by Linda Chin Workman

‘Choir Boy’ – Play by Tarell Alvin McCraney. Directed by Maurice Emmanuel Parent. Music Direction, David Freeman Coleman. Choreography, Yewande Odetoyinbo and Ruka White. Presented by SpeakEasy Stage Company. At Roberts Studio Theatre, Calderwood Pavilion, Boston Center for the Arts, 527 Tremont St., through October 19

Like his play, In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue, (which was adapted into the Oscar-winning film Moonlight), Choir Boy, by the multi-talented Tarell Alvin McCraney, powerfully reminds us that getting to love who you want and doing what you love are passions worth pursuing, as painful as the pathway may be.

Choir Boy is set at an elite prep school for boys that has been dedicated to educating strong ethical black men for 50 years, an ambitious mission for the 60s and 70s as for present day. From the moment it’s ‘lights up’ on stage, Director Maurice Emmanuel Parent deftly draws us into the lives of eight students who are uniformly dressed in blazers, buttoned-downs and slacks but unsurprisingly, each carries unique baggage on their transformational journey. The central character is Pharus Young (Isaiah Reynolds), a young gay black man who struggles with feeling unworthy and unseen and finding his voice and place in the community. He attends the school on scholarship and for years has aspired to get the coveted position of choir leader, but is all too aware that any misstep could jeopardize his future. Pharus thinks his nemesis Bobby (Malik Mitchell) has a charmed existence, that his joking manner and carefree attitude about breaking rules reflects his privilege as a legacy student and the headmaster’s nephew. Pharus doesn’t realize that below the surface Bobby carries deep hurt from grief and loss.

Read more “In Speakeasy’s ‘Choir Boy’, Music and Mentors Change Lives”