Alice Childress (1920-1994) didn’t get much recognition during her lifetime. She won acclaim as an actress in the 1940s but was dissatisfied with stereotyped roles, so she began writing plays. Trouble in Mind, presented in 1955, made her the first woman to win an OBIE award, but it never landed on to Broadway and was forgotten for years. Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., recently revived Trouble, and thanks to a prescient artistic decision, Northern Kentucky University chose the show for this season. Faculty member Mark Hardy has staged a sterling production.Yunina C. Barbour-Payne plays Wiletta, an experienced actress weary of the same stereotypes that fueled Childress’s frustration. Wiletta has been cast in a production of a sympathetic but patronizing play about blacks and whites, and she constantly battles the arrogant director (Sam Rueff) about the truth behind the story.
Trouble in Mind continues at NKU’s Corbett Theater through Nov. 6. Go here to read Rick Pender’s full review.
This article appears in Oct 26 – Nov 1, 2011.
