Full Cast, Creative Team Set for Yale Rep’s Trouble in Mind

Full cast and creative team have been announced for Yale Repertory Theatre’s production of Alice Childress’ 1955 drama Trouble in Mind, to run October 26-November 17. The production, to be directed by Irene Lewis, will officially open on November 1.

The show focuses on an African-American actress named Wiletta Mayer, who gets her first chance to be a Broadway leading lady in a show called Chaos in Belleville, an anti-lynching drama by a white playwright. But Wiletta and the show’s director soon clash over her take on the role.

The cast will be led by E. Faye Butler as Wiletta, and will also feature Starla Benford, Thomas Jefferson Byrd, Don Guillory, Daren Kelly, Garret Neergaard, Laurence O’Dwyer, Kevin O’ Rourke, and Natalia Payne.

The creative team includes Michael Locher (sets), Paul Carey (costumes), Melissa Mizell (lighting), and David Budries (sound). Lewis is the artistic director of Baltimore’s CENTERSTAGE, where she directed a separate production of Trouble in Mind earlier this year.