When “Topdog/Underdog” opens at Birmingham Festival Theatre on Aug. 29, it will be the first time that Carlton V Bell II, who is directing, has been involved with a show at Birmingham Festival Theatre in five years.
But that doesn’t mean they haven’t been busy elsewhere. One look at their resume will confirm that. The theater artist, filmmaker and cultural organizer has worked steadily since honing their skills in high school in Birmingham, not only at theaters such as Encore Theatre and Gallery and Red Mountain Theatre, but nationally as well.
They received the 2023 Black Lens Filmmaker award at the Sidewalk Film Festival, the Cauthen Fellowship from the Alabama Folk Life Association and the Sara Spencer Award for Child Drama from the Southeastern Theatre Conference.
In addition, Bell appeared in the CNN docuseries “Blind Angels,” and they co-founded the Birmingham Black Repertory Theatre Collective, which calls itself “a Black-queer youth-led grassroots nonprofit organization building power and capacity for marginalized artists while catalyzing a culture of Black theater in the South.”
All of this started for Bell while they were a student at Shades Valley Theatre Academy (now the Jefferson County Academy of Theatre and Dance). Bell has directed theater, film and television around the country, and they advocate for the marginalized through art and policy as a member of a number of national boards and organizations.
Their theater work in Birmingham has included directing productions such as “The Emperor’s New Clothes” at Birmingham Children’s Theatre and, five years ago at BFT, the Birmingham Black Repertory Theatre Collective production of “Choir Boy.”
Returning to direct “Topdog/Underdog” is what Bell calls “a pivotal moment in their career.”
Suzan-Lori Parks’ Pulitzer Prize-winning play is about two brothers, Lincoln and Booth, and delves into themes of identity, family and survival, according to Bell. The show was directed on Broadway by Kenny Leon and, recently, by Jamil Jude, one of Bell’s mentors, at Round House Theatre in Maryland.
“Directing this is a continuation of something much bigger,” Bell says. “Artistic legacy shows up in so many ways, so stepping into this feels like honoring the craft they’ve passed down.”
BFT’s “Topdog/Underdog,” which runs through Sept. 8, stars Stephen Means as Lincoln and Blake Johnson as Booth.
“The magic happens in the room with the artists,” Bell says. “I approach directing from a place of ensemble building, where everyone’s voice has power. That’s when the storytelling transforms from ‘me’ to ‘we.’”
Bell says their directorial style is “informed by cultural specificity and the nuances of Southern Blackness, pulling from oral tradition, Afro-spiritual symbolism, and exploring the emotional truths and commonality of the African diaspora.”
All of that will add to the “Topdog/Underdog” experience, with Bell hoping audiences will walk away with “a depended empathetic understanding of the Black masculine.”
“Topdog/Underdog,” at Birmingham Festival Theatre through Sept. 8.
