With their mother gone, the group’s drawing power goes down, Bell says. A bigger hurdle, though, is traveling in and around the South during the Jim Crow era, circa the late ‘50s.
“There were places they literally could not eat at or stay at,” Bell says.
The cast includes Chandra Currelley and LaParee Young, performers the director worked with more than a decade ago in the Alliance’s “Hot Mikado,” as well as LaTrice Pace and Adrienne Reynolds. He specifically wrote the show for Currelley, Pace and Reynolds.
“I was on a bus one night for 12 hours with the Harlem Gospel Singers and started to think what it must have been like back in 1958,” Bell admits.
Besides dealing with the climate of the time, the performers would have to “travel together, sleep on a bus, always be in each other’s business – it must have been aggravating and frustrating.”
A few years back, Bell, who is gay, premiered his “Gut Bucket Blues” in Atlanta. It won a richly deserved Suzi Award for lead actress Reynolds, who played bisexual Bessie Smith in the musical.
Unlike “Gut Bucket Blues,” however, where the score was vintage music, the music in “Shakin’ the Rafters” is completely original, with songs written by Robert Deason.
Although some may compare this to “Dreamgirls,” the director/writer says it’s completely different.
“There are not a lot of parallels,” he says. “The ‘50s pre-dates the days of Motown.”
He notes that in the gospel community, the performers seem to focus more on praising God than becoming the next Deena Jones.
Bell was the former associate at the Alliance Theatre during the Kenny Leon days and has maintained a strong relationship with Leon’s True Colors Theatre Company. He currently heads up the music theater program at Northwestern University and has gigs lined up from the day after opening night here to the time Northwestern is back in session this fall.
He hopes this show and “Gut Bucket Blues” will eventually travel to other cities, but with this schedule he hasn’t had time to pursue bookings the way he’d like. Said schedule has seen him stage several productions in New York, both on and off Broadway.
‘Headwaters’ revisits Ga. gay student controversy
A hit with audiences at its inaugural run last year, “Headwaters: Didja Hear” returns next week to the Sautee Nacoochee Center in northern Georgia, presented as part of the center’s “Headwaters” series. One of the sequences in the production involves students at a high school who are bullied and form a Gay-Straight Alliance.
It’s based on a true story: In 2005, a few students from White County High School wanted to start a Gay Straight Alliance in order to prevent bullying, says Hannah Broom, the artistic director of the Headwaters troupe.
The issue divided in the area and members of the infamous Westboro Church came to the school to protest. One of the actors in the show is one of the actual students who helped form the Gay-Straight Alliance and is now an openly gay parent.
As a whole, the play involves a half dozen skits, as well as music and puppets. According to Broom, there has been some tinkering since the 2012 engagement but it’s largely the same show.
The Headwaters project started seven years ago when the troupe wanted to blend the history and folklore of the North Georgia region but with a universal theme.
“Shakin’ the Rafters”
July 9 – Aug. 4
14th Street Playhouse
173 14th St.
Atlanta, GA 30309
www.truecolorstheatre.org
“Headwaters: Didja Hear”
July 10 – 21
Sautee Nacoochee Center
283 Highway 255
Sautee Nacoochee, GA 30571
www.snca.org
ON STAGE
“5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche”
Through July 15 at Shakespeare Tavern
www.shakespearetavern.com
Set in 1956, this comedy finds five “widows” convening for the annual Susan B. Anthony Society for the Sisters of Gertrude Stein meeting, at a time when McCarthyism is rampant and their secrets can be exposed.
“The Velveteen Rabbit”
Through July 27 at Serenbe Playhouse
www.serenbeplayhouse.com
Gay director Brian Clowdus helms a version of the classic children’s book.
“The Cat in the Hat”
Through July 28 at the Center for Puppetry Arts
www.puppet.org
Gay actor Aaron Gotlieb portrays The Fish in this Dr. Seuss classic.
UPCOMING
“Young Frankenstein”
July 12 – Aug. 17
www.onstageatlanta.com
The first production in Onstage Atlanta’s new home is a musical version of the Mel Brooks comedy, directed by gay Charlie Miller.
Top photo: ‘Shakin’ the Rafters,’ the new musical from gay director David H. Bell, follows a gospel group as they deal with family friction, finances and racism in the Jim Crow South. (Publicity photo)