Trouble in Mind
The year is 1957. On the stage of a theater in New York City, a modern, recently integrated theater company has gathered for their first day of rehearsal of a Southern drama called Chaos in Belleville. As the company rehearses, the African-American actress in the starring role confronts her white director about his interpretation of the play—and everything explodes. Alice Childress (the first African-American woman to have a play professionally produced in New York) uses the play-within-a-play structure to create a complex, immediate, and bitingly funny look at the way people talk about race—and a hilarious backstage drama about artists at work.
WATCH
PHOTOS
CRITICAL ACCLAIM
Fascinating
THE NEW YORK TIMES
Excellent production. A must see.
BROADWAY WORLD
Frank and feisty and surprisingly funny
ASBURY PART PRESS
Captivating
THE STAR LEDGER
Remarkable
TWO RIVER TIMES
Expertly acted and perceptively directed
Exeunt Magazine
Thoughtful and heartfelt
Examiner
Magnificent
NJ ARTS MAVEN
MEET THE ARTISTS
THE CAST
McKinley Belcher III
McKinley Belcher III has appeared Off-Broadway in Romeo and Juliet at Classic Stage Company and regionally in Twelfth Night at Hartford Stage; Invisible Man at Studio Theatre (Helen Hayes Award-Best Ensemble) and Huntington Theatre Company; As You Like It at Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles; the world-premiere adaptation Macbeth 1969 at Long Wharf Theatre; To Kill a Mockingbird at Bay Street Theatre; Medal of Honor Rag at Shadowland Theatre; The Merchant of Venice, All’s Well That Ends Well, and Macbeth at Kingsmen Shakespeare Company; Victor Woo at the Village Theater/FringeNYC; and The Wiz at True Colors Theatre Company. Television credits include Power on STARZ, Louie on FX, Rizzoli & Isles on TNT, and Law & Order: LA on NBC. Film credits include Ricky, and John Sayles’ most recent independent feature film Go for Sisters. McKinley has an MFA from USC’s School of Dramatic Arts, where he won the Ava Greenwald Award, and a BA from Belmont University.
Robert Hogan
Robert Hogan made his Two River debut earlier this season in On Borrowed Time. Broadway: A Few Good Men (Capt. Matthew Markinson), Hamlet (Ghost of Hamlet’s Father). Off-Broadway: Blood and Gifts, Luck of the Irish (Lincoln Center), Never the Sinner (Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Actor), Waiting for Lefty (dir. Joanne Woodward), Further Than the Furthest Thing (Manhattan Theatre Club), Boy (Primary Stages), Murder in the First, Rainbow Kiss, Romania Kiss Me (59E59), What Didn’t Happen, On the Bum (Playwrights Horizons), Baby Dance (Lucille Lortel), Hope Is the Thing With Feathers (Drama Dept.), Rutherford & Son (Mint Theater), Mourning Becomes Electra, Accomplices (New Group), In the Western Garden (EST), Major Crimes, Lighting Up the Two-Year-Old (Actors Studio Free Theatre) and Abe Lincoln’s Big Gay Dance Party. Regional: Moon for the Misbegotten (Arena Stage, Helen Hayes Award nom. for Best Actor), William Kennedy’s Grandview (Capitol Rep), The Master Builder (Yale Rep), Uncle Vanya (Bard), Robbers (Long Wharf), Indolent Boys (Syracuse Stage), Ty Cobb (Chautauqua). Film: Too Big to Fail, Good Marriage, Welcome to Academia, Species II, Lady in Red, Sweet Land, Prince Jack, Maze, Michael Crichton’s Westworld and Hamburger: The Motion Picture. TV: The Wire, Law & Order, L&O: Criminal Intent, L&O: SVU, Hill Street Blues, Cosby, M*A*S*H, Batman (Role: Greatest Pitcher in the World), and over 150 primetime shows. Bob is married to author Mary Hogan whose latest novel, Two Sisters, was recently published by William Morrow.
