Trouble in Mind

John Nevins is a young Black actor who “tries to look self-assured, but it’s obvious he is new to the theater and fighting hard to control his enthusiasm” (10). He and Wiletta share the hometown of Newport News in Virginia, and he quickly turns to Wiletta as a mentor figure. In Chaos in Belleville, John plays the role of Job, the son of Wiletta’s character, Ruby. John has trained as an actor, but Wiletta warns him not to advertise that around the white people in the company. He begins the show as younger and naive to the realities of the theater, but with Wiletta’s instructions he is able to please Manners.

As the white members of the company start to praise John, he starts to side with them instead of Wiletta. He tries to justify the racist portrayal of their characters, arguing that from an artistic perspective it could be considered a “slice of life” (30). He wants to be in theater more than anything, and doesn’t want to acknowledge that he’s being treated like “a little puppet” (76), as Judy says.

Al Manners is the director of the play-within-a-play, Chaos in Belleville. Manners is “in his early forties, hatless, a well-tweeded product of Hollywood” (20). He has a history of working with both Sheldon and Wiletta, and he teases them in a way that is simultaneously friendly and demeaning. Sheldon continues to take it to the end, but Wiletta stops playing along toward the end of the play. Chaos in Belleville is Manners’s first Broadway show, and he takes his direction almost too seriously. He has a quick temper and a clear disrespect for women, as he is consistently complaining about his ex-wife, inappropriately leering at Judy, and making rude, sexist comments to each of the women in the cast.

Manners insists that he is not racist and believes himself to be fighting against racism with his plays and movies. What he doesn’t realize is that the stories he tells on stage and screen are reinforcing racism. He complains about his struggles as a white man, which pale in comparison to the harsh realities of life for the Black actors he directs.

Sheldon Forrester, the oldest Black actor in the company, is “an elderly character man” (15) who has worked with Manners before. He is kind and wise and prioritizes survival in the business over the integrity of the roles he plays. Out of everyone involved in a play that is centered around a lynching, Sheldon is the only character who has witnessed an actual lynching. He saw one as a child, and ever since then has been doing his best to placate white society. He is barely getting by financially, and desperately needs the money from this job, so he has a lot at stake if it goes under. In Chaos in Belleville, Sheldon plays the husband of Ruby (Wiletta’s character) and the father of Job (John’s character). His role is essentially whittling a stick on stage, but Sheldon is grateful for it nonetheless.

One thing about Sheldon that he seldom shares with others is that he is a musician. He says, “Sure, I even wrote me a coupla tunes. Can make a lotta money like that but you gotta know somebody, I ain’t got no pull” (54). Once again, there are systems in place that make it difficult for Sheldon to create the kind of music that he wants to make.

Millie Davis, 35, is another Black actress in Chaos in Belleville. Millie plays a supporting character in Chaos in Belleville; a woman who prays and sings with Wiletta’s character, Ruby. Unlike Sheldon, Millie doesn’t always keep her opinions to herself about Manners and the racism in the script. When the cast discusses that Judy’s character is the one who stands up to the white man, (in the play within a play, her father), Millie replies, “What I want is a part where I get to fight him” (16). In spite of this, at the end of the play, she doesn’t stick up for Wiletta. She says, “I know what’s right but I need this job” (87). She is only willing, and able, to say so much about what she really thinks and feels. While it seems like she will side with Wiletta, in the end, she falls into the same category as Sheldon.

Judy Sears is a young white actress who recently graduated from Yale School of Drama. In Chaos in Belleville, Judy plays the role of Carrie Renard. When she first appears, she is more timid and nervous than the rest of the cast members. It is implied that she lives a fairly sheltered life, as she tells the others “[my parents] live in Bridgeport…they really don’t want me here at all. They keep expecting something terrible to happen to me…like being murdered or something!” (18). Judy represents a different kind of white person: those who are well-intentioned but still exist within their own privilege, which is seen when she makes micro-aggressive comments from time to time.

Judy is not comfortable with some of the lines that her character has to say, which quickly annoys Manners. He uses her education, which Judy is proud of, and sarcastically nicknames her “Yale” as a way to degrade her. Though Judy experiences sexism in the workplace, she still holds more power than her Black cast mates. By the end of the play, Judy starts to realize her role in upholding racism on the stage, but not enough to fully side with Wiletta. She is worried that she will have to go back to Bridgeport and stop acting if the show is canceled.

Henry is the elderly doorman who works at the theater where Chaos in Belleville is being rehearsed. He is fond of Wiletta, for he was the electrician when she was in Brownskin Melody at the Old Galy Theater. He has been in the industry for 50 years but is not truly respected by Manners.

Each act of Trouble in Mind ends with a conversation between Henry and Wiletta. At the end of Act I, Henry shares stories of his Irish heritage with her. They are both mad about the way they are being treated, and Henry reflects on how his view of life has changed with age. He says, “I believe in treatin’ folks right. When you’re just about through with this life, that’s the time when you know how to live. Seems like yesterday I was forty years old and the day before that I wasn’t but nineteen” (44). His words stir Wiletta, who is now middle aged, to consider her own life that is slipping by, and to consider how she wants to spend her years. He is the only ally she has left at the end of Act II. When all others have left her, and Wiletta admits all she ever wanted was to do something grand on stage, Henry is there for her to be her audience.

Eddie Fenton is the white stage manager who follows Manners around everywhere and is constantly getting yelled at by Manners. When Eddie rushes into rehearsal to tell Manners that his wife is on the phone and wants to speak to him, Manners replies, “Oh, you stupid jerk. Why did you say I was here? You and your big, stupid mouth” (34). Eddie doesn’t stand up for himself, but instead cowers down to Manners’s every need, proving that the power imbalance affects Eddie as well.

One of the key parts of Eddie’s character is that he carries around the canned applause in Act II, which is an important symbol in the play.