American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) will present a filmed reading of Alice Childress's brilliant comedy/drama Trouble in Mind now through Sunday, April 4, 2021. Directed by Awoye Timpo, Trouble in Mind is part of the A.C.T. Out Loud series, which features a series of enduring play readings by some of the greatest minds of generations past.
The two other productions that will be part of A.C.T. Out Loud are George Bernard Shaw's Arms and the Man (April 12-18, 2021), directed by 2020 SAG Award nominee, Obie Award winner and Tony Award nominee Colman Domingo, and Thornton Wilder's The Matchmaker (April 26-May 2, 2021), directed by Dawn Monique Williams. Tickets ($5-$50) for all readings are available now by calling the A.C.T. Box Office at 415-749-2228 or visiting www.act-sf.org.
A.C.T.'s reading of Trouble in Mind features Emmy Award nominee
David Harbour (Stranger Things, Suicide Squad), 2020 Drama Desk Award nominee (runboyrun/In Old Age)
Patrice Johnson Chevannes, past Artistic Director of the
Lorraine Hansberry Theater
Steven Anthony Jones, veteran actor
Dakin Matthews, and more. With an opening date set in 1957, Childress's masterpiece would have been the first play on Broadway to be written by a black woman. However, plans were scrapped after she refused to agree to producers' demands that she soften its core message. Funny, incisive, and poignant, this play-within-a-play is an unflinching examination of white fragility and liberalism in the theater industry. Roundabout Theatre Company will present the long-overdue Broadway debut of Trouble in Mind in Fall 2021.
In conjunction with the reading, A.C.T. will present a special, live discussion and Q&A on
Alice Childress and Trouble in Mind on Saturday, April 3 at 2 p.m. Co-presented by San Francisco's Museum of African Diaspora (MoAD), the discussion will be moderated by San Francisco's new Director of Cultural Affairs Ralph Remington and will address why it has taken 66 years for this acclaimed work to have broader visibility and recognition in the national theater scene, and the unique hurdles of filming a play reading over Zoom, featuring a cast of actors on two continents. Guests include Trouble In Mind director
Awoye Timpo, dramaturg and Childress scholar Arminda Thomas, and A.C.T. Artistic Director
Pam MacKinnon.
"This is the third time in as many years that A.C.T. and MoAD have partnered," said A.C.T. Artistic Director
Pam MacKinnon. "I am happy to be in close contact with our neighbor. We both value that the stories by Black artists, like
Mfoniso Udofia (Her Portmanteau),
Lydia R. Diamond (Toni Stone), and now
Alice Childress (A Trouble in Mind) get heard-felt deeply and widely-and live in context."
"When museums and theatre work together, the impact of these stories are greater than what either can do alone," adds MoAD Executive Director Monetta White. "At MoAD we strive to be a hub of thought, art, and dialogues within the global Black art communities."
As part of A.C.T.'s Educational and Community Programs, over 1,000 Bay Area students and educators from throughout the Bay Area will be including the A.C.T. Out Loud series as part of their curriculum during the run. These tickets are presented free of charge to educators and still available for all three productions in the A.C.T. Out Loud series.
The cast of Trouble in Mind includes (in alphabetical order)
Patrice Johnson Chevannes,
Anthony Fusco,
David Harbour,
Kadeem Ali Harris,
Steven Anthony Jones, Eliza Kaye,
Dakin Matthews, Johnny Rice, Lauren Spencer, and Kaiy Watts.
The creative team for Trouble in Mind includes (in alphabetical order)
Jason Ardizzone-West (Production Designer), Beryl Baker (Video Designer & Editor), and Arminda Thomas (Dramaturg).
A.C.T. would like to acknowledge its Season Presenters Mrs. Barbara Bakar; Jerome L. and Thao N. Dodson; Bill Draper; Linda Jo Fitz; Priscilla and Keith Geeslin; Kirke and Nancy Hasson; James C. Hormel and Michael P. Nguyen-Hormel; Kenneth and Gisele Miller; Barbara Ravizza and John S. Osterweis; Toni Rembe and Arthur Rock; Robina Riccitiello; Mary and Steven Swig; Jay Yamada; Kay Yun and Andre Neumann-Loreck; and Company Sponsors Mr. Rodney Ferguson and Ms. Kathleen Egan; Frannie Fleishhacker; Kevin and Celeste Ford; Fred M. Levin in honor of Nancy Livingston Levin, The Shenson Foundation;
John Little and Heather Stallings Little; The Marymor Family Fund; Burt** and Deedee McMurtry; Gerine Ongkeko; David and
Carla Riemer; Patti and Rusty Rueff; Abby and Gene Schnair; Aaron Vermut and Adriana Lopez Vermut; Nola Yee. Additional support provided by The Bernard Osher Foundation, The Shubert Foundation, and San Francisco Grants for the Arts.
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