Jonathan David Martin
Jonathan David Martin is thrilled to be making his Two River Theater debut! New York credits include War Horse at Lincoln Center Theater (original Broadway cast) and Ndebele Funeral (FringeNYC, Lincoln Center Education) with his company, Smoke & Mirrors Collaborative. Regional credits include shows at Portland Center Stage, Seattle Children’s Theatre, Empty Space Theatre, Shakespeare Santa Monica, Not Man Apart Physical Theater Ensemble, and Washington Ensemble Theatre where he is a founding Co-Artistic Director. TV: Unforgettable and Believe (dir. Alfonso Cuarón). Jonathan has received the Leonore Annenberg Foundation Fellowship for the Arts for his work as an actor and theater maker. MFA: NYU Grad Acting.
Brenda Pressley
Brenda Pressley began her New York theatrical career in And Still I Rise written and directed by Maya Angelou. She later enjoyed success on Broadway in the original cast of Dreamgirls directed by Michael Bennett and as Grizabella in the long running hit Cats. More recently, Ms Pressley appeared on Broadway opposite Linda Lavin in The Lyons and with Mercedes Ruehl in The American Plan.
Brenda’s many Off Broadway appearances include Fran’s Bed opposite Mia Farrow, the world premiere of the award winning Audible production of the one woman show Proof of Love by Chisa Hutchinson, Surely, Goodness and Mercy, Almost Home, The First Breeze of Summer, Mom, How Did You Meet the Beatles?, Seven Guitars, Marvin’s Room, Blues In The Night and And The World Goes ‘Round-The Songs of Kander and Ebb for which she received the Outer Critics Circle Award.
Regionally, Brenda starred in Alice Childress’ Trouble in Mind and In This House at the Two River Theatre Company and in the world premiere of The Old Settler at the McCarter Theatre and again at The Freedom Theatre. This performance garnered the Barrymore Award for Best Actress. Additional productions include Jar The Floor at Syracuse Stage and Blues for An Alabama Sky at the Old Globe and Cincinnati Playhouse, and the world premiere of Black Odyssey at the Denver Center Theatre Company. Brenda starred in To Be Young Gifted and Black at The Kennedy Center.
On television Ms Pressley starred opposite Oprah Winfrey in the ABC series Brewster Place. Other television appearances include guest starring and recurring roles on The Path, The Good Wife, Almost Family, The Mysteries of Laura, Body of Proof, Law & Order, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Headlines, New York Undercover, Educating Matt Waters, HBO Life Stories, Daddy’s Girl, Here and Now, Ghostwriter, All My Children, Loving and One Life To Live.
She has been featured in numerous national commercials.
Brenda appeared in the films Before/During/After, Detachment opposite Adrien Brody, Third Street Blackout, 16 Blocks starring Bruce Willis and Mos Def and directed by Richard Donner, Cradle Will Rock written and directed by Tim Robbins, Twisted and It Could Happen To You.
Roger Robinson
Roger Robinson Broadway: August Wilson’s Joe Turner’s Come and Gone (Tony Award), Drowning Crow, August Wilson’s Seven Guitars (Tony nomination), The Iceman Cometh, Amen Corner—The Musical, Ain’t Supposed to Die a Natural Death, The Miser, Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie?. Off-Broadway: Walk in Darkness, The Middle of Nowhere, The Trials of Brother Jero, The Strong Breed, others. Regional credits include La Jolla Playhouse, Ebony Repertory Theatre, The Old Globe, Alley Theatre, Mark Taper Forum, The Kennedy Center, Ford’s Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Seattle Rep, Hartford Stage, Syracuse Stage, Yale Rep, Long Wharf, NJ Shakespeare Festival, American Shakespeare Festival, Williamstown Theatre Festival. London: Royal National Theatre. TV: Elementary, Rubicon, ER, Kojak, Baretta, others. Film: Preaching to the Choir, Wedding Daze, Willie Dynamite, Newman’s Law, Meteor, The Pack, Foreclosure. Awards: Outfest Grand Jury Award for Best Actor (Brother to Brother), Independent Spirit nomination (Brother to Brother), Fox Foundation Fellow.
