‘Choir Boy’ is Carlton Bell’s black, queer, and unapologetic tribute to Birmingham

It’s Thursday evening as the cast of the Birmingham Black Repertory Theatre Company’s adaptation of “Choir Boy,” the Tony award-winning play by Tarell Alvin McCraney, rehearses a scene in the Hub on Birmingham’s Southside.

The young actors break into the spiritual “Rainbow Round My Shoulder.” Seated at a table across from them, director Carlton Bell watches. Bell observes silently at first, studying their moves as they lift their arms above their heads in song. The next time, Bell sings along.

McCraney’s acclaimed drama “Choir Boy” is a coming of age story that follows students at the Charles R. Drew Prep School for Boys, an elite, predominantly black Christian boarding school. The play centers around five students who are members of the school’s gospel choir. At its core is Pharus Young, a junior and young “effeminate” gay student vying for his place as the choir’s lead.

Opening tonight and running until Aug. 25 at the Birmingham Festival Theatre, Bell’s production of “Choir Boy” is the first licensed adaptation of the play since it closed on Broadway in March. This weekend’s performance is also the first production from the Birmingham Black Repertory Theatre Company, a contemporary theatrical incubator started by Bell and incorporated in February.

For Bell, the weeks leading up to the opening of “Choir Boy” in Birmingham have been like a victory lap.

“I’ve been chasing the show for a minute. And I really just wanted to do something that wasn’t done in Birmingham yet,” Bell told AL.com in an interview. “I knew that I wanted it to be something that reflected who I was as a person, and I relate a lot to Pharus. He’s just this black queer kid trying to figure it all out.”

After a few minutes, Rachel Simone, the play’s choreographer and a dance instructor at A.H. Parker High School, steps into the middle of the group. After a brief critique, she turns to Bell.

“Is there any way in particular you want their arms to be placed?”

Bell squints and learns forward across the table.

“I think it’s just a me thing,” Bell responds. “I just need to rebalance this.”

The pair makes adjustments-- Simone moves the actors’ arms with Bell’s direction. Satisfied, Bell leans forward once again and smiles at the cast.

“Y’all sure are handsome!”

The young men take their positions on the floor to start rehearsing “Call Home.” In the scene, which examines the Drew Prep boys' relationships with their parents as they make phone calls back home, the group sings a rendition of “Rockin’ Jerusalem” before launching into a step routine.

“I. Hear. Rockin’ in the land. Rockin’ in the land and ringin’ them bells!” the group starts. After a few verses, the stepping starts.

“1969 Drew Prep, break it down!”

“If you mess up, just jump in when you can,” says Simone as the group moves their arms in tight precision, the soles of their shoes hitting the ground.

Again, Simone turns to Bell.

“You look so sleepy”’ she says, laughing.

“I’m really not,” says Bell. “I’m just happy.”

The dreamy moment is short-lived-- Bell doesn’t want to get caught up in the weight of the moment. It’s less than three weeks until opening night and there’s still a lot to do.

Seconds later, it’s back to business as Bell discusses the benches needed for the set. The young director initially didn’t want to buy the benches and get stuck with the inconvenience of owning them after the show. But that moment, Bell thinks of a solution on the spot, announcing a decision to give them to the A.H. Parker Drama Department.

“This is our donation to Parker!” Bell says to Simone. “Put us in the program! We are a 501c3,” Bell continues with a flick of the wrist.“So let’s be clear.”

Bell’s face pulls into a smile as the cast completes a nearly perfect execution of “Rockin’ Jerusalem.”

“Ahh! It’s like we open in two weeks!”

Next, the cast breaks for water, but its a break that’s a little too long for Simone’s liking.

“I said just a sip of water!” she calls out.

“We puttin’ everybody on a B-12 drip!” Bell shouts.

Later, Bell offers incentives for perfect performance (“Whoever does it best, I’m buying them dinner tonight! And don’t choose no Texas de Brazil!”).

When the Hub’s yoga instructor walks in waving a stick of incense, Bell doesn’t mince words.

“Um...excuse me, what is this?”

“I’m the yoga instructor. We have a class in here in a few minutes.”

“Uh, no, we have this room reserved until ten.”

“Okay, I’ll check in.”

Bell runs a tight ship, but the direction is as caring as it is pointed. This production is laced with significance for Bell’s career, Alabama’s history as the battleground of the civil rights movement, and the state’s future for the inclusion of its LGBTQ citizens.

