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‘The Bold and the Sanctified’ musical comes to Powers: BLACK AND WHITE AND THE CHURCH
By GUY D’ASTOLFO
YOUNGSTOWN
Two Baptist churches — one a white congregation, the other black — sit almost next to each other in Macon, Ga.
The congregations were split into two in 1845, when a separate church was built for the growing slave population. The churches have existed ever since as neighbors who never speak to each other.
That is until two years ago. That’s when the Rev. Scott Dickison, pastor of the white First Baptist Church of Christ, and the Rev. James Goolsby, pastor of the black First Baptist Church, decided to work together to bridge the racial chasm and have their congregations become friends.
Nationwide, a series of shootings of black men by police, starting with the Trayvon Martin case in Florida, were ratcheting up tensions as the churches began their effort to communicate.
The pastors pressed forward, getting the conversation started despite the initial apprehension. Today, members of both congregations have gotten to know and understand each other a little better, a small but significant step in undoing the divide.
It’s a story that has been covered in recent months by the Associated Press and by CBS Morning News.
And as it was unfolding, Sherri Lynn was also thinking about the issue of divided churches.
Lynn, of Harrisburg, Pa., is a Christian radio broadcaster and a playwright. Unaware of what was taking place in Macon, Ga., she wrote “The Bold and the Sanctified,” a musical play about the pastors of white and black churches who are forced to blend their financially struggling congregations.
It’s not quite a case of life imitating art, or vice versa, because there is much more conflict in Lynn’s play. The congregations are actually forced to reunite, not just talk, and old prejudices and injuries quickly resurface.
But the message is timely and has found an audience.
“The Bold” premiered in September with two sold-out performances at the Byham Theater in Pittsburgh.
The musical also has star power. It features “American Idol” champion Ruben Studdard and BET “Sunday Best” winner Tasha Page-Lockhart.
Charles Herron, producer of the “Bold and Sanctified,” is capitalizing on the musical’s success and its hot-button urgency, by bringing the show to other cities.
Youngstown audiences will be the first on the list. The musical, again with Studdard and Page-Lockhart, will be performed at Powers Auditorium on Jan. 14 – the Saturday before Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Tickets are on sale now at youngstownsymphony.com, by phone at 330-744-0264 and at the Powers box office, 260 W. Federal St., downtown.
Herron, who is from Youngstown, believes the show can be a hit. He is bringing it to Akron Civic Theater the next day – Jan. 15 – and plans to get it on stage in Cincinnati and other cities next.
Lynn, the playwright, is also directing “The Bold.” In a recent phone interview, she discussed the musical and its origins.
“My job is radio, and that’s where I got the idea of this production,” she said. “I was working at a black music station, and then I got a job at [Contemporary Christian Music radio network] K-Love in 2012 [she is on the syndicated Brant Hansen Show on sister station Air 1, which airs on more than 200 stations nationwide]. Gospel is black, and CCM is white. As an African-American woman, I didn’t understand until then how divided we were as a church. There is no integration in the church.”
While at K-Love in California, Lynn would have conversations with her co-host, a white man, about race, which, she said, isn’t a topic that is often addressed in evangelical circles.
Lynn began writing “The Bold” as a radio drama in 2009, adapted it for the stage in 2011, and then adapted it again for current production in 2015.
She centered her script on two pastors – one white, one black – who were friends in seminary school. The men set about to unite their churches, each of which is struggling to survive.
“They didn’t understand the impact of bringing their churches together,” said Lynn. “Their families and their congregations don’t want to do it. But they believe in the gospel.”
An original musical score was composed for “The Bold” by Matt Mason of Pittsburgh.
Lynn, who is the producer and co-host of the Brant Hansen show, wanted to attract an audience comprising both blacks and whites, and succeeded.
The Pittsburgh performances of “The Bold” drew audiences that were roughly 60 percent black and 40 percent white.
“The audience must reflect what I’m saying on stage,” she said. “There are uncomfortable moments in the play, but everyone is laughing together at times. I had to make sure that white audience members don’t feel like they are being called racist.”
As for landing Studdard, who won season 2 of “American Idol,” that was producer Herron’s work.
“We were looking for a name to add, and Charlie booked him,” said Lynn. “I liked him because he has cross-cultural appeal. He was a perfect fit, and he was so wonderful to work with. He fit right in.
“I was humbled by how impressed he was with the script,” Lynn continued. “He gets pitched a lot of things. Watching him as he watched his first rehearsal, and laughed and cried, made me think, ‘Maybe this is working.’”
Studdard plays the role of Petey Rowe, an R&B singer who went to seminary with both pastors. They tap him to do a benefit concert for them as the churches continue to struggle financially even after they combine.
Page-Lockhart plays the lead worship singer at the black church, who is displaced once the churches combine.
The rest of the cast is composed mainly of Pittsburgh-area actors.