Brian Russell
Brian Russell is very happy to be making his Two River Theater debut. He’s appeared on Broadway in The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial and The Farnsworth Invention. He was in the national tours of Laughter on the 23rd Floor, The Graduate, and On Golden Pond. He’s appeared at numerous regional theatres including the Shakespeare Theatre in Washington DC, Arden Theatre, Syracuse Stage, and many others. TV appearances include The Blacklist, 30 Rock, Rescue Me, Gossip Girl, Royal Pains and, of course, Law & Order. Film credits include Paper Man, Tenderness, and Handsome Harry. He’s also appeared in lots of national and regional television commercials. He lives in New York City with his wife, Dara, and their daughter, Vivian.
Steven Skybell
Steven Skybell returns to Two River, where he was previously seen in On Borrowed Time, The Electric Baby, Much Ado About Nothing, and Candida. Broadway: Pal Joey; Wicked; The Full Monty; Love! Valour! Compassion!; Café Crown; Ah, Wilderness!. Off-Broadway includes: Antigone in New York (Obie Award); Love’s Labor’s Lost (The Public); A Man’s a Man, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Galileo, and The Age of Iron (all CSC); The Lesson (Atlantic); The Controversy (The Public), What Didn’t Happen (Playwrights Horizons); numerous Shakespeare productions at the Delacorte, The Public, and Theatre for a New Audience. Regional credits include Arthur in Camelot (Helen Hayes nomination); title roles in Uncle Vanya (McCarter/La Jolla) and Hamlet (California Shakespeare); Berkshire Theatre Festival; Westport Country Playhouse; former company member of American Repertory Theatre, Cambridge, Mass.; inaugural season of Shakespeare’s Globe, London (PBS Great Performances). BBC radio drama: The Day That Lehman Died (Peabody Award). TV/Film: 666 Park Avenue, Elementary, Law & Order, Sex and the City, All My Children, Simply Irresistible, Cradle Will Rock, Tom and Francie.
Hayley Treider
Hayley Treider made her Two River debut last season in Present Laughter. New York: The Best of Everything (HERE), Double Falsehood (Classic Stage Company), The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (The New Victory). Regional: Westport Country Playhouse, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Kansas City Repertory Theatre, Bard SummerScape Festival, Roanoke Island Festival Park. Readings/workshops: Rattlestick, MCC, The Public, NYS&F, The Civilians, Playwrights Realm, The Lark, Peccadillo Theater Co., Pioneer Theatre Co. TV: Orange Is the New Black, Law & Order: SVU, Person of Interest, The Drama Dept. Current fellow of the Leonore Annenberg Fellowship Fund for the Performing and Visual Arts. Proud graduate of UNCSA and member of AEA. www.hayleytreider.com
Amirah Vann
Amirah Vann was most recently seen as Cassandra in Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike at City Theatre. Other credits include The Mountaintop (Philadelphia Theatre Company), Welcome to Arroyo’s (Old Globe), Kingdom (Old Globe), Wax Wings (Wild Project). Film/TV: Tracers (2014, dir. Daniel Benmayor), And So It Goes (2014, dir. Rob Reiner), Don’t Worry Baby, Once More With Feeling, “Believe”, “Girls”. Much love and thanks to Jade. For my mom and big sis. Thank you for being the strongest and most loving women I know. www.amirahvann.com
THE CREATIVES
Playwright
Alice Childress
Alice Childress