“I don't think I've ever seen a black queer character on stage in Birmingham at all, ever” said Bell, who identifies as non-binary and prefers to use the pronouns “they” and “their.”

“So that was important for me.”

Bell says Pharus’ character brings to mind Nigel Shelby, the Huntsville teen who took his own life after repeated anti-gay bullying.

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Nearly 80% of LGBTQ students in Alabama reported anti-LGBTQ discrimination at their schools, the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network reported.

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Following the death of Nigel Shelby a gay teenager in Huntsville, rainbow buttons were dawned at city council meetings, fundraisers for the family were held and condolences offered, but the American Civil Liberties Union of Alabama says Huntsville needs to do more.

“That just was confirmation that now was the time to do this show.”

So when Bell needed a place for the “Choir Boy” cast to rehearse before it could move into the Birmingham Festival Theatre, he chose the Hub, an organization devoted to the health and welfare of LGBTQ youth of color.

For Bell, bringing Pharus Young’s character to life under their direction embodies their mission of creating roles for black, queer actors.

“He is like this unapologetic black person who is not only demanding people to accept who he is, but he's also demanding space,” Bell says of Pharus Young’s character. “And he's demanding the things that he's owed. He's coming for all his things, and I love that about him.”

Like Pharus Young, Bell is also coming for their “things.” And in this case, that means creating spaces where both queerness and blackness is affirmed and apologetic.

“We’ve always been in these spaces”: A tribute to queer blackness

Bell’s production of “Choir Boy” is a tribute to queer blackness in more ways than one.

“Moonlight,” the Oscar-winning film about a gay black boy coming of age in Miami, was based on a script that Tarell Alvin McCraney wrote in his twenties, and Bell has designed a portion of the set’s lighting to pay homage to the film.

In addition to partnering with numerous LGBTQ-advocacy organizations, including AIDs Alabama, Game Changer, and PFLAG, Bell also gifted tickets to a group of kids from the Magic City Acceptance Center to see the “Choir Boy” preview show.

“So many of them were just so ecstatic about coming to see this show, because they knew that it was about people that were similar to them, and they don't get to see that, ever. I hope that they feel changed and affirmed,” said Bell. “Very recently, we're seeing black queer people on TV. We're seeing {more} black women on TV and it's awesome. I think it's different when it's happening here in your community, though.”

Back in the Hub, Bell sets up the benches for the next scene of rehearsal, singing Keke Wyatt’s “Nothing in the World” while the cast chimes in.

It’s a classroom scene with Mr. Pendelton (played by Andrew Duxbury), the Drew Prep instructor who leads a course on creative thinking. In the scene, Pharus (played by Rodney Fomby) and Bobby (the nephew of Drew prep’s headmaster who subjects Pharus to constant ridicule about his sexuality) engage in a heated debate about the significance of Negro spirituals.

‘Don’t just diminish the song ‘cause it might not be a strategic map guiding slaves North,” Pharus says to Bobby (played by Daisean Garrett).

Spirituals are the bedrock of “Choir Boy." In March, McCraney spoke about spirituals, the political and personal sanctity of the religious songs, and the importance of handing down that legacy.

“I mean, these are the songs that they sang on the bridge in Selma,” he said in an interview with NPR.

McCraney’s quote makes this production of “Choir Boy” for an Alabama stage particularly fitting.

For Bell and the cast, defining home stood out as an important theme of the play. Of course, the fictional Charles Drew Prep, named after one of the country’s foremost African-American surgeons, could be anywhere. Bell says the cast decided that their location of Charles Drew would be in the South, somewhere between Montgomery and Tuskegee (Drew actually spent much of this life in the South and had been traveling through Tuskegee when he suffered a fatal car accident).

“And a lot of the dialect {in the play} reflects the South in general. So we definitely think that it's somewhere down South,” said Bell.

Black ministers and Alabama churches were center stage in the civil rights movement, from 16th Street Baptist Church and Bethel Baptist Church in Birmingham, to Brown Chapel A.M.E in Selma.

Choir Boy’s characters on stage in one of the South’s most significant cities of the civil rights movement is a reaffirmation that LQBTQ activists were central to the movement. Both James Baldwin and Bayard Rustin marched in Selma (Rustin was a key organizer). And Barbara Smith spent her early years of activism in the movement in the Midwest, attending speeches by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Fannie Lou Hamer.

