By Page Leggett

Playwright Keenan Scott II started writing “Thoughts of a Colored Man” as a college student, 15 years before it premiered on Broadway. 

When “Thoughts” opened in 2021, it became the first Broadway show with an all-Black team on stage and behind the scenes. Thanks to Three Bone Theatre, Charlotte audiences can see the play – a North Carolina premiere – through May 18.

The Arts & Science Council (ASC) is providing support in the form of a $20,000 ASC Cultural Vision Grant, which helps Three Bone to expand theater offerings, including facilitated community conversations, in west Charlotte – the company’s home turf.

The funding is supporting not just “Thoughts,” but two other plays this season, said Adam Santalla Pierce, ASC’s vice president for community and artist support. Every Three Bone season has a theme; this one is “Identity: The Search for Self.”

“Three Bone’s mission aligns with ASC’s goals,” Pierce said. “One of their focuses is on engaging their neighbors in west Charlotte in theater and conversation. As an arts funder, ASC is a steward of community resources, and we strive to bring the arts to people in every corner of the county.”

A day in the life

In 18 vignettes, seven nameless characters confront racism, class hierarchy, homophobia, fatherhood, poverty and more. Slam poetry, prose, song, monologue and dialogue are all employed to tell a slice-of-life story about Black men living in a gentrifying Brooklyn neighborhood.

There’s a finance director who lives in a luxury condo, a grocery store clerk whose work is soul-crushing and a basketball coach at a youth center who struggles with what might have been.

The action take place over a single day at a bus stop, a basketball court, a hospital and – of course – a barbershop, which veteran actor Jonavan Adams, making his Three Bone debut, described as “the Black man’s sanctuary – a place where we can talk freely and without judgment.”

In the hospital scene, one man welcomes his new baby. Sidney Horton, the veteran actor/director who’s helming Three Bone’s production, finds it especially memorable since “Black men get an unfair rap for being bad or absentee fathers.”

Every scene highlights the hopes, fears and struggles Black men face in a country that has long marginalized them.

The seven actors (Devin Clark, Dionte Darko, Daylen Jones, Nehemiah Lawson, Marvin King, Graham Williams and the previously mentioned Adams) play characters, but they’re also portraying emotions: Love, Happiness, Wisdom, Lust, Passion, Depression and Anger.

Adams and his castmates see pieces of themselves in all seven. He said the audience will, too – regardless of race or gender – since emotions are universal.

‘Rare chance to tell our story’

Horton, whose last show for Three Bone was 2019’s Pipeline, wanted to “be a part of telling this beautiful story.” 

Adams, who plays Passion, did, too. He said the play is “a rare chance to tell our story – because in our culture, we’re taught to suppress how we feel. You know: ‘Be a man; suck it up.’ I’m blessed to be part of a show that gives folks a deeper understanding of who the Black man is.”

That deeper understanding component appealed to ASC. “The challenge in modern American theater is to create a season and an environment where everyone feels welcome,” Pierce said. “There are not a lot of models for anti-racist theater. But Three Bone is so community-oriented, they’re demonstrating what a model for that might look like.”

Pierce praises Three Bone for its play selection and productions as well as its community outreach. “The quality of the work speaks for itself,” he said. “[Artistic and Operations Director] Robin [Tynes-Miller] and [Executive Director] Becky [Schultz] are very intentional, very meticulous in the work they choose to produce. They want bold, new plays, and they want to challenge audiences and make us think. And they prove, again and again, that Charlotte audiences are ready to be challenged.

“The last time I was at a Three Bone play, everyone in the lobby was buzzing about it during intermission. Their work gets people talking.”

Male bonding

The cast has become unusually close since beginning rehearsals.

“This group quickly became a ‘Band of Brothers,’” Horton said. “We’re sharing our lives and struggles. We talk about things that affect us, and it’s been very healing.”

The audience is likely to pick up on the cast members’ brotherhood. “They play off each other so well,” Horton said. “It’s beautiful to see that happening.”

Adams, too, loves how the cast has coalesced. “After rehearsal, no one bolts for the door,” he added. “We hang around talking. We’ve created a safe space for folks to share, and it happened organically.”

The play represents a reunion for some. Adams and Horton have worked together many times. Horton has worked with Williams and Clark, too. “They’re super-talented, hard-working guys,” he said. “They do their homework. It’s fun to work with actors you can count on.”

He was delighted to discover that the four actors he’d never worked with before were just as dedicated and talented as those he already knew. Horton called them “a breath of fresh air” and added, “This play and this cast have rejuvenated me and reminded me I’m doing what I’m meant to do.”

What it feels like to be suspected

If you’re not a Black man, “Thoughts” allows you to metaphorically walk a mile in the shoes of seven of them for 90 minutes. And you may be discomforted by what you discover.

On the daily, Black men deal with suspicion. Many – maybe most – non-Black Americans don’t realize the extent to which Black men are regarded with fear or distrust.

“I can’t walk out of my house without thinking about how I might be perceived,” Horton said. “If I’m traveling in another city, I never know if I can walk down the street at night without raising suspicion.”

Adams has grown used to being viewed with suspicion. Although he has a master’s degree and works as the director of employee engagement for a company in Charlotte, he still notices women clutching their purses when he gets on an elevator at work.

Black men have to think about and experience things others never consider.

‘These guys are like me’

The play, like all good art, has a message.

Horton hopes the Black men who see it leave “knowing they’re all right and that they don’t have to be strong all the time.”

He hopes others in the audience “see us without prejudice or preconceived notions. We get pegged into holes. We’re thought of as trouble, as violent, although we just want to work and take care of our families. I hope people see this play and think: These guys are like me in a lot of ways.”

Adams hopes Black men find comfort in the play. “I want them to know it’s OK to get help,” he said. “It’s OK to not be OK.”

He recently came across a quote that resonated so much for him, he shared it with castmates: “Are you healed? Or are you just trying not to think about it?” Too many Black men, he said, just suppress their trauma – rather than confronting it. 

The play is as pertinent today as when Scott first began working on it in the early 2000s.

“The script is relevant for right now,” Horton said. “It deals with what Black men feel today, how we’re looked upon today, how we’re judged today. It puts it all out there, in your face, where you have to deal with it. And it’s not all easy to deal with.”

Don’t Miss It!

Thoughts of a Colored Man runs May 3-18 on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. Performances are at The Arts Factory at West End Studios at 1545 W. Trade St. Due to its adult language and themes and descriptions and depictions of anti-Black sentiments and violence, it’s recommended for ages 16+. Tickets, starting at $15 for students and educators and $25 for adults, are on sale now here. Learn more at threebonetheatre.com.