Being Chaka Will Pull You In and Stay with You

We didn't want it to end.

Being Chaka, presented by Burning Coal Theatre Company and TÉA Artistry and directed by Vieve Radha Price and Chuk Obasi, holds emotional weight without collapsing under it. Tara Amber, Chuk Obasi, and Nalini Sharma's script is direct and layered. The story doesn't chase tidy resolution. It gives space. It asks questions. It keeps you awake and looking inward.

The space itself is alive. The actors move through the aisles, across levels, into seats, behind shoulders. The balcony, the corners of the room, even silence itself becomes part of the setting. You don't just watch this story. You feel inside of it. You are asked to listen differently. To stay alert. To not miss what could be happening behind you.

Jarred Pearce stars as Chaka in Being Chaka at Burning Coal (photo by Kevin Lord)

Jarred Pearce, as Chaka, begins the story in verse. Words stretch and wind through memory, hinting at both clarity and confusion. Before he speaks, though, Joe Reese as Willy is already in motion. Already walking. Already questioning. He moves with cadence in his step, like his body is carrying something that only he knows. He is not just wandering. He is marking time.

Nikki Dublin Turner, as Purilla, Willy's ghost-wife, begins silently. Then her voice enters. Her presence grows. What begins as a dream that Chaka seems to witness becomes a vision that he enters. Then it becomes a world he reacts to. The ghosts begin in silence. Then they speak. Then they guide. The arc is not sudden. It builds. The lines between past and present, dream and reality, begin to blur. And like Chaka, we start to question what to trust and what to carry.

There were moments that left me confused. Movement I couldn't place. Scenes that seemed to arrive without warning. I kept asking, am I missing something? But the longer I sat with that, the more I realized that that was part of the work. The play confuses us on purpose. There is chaos. There is disorder. There is dream-logic. Because sometimes the dreams we are raised on, even the ones dressed up as the American Dream, do not make sense when we try to live them out loud.

Being Chaka stars Christa Irby as Annalisa and Jarred Pearce as Chaka (photo by Kevin Lord)

This is Chaka's experience. But it is also ours. He is sorting memory, pain, and voices that he did not choose. His poetry becomes the only place where the noise quiets. Through art, Chaka finds shape. Through rhythm, he builds meaning. His verses are not decoration. They are how he survives the pull of past and present. He is learning not just how to see, but how to connect.

At first glance, this could feel like the typical story of the Black boy in conflict. A boy misunderstood. A system pushing back. But Being Chaka refuses to stay at that surface. It gives room to the backstory. It holds multiple truths. It shows how pain gets passed down. It asks who benefits from these patterns, and who has been silenced in the process.

Motherhood runs through the heart of this story. Caroline and Inaya, played by Joey Brenneman and Miriam Yisrael Tabb, seem at first like opposites. One reaches for control. The other for presence. One moves quickly. The other moves carefully. But both are responding to fear. Both are trying to protect.

Being Chaka at Burning Coal stars Emma Katherine Stone as Maddy and Hunter Crone as Ethan (photo by Kevin Lord)

Ms. K, played by Amanda Marikar, sits in the center of this. As the principal of Chaka's school, she holds institutional power. But as a mother, she is shaped by her own fears and her own stories. Her role lets us see how our beliefs, especially when held by people in charge, don't just affect our children. They become policies. They become consequences.

Each mother is led by her history. Her experience. Her wounds. What looks different is often just a different version of the same fear. Are we parenting from what we know? Or from what we never resolved? Are we forming our values from lived truth? Or reacting to our inherited fears? Some of us only have our parents to guide us. Others are reaching into silence and ancestry to build something that never got spoken. The pain is heavy either way. And the more we ask questions, the more we find that we are circling the same need.

The common trope of the white mother making things worse for everyone is present here. But the play doesn't leave her there. It opens her story. We see her hurt. Her need. Her reaching. And even if we don't agree, we begin to understand. The question isn't who carries the worst burden. The question is, what are we doing with what we carry? And who is shaping the story that we've chosen to believe?

