In the fall of 2021, Alice Childress’ play “Trouble in Mind” finally made its Broadway debut, which would have happened more than six decades earlier if not for the Black playwright’s decision to keep her vision for the insightful work intact.
Critically acclaimed in its Tony Award-nominated Roundabout Theatre revival earlier this year, the play, which paints a realistic portrait of what it was like to be Black in the theater industry in the 1950s, debuted Off Broadway in 1955 at the Greenwich Mews Theatre. It was quickly optioned for Broadway — the caveat being Childress was asked to make changes that would make the script more palatable for commercial audiences. Translation: white audiences.
