by Hugh Hunter

In the heyday of Jim Crow a comic sense of irony was a necessary survival skill for African Americans. In "Trouble in Mind" (1955) by Alice Childress, now running at Stagecrafters, this cultivated art is on full display.

It is a story about a group of actors trying to get their play on Broadway. There are many dramas where the primary tension concerns the success of a contentious theater effort. But in "Trouble" the troupe discovers the play itself, "Chaos in Belleville," about a lynching in the South, is not worth staging.

Director Yaga Brady also handles the set design, the stage where "Chaos" is being rehearsed. With its exposed walls, side stage ropes and cheap wooden furniture, you get the sense that you really are peeking "behind the scenes.”

Wiletta (Vanessa D. Ballard) is the main character, a theater veteran who tries to coach young John (Jaron C. Battle). Old school Wiletta is richly comical as she demonstrates the servility role you have to play with white directors to get the stage role.

But Wiletta cannot back up her own advice. During rehearsals, manic director Al Manners (Jim Broyles) insists that Wiletta delve into her personal feelings. When he keeps pushing, Wiletta becomes furious over the racial stereotype of her character, and her distress spreads to other actors.

In next day's rehearsal a flashy change of clothes hints at the troupe's determination to get the show going (Jane Jennings, costume design). But it is too late. The result of Wiletta's adventure into method acting is the discovery of how deeply she hates her whole life of imposed, race-based contrivances.

Some will attach the cliche "still relevant today" to this old work, often with a pose of tragic sadness. Actually, "Trouble" is better than all but the best of plays and movies over the past 60 years that set out to explore race, only to sow a new crop of stereotypes and sentimentality.

Childress is fair-minded. She lets her characters reveal their feelings without undue sympathy or condemnation. The other actors playing actors are Andrew Maksymowych, Anne Marie Bonner, Lary Moten and Nancy Marie. Matthew C. Thompson plays the stage manager.

Childress never got her own work on Broadway. It won an Obie for an off-Broadway production, but Childress would not compromise with producers in giving her play a happy ending. It is a final irony that Stagecrafters’ opening of "Trouble in Mind" happened to coincide with the funeral of Muhammed Ali, a role-breaker of legendary proportions.

Stagecrafters is located at 8130 Germantown Ave. "Trouble in Mind" runs through June 26. Tickets will be available at the door or at 215-247-9913.