A teen in troubled times: 'Take My Seat' set in 1963 Montgomery

No matter what the law said about it, fear, hate and racism didn’t just switch off like a light in 1963 Montgomery. 

A new play by Darren J. Butler, with music by songwriter Judy Rodman, brings the story of a 17-year-old African-American girl’s struggle to find her place in that world.

It’s being presented at 5 p.m. Feb. 25 in Montgomery at The Sanctuary, 432 S. Goldthwaite St. 

“It’s all about fear, and how racism is fueled by fear,” Butler said. 

The show is set in November 1963, almost seven years after the U.S Supreme Court declared Montgomery’s bus segregation to be unconstitutional. 

“Take My Seat” is centered around Maggie, a teenager caught between her mother’s fear and the lingering racism of that era. 

“She doesn’t really understand where she fits in the world,” Butler said. “Even though it’s legal for her to sit anywhere she wants on the bus, her mother, because of fear, tells her she can’t. That no law is going to change the way things are in Montgomery.”

Because of fear, Maggie’s mother is prejudiced against white people and thinks integration won’t work, Butler said.  

That fear also won’t let Maggie drink from public water fountains or use public restrooms.

Her best friend Jim, a white boy, is leading the charge amongst his peers to promote change. They gather a lot, and they swing dance. “At this time period, Nat King Cole was trying to bring swing back in,” Butler said. 

But among that crowd, youths are trying to stop change.  “These kids have parents who are part of the KKK,” Butler said. 

Given the time period and subject of “Take My Seat,” there is a small bit of racist language in the production. “There’s one reference to the N word in the show,” Butler said. “We tried not to go too overboard with explicit things. A lot of times when you’re doing a piece like this, if that’s what people walk away remembering, then you’ve really lost what you were doing.” 

While this is a heavy subject matter, Butler said that it’s appropriate for youths. “It’s intense,” he said. “I have children that are 5 and 7, and they have seen it.” 

Butler is a theater teacher at Florence Academy of Fine Arts in north Alabama. Writing “Take My Seat” is part of his master of fine arts thesis project for Point Park University in Pittsburgh. 

The cast of “Take My Seat” is made up of Butler’s high school theater students. 

“They’re great,” Butler said. “We were fortunate at our state theater competition (The Walter Trumbauer Seondary Theatre Festival) at Troy University in early December, in the one-act festival. My lead female, Maggie, (Adrian Parker) won best actress in the one-act festival. Our lead guy, (Grayson Johns) won best actor in the one-act festival. The girl that plays Maggie’s mother (Nevaeh Fuller) got selected for the all-star cast.” 

“Take My Seat” has been officially endorsed by the Alabama Bicentennial. 

Though not connected with recent Alabama Shakespeare Festival productions of Christina Ham’s “Four Little Girls: Birmingham 1963” and “Nina Simone: Four Women,”  Butler’s “Take My Seat” takes place shortly after both of them in the time period. 

 In August ’63, Martin Luther King Jr. gave his “I Have a Dream” speech in Washington.

In September ’63, the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham killed four black girls — Carole Robertson, 14, Denise McNair, 11, Addie Mae Collins, 14, and Cynthia Wesley, 14. 

“Take My Seat” takes place two months after the bombing.

“We have a tribute to those four girls in the show,” Butler said. “There’s a dream sequence in the show where Maggie is remembering Dr. King’s speech and the memorial for the four girls in Birmingham. The last part of her dream focuses on Claudette Colvin.”

At age 15, Colvin was arrested in Montgomery when she refused to give up her bus seat to a white passenger on March 2, 1955. It happened nine months before Rosa Parks’ arrest for the same thing. 

“That’s really what inspired me to write this play, was Claudette Colvin. She was the first. She was before Rosa Parks,” Butler said. “She was the first to stay seated and say, ‘I’m not going to give up my seat.’”  

No matter how people view themselves today, Butler wants audiences to leave the Montgomery performance with the idea that they are enough just the way they are. 

“Our hashtag for this show is #YouAreEnough,” Butler said. “That’s definitely what we want people to realize.”

For reservations, call 256-768-2237 or email djbutler@florencek12.org.