With the thoughtful and sure-handed direction of Scot Copeland and the superb technical support of Nashville Children’s Theatre’s team of designers and artisans, the cast of The Watsons Go to Birmingham 1963 are given the ideal platform to bring Christopher Paul Curtis’ book to life onstage. In an emotional, moving adaptation by Reginald Andre Jackson, the story of an African-American family’s summer trip to the south from their northern home is heart-wrenchingly and vividly told, evoking a shameful period in our shared American history that is made all the more relevant by the remaining vestiges of racism we all experience today.
Although the events of the story are nearly 50 years old, they resonate deeply—particularly for us Southerners in whose memories they continue to reverberate—and they offer younger audiences a sepia-toned look back at the not-so-distant past that we still must strive to overcome. In short, The Watsons Go to Birmingham 1963 is a theatrical event that is not to be missed and which, again, spotlights NCT’s extraordinary accomplishments and its gift for compelling storytelling.
With a stellar cast enacting the story—a lower middle class family struggles to maintain their dignity and sense of self amid the changing mid-century turmoil of the 1960s and makes the decision to bring their oldest son to spend the summer with his strict grandmother in hopes of instilling in him a respect for his elders, but perhaps most importantly, respect for himself—you’ll find yourself deeply moved by the events, laughter mingling with your own heartfelt tears, as the milieu of the civil rights era is brought so effectively to the stage.
Colin Peterson’s excellent multi-media design, which captures images both shocking and expected to frame the onstage action, and Daniel Brewer’s evocative, pitch-perfect sound design, which provides an underscoring of songs from the period, give a firm foundation upon which Copeland’s talented cadre of actors create their startling and frankly honest characterizations.
Brewer’s music gives audiences the aural surrounding that places them right smack in the middle of the whites-only south, while Peterson’s visuals provide the shocking backdrop for the family’s supposedly light-hearted family journey (no matter how you try to divorce yourself from the onstage action, you cannot help but think that at least part of their deceptively harrowing journey takes them through the hills of Tennessee).
You will find yourself drawn into the story, savoring each moment filled with heartfelt warmth and appealing humor, but then you’ll see the horrific images of police and their snarling dogs attacking peaceful demonstrators, firehoses turned against citizens asking for equal treatment and the climactic bombing of the Lord’s house on His day that resulted in the deaths of four little girls in Birmingham. In an era filled with terror, perhaps it is that incident that helped spotlight the continuing atrocities across the south. It’s the imagery and symbolism of that episode that strikes closest to the soul in The Watsons Go to Birmingham 1963.
And now, in 2012, you cannot help but reflect upon the notion that while much has changed, so much prejudice and injustice remains in America, both north and south, and it is that knowledge that renders The Watsons Go to Birmingham 1963 such an important and vital theatrical work.
Shawn Whitsell, quite possibly the busiest actor/director/playwright/producer/multi-hyphenate to be found in Nashville, leads the cast as the troubled and troubling Byron, the oldest teenaged son of the Watson family. Whitsell perfectly captures the tenor of the times in his performance, expressing barely contained rage as he struggles to define himself and to find his place in a changing world. Whitsell has never been more focused or more stunningly genuine onstage and it is his performance which sets the tone for the rest of the players, each of them ideally cast in their challenging roles.
