Lyric Stage Boston to Present TROUBLE IN MIIND This Winter

A tale that was meant to be told over 60 years ago, Dawn M. Simmons brings to Lyric Stage Boston, Alice Childress's unflinching look at the standards of 1950's Broadway in Trouble in Mind.  

Meant for a Broadway run in 1957, Trouble in Mind never made its debut after producers urged Childress to subdue the content. Childress refused, and after a successful Broadway run in 2021, Lyric Stage is proud to present this re-discovered theatrical marvel as the playwright originally intended. 

It's 1955, and after enduring indignities and lost opportunities, Wiletta Mayer, a seasoned Black actress, is finally making her Broadway debut. Written by a white playwright, her star vehicle is the allegedly progressive “Chaos in Belleville,” which turns out to be anything but. Leading a cast of both younger and experienced actors, Wiletta challenges not only the soft racism of her white director but also the veiled prejudice that limits her aspirations and success. With warmth, humor, and sharp insight, this moving backstage look at identity and stereotypes cracks open searing truths about the American theater that remain heartbreakingly contemporary.

Director Dawn M. Simmons says, “Have you ever read something so relevant, so fresh that you wondered who's been reading your texts? That's how I felt when I first read Trouble in Mind. It's funny, “on time”, smart, and so maddeningly current I knew it had to be written by someone working in the theater today.  But Trouble in Mind first premiered in 1955. I've put together a cracking team of Boston's finest artists, and we're gonna put on one heck of a show for you. Laugh, cry, and be outraged with us, but most importantly, be in community with us as we hold the mirror up to nature and take you back to 1950s New York, which sometimes doesn't feel all that long ago.”

Performances begin Friday, January 12 and run through
Sunday, February 4. 

Featuring Barlow Adamson*, Patrice Jean-Baptiste*, Allison Beauregard, Kadahj Bennett, McConnia Chesser*, Davron Monroe*, Bill Mootos*, James Turner, and Robert Walsh*

Scenic Design by Shelley Barish, Costume Design by Rachel Padula Shufelt, Lighting Design by Deb Sullivan,  and Sound Design by Aubrey Dube. 

Bios

Barlow Adamson* (Al Manners) - Lyric Stage: The Great Leap, Fabulation or, The Re-Education of Undine, Be Here Now, The Thanksgiving Play, Chinglish, Time Stands Still, Private Lives, Red Herring, Noises Off, Arms and the Man. Merrimack Repertory Theatre: The Villains' Supper Club. The Huntington: The Maiden's Prayer, A Month in the Country. Central Square Theater: Angels In America, Paradise, Yesterday Happened: Remembering H.M., Photograph 51, Marjorie Prime, Operation Epsilon, On The Verge. SpeakEasy Stage Company: Small Mouth Sounds (Elliot Norton Award, Outstanding Ensemble), Kurt Vonnegut's Make Up Your Mind, Reckless, Almost Maine, Fuddy Meers. Greater Boston Stage Company: Incident at Our Lady of Perpetual Help. Boston Playwrights' Theatre: Elemenopea (Elliot Norton Award, Outstanding Actor), The Honey Trap. Bridge Rep: Sixty Miles to Silver Lake. Gloucester Stage Company: The Norman Conquests, Dinner With Friends.

Patrice Jean-Baptiste* (Wiletta) -  Lyric Stage: Brokeology. Actors' Shakespeare Project: Taming of the Shrew, Coriolanus, Hamlet. Plays in Place Suffrage in Black and White Series: A New Era. Front Porch Arts Collective: Black Odyssey. Central Square Theater: Building the Wall. A.R.T Institute: Tough Titty. Commonwealth Shakespeare Company: Henry V. Centastage: BoyxMan. Coyote Theatre: The Monogamist. Directed Speech and Debate Program/Taught Performing Arts  (Milton Academy). Education: BA in Philosophy and French (Boston University); MA in Performing Arts (Trinity Rep/Rhode Island College). 

Allison Beauregard (Judy Sears) - Lyric Stage: Preludes (u/s Natalya/Dahl). Commonwealth Shakespeare Company: Henry VI Part III (Warwick). Pittsburgh Playhouse: Uncle Vanya (Yelena), Cabaret (Fraulein Kost), Sunday in the Park with George (Mrs.; directed by Tony Winner Michael Rupert). 54 Below: Sing the Rainbow (Soloist). Joe's Pub NYC: Queering the Canon (Jesus/Sarah). Third Rail Repertory: Detroit '67 (Caroline). Guild Hall: Sometime Child (Teen Chorus). East Broadway Theatre Company: Audrey the Musical (Edith Head). Allison received her BFA in Acting at Point Park University and is currently pursuing her MFA in Theatre Education + Applied Theatre at Emerson College, where she is researching gender-affirming Linklater voice work. Endless love and gratitude to Mom and Dad. www.allisonbeauregard.com

