‘The Talented Tenth' asks tough questions in U. production

SALT LAKE CITY -- Twenty-five years after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. talked of "a dream," how many African Americans realized that dream? And what about the ones who didn't?

Those are the questions characters in a production of "The Talented Tenth" at the University of Utah are asking.

The play, written by Richard Wesley, is based on W.E.B DuBois' 1903 article of the same name. In the article, Dubois professes his belief that 10 percent of the African-American population would rise to the top of American society.

What is... the Talented Tenth?

The Talented Tenth was an influential essay written by W. E. B. Du Bois and published in September 1903. It appeared in The Negro Problem, a collection of essays written by leading African Americans. Du Bois used the term "the talented tenth" to describe the likelihood of one in ten black men becoming leaders of their race in the world, through methods such as continuing their education, writing books, or becoming directly involved in social change.

Bernard Evans, one of the main characters in the play, is part of that affluent few.

"Dr. King needed us; those workers in Mississippi needed us; our people needed us," Bernard says, reliving the fervor of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.

Now fast forward to the late 1980s.

"A lovely drive along the north coast highway: endless miles of sugar plantations, outhouses, shacks, goats, ashy-faced children and skinny goats, not me, honey," the character Rowena says. "I'm sorry, but this may be tourist Jamaica to you, Bernard. But after paying my share for the villa, the airfare and all the rest of it, this is all the Jamaica I need to see."

In the play, questions arise between Bernard, Rowena and their other friends: Do they remember generations past and what about their fellow citizens who "have not?"

"It was a magnificent era," says William Ferrer. "I mean, just in terms of the range of what was happening, just the vision -- of course, a lot of tragedy involved -- but that vision, I think, surmounted everything. I think those people who want to make a difference are still doing it."

The actors are members of People Productions, Salt Lake's first African-American theater company, promoting African American-themed plays since 2000.

Some of the same questions that the characters ask themselves are questions that the actors say they wonder about in their own lives.

Latoya Rhodes, who plays Bernard's wife, Pam, said, "I don't think I've had to struggle as much as my family members have, my ancestors. I think that we have progressed, but there's still more progression that we could achieve in our times. So, I think yes, but I think that we still have more work to do."

"Is it not possible the questions being asked, that really what the end of the Civil Rights Movement was, was a nice home in the suburbs, two cars, a good family, an education for the kids; isn't that really what the revolution was all about?" asked Professor Richard Scharine, artistic director for People Productions.

"But then that question," Scharine continues, "what about those people who are left behind? And that's, I think, what this play is about."

So, every year when now our children listen to that most famous of speeches of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. that inspired so many, where will his words take them and what will they do?

"I still hear that speech from time to time on TV," Bernard says. "I was listening to it the other day when my oldest son came in and asked me if he could have some money for some new clothes. School was out. There was a special holiday sale at the mall: Martin Luther King's birthday."

"The Talented Tenth" performances begin Wednesday night and run through Jan. 29, in Studio 115 of the Performing Arts Building at the University of Utah.

E-mail: cmikita@ksl.com.