“I think that people sometimes forget that black queer people have always existed in those spaces. Black queer people were in those marches. And did that work,” said Bell. “You know, I was looking at a picture of Bayard Rustin with Malcolm X the other day. They were here. These people existed, and they were doing the work.”

Those facts make Bell and the cast feel grateful, and they regard working on the production as a privilege.

“Especially in Birmingham, and it means a lot to me,” said Bell, who moved to Birmingham from Seattle as a child.

“I've lived here ever since then. And I just I love this city, I have huge attachments to the city. My stepdad had a barbershop on Fourth Avenue that I practically grew up in, so the city is important to me.”

Bell says initial reactions to “Choir Boy” were mixed-- there were struggles to find a venue to house the production, and some venues flat out declined. Others said no one would want to see a play about queer black youth, or that there weren’t enough black actors in the city to cast it.

Now, says Bell, there are rumblings of excitement around the city.

“I think when people come see this show, because of how unapologetic it is, it will open some eyes to the fact that it’s all happening. This is the birthplace of the civil rights movement. And yes, this is a place where a lot of change happened,” said Bell. “I feel very comforted and I felt very confident in starting the company in this place. Because of that, I felt like I was honoring that legacy by doing this work.”

A space for black people to just be

Bell says the goal of the theatrical incubator, Birmingham Black Repertory Theatre Company, will be “focused on producing contemporary works about black people written by black people, and hiring black people.”

Bell started BBRTC this year. Bell came up with the idea for theatre company when he was living in New York before returning to Birmingham to start a contract with the Birmingham Children’s Theater, a tenure which includes “Peter Pan,” “In this Corner Cassius Clay” and “Charlotte’s Web.” The day after “Choir Boy” is done, Bell will start assistant directing “The Watsons Go to Birmingham.”

The idea for the BBRCT stemmed from an audition in Birmingham, where Bell says he was auditioning for a show by a writer of color. While the production was about black people, Bell was disappointed and put off that there were no people of color behind the audition table.

“I remember leaving that audition and going ‘I can do this,’” said Bell. “And I think I can do it in a way that makes black people feel empowered.”

“There's something very special and unique about doing a piece by someone that looks like you and being directed and having a team building the world around you, with people that look like you,” Bell continued.

The Shades Valley High School and Florida State University graduate remembers being in a show where a white male director asked him to do a scene “a little bit more black.” What the director meant, says Bell, was for the actor to do the part in a way that was more “urban” or “street” --a style that wasn’t necessary for the specific role.

“Those are just things that you don't hear in a room or things that you wouldn't hear in a room when you are working with someone who looks like you,” said Bell. From color and set design, to properly lighting black skin, having black people in decision making positions in production companies is essential for making quality work with black actors, Bell says.

“I really wanted to make a space for black people to come and just be. To work on the art and do things that other companies aren't doing,” said Bell. “I'm not interested in doing any piece the same way you've always seen it. I'm really only interested in doing a piece that speaks to the times. If your art isn't intersecting activism, it's kind of not doing its job.”

Bell says his mission isn’t to recreate the wheel. In fact, he says he’s building on the foundation set for him by Marva Doulgas, co-founder of the Aldridge Repertory Theatre (“She’s been doing black theater for as long as I can remember.”), Nikishia Williams, who played the role of Eliza Schuyler in “Hamilton” the day after making her Broadway debut as a swing in “The Color Purple,” (“One of the best directors I’ve ever worked with.”) and Marc Raby, the proprietor of Encore Theatre and Gallery, which Bell calls “one of the best venues in town.”

“It’s specifically doing work and exposing people to theater in an area where you wouldn't even think it would go. And he sells out every show.” said Bell. “I look up to him so much. So it's happening.”

In this weekend’s production of “Choir Boy,” Raby plays the role of Headmaster Marrow.

Theater is an integral part of Birmingham’s history and Bell knows it well. The city’s Lyric Theatre opened in 1914 as a Vaudeville house. The Alabama Theatre brought legends to Birmingham. The Carver Theatre in the historic 4th Avenue Business District was the primary movie house for African Americans and has hosted jazz legends such as Duke Ellington.

“This is all steps away from my stepdad's barbershop. I've always known that this stuff existed,” said Bell. “It's just bananas, you know. We really are a city that does great theater, because there are so many talented people all over from every ethnicity. And there's so much space and opportunity to do the work.”

