Trouble in Mind

Wiletta Mayer is a successful actress by all standards. She works
steadily, respected by her fellow artists and beloved by audiences.
When “just another role” provokes a quiet revolution in her
conscience, Wiletta must choose between her life’s calling and a
new understanding of her place in the world. Never before
produced professionally in Atlanta, The Express is proud to

present Carol Mitchell-Leon in this bracing, little-seen comedy-
drama — a 1955 Obie Award winner, even — by a remarkable

playwright who dedicated her life to the depiction of the
extraordinary strength of ordinary people.

Trouble in Mind is a play within a play, offering unique peek into the life of
actors and directors during the rehearsal process. The audience
witnesses an emerging rebellion as the heroine, Wiletta,refuses to
enact a namby-Mammy, eitherin the play orfor her director. Setin
1950s New York City,the issues are current as ever– the factthat
[black] actors often find themselves playing stereotyped roles in which
they cannot bring themselves to believe, and the startling truth thatthe
most enlightened,”liberal” and well-meaning members of our
community can still harborlatent bigotry.
Playwright Alice Childress, also a successful actress and director ofthe
American Negro Theatre in NY, casts a sharp and unapologetic eye on
the state ofrace relations in theatre in the time immediately
surrounding Rosa Parks’refusalto sit where she was told. Today, we all
resistliving the story that someone else writes for us, yet we often can’t
resist creating our own versions for other people.