Iowa Stage Theatre Company: Trouble In Mind

Prompting laughs and provoking thought in equal measure, Trouble In Mind looks at the challenges of Black artists working with a white theater to tell what may not be an authentic story. Wiletta Mayer is black actor cast in another well-meaning “race play” of the time. She doesn’t mean trouble, but sometimes there’s only so much a person can take. This masterpiece by Alice Childress could have been the first play by a Black woman on Broadway, three years before A Raisin in The Sun, after premiering Off-Broadway in 1955; however, its first Broadway production was in 2021 because Childress refused extensive re-writes for the comfort of white Broadway producers.

Scriptease
Camp Siegfried by Bess Wohl
Monday, April 3, 2023 7:00pm

Two teenagers fall in love on Long Island. There's fun and dancing, sports and team spirit, there's the woods and beer and physical hard work. But it's 1938, the world is on the brink of war, and their wholesome summer camp is exclusively for American youth of German descent. As their mutual attraction deepens, so they become intoxicated by the Nazi ideology that fuels the camp, an ideology that will culminate in global atrocity and genocide.

Inspired by the real Camp Siegfried, Bess Wohl's play premiered at the Old Vic Theatre, London, in September 2021.

Get Tickets: https://my.desmoinesperformingarts.org/7343/7664