When someone brought Peter Brosius a copy of the children’s book “Something Happened in Our Town,” he says he knew “instantly” that he wanted the story on the Children’s Theatre Stage.
And the CTC artistic director also knew “instantly” who should write the play. He contacted Cheryl L. West, who has written three other commissions for the Minneapolis theater.
The slim, illustrated children’s book is subtitled “A Child’s Story About Racial Injustice.” It was written in 2018 by three psychologists who work with children and families; all three have been involved in community advocacy efforts focused on children’s behavioral health and social justice.
In the book, two families — one Black, one white — discuss a police shooting of a Black man in their town.
In a city slammed by unrest after police killed George Floyd in 2020, it’s easy to see why Brosius wanted this story on stage.
And playwright West says she wanted to bring it to the stage, to help people face hard truths and create “a bridge to each other — we have to have these conversations.”
“Something Happened in Our Town” is a picture book story about Emma, who is white, and Josh, who is Black, and how their families respond to reports of a white police officer who killed a Black man. The kids have lots of questions.
Emma’s sister chimes in when her mother says it was a mistake: “It wasn’t a mistake,” said her sister, Liz. “The cops shot him because he was Black.”
Josh’s father is angry. “I’m mad that we’re still treated poorly sometimes, but I can use my anger to make things better,” said his father. “Black people have a lot of power if we work together to make changes.”
Josh and Emma learn lessons they take to school and break a pattern when they befriend a new kid, Omad.
The story needed expanding for the stage, West says. “There’s a challenge when you adapt a children’s book with very little plot,” she says. “You have to find something that’s going to sustain a 75-minute play.”
“At first it feels daunting,” says West, who also created “Akeelah and the Bee,” “The Last Stop on Market Street” and “Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy” for Children’s Theatre Company. She says she looked at the authors’ intention and themes in the book – “what they were trying to say” – and then tried to take it to a new place.
The book was written from two perspectives – Josh’s and Emma’s.
Brosius says the playwright added a “multiplicity of perspectives,” including Emma’s uncle, a white police officer she plans to take to school for career day. “Then the world shifts and opinion changes about the police,” Brosius says.
“The audience will walk in the shoes of so many characters,” he adds.
“It’s not all Black, not all white, not all cops,” West says.
“The uncle raises the stakes for the little children,” West says. “They care about the man behind the badge, but the man comes with the badge.”
Racial challenges aren’t unique to Minnesota, West says, though George Floyd’s killing put the Twin Cities in the spotlight.
“I believe that people want to heal from this, that people want to start to discuss it,” says West, who lives in Seattle. Her brother and mother live in the Twin Cities.
There was pushback on the book “Something Happened in Our Town,” West says. It was banned in some places.
West says the play could also be controversial, but it comes down to being about families talking.
“It’s also about our perceptions and how they get skewed,” says West, who has two grown children and a background in social work, journalism and criminal justice. She adds that children teach their parents the biggest lessons of life. “They make you stretch and show you places that haven’t healed within you.”
The story on the stage all comes down to Josh and Emma, West says.
“The heart of this story is a little white girl and a little Black boy who really care about one another. Can we be best friends with all these forces pulling us apart?”
‘SOMETHING HAPPENED IN OUR TOWN’
- What: World premiere of “Something Happened in Our Town”
- When: Feb. 27-March 27
- Where: Children’s Theatre Company, 2400 Third Ave. S., Minneapolis
- Tickets: $63-$15; childrenstheatre.org or 612-874-0400
- You should know: Patrons are required to mask and show proof of COVID-19 vaccination or a negative test result to attend performances at CTC.
- Plus: See an animated digital featuring Twin Cities actor Ansa Akyea reading “Something Happened in Our Town” on the CTC website (childrenstheatre.org/home/something-happened-in-our-town/), which the theater originally created after the George Floyd killing to help parents and children talk about the event.