A time of “good, black" contemporary work

The timing is ripe for Bell, who is in close proximity to “so much good black work” going on in theater right now. A friend of Bell’s just had an off-Broadway run of “Sugar in Our Wounds,” a play about two black men navigating sexual identity during the days of the Civil War. Jeremy O. Harris, a playwright best known for “Daddy” and “Slave Play” is exploring black sexuality on stage. Pulitzer Prize winning writer Lynn Nottage’s musical adaptation of “The Secret Life of Bees” officially opened Off-Broadway in June.

“I think about “A Strange Loop” that is up on Broadway right now. That is legitimately about a black, queer plus size person. It’s happening all around us,” said Bell. “Broadway is opening its eyes and embracing itself around more black stories in general. And I think that it would be a disservice to the South to not have a space where those shows can be shown.”

With the Birmingham Black Repertory Theatre Company, Bell falls in line with a new wave of actors from the Birmingham area who want to create opportunities in and around the city. Bessemer native Andre Holland, whose numerous credits include “Selma,” the Jackie Robinson biopic “42,” and “Moonlight” has created the Holland Project with plans to restore the Lincoln Theatre in Bessemer. (Holland will also be in attendance at this weekend’s Sidewalk Film Festival where he’ll give a lightning talk on Saturday).

Birmingham native Roy Wood, Jr. has also fully embraced the role of ambassador to his home state. “The Daily Show” actor and comedian, who recently signed a development deal with Comedy Central, has plans to shoot a new sitcom called “Jefferson County Probation” in the city, and he shot the pilot for the sitcom in May. Bell served as a lead production assistant for the pilot, where he worked closely with director Millicent Shelton, whose credits include “30 Rock” “Empire” and “Black-ish.”

It was another opportunity for which Bell felt “grateful” and “privileged,” as the young director made connections with A-list showrunners and helped showcase the talent in the city that raised him. When people asked Bell about his job outside of working on the pilot, Bell says many were surprised that the young actor and director was “just” a lead production assistant, despite running a theater company, a situation which highly humored Bell.

“I was like, ‘what do you mean?’ I'm getting to work with a director who works on “Black-ish.” The connections that I made during that week will last a lifetime. It’s just sobering,” said Bell.

“Roy will come back to the city and says that he's {going to} hire all these black people from Birmingham, because that was important to him when doing this pilot.”

That week was a model of Bell’s dream career team --working with a black female director and a directorial team comprised almost completely of people of color. And for Bell, watching Andre Holland is reassurance that with the BBRTC, they’re on the right track.

“I had been obsessed with {him} for a very long time. To know that he is reaching back and wants to do something similar to what I have going on is exciting.”

'Who’s going to be born from this renaissance of black work?"

After “Choir Boy,” the Birmingham Black Repertory Theater Company’s season will officially start in December with Lorraine Hansberry’s “A Raisin in the Sun.” For that adaptation, Bell plans to set the production in 2019 and cast the role of Beneatha Younger as a black transgender woman.

Bell says this upcoming season’s theme is “She Changes Everything,” which pays homage to the influential women in his life, particularly black women who “make the world work.”

After “A Raisin in the Sun,” will be Dorothy Marcic’s Off-Broadway show, “Sistas: the Musical.” Then, the company will close with Lynn Nottage’s racial satire, "By the Way, Meet Vera Stark.”

Bell has also been working on and off on project called “Heaven for Boys Like Me,” a script about Emmett Till, Trayvon Martin, Tamir Rice, and E.J. Bradford Jr.-- all black boys or young men whose lives were taken from them.

“It’s about what would happen if they met in this ‘limbo-like’ area, because they couldn't make it to heaven because they were in the middle of their lives.”

The four males remind Bell of the Lost Boys in “Peter Pan.”

“And it's really just about them being boys and having a conversation. It started as a play, but I've been looking at working it into a film.”

For Bell, the future of black contemporary theater looks bright. And as more black playwrights, screenwriters, and directors make roles for black actors, Bell plans to be there to make sure Birmingham gets its fair share of the limelight.

"I am just interested to see what things will look like 10 years down the line,” said Bell. “I just wonder ‘who’s going to be born from this renaissance of black work?’ It’s crazy to think about for sure.”

Details:

“Choir Boy,” presented by the Birmingham Black Repertory Theater Company and the Birmingham Festival Theatre opens tonight at 7:30 and will run until Sunday, August 25. Tickets are $25 for adults and $15 for students. For schedules, tickets, and more information, visit BFTonline.org.

The Birmingham Festival Theatre is located at 1901 1/2 11th Ave S, Birmingham, AL 35205