‘ Bridges’ spans civil rights struggle across years
Two large chunks of bridges — one a broad concrete arch of industrial gray, the other a tower in Golden Gate- spanning orange — dominate the Berkeley Playhouse stage at the old Julia Morgan Center for the Arts when playwright Cheryl L. Davis sits down to talk about her new musical. Why, she’s asked, if the play’s action is split between Selma, Ala., and Oakland, are we looking at the Golden Gate Bridge?
“Because it’s iconic of the whole Bay Area,” she says with a characteristic easy laugh.
“Bridges,” written with composer Douglas J. Cohen and beginning previews Thursday, Feb. 11, isn’t really about those physical structures anyway. Though one of its two parallel story lines starts with the notorious 1965 Bloody Sunday attempt to march over the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, no actual Bay Area bridges are crossed in the Oakland half of the story, which takes place in 2008. The connecting spans, Davis says, are more metaphorical — between people, generations and chapters of the ongoing struggle for civil rights.
“It’s a two- bridge, two- timezone structure,” Davis says, “about two young women, in their teens and early 20s. Francine lives in 1965 Selma, and she gets involved in the civil rights movement and meets and falls in love with a young Jewish Freedom Rider from the North, Bobby. And the two take part in the Selma march.
“But in the meantime, in 2008 in Oakland, there’s Rev. Henderson and his family; and young Frankie Henderson is starting to explore her sexuality and discovers that she’s
gay. Rev. Henderson is also married to a white woman, so Frankie and her little brother are biracial as well, which is another issue we deal with.
“Kids are leaving Oreos on his desk at school, and he’s trying to figure out, my dad is black and my mom is white, so who am I? And Frankie gets involved in the anti- Proposition 8 movement. But I’m not going to give away what happens with either of the stories after that.”
It’s only eight days before the first preview at the time of the interview. The set isn’t finished yet, lights are being adjusted and chairs are being arranged onstage for the
sitzprobe that night — the first full sing- through of the score with the orchestra. And the composer isn’t there. Cohen is in Oklahoma City, where he has another new musical opening in a few days. Davis seems almost preternaturally relaxed, especially considering that she’s been doing some rewrites, mostly small. And one big one.
“Doug and I wrote a whole new song a couple of days ago,” she notes.
On top of all that, the company was in the midst of the kind of crisis that usually only happens in show- must- go- on movies. One of the principal actors, Berwick Haynes, was in jail, arrested on his way to rehearsal the day before on a drunken- driving charge after a serious accident involving a bicyclist. The story, Playhouse Producing Director Daren A. C. Carollo said after the interview, was already on SFGate. com, and he was hastily scheduling auditions for a replacement. By the time the story appeared in The Chronicle the next morning, Carollo had signed wellknown jazz singer and actor Nicolas Bearde for the role.
Yes, the show will go on. For Davis, Cohen and the Playhouse, it’s been three years in the making.
It started, Davis says, when Playhouse Founding Artistic Director Elizabeth McKoy saw the Disney TV movie “Selma, Lord, Selma” — which retells the 1965 events through the eyes of an 11- year- old African American girl — and approached Disney about obtaining the rights for a stage adaptation. As she explained the concept she had in mind, the Disney representative asked why she didn’t commission her own adaptation. McKoy asked if he could recommend any playwrights, and he suggested Davis — a New York playwright best known for “The Color of Justice” ( about the historic Brown vs. Board of Education school desegregation decision) and “Barnstormer,” her musical with Cohen about pioneer black aviator Bessie Coleman. Davis had recently written a children’s stage adaptation of “Winniethe- Pooh” for Disney.
“It hit me in my sweet spot,” says Davis. “I adore African American history. I love history, period.”
Davis suggested bringing in Cohen, who was equally excited about the idea.
“The subject matter was so compelling,” he says via e- mail from Oklahoma. “It not only deals with two very important civil rights chapters in our recent history but it’s extremely relevant today. And it’s one of the first musicals, I believe, to address biracial issues and how they affect family dynamics.”
“What I hope the audience takes away from this,” Davis says, “is that the struggle is ongoing. That’s why we end where we do, and I won’t say where that is. In Selma, of course, they get to Montgomery. In 2008, people will remember Obama gets elected, but Proposition 8 also passes. And Black Lives Matter hasn’t started, but it’s just on the horizon. Fighting for civil rights is a never- ending process. And that’s what I hope people will leave with.”