Thursday October 11, 2001

Theater is always a form of entertainment (hopefully) - but it can also educate.

Invisible Theatre's new production, "The Black Boy," seeks to do both. The one-act play, adapted by Wynn Handman from prominent black author Richard Wright's autobiography of the same name, brings to the stage an abbreviated version of the writer's childhood growing up in the segregated South.

"It's sort of the Reader's Digest version," said director Eve Himmelheber, "pieces of all of his life that have been taken from the novel directly - 20 characters, 20 years, 50 minutes."

But while the play may have 20 characters, there's only one actor.

University of Arizona musical theatre graduate Walter Belcher portrays not only Wright at several different ages, but also everyone else in the author's life - including his mother, father, grandmother, a librarian and his boss. This "schizophrenic" acting style proved challenging for both actor and director.

"It was a challenging experience, trying to keep them all straight in my mind," Belcher said, "to try to keep it (the performance) conversational and not presentational. Eve was a big help in that. Being a one-person cast, you definitely need someone who has an outside eye."

While Himmelheber said Belcher had lighting and other stage elements to help in the differentiation between characters, perfecting the acting technique was essential to a successful performance - especially in scenes where four characters are in conversation.

"We worked with vocal qualities, physical life, rhythm and dialect of speech," said Himmelheber, a UA assistant theatre professor. "A lot of it was also just talking about what these people are like because, as actors, that is what we have to look at first: What is this character like?"

As in the novel, the play's major theme deals with hunger. This hunger progresses throughout the play. It becomes a hunger for violence as Wright is introduced to racism in the form of segregation in schools. When older, he hungers for justice.

"It's connected to an adult version of the racism, where white store owners are taking advantage of their black patrons, not only monetarily but beating them and raping them when they don't pay their bills on time," Himmelheber said. "And nobody does anything, and he can't understand that complacency."

Later, there comes a hunger for companionship, before Wright's final epiphany.

"At the end, he realizes that he's been running away from this hunger, and he decides to face the hunger and truly embrace it to try to make a difference, to try to reach someone," Himmelheber said.

Belcher said the play will prove a valuable educational tool.

"First, just the introduction to a prominent African-American author who has made significant contributions to the literary world (would be educational)," Belcher said. "I also think that this will be an introduction to theater (for students). I don't think that our schools, on a high school level, value the arts as much as I think they should."

"Black Boy," most importantly for Himmelheber and Belcher, will open a dialogue - among students, among audiences - that will foster the tolerance and outreach that Wright's life represented.

"We all want to feel that we're a part of something larger than ourselves. We want to feel connected," Himmelheber said. "And that through courage alone we can begin to build those bridges to others that share your experiences and your views and your hunger."

"Black Boy" opens today and runs through Sunday at the Invisible Theatre, 1400 N. First Avenue. Performances are at 7:30 p.m., except Sunday at 2 p.m. Tickets are $12 for adults, $8 for students.