the complete opposite from Bill as a person. Manners tells Bill he needs to start eating with the Black actors in the cast more, for the sake of the play, so it doesn’t seem like the show is segregated. Bill admits he doesn’t want to because people stare, and he complains that people are always telling him what he can and can’t do these days. All the while, he insists he isn’t prejudiced.

Wiletta comes in after having talked with her neighbor, Miss Green, about her problems with the show. Her character, the mother of John’s character, is supposed to tell her son to turn himself into the authorities, which leads to his lynching. She tries every tactic she can think of to get Manners to see her point, and to change the script. After talking with other Black people, who also have experience in the arts, she is firm in her beliefs that her character’s actions don’t make sense: A mother wouldn’t force her son to turn himself in when it will ultimately lead to his death.

Tensions rise as Wiletta refuses to back down. John has grown more confident since rehearsals first began and tells Wiletta the people in the play are different from them; they aren’t educated and therefore don’t know any better. Sheldon continues to play his character exactly as written, and Judy laughs it off as if it isn’t a big deal. When Wiletta still won’t let up, Manners ignores her, placates her, and finally shouts at her. He tells her she should be thankful that she gets to play any character, and that he fought for her on the movie set to not have to play a “mammy.”

Wiletta finally finds the courage to tell Manners what she thinks: The character she played was still a mammy, and she proceeds to demonstrate all of the “characters” she has had to play in her career as an actress. Every single one of them is riddled with racist stereotypes. Finally, she calls him a racist to his face, in front of the cast. Manners retaliates, telling her that American audiences aren’t ready for the truth about Black people, and no one will ever fund a play that tells the story she wants to be told.

The cast disperses, each of them nervous about what this argument means for the rest of the play, and if it will still go up on Broadway. Wiletta watches them leaving, realizing that the whole process divided the group when they should have stood together for what was right. The only one left with her is Henry, who tries to bring her some comfort. Wiletta tells him she only ever wanted to do something grand on the stage. He tells her she should recite Psalm 133, which speaks about unity. Wiletta takes center stage and delivers it, alone, as the lights fade.