Trouble in Mind

Description

Trouble in Mind is a collection of short stories by Alice Childress, first published in 1955, focusing on the plight of African Americans, especially in the theater. The main story, Trouble in Mind, is an extremely short one-act play set in the backstage of a Broadway theater in the 1950s, where a group of Black and white actors are rehearsing a play on racism. The central character in this play is Wiletta Mayer, an experienced black actress growingly irritated by the stereotyping and racist attitudes of the play and the way the white director summarily dismisses the Black actors.

Major issues of the play are racism, identity, and conflict between personal integrity and career advancement. In order to preserve her position Wiletta has to choose either to be silent over the immorality of material or create controversy through speech against it and its lines of oppressive practices which are followed in that industry. The two major factors which are present in the play are art and activism between them and the leveling of psychological nature of systemic racism upon Black performers.

Trouble in Mind is one powerful commentary on the plight of African American artists and the greater ills that plague society with racial inequality. Using notably witty dialogue and sharp criticism, Childress is to probe the intricacies of living in a world wrought by prejudice, intellectually stimulating and culturally relevant at once.