Kayla Franklin (front) plays Mamie Till-Bradley in Collaboraction’s "Trial in the Delta: The Murder of Emmett Till" at The DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center.
Felicia Oduh in "Alaiyo" at Definition Theatre. Types Of Metal Nails
Kayla Franklin (front) plays Mamie Till-Bradley in Collaboraction’s "Trial in the Delta: The Murder of Emmett Till" at The DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center.
When a staged reading of Collaboraction Theatre Company's “Trial in the Delta: The Murder of Emmett Till” premiered at the DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center for two performances last February, the intent was always to create a full-scale production.
Fast forward to this year's Black History Month, and that production is enjoying a brief run at the museum with most of the original cast and minimal changes to the script, among them a new opening and closing. The latter is a moving speech by Till's mother, Mamie Till-Mobley (Kalya Franklin), that puts in perspective an appalling miscarriage of justice: the not-guilty verdict of the two men tried for murdering 14-year-old Till, J.W. Milam and Roy Bryant.
This is a powerful 100 minutes of theater. Company members G. Riley Mills and Willie Round based their script about the 1955 Mississippi trial on the actual transcript and courtroom documentation, which mysteriously disappeared and didn't resurface until 2005, when a copy made its way to the FBI, leading to the reopening of the case. According to a press release, the playwrights compressed the 354-page transcript into a 90-page re-enactment, most of which consists of witnesses being called, first for the prosecution and then for the defense, followed by closing arguments from both lawyers.
Co-directors Anthony Moseley and Dana N. Anderson cast the show very well. They have many of the witnesses come from the audience, adding a bit of immediacy to proceedings that are generally straightforward, if disturbing. District attorney Gerald Chatham (Andy Luther) does a half-hearted job building his case, often failing to object to outbursts by defense attorney J.J. Breland (Steve Silver), who tries to prove that Roy Bryant (Tyler Burke) and J.W. Milam (Matt Miles) didn't even come to Mose Wright's (Darren Jones) house and kidnap Till and that the body dragged from the Tallahatchie River wasn't Till's at all.
Both lawyers are dismissive of and condescending to the Black witnesses. Most of their questions focus on a few key items: a ring that belonged to Till, the heavy fan tied around his neck with barbed wire, a hole above his left ear. The testimony, sickening as it is, becomes repetitious.
On a couple of occasions, Judge Curtis Swango (Richard Alan Baiker) sends the jury from the courtroom to allow for inadmissible testimony that seems included mainly to fill the audience in on background. One instance is the claim by Roy's wife Carolyn Bryant (Maddy Brown) that Till had virtually assaulted her at the Bryant store a few days before his murder. She later admitted her testimony was false, and Bryant and Milam confessed to the murder in a “Look” magazine article.
On balance, I think the show could be even more powerful than it is. While Till's connection to Chicago is detailed, more historical context is needed, as is more of the reporting that appeared around the trial and galvanized the civil rights movement.
There's technical work to be done, too, at least judging by opening night. Warren Levon's sound design was functioning unevenly and, although Emmy Weldon's simple courtroom set was adequate, her video projections on the screen covering the back wall seemed erratic. They ranged from a small drawing of Mose Wright's house to spectral images of the men on the jury, who don't appear in person, though chairs are on stage for them.
Strangest of all: When the attorney's passed around photos of Till, alive and dead, and had them entered into evidence, only one photo — of him before the murder — was projected. I don't know if this was in error or if the decision was made not to project the gruesome images of his dead body because of audience sensitivities.
By the way, when the staged-readings premiered last year, it was shortly after they were filmed as part of the second episode of NBC5 Chicago anchor Marion Brooks' investigative series, “The Lost Story of Emmett Till.”
The full tele-play of “The Lost Story of Emmett Till: Trial in the Delta” remains free to watch on NBCChicago.com and the NBC5 Chicago app, and is available for streaming on Peacock, Apple TV, Roku and Amazon Fire.
Collaboration Theatre Company, DuSable Black History Museum & Education Center, 740 E. 56th Pl., through Feb. 19, $30-$55, collaboraction.org.
"Trial in the Delta: The Murder of Emmett Till"
DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center, 740 E. 56th Pl.
Felicia Oduh in "Alaiyo" at Definition Theatre.
If you're not familiar with Lorraine Hansberry's “A Raisin in the Sun,” be sure to read the 1959 play, the first by a Black woman to debut on Broadway, or watch the 1961 film (with the original Broadway cast) before going to see Definition Theatre's world premiere of Micah Ariel Watson's “Alaiyo” at The Revival.
Watson's 90-minute “choreopoem,” directed by McKenzie Chinn riffs on Hansberry's work, and the references to, and quotes from, everyone from W.E.B Du Bois to Langston Hughes flow so fast and furiously that it may be hard to keep up.
At the center is Ariel (Felicia Oduh), a college student and would-be writer struggling with her identity. She worries, she tells us at great length, that she's not Black enough and longs for a stronger connection to her African roots as a possible solution.
Fancying herself a modern-day Beneatha Younger, the college-age daughter in “A Raisin in the Sun,” she yearns for her Joseph Asagai, the
Yoruba student from Nigeria who teaches Beneatha about her African heritage, gives her thoughtfully useful gifts from Africa and eventually proposes, offering to take her back to Nigeria with him.
So Ariel (the playwright's middle name, perhaps not accidentally) fixates on fellow student Kofi (Patrick Newson Jr.), who is thoroughly American though his family comes from Ghana — not Nigeria as he reminds her. He just views her as a friend, but her romantic obsession includes re-enacting scenes from “A Raisin in the Sun” and extends to embarking on a (metaphorical) voyage to Ghana to profess her love.
Nearly drowned by allusions to the Middle Passage and her own words — the watery projections are by Alex Gendal with sound design by Willow James and Andrew Littleton — Ariel is disillusioned by her quest for romantic love but learns, as is a common theme nowadays, to love herself. Her girlish fantasies are replaced by a more fully realized version of “Alaiyo,” Asagai's Yoruba nickname for Beneatha, which he translates as “one for whom bread — food — is not enough.”
Watson takes a long time and indulges in lots of repetition getting to the point, and the play could easily be trimmed by at least 20 minutes. Some sections could also be clearer. The compensation is Oduh's totally engaging, endearing performance as Ariel, and we can empathize with her obsession, even if it is adolescent.
She's nicely matched by Newson's Kofi, and a couple of scenes — especially the one in which they are stopped by cops while driving — are especially effective. Victor Musoni's choreography, more movement than dance, enhances the action. The other design elements are simple but adequate.
Definition Theatre at The Revival, 1160 E. 55 th St.
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