On February 16, I attended the play, “The Top of Bravery: An Evening with Bert Williams.” This play was brought to campus by my SSIR community, Travel for Discovery. “The Top of Bravery” is set in the late 19th to early 20th Century depicting the life of comedian and protagonist, Bert Williams, braving the racial barriers that were a part of the entertainment industry and world at the time. Williams, a native of the Bahamas, was forced to perform in blackface like the other white actors of the time period. Despite the many adversities Williams faced as a black actor, he was still able to propel himself to stardom through his resiliency. The play is a mix of social commentary, stand-up comedy, and soliloquy. It also features a few musical numbers, all while illustrating Bert Williams as an international star and one of the most beloved entertainers of the Vaudeville Era.

Actor, Jeremy Morris, played the role of Bert Williams and did a fantastic job. He performed with so much energy and emotion that radiated through the audience. The audience felt the emotions that Jeremy Morris portrayed through the character of Bert Williams. I had read the monologue of the “The Top of Bravery” before experiencing the production, however, it was a completely different experience as a member of the audience. Watching the performance, I felt that I could really understand the struggle that Bert Williams faced as a black actor in the late 19th century better than I did when I read the monologue.

One of the big themes that the play portrayed and Dr. T, Iman Shabazz, and Jeremy Morris verbalized in the talk-back panel after the play, was the idea and importance of identity. As a black actor trying to make it big, Bert Williams struggled to find his identity as he faced a lot of discrimination for being who he was. A quote that especially struck me during the play was when Bert Williams said that one of the struggles he encountered as an actor was with white men who thought they could play the role of a black man better than a black man knew how to be or rather that white men played their perception of a black man better than a black man could play. This idea ties back to the theme of identity present in play and explains why Bert Williams struggled throughout his career trying to find his identity.

I also found that this theme and idea present throughout the performance related back to the chapter about the playpump in the book “Doing Good Better.” In that chapter, there is the idea that in order to be the most efficient and productive, while doing the most good, it is important to ask and listen for the feedback from the members of the community that you are trying to do good for.