SARASOTA, Fla. — After 16 years, the Tony Award-winning musical, "Once on This Island" has returned to thrill audiences in Sarasota as the Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe's 24th season opener.
The production which is in its last week on the stage, gives a glimpse into a vibrant tale of love, life and hard lessons.
Written by Lynn Ahrens with the musical composition by Stephen Flaherty and directed by Jim Weaver, the play is set in the early post-colonial island of Antilles. It's the coming-of-age story of a dark-skinned young peasant girl named Ti Moune who falls in love with the light-skinned biracial son of a wealthy elite family.
"Young girls are just elated like they're so happy to see a story about a young woman who still believes in love," actress Toddra Brunson said.
Brunson plays "Mama Euralia" who adopted an orphaned Ti Moune after a hurricane wiped out her family.
When Ti Moune grows up she has various encounters that lead her on a journey on which she learns tough life lessons in her bid to discover love and purpose.
"Everyone is here for a reason, so to know that, and put that inside of another little black girl somewhere, that you're here for a purpose and you're here for a reason, whatever that may be, that's something that can be a real take away from the show," Brunson said.
Among those takeaways are complex socio-cultural conversations about love, heritage, classism and colorism.
"Colorism has been something that has been around for so long and I may have to work three times harder than someone maybe his color and they could be a mediocre talent and I could be great," Brunson said in reference to the difference in skin tone with her cast member.
"It's a touchy subject in a way because you have a lot of colorism, classism and racial subjects to talk about," Jermarcus Riggins said.
Riggins plays "Daniel Beauxhomme" who is Ti Moune's love interest.
"Being in Sarasota which is a predominantly white area and most of our audience members are Caucasian, they come here and see the shows and I definitely feel it's important for them to come here and experience what we experience through the stage," Riggins said.
Founded in 1999, The Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe is a nonprofit theater that showcases and promotes predominantly African-American productions and provides an avenue for Black actors and actresses of all ages to not only hone their craft but also get mentorship.
"Southwest Florida adores this place because it really helps the walls to fall down. We have an opportunity to brighten up our corner of the world and bring more understanding," Nate Jacobs, the founder of Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe, said.
Jacobs himself an actor, singer, director and playwright said the purpose of such a theater institution is not only to create spaces for artists and creatives of color but to serve as a steward for such Black-centered stories and history. He said that oftentimes these are overlooked by mainstream institutions or inaccessible to small communities.
"I hear conversations in the hallway they say 'Oh my God, I feel at home in this theater' and I look back and I go like 'Wow I was able to change that'...If we don't tell our story, who will? Nobody else is responsible for keeping that culture alive and propagating it down to the generations," Jacobs said.
"We want to make people feel they should leave this theatre feeling something, you know, if they have it we are not doing our job," Riggins said.
The actors also said throughout the play that there are various answers to the question, 'Why do we tell the story?'
"So everyone can understand as long as we keep telling the story, as long as we keep getting it ingrained in everyone's brains about love and forgiveness, we are going to always be able to tell the story generation after generation," Brunson said.
"Because life is why, pain is why, live is why, grief is why, hope is why, faith is why and you are why we tell story," chorused Brunson and Riggins.
The Westcoast Black Theater Troupe has a few more showings of "Once on This Island." The show runs through Nov. 19. with show times at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and 2 p.m. matinees on Saturday and Sunday.