Christa Irby stars as Annalisa in Being Chaka at Burning Coal (photo by Kevin Lord)

Hunter Crone and Emma Elizabeth Stone, playing siblings Ethan and Maddy, press into this theme directly. They show how easy it is to protect a false version of the truth. We act brave when we're afraid. We pretend that we're certain when we're not. Even the lies that we inherit become our safety net.

Light becomes a signal. It reveals. It isolates. One part of the stage is bright. Another is forgotten. It reminds us how often we center ourselves and push others to the edge. But when the full stage is lit, when every voice is present, something changes. We may not get clarity. But we get proximity. And that is where understanding starts.

Even though Chaka is the name in the title, this is not just his story. Every character feels essential. Every dramatic arc has weight. At times, it feels like the lead could rotate. One scene and the focus shifts. Another angle, and someone else becomes the core. That balance gives the experience power. There is no extra. Everyone matters. Everyone's story is driving something forward.

Being Chaka at Burning Coal stars Joey Brenneman as Caroline (photo by Kevin Lord)

And maybe that is the real point. Chaka is not just one boy. He is all of us. The story offers us his name. It places the petition in our hands. To carry our past. To own our future. To bring what we've hidden into light. Chaka is the center. But he is also the invitation. To look again. To listen differently. To become responsible for what we choose to believe.

Being Chaka runs through Sunday, March 30th. If you think that you've seen this story before, you haven't seen it like this. Let it pull you in. Then let it stay with you.

Being Chaka at Burning Coal stars Joseph Reese as Willy and Nikki Dublin Turner as Purilla (photo by Kevin Lord)

Tara Amber, Chuk Obasi, & Nalini Sharma's BEING CHAKA (In Person at 7:30 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday, March 29th and 30th), created by TÉA Artistry, directed by Vieve Radha Price and Chuk Obasi and starring Joey Brenneman as Caroline, Andrew Price Carlile as Gunnar, Hunter Crone as Ethan, Christa Irby as Annalisa, Amanda Marikar as Ms. K, Gabby Morrell as Kunzang, Jarred Pearce as Chaka, Joe Reese as Willy, Emma Elizabeth Stone as Maddy, Miriam Yisrael Tabb as Inaya, and Nikki Dublin Turner as Purilla (Burning Coal Theatre Company and TÉA Artistry in the Murphey School Auditorium in Raleigh). DIGITAL PROGRAM: https://burningcoal.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/BEING-CHAKA-digital-program.pdf. PODCAST WITH DIRECTORS: https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-9ycjf-18309c3. BURNING COAL VIDEOS: https://www.youtube.com/@BurningCoaltc. CREATOR/PRESENTER (TÉA Artistry): https://www.tea-artistry.org/, https://linktr.ee/teaartistry_, and https://www.instagram.com/teaartistry_/. PRESENTER (Burning Coal Theatre Company): https://burningcoal.org/, https://www.facebook.com/burningcoaltheatrecompany, https://www.instagram.com/burningcoaltc/, https://twitter.com/burningcoaltc, and https://www.youtube.com/@BurningCoaltc. PODCASTS: https://burningcoal.podbean.com/. 2024-25 MAINSTAGE SEASON: https://burningcoal.org/now-playing/season-28/. VENUE: https://burningcoal.org/plan-your-visit/ and https://burningcoal.org/history-of-the-murphey-school/. DIRECTIONS/PARKING: https://burningcoal.org/plan-your-visit/. ACCESSIBILITY: https://burningcoal.org/accessibility/. BEING CHAKA (2023 New Ohio Theatre/IRT Theater play): https://www.tea-artistry.org/beingchaka, https://newohiotheatre.org/programs/vieve-radha-price-chuk-obasi/, and https://irttheater.org/3b-development-series/being-chaka-2/. STUDY GUIDE: https://burningcoal.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Beingchakasg.pdf. TICKETS: $30 ($20 students, teachers, and active-duty military personnel, and $25 seniors 65+), except $20 Thursday Special and $5 Thursdays and Fridays for students 18 and under with ID. Click here to buy tickets. INFORMATION: 919-834-4001 or info@burningcoal.org. PLEASE DONATE TO: TÉA Artistry and Burning Coal Theatre Company. Kurt Benrud's Triangle Review Review Permalink.

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