First Stage finds glory of love
‘Bronzeville’ an ode to community
There’s an Edenic innocence to the first scene in Sheri Williams Pannell’s beautifully crafted “Welcome to Bronzeville,” receiving its world premiere in a First Stage production that opened Friday night.
Against a backdrop mural recalling the heyday of Walnut St. — once home to nearly 180 black-owned businesses in the heart of a thriving, close-knit community — a fruit peddler named Mr. Jones (James Carrington) hawks his wares at the start of another day.
Enter the proverbial snake in this idyllic garden: a gang of six tweens and teens calling themselves the Market Street Boys and up to no good. As in Genesis, their ensuing crime involves an apple.
Or, more precisely, apples — stolen from Mr. Jones and resulting in one of the Boys getting busted by police Sgt. Felmers Chaney — who calls himself “big and bad” as well as “fair” but who, as presented by a charismatic Dominique Worsley, sports a big heart beneath his ostensibly gruff demeanor.
Rather than booking Mike — Collin Woldt, in the Flame Cast of alternating young actors on stage Friday — Sgt. Chaney takes him home, figuring Mike Sr. (an excellent Gavin Lawrence) and mom Irene (Samantha D. Montgomery) can teach their son to fly straight.
Did I mention that Pannell’s play is set in 1957?
“Bronzeville” is filled with yearning for a halcyon past when gangs stole apples rather than dealing drugs, when police officers were pillars of the community rather than a perceived enemy and when that community was itself an extended family — intent on giving the next generation greater opportunities and working now-vanished bluecollar jobs that made such dreams viable.
Music is an important part of that world; one plot line involves a talent show competition in which Mike, his sister and three cousins are rehearsing “The Glory of Love” in quest of a $25 prize. And a much-loved Billie Holiday (Malkia Stampley) shows up to play an integral role after intermission.
But the bigger picture here is one that lives the lyrics of Billy Hill’s song: This community’s members enact the story of love by learning to give a little and take a little. They create harmonies allowing Bronzeville residents large and small to be true to their individualized dreams while simultaneously honoring a collective commitment to the greater good.
One sees these negotiations through the loving partnership that’s been forged between Mike’s parents, each of
whom makes sacrifices. But that tension between self and community is most fully embodied by young Mike, pulled between different visions of who he might be.
Woldt credibly captures that dilemma. Led by Lawrence, involved in some moving exchanges between father and son, the community surrounding Mike sharpens it. In this welcome vision of what communities like Bronzeville once were and might again someday be, that’s how it’s supposed to work.