Trouble in Mind

Trouble in Mind was originally produced at the Greenwich Mews Theatre in New York City in 1955.

The play won the Obie Award in 1956 for best original Off-Broadway production. Trouble in Mind was scheduled to move to Broadway in 1957, but (in a fairly ironic turn of events considering the content of the play) Childress objected to changes requested in the script that would sanitize the play for mainstream audiences and the production was canceled as a result.

After decades as a little-produced play, Trouble in Mind has been rediscovered in recent years, with a resurgence of productions, including those at Two River Theater in New Jersey in 2014, The Artistic Home in Chicago in 2011, Theatricum Botanicum in California in 2017, Theatre Royal Bath in the UK in 2016, and Arena Stage in DC in 2011, among others. The play will finally receive its long-overdue Broadway debut this year, produced by Roundabout Theatre Company in the winter of 2021. There are also several upcoming productions of Trouble in Mind planned at major regional theaters around the country. Childress’s other well-known works as a playwright include Wedding Band and Wine in the Wilderness. She also wrote adult and children’s novels, including the best-selling young-adult novel A Hero Ain’t Nothing but a Sandwich, which was adapted into a film in 1977. Her 1979 novel A Short Walk was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.