Trouble in Mind
Alice Childress' Trouble in Mind is basically about a play within a play containing actors acting as actors. It is important to note when this play is set because it was at a time when race and racism was prominant. The play was bold because it incorporated blacks as actors during this time period. Manners, the white director in the play, is a dominant presence who uses sly strategies to get a desired reaction out of the characters so that he can show what kind of mood the character being played is in. Willetta seems to be affected the most by Manners' personality and style of directing. The two clash on views in a number of instances. Somthing that I thought of while reading the play was that it was hard to tell whether Manners is racist or not.
Things to remember from this play:
-beginning of Act 2- speech by Bill with applause being corrected in the background by Manners
- "My friends, if all the world were just, there would be no need for valor..."- Bill
-Sheldon speaking to himself in his mind
-Manners trying to show to Wiletta that there is no difference between their sons
-this is a metatheatre- a play within a play
“Cut, Cut, Cut” – Trouble in Mind- Mr. Manners throws down piece of paper and tells Willeta to pick it up- we looked at a video of this in class
Labels: Brad Jones
posted by Brad @ 3:11 PM
4 comments
4 Comments:
What role do you think race played in the tension between Manners and Willetta? Do you think maybe in addition to race that social structures were apart of the tension? At times I also thought that Manners was a bit racist, but then I thought maybe he is just to play the stereotypical role in society. A role as a white male in a patriarchal society quickly changing. Time is very important to this play, but I think some of the problems and questions raised in the play still exist to this day.
I think that Manners is racist. He lived in a time period where that kind of thought was prevalent. It would have been hard for him to grow up without it. However, I think that Manners is making a concerted attempt to move away from racist thought. He wants the world to be different than it is but when Wiletta confronts ;him with this reality he is not prepared to handle it. Manners appears to be a good man who is trying to shake the thought process that he believes is unjust.
Basically, there was tension between Manners and Willetta because he was white and she was black at a time in society where there was a lot of social tension and much of the white community still had a lot of prejudice against the black race. I agree that time is a very important aspect of this play. It is interesting that you say that these same problems and questions still exist to this day.
Basically, I think Manners is a racist and his reason for taking control over Willetta was because he felt he needed to establish his prominence. Willetta's furious reaction was a byproduct of Manners actions and had nothing to do with relation to "Trouble in Bellville." Basically, Manners realized that he had taken his bigotry too far, especially in front of the other cast members, and used Willetta’s frustration as a justification to teaching the actors a lesson about finding passion and realism in their work. So in conclusion, basically Manners is a racist.
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