Alice Childress was a socially proactive woman, dedicated to both civil and women’s rights. In 1955, her “Trouble in Mind” was a popular and critical success off-Broadway and Arena Stage’s production of it proves why. “Trouble in Mind” pictures a recently integrated theater group tackling a play about race in 1957. The result is a mass of misunderstandings, insults and sleights that sets everyone associated with the production at odds with one another and simultaneously reveals a great deal about each person involved.

The play begins as a black actress, Wiletta Meyer (the incomparable E. Faye Butler), arrives for a rehearsal of a Broadway show, followed by a young actor, John Nevins (Brandon J. Dirden). Wiletta gives John some advice: “Show business is just business,” she says skeptically, trying to impress on him the impossibility of succeeding in theater.