It’s late on Monday afternoon as Joshua Carter sits in the Academy Center of the Arts’ Warehouse Theater, staring at the bare-bones set for his production of “Ragtime,” which opened last weekend to overwhelmingly positive feedback from the Lynchburg theater community.
“I went to see it the first night and at the end is where I was touched most,” says local actress Janice A. Benejan, who serves on the Academy’s Community Through Theater committee, which produced the play. “When I went to see it the second night, it looked like I was looking at it with new eyes and I found myself crying at all these different places.”
Benejan, who plans to see the play again this weekend, says she wasn’t the only one.
“The girl that was sitting next to me, I saw her wiping her eyes,” she says. “And the gentleman bedside me, he was making noises at certain comments, like him thinking about things.”
Benejan attributes much of the play’s success to Carter, its first-time director.
“They could not have picked a more perfect director,” she says.
Despite his role helming the production, Carter appears incredibly modest as he shrugs off the praise.
“I thank them,” he says when pressed about the buzz, “but I say it was in [the actors] and all I wanted to do was bring it out. I can see it stirring.”
If conversations with those who have worked with him in the past are anything to go by, this humility seems to be reflective of Carter’s character both as an actor and a member of the artistic community.
“It’s a testament to the person he is, but I also think it’s a reflection of the kind of director he is,” says Academy Executive Director Geoff Kershner, who notes that some of the production’s oldest, most seasoned actors have rallied around Carter.
“There’s a lot of introspection to Josh, it seems to me,” he continues. “I think in many ways, probably, his kindness and humbleness is probably attractive to others who are working with him and instills a kind of respect, in many ways.”
Carter, who first fell in love with theater when he saw a school production of “Cinderella” as a kid, is no stranger to theater in Lynchburg.
The Palmyra native has been a regular with Alluvion Stage Company since his sophomore year at Liberty University in 2013, appearing in such productions as “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” “Newsies” and, most notably, “The Little Mermaid,” where he portrayed the crab Sebastian.
“There’s a natural instinct that he has,” says Linda Nell Cooper, artistic director of Alluvion. “It’s very raw. It comes from having a great sympathy and empathy for humanity.”
Carter also is a two-time actor in Old City Cemetery’s popular Candlelight Tours, known for playing characters that force topics of race and poverty and the issues that surround them to the forefront, just like he has in the Academy’s production of “Ragtime.”
“The feedback we got from both his characters in 2016 and 2017 was incredible,” says Candlelight Tours Director Maria Hayden. “They were just blown away. … It rocked some people, it really did. Everybody was affected by it that saw it.”
The same is true of “Ragtime."
Based on E.L. Doctorow's 1975 novel, the musical focuses on three different cultural groups living in the United States at the turn of the 20th century: the white upper class, the African-American community and Eastern European immigrants.
Weaving a tale that incorporates ripped-from-the-headline events and historical figures, “Ragtime” explores racism, feminism, immigration and the inherent fear of change as these groups interact on the streets of New York City.
“It stirs the water,” Carter says of the play’s themes, which urge audiences to examine their own inherent prejudices. “… And there’s a lot of sediment people don’t know is there.”
Carter, whom Hayden describes as “incredibly gentle and kind and intentional with things,” isn’t the type who sets out to provoke audience members into conversations. But, she adds, he appreciates it when it happens.
What becomes clear after just one conversation with the burgeoning director is the devotion he holds not just for the musical’s story, but for every member of his cast.
Seeing actors who were scared during auditions find their passion and bring life to the characters onstage has been the biggest reward, he says.
“I could care less about critics; I could care less about what anybody has to say. Thank you for your compliments, but the greatest compliment is watching these people take notes and bring it to life. That is what I live for.”
Carter, who spends his days teaching art at Perrymont Elementary School, says he still plans to act, but helping others break through their own walls and experience those light bulb moments speaks to a different part of him.
And, Benejan says, that shines through in his production.
“I’m not watching something that looks like a first-time director,” Kershner says, “and that says a lot.”
Do you remember your first show?
“It was a show that one of the teachers wrote at our school called ‘The Wright Brothers,’ and I think that’s what really got me, because we took a trip to North Carolina, to Kill Devil Hills [where the Wright Brothers took their first flight in 1903]. It made it real, you know? Like, you’re an actor because you got on a bus from Virginia and went to North Carolina to perform. And that was the first play I remember.”
Do you have a favorite role?
“Sebastian. I love ‘The Little Mermaid.’ That was one of my childhood favorite movies. I think more than being the character, was being in the story. That was a story I really believed in and Sebastian was quirky and feels very deeply. And it’s not very often that I get to play an African-American — not that Sebastian is, but that role was for someone of African heritage. … He’s a crab, but it’s the culture that comes behind the crab.”
Why do you think that is? Are there just not as many roles written for African-Americans?
“I don’t think there are as many, but also it’s who’s going to come see it? Who’s it going to attract? And unfortunately in these days, they don’t tell stories necessarily that minorities want to see all the time. They play to the larger audiences.”
And that brings us to “Ragtime.” Did you choose this musical because of our current political climate?
“Yes. The news is a wonderful thing and a terrible thing because you get desensitized. And it’s so distant, you can turn the channel. A two-hour play, you have to sit and you have to watch. You have to listen unless you get up and leave — which is embarrassing — in the middle of the show.
“For two hours, we get their undivided attention and they can’t turn off the switch. If the electricity goes out, you can still hear them. It puts people at the face of conflict. And the beauty of conflict. I think there’s a beauty in the growing pains of our country and that we have the ability to grow. But we have to grow.”
How do you think this play relates to what is going on today in 2018?
“I think the ignorance of people being stuck in their ways and calling themselves progressive people, but refusing to listen. Even if the other side is ridiculous. The violence is there; the racial slang and slurs [are] there. It hasn’t changed and we’re talking 1903. But I think the other thing is also the hope of change. This show is not a happy ending, but there’s hope for change. Our country has hope for change.”
Does your work as a teacher aid your creative work?
“It’s a huge blessing to have education in my head while I do theater. Understanding people’s levels of understanding. You can’t just go at people any way you want. You have to be able to get into their mind the way they get it best. And I saw that in this cast for sure.”