BWW Previews: AMERICAN SON at Theatre Baton Rouge

A powerful production of AMERICAN SON officially kicks off Theatre Baton Rouge's 75th season by uniting arts and activism. Performances will run September 24-October 4, 2020.
Written by Christopher Demos-Brown, AMERICAN SON is the story of a separated bi-racial couple who must confront their feelings about race and bias after local police detain their son following a traffic stop incident. Their disparate histories and background inform their assumptions as they try to find out what happened to their son.
AMERICAN SON premiered at the Berkshires' Barrington Stage Company in 2016. The play gained considerable attention in New York City with the announcement that director Kenny Leon was bringing the show to Broadway, with Kerry Washington, Steven Pasquale, Jeremy Jordan, and Eugene Lee in starring roles. Demos-Brown, a white lawyer from Miami, was inspired to write AMERICAN SON after reading transcripts of cases.
Director Greg Williams, Jr. feels that the idea of the show is "asking people to assimilate, and when they don't, we question that, or we fear that."
"The problem with that is that's not America," Williams said. "America is based on diversity; it's based on this idea of inclusion, which calls for us to be different...Sometimes we do not even know why we're afraid of that thing. It is just because it's the other."
According to Williams, AMERICAN SON is about a mother, a father, their son, and the fight for the son's life. The play stars Mercedes Wilson, Tim Sandifer, Austin Ventura and Roger Ferrier.
"I love theatre that asks the right questions," Williams said. "And for me, I wanted to make sure that an audience was able to sit, reflect, and leave furthering the conversation, especially on Black Lives Matters, and where you stand."
Williams's approach to directing AMERICAN SON lies in his own personal experience of being a black man who was racially profiled in his youth by law enforcement, which led to a difficult discussion with his father about being a black man and dealing with the police.
"When I read [AMERICAN SON]...there was a bit of trauma in there for me, but this is the conversation white America needs to hear," Williams said. "This is a show that so many black families have to have with their kids, this conversation. And it's important for white people to hear it because I don't think they understand it, and the way that it's laid out in this play offers the tools that maybe I and other people who just don't know how to say it."
Actress Wilson explains her character is a concerned, loving mother who spends most of the show wanting to know the well-being of her son but faces obstacles in the form of the police and her estranged husband.
"It is this whole go around with the police not informing them, or they might inform her husband more than her about what has happened," Wilson said.
The more time Wilson spent with her character, the more she felt a connection. While not a mother herself, she was reminded of her mother and empathized with how mothers worry over their children.
"It is about her being a black mother, but also about being a mother in general, and a mom knowing their child and trying to communicate with other people that something is wrong," Wilson said. "And on top of that, she is a black mother and knows how society may view her son at this moment with the identity crisis he is going through."
The thing Wilson enjoys about AMERICAN SON was how the playwright builds suspense regarding her character's son Jamal.
"Everybody has their assumptions about what the situation is, and then, in the end, it is not what you think it is," Wilson said. "The suspense around what happened to the son drew me, and the act of him being missing initiates all these conversations amongst these characters."
Wilson also feels that Demos-Brown did a great job giving each of the four characters a voice, whether you agree with their opinions or not.
"[Jamal] missing gives an opportunity for everyone to discuss their ideas opinions about things in our society when it comes to race and our policing system," Wilson said.
The production will challenge its audiences to think deeply and empathetically about racial profiling and systematic bias under law enforcement.
According to Williams, the theatre is following COVID precautions that allow AMERICAN SON to be presented in the safest way possible. Audience members will be required to wear face masks in the theatre, and seats will be spaced out following social distancing guidelines.
"The ingredients of the play allow it to be a safer experience," Williams said. "For me, theatre has the power to force us as humans to ask the right questions and to face the mirror within ourselves in a world where we seem to have none of that all of a sudden; it seems like it is very important that we at least tell this story in the safest way possible and just to remind people that theatre is coming back, it will come back, and it is still here."
"It's an opportunity for us to come back together as a community watching theatre in person," Wilson said. "You have the audience as your other scene partner, and whatever energy they bring into the room, they bring into the performance that night."
AMERICAN SON is rated R. Seating is limited to 40 patrons per performance to allow for social distancing, so get your tickets in advance. Tickets are available and can be purchased via TBR's website at theatrebr.org/americanson.