Williamston Theater explores racism, homophobia in evocative new work
There are all sorts of ghosts that can haunt a young Black man growing up in Georgia—ghosts of racism, homophobia and toxic masculinity.
Chicago playwright Terry Guest explores the poignant life of a teenager with a secret who wants to exorcise the generational trauma that plagues him. “The Magnolia Ballet, Part 1” is a powerful play that opened to rave reviews last spring in Chicago. It makes its premiere in Michigan this month at Williamston Theatre and next June at Detroit’s Plowshares Theater.
Williamston and Plowshares are doing a joint production, sharing production costs, actors and technical staff. The director, Gary Anderson, is the artistic director at Plowshares and he is leading a cast that includes two Michigan State University students.
The Williamston production opens Oct. 21 and runs through Nov 6. Anderson and Williamston Artistic Director Tony Caselli went to see the show when it was playing in Chicago and both were impressed by it and felt it was important to bring “The Magnolia Ballet, Part 1” to Michigan.
“We have a whole host of plays talking about coming-of-age moments, but we don’t really have enough of them that are addressing issues dealing with LGBTQ kids and their trauma,” Anderson said. “Since that’s such a hot topic today, I think it’s important for us to explore it.”
It’s a play that combines elevated language, high drama, dance, music, poetry and spectacle to explore masculinity, racism and the love between a queer kid and his father. The story starts with a family in mourning because the mother has died and the whole character of the home has changed. The father, who is struggling with the loss of his wife, is emotionally distant and unavailable. His son, meanwhile, is exploring his identity and looking for affirmation for the person he’s becoming.
Anderson describes how young people will often look to adults in their lives for models, trying them on like a suit of clothes to help them figure out who they are.
“In some cases, they fit perfectly and in some cases, they don’t fit at all,” Anderson said. “In the case with Z, he has a whole lot of things roiling inside of him: the feelings that are cropping up, his sense of what he misses about his mother, and the incomplete relationship he has with his father. He starts having feelings for this boy he’s known most of his life, Danny Mitchell.”
The two families have all sorts of interconnections—including the same last name. It’s intimated that the white Mitchells once owned the Black Mitchells, which is how Guest, who is a young, queer Black man, weaves in the legacy of slavery, racism and homophobia.
“The large sense of the story is really understanding that sense of masculinity and what that really is, the variety of masculinity we can present,” Anderson said. “The beauty of the play at the end is a wonderful story of the triumph of love.”
Anderson described a conversation he had with Guest, who grew up in the South where the play is set. One of the scenes in the play has Scarlett O’Hara from “Gone with the Wind” showing up on stage.
“When he was growing up in school, they saw ‘Gone with the Wind’ every year in history class,” Anderson said. “I just can’t fathom that any history class would ever show that dreadful movie, but he had to see it annually. There’s a mythic quality to the perception of history in the South and I think Terry is trying to address it.”
Anderson pointed out that the theater is a wonderful tool for helping to create empathy in the hearts of people.
“You can use theater to tell a story about people who don’t look like you or share your circumstances at all,” Anderson said. “You can humanize them and help an audience come to empathize with their plight in a non-threatening environment. That’s critically important if you’re talking about living in a world that is multicultural and pluralistic.”
Stories like “The Magnolia Ballet,” Anderson said, can help address such things as sexual orientation, gender, age and race. Guest’s work helps to show the plight, sincerity and passion of people exploring their identity.
“I’m always attracted to work that provides an opportunity for us to engage in a conversation,” Anderson said. “We can’t make civil societies, we can’t build cohesive communities without coming to the table. This is an artistic table, a forum where those voices can be heard. I was very happy to partner with Williamston to expand the reach of this story.”
The Williamston cast is made up of Jesse Boyd-Williams, Stefon Funderburke, Timothy Hackbarth and Scott Norman. Boyd-Williams and Norman will also be in the Plowshares production. Funderburke and Hackbarth are MSU students who will be busy with graduation at that time, so Anderson plans to find two other actors to fill those roles. While they won’t be continuing in their roles, Anderson said both have been a good fit for this production.
“Stefon has a natural charisma that really makes it easy for you to feel engaged with his circumstances and his plight,” Anderson said. “And Tim is a very open and imaginative young actor to play Danny, the boy who becomes the object of Stefon’s attraction. At the same time, he’s also exploring his own identity.”
Anderson said they are using highly choreographed, structured movement to capture the emotional and historical arc of the play. They are also using music—a Capella Negro spirituals and a ring shout. The ring shout refers to a religious ritual practiced by enslaved Africans in the South. Participants move counterclockwise in a circle while stomping their feet, clapping their hands and sometimes singing or praying aloud.
Earlier this year, Guest said that “The Magnolia Ballet” provided him with a level of critical success that felt new to him, something that allowed him to take risks with other new shows he is producing.
“’The Magnolia Ballet’ was really, really beautiful and really well received,” said Guest, who starred in the Chicago About Face production. “It really helped me to feel like I’ve entered the real adult Chicago theater scene. It’s a play I really love and is special to me.”
Now that it has arrived in mid-Michigan, Anderson hopes audiences will take advantage of the three-week run to come and see a moving story.
“This is a play that will provide you with an opportunity to see a way of life and learn and care about the struggles of people whom you may not know, but will fall in love with,” Anderson said. “The essence of this play is really about a father and son coming to terms with their collective sense of loss and their abiding need for one another.”
How to go
What: The Magnolia Ballet, Pt. 1, by Terry Guest
Who: Williamston Theater and Plowshares Theater
Where: 122 S. Putnam St., Williamston
When: Through Nov. 6
Info: www.williamstontheatre.org
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Williamston Theater explores racism, homophobia in 'The Magnolia Ballet'