Alice Childress (1916-1994) was an American playwright, novelist and actress well known for her poignant stories centering on the lived experiences of Black Americans. Originally from South Carolina, Childress moved to Harlem, NY at the age of nine to live with her grandmother, the daughter of a slave. Childress’ grandmother encouraged her to pursue her talents in writing and acting from a young age. In 1939, Childress began studying Drama at the American Negro Theatre (ANT) and performed for the company for 11 years, appearing in multiple productions, including Phillip Yudan’s Anna Lucasta which moved to Broadway and became the longest-running all-Black play in Broadway history. In 1949, Childress began her writing career with her first play, Florence, which she directed and starred in, and which reflected many themes that would be prominent in her later writing: the empowerment of Black women, interracial politics and working-class life. The success of Childress’ works and their resonance with the public allowed her to bring Harlem’s first all-union Off-Broadway contracts into practice. Trouble in Mind, Childress’ first full-length, dramatic play, ran for 91 performances at Stella Holt’s Greenwich Mews Theatre in 1955 and was heading for a Broadway debut, but these plans fell through when Childress refused to change the play’s ending, at the request of white Broadway producers. Had it opened, Trouble in Mind would have been the first play by an African American woman to open on Broadway (a title taken by A Raisin in the Sun four years later). In 2021, Roundabout Theatre’s acclaimed revival of Trouble in Mind brought the show to Broadway, where it was nominated for four Tony Awards. Other plays by Childress include Gold Through the Trees (1952), Wedding Band (1966), String (1969), Young Martin Luther King, Jr. (1968), Wine in the Wilderness (1969), Mojo: A Black Love Story (1970), When the Rattlesnake Sounds (1975), Let’s Hear It for the Queen (1976), Sea Island Song, later retitled Gullah (1977), Moms: A Praise Play for a Black Comedienne (1987).
Director
Jade King Carroll
Jade King Carroll
Scenic Designer
Alexis Distler
Alexis Distler
Costume Designer
Karen Perry
Karen Perry
KAREN PERRY (Costume Designer) previously designed August Wilson’s King Hedley II, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Jitney, Two Trains Running, Seven Guitars and Radio Golf at Two River, as well as Love in Hate Nation, Oo-Bla-Dee, Lives of Reason, Your Blues Ain’t Sweet Like Mine, Guadalupe in the Guest Room, Third and Trouble in Mind. Her most recent credits include Run-Boy-Run & In Old Age (New York Theatre Workshop), Mothers (Playwrights Realm), Jazz (MTC), Lackawanna Blues with Ruben Santiago-Hudson (Mark Taper Forum), Fun Home (Baltimore Center Stage), Steel Magnolias, Hair, Dreamgirls (DTC), Oklahoma! (Houston Ballet at TUTS) and Cinderella Ballet (Eglevsky Ballet Company). Other credits include Danai Gurira’s Familiar (Woolly Mammoth, Guthrie, Seattle Rep), Cabin in the Sky (Encores!), Pearl Cleage’s Blues for an Alabama Sky (Pasadena Playhouse), John Grisham’s A Time to Kill, dir. Ethan McSweeny (Arena), Crowns, stop. reset, Trinity River Trilogy by Regina Taylor (Goodman, STC, DTC/Arena), The Trip to Bountiful, Walter Mosley’s The Fall of Heaven, dir. Marion McClinton (Cincinnati Playhouse), The Brother/Sister Plays by Tarell McCraney, dirs. Tina Landau and Robert O’Hara (The Public/McCarter), Having Our Say by Emily Mann (McCarter), and Resurrection by Daniel Beaty (Arena). She has designed every play in August Wilson’s American Century Cycle except Fences. Film/TV credits include Gregory Hines Show, Saturday Night Live, and The Brother from Another Planet by director John Sayles. Wine in the Wildness is proudly Karen’s 14th production with TRTC. Currently: Raisin in the Sun @ the Public Theater.