Kadahj Bennett (John Nevins) - Lyric Stage: Debut. New Repertory Theatre: A Raisin In The Sun, The Charles Lennox Experience. The Huntington: The Lehman Trilogy, Joe Turner's Come and Gone, Common Ground Revisited, Dream Boston, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead. Front Porch Arts Collective: Brown & Boozy, X Or, Betty Shabazz vs The Nation. SpeakEasy Stage Company: People, Places & Things, Pass Over (Company One, A.R.T.: Quotables, Hype Man, Leftovers. Broadway Podcast Network:  Isolated Incidents. Actors' Theater Boston: This Place Displaced. Bennett is an Elliot Norton Award winner and a WBUR ARTery 25 Changemaker. Currently, Bennett is a teaching artist at both Zumix & Harvard University. 

Maconnia Chesser* (Millie Davis) - Lyric Stage: Debut. New York Theatre: 

Ensemble Studio Theatre, York Shakespeare Company.  Regional Theatre: : Shakespeare & Company (Company Member), Actors' Shakespeare

Project, WAM Theatre, Ancram Opera House, Berkshire Playwrights Lab, Chester Theatre, Kennedy Center, Theater Alliance (Insurrection: Holding History, Helen Hayes nomination), Tennessee Shakespeare, African Continuum Theatre, Totem Pole Playhouse, and Folger Theatre. Film and TV: TV: The Shape of Destiny (Official selection, 2018 Women in Comedy Festival), Nothing But the Truth, Ghosts of Hamilton Street, Diseasels, HBO's The Wire. Education: Shakespeare & Company, National Conservatory of Dramatic Arts, Alcorn State University. For my mom Dorothy D. Scott Chesser, and my friend Dennis Krausnick. Instagram: @kurlymac.

Davron S. Monroe* (Sheldon Forrester) - Lyric Stage: Sister Act, Agatha Christie's Murder On The Orient Express, Breath & Imagination (Elliot Norton Award Winner), The Wiz, Camelot, Company, My Fair Lady, City of Angels, Sweeney Todd, One Man, Two Guvnors, The Mikado, Avenue Q, and Ain't Misbehavin'. North Shore Music Theatre: A Christmas Carol. Moonbox Productions: Sweeney Todd, Passing Strange, Caroline or Change, Godspell. SpeakEasy Stage Company: Once On This Island, Songs for a New World, The View Upstairs. Reagle Music Theater: The Little Mermaid, PIppin. Company Theatre: Ragtime). Other appearances: Boston Landmarks Orchestra, South Florida Symphony, Houston Ebony Opera Guild. Davron is a Professor of Voice at Berklee College of Music.

Bill Mootos* (Bill O'Wray) - Lyric Stage: The Little Foxes, Never the Sinner, Over the River and Through the Woods, The Comedy of Errors, The Miser, Judas Kiss, The Lisbon Traviata. Recent credits include Greater Boston Stage Company: Clue. Wheelock Family Theatre: Bud Not Buddy. Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theatre: Race. Shakespeare & Company: Mothers and Sons. Ivoryton Playhouse: Shear Madness. The Barnstormers: Baskerville. Other credits include productions with Boston Playwrights Theatre, SpeakEasy Stage Company, New Repertory Theatre, Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, Gloucester Stage Company, The Huntington, and many others. Film: The Holdovers, Boston Strangler, Don't Look Up, Castle Rock, Little Women, Daddy's Home 2, and others.  Proud AEA & SAG-AFTRA member and recipient of two IRNE Awards.  Bill will next be seen in Beyond Words at Central Square Theater.

James Turner (Eddie Fenton) - Lyric Stage: Sister Act (Joey). Seacoast Repertory Theatre: A Christmas Carol (Christmas Present), Billy Elliot (George). The Firehouse Center for the Arts: Jesus Christ Superstar (Judas), Shrek The Musical (Shrek), The Last 5 Years (Jamie), Avenue Q (Nicky/Trekkie), The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (Chip). James runs a small studio for voice and acting students, and teaches Improv at North Shore Music Theatre. Endless thanks to my family for their love, patience, and support. 

Robert Walsh* (Henry) -  Lyric Stage: The Liar (Director) Off-Broadway: Gloucester Blue (Cherry Lane), Big Maggie (Douglas Fairbanks), Penelope (Perry St. Theatre), Theater of the Open Eye and Riverside Shakespeare Company. Boston:  The Huntington: Ah, Wilderness!, Hamle. Merrimack Repertory Theatre: Our Town, Mass Appeal, A Midsummer Night's Dream.

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