Canfield, Chaney students tackle racial theme in 'Ragtime'

"Ragtime"

Video Set

By DENISE DICK

denise_dick@vindy.com

CANFIELD

Two schools with little in common — one from the suburbs and one from the inner city — are doing more than staging a play that focuses on a taboo: racial strife.

The students are learning. About each other.

Canfield Players Drama Club from Canfield High School and Chaney’s Visual and Performing Arts students have been rehearsing “Ragtime” for weeks on both schools’ stages.

Some of the language is coarse, but the students and directors maintain it’s reflective of the time period and shouldn’t detract from the show’s message.

The Tony-award-winning play tells the story of three groups of people at the beginning of the 20th Century in New Rochelle, N.Y. — the upper-class New Rochelle residents, the residents of Harlem and the Eastern European immigrants, many of whom are Jewish — and how their lives intersect.

Play-goers therefore should not be surprised that some characters use ethnic and racial slurs.

“One of the first things that we did was to discuss that,” said Rebecca Heikkinen, Canfield director, who is also a guidance counselor. “Before we even read through the play, we discussed that.”

The original script is dotted with the “N-word,” both spoken and in song and the character of Willie Conklin, the fire chief, is one of the biggest offenders.

He’s portrayed by Canfield sophomore Zachery Bernat, who struggled with that word.

“I had to talk to my parents,” he said. “I had to make sure they would be OK with me saying those things.”

His parents assured him they understood he was portraying a role.

He then wrestled with saying them to Joshua Green, a black actor who portrays Coalhouse Walker Jr., one of the leads. Green, a non-student who is a guest artist in the play, also assured him that it was the character saying the ugly word to another character, not Zachery saying it to Green.

“He told me that when he was in the show before, the guy that played Willie Conklin ended up being one of his good friends,” Zachery said.

Ultimately, Heikkinen and Tracy Schuler-Vivo, Chaney’s VPA coordinator, decided to replace the “N-word” in the script with “Negro.”

“We don’t want people coming to the show, not hearing and understanding the many important points that are being made because they’re focusing on something like a word,” Heikkinen said. “We really want the opportunity for people to understand everything that’s happening with the show, and we didn’t want that to detract from everything else.”

Schuler-Vivo said there are so many beautiful messages in the show, and they don’t want people to come away with the wrong one.

She referred to a line from Tateh, the lead immigrant character, near the end of the script that she believes sums it up.

“‘A gang of children together despite their differences ... A dream of what this country could be,’” Schuler-Vivo said. “To me that is the message of this show. That’s the message of this collaboration and this project.”

Taryn Sallie, a Chaney VPA freshman who portrays one of the mourners, said she doesn’t take offense to the language because she understands it’s historically accurate.

Chaney VPA students freshman La’Rayja Hill and senior Nico Mostella, both members of the Harlem ensemble, too, say they understand that it reflects the time depicted.

They get that the “N-word” carries with it a history of hate but think it’s something the older generation is more concerned about.

“We are over it,” Nico said.

Some of the students didn’t know what to expect when they learned they would be performing with students from another school and they admitted some preconceived ideas about the other schools and students.

Those quickly dissipated when they got to know one another.

“After the collaboration I learned so much,” said Neal Timlin, a Canfield senior who portrays Henry Ford. “The kids who go to Chaney are great kids. They’re intelligent. They’re articulate and they’re just so friendly.”

Rehearsals began separately at individual schools so the full cast didn’t meet until Oct. 23 when they joined their talents.

“It was magical,” said Jonathan Scurich, a Canfield freshman who plays Tateh.

Tears were streaming down the faces of the actors and the school personnel at the conclusion of the rehearsal, he said.

Because the show is being performed in two different venues — the auditoriums of both schools — the show’s directors had to map out the blocking for two stages. The young singers/actors also have to account for the different acoustics in each location.

Kelly Scurich is the show’s musical director.

The cast boasts 70 people and when combined with crew members more than 100 students from two schools are involved. Neither Heikkinen nor Schuler-Vivo is aware of any other schools collaborating to produce a musical.

The students freely admit that when the play hits the stage at Chaney this week, the cast is better for the experience.

Taryn said when she was younger, she thought all families were like hers. As she grew older, she learned that wasn’t the case. While you should accept people for their differences, not everyone does, she said.

Such thinking though, isn’t inherent: “No one is born thinking that way,” she said. “It’s learned.”