Lighting Designer
Nicole Pearce
Nicole Pearce
Nicole Pearce Previously with Jade King Carroll: A Raisin in the Sun (Juilliard School), King Hedley II (Portland Playhouse) and The History of Light (Passage Theatre). Selected NY credits include: The American Dream and The Sandbox directed by Edward Albee; Beebo Brinker Chronicles directed by Leigh Silverman; US Drag and Edgewise directed by Trip Cullman; Carmina Burana (Carnegie Hall); Savage in Limbo directed by Pam MacKinnon, Penalties and Interest (LAByrinth Theatre Company); The Golden Dragon directed by Ed Sylvanus Iskandar; Betrothed (Ripe Time); Trial by Water (Ma-Yi). Regionally: Sugar Syndrome, A Nervous Smile, and Blithe Spirit directed by Maria Mileaf (Williamstown Theatre Festival). Work with choreographers Mark Morris, Aszure Barton, Robert Battle, Jessica Lang, and Andrea Miller; Netherlands Dance Theater; Introdans; Birmingham Royal Ballet; The National Ballet of Japan; Ballet Memphis and The Joffrey Ballet. www.nicolepearcedesign.com
Sound Designer
Karin Graybash
Karin Graybash
Karin Graybash has created numerous sound designs for regional theater and Off-Broadway, including: Hartford Stage, Long Wharf, Berkeley Rep, Dallas Theater Center, Yale Rep, McCarter, Arena Stage, Portland Stage, TheatreWorks, and the Alliance. Her work has been nominated for the Helen Hayes Awards and she is a recipient of the Bay Area Theatre Critics Award for her sound design of Polk County at Berkeley Repertory Theatre. Karin was the original live sound consultant for the multi-media production Freedom Rising at the National Constitution Center. Many of her soundscapes can be heard at The Franklin Institute’s exhibit entitled Your Brain. Karin also holds the position of Sound Supervisor for the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University.
Wig Designer
Valerie Gladstone
Valerie Gladstone
Valerie Gladstone is honored to be back at Two River Theater. Her Broadway credit highlights include Mothers and Sons, The Seagull with Kristin Scott Thomas, Beauty and the Beast, Tarzan, and Thurgood with Laurence Fishburne. Off-Broadway: stop. reset., The Piano Lesson, Seven Guitars, First Breeze of Summer at the Signature Theatre; Having Our Say at McCarter Theatre; A Christmas Carol, A Raisin in the Sun/Clybourne Park at Dallas Theater Center. Film and television credit highlights include The Deuce, Maggie’s Plan, Fading Gigolo, The Black List, Madam Secretary, Person of Interest, The Wolf of Wall Street, The Normal Heart, and Black Swan. In her latest venture, she is the artist behind Brooklyn Dollworks, proprietors of art dolls.
Casting
Cindy Tolan & Adam Caldwell
Cindy Tolan & Adam Caldwell
Cindy Tolan & Adam Caldwell Broadway: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Betrayal, Cinderella, The Performers, Lysistrata Jones, Relatively Speaking, That Championship Season, A View from the Bridge, All My Sons, Avenue Q, and Xanadu. Previous productions with Vineyard Theatre, Bay Street, Dallas Theater Center, Playwrights Horizons, The Public Theater, and Lincoln Center Theater. Film: The Place Beyond the Pines, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Winter’s Tale, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Blue Valentine, Another Happy Day, It’s Kind of a Funny Story, Letters to Juliet, The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, Starting Out in the Evening, Death of a President, The Darjeeling Limited, The Namesake, Sherrybaby, Kinsey, The Ballad of Jack and Rose, Personal Velocity. Upcoming films: This Is Where I Leave You, Gods Behaving Badly. Television: Curb Your Enthusiasm, Flight of the Conchords, Fringe, The Return of Jezebel James, and multiple HBO pilots. Members of CSA.
Production Stage Manager
Denise Cardarelli
Denise Cardarelli
Denise Cardarelli Two River Theater: Production Stage Manager Trouble in Mind, 26 Miles, and ReEntry. Off-Broadway: ReEntry at Urban Stages and Dov and Ali with The Playwrights Realm. New York: Autumn’s Harvest with Lincoln Center Education; Highway 47 at HERE Arts Center; Much Ado About Nothing with the Boomerang Theatre Company; Dutch Masters with the Labyrinth Theater Company; and Flip Side and Imminence with The Talking Band. Regional: Hartford Stage, Long Wharf Theatre, Playmakers Rep, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, THEATREWORKS (Colorado Springs), Roundhouse Theatre, Centerstage (Baltimore), and 13 seasons at the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, where she also served as the Assistant Production Manager for three years.