Ohio State’s branch campus offering ‘The Healing Project’ for four shows
Tiger Bradley is taking his work from the church to the stage.
A Mansfield native and playwright, Bradley has written three installments of “The Hurt and the Healed.”
His latest work, which he calls an interlude to the forthcoming fourth installment, is called “The Healing Project.” It will be performed Friday-Monday at the Ohio State University-Mansfield.
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Bradley, a 1988 Malabar graduate, calls the wider exposure “very exciting.”
All of his work is geared toward helping people find healing to family issues, relationship issues, etc.
Bradley said it’s important to discover the root of problems.
“A lot of times, we deal with the surface of the problem, but it we can get to the root, that’s when we find the solution,” he said.
Bradley is a triple-threat in “The Healing Project,” serving as writer, director and actor.
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Playwright collaborating with Ohio State University-Mansfield
He said the branch campus reached out to him about a collaboration. Bradley wrote the play specifically for this audience.
Joe Fahey, associate professor and director of theater for OSU-M, said Tiffany Mitchell made the suggestion. She is the director of diversity and inclusion at the branch.
“We timed it so it would fall in Black History Month. We wanted it to be part of our season as well,” Fahey said.
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Fahey said some of Bradley’s team, along with OSU-M students, are combining to tell the story.
“It represents a group and a point of view that we don’t have often on our stage,” he said.
Bradley’s work tells the stories of a family through the generations.
“It’s how they recognize that hurt and find a way to move past it,” Fahey said. “It’s a very, very timely and universal message. I see things in my own family reflected in the work.”
“The Healing Project” features a cast of 16, along with a keyboard player and two singers.
“They’re a dynamic group, and they’re multi-talented,” Fahey said.
Bradley should reach a larger audience at the university. He got his start as a child, putting on plays for his brothers and sisters.
“As pastor’s kids, we weren’t allowed to go to a lot of places,” Bradley said of having to come up with their own entertainment.
He later put on plays at Sunday school. Bradley has performed at the Mansfield Playhouse and Oasis of Love.
He hopes his new audience gets “inspired and encouraged.”
Actresses have known Bradley for years
Cast member Nnenna McCruter-Jordan believes they will.
“You’ll have a variety of people who normally might not come to church,” she said. “There’s going to be a part (of the play) that touches you or someone you know.”
McCruter-Jordan portrays Yolanda, better known as Yo-Yo, an evangelist.
“My character has had a very tumultuous life,” she said.
That life includes getting pregnant at 18 and dropping out of high school.
In real life, McCruter-Jordan retired from the city of Mansfield as an accountant earlier this month.
She describes Bradley as “longtime family friend.” A chance meeting at McDonald’s led her to this role.
Felicia Walker is another actress in “The Healing Project.” She knows Bradley from church. He is the first administrator at the New Temple Church of God in Christ.
Bradley has been a youth pastor for 20 years.
Walker plays Danielle.
“I’m the black sheep of the family,” she said. “Me and my mother get cast away from the family.”
Danielle doesn’t let that stop her. She works as a stripper who receives some money and invests it in real estate and restaurants and becomes a millionaire.
Danielle gave her life over to God at the end of the third installment of Bradley’s work.
“You can never get out of God’s grace so much that you can’t come back,” Walker said. “The healing is there because of God’s grace.”
McCruter-Jordan also found inspiration in the play.
“No matter what circumstance hits you, you can turn it around,” she said. “If you get knocked down, get back up. As long as you’re breathing, you can do something different.”
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Twitter: @MNJCaudill
If you go
What: “The Healing Project”
When: 7:30 p.m. Friday, Saturday and Monday; 2:30 p.m. Sunday
Where: Founders Auditorium located in Ovalwood Hall on the campus of Ohio State University-Mansfield.
Tickets: $8 for general admission, $6 for seniors, students, faculty and staff.
More information: Visit ticketmaster.com, mansfield.osu.edu/theatre or call 419-755-4045.
Of note: Patrons should wear a mask, per campus policy. If you do not have one, one will be provided.
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