'Big River': Cape native discusses his role in River Campus anniversary production of musical

Sitting in the foyer of Southeast Missouri State University's River Campus, 24-year-old Brodrick Twiggs tried to describe how it felt being cast in the upcoming production of "Big River." He stared toward the box office window, rubbing his palms together with either humility or a nervy optimism.

It was an expression he might have made 10 years ago too, in the same spot, when his 14-year-old self similarly contemplated performing on the Bedell Theatre stage in the River Campus's inaugural show: "Big River."

But Twiggs' start in performance came years before that first show at the River Campus. Though soft-spoken in person, he said he's always enjoyed an audience.

"It was probably fourth grade," he said. "I started with music."

A Cape Girardeau native, he started by playing music and singing on Sundays at New Bethel Baptist Church, and in seventh grade he played Ruben in a school production of "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat." The next year, when his school put on "Beauty and the Beast," he played Gaston.

Ron Naversen puts finishing touches on part of the set for "Big River" on Wednesday at Southeast Missouri State University's River Campus.Laura Simon

By the time he hit high school, he said, he was hooked.

"When I got there I did all kinds of stuff," he said.

But when Mike Dumey, Cape's longtime drama instructor, suggested he audition for the inaugural show at the new Southeast Missouri State University River Campus, he was surprised to be cast in the ensemble.

"It was really cool," he said. "Back then, being a part of a show on the college level ... it was a real eye-opening experience."

Although his part was small, the simple fact of being in a more serious acting environment affected the way he approached performance.

"I got to see how a professional show was run," he said. "I remember walking on stage, and just the intricate detail behind the sets was incredible. Everything about that production was eye-opening. It taught me to appreciate and grow to love theater way more."

He took that sense of professionalism back to Cape Girardeau Central High School and applied it to his work there as well. By the time he graduated, he was president of the Cape Central Drama Club, a member of the International Thespian Society and looking to continue performing.

Already familiar with Southeast, he liked the idea of staying close to home. He was comfortable in front of an audience, but more importantly to him, he was comfortable being part of the Cape Girardeau community.

"To be honest, I didn't want to leave," he said, recalling his time looking at colleges. Plus, he said his experience in "Big River" had sold him on Southeast as far as the arts were concerned.

"I knew that if I wanted to be in performances at the collegiate level, I knew this would be a great place to be," he said, pointing around the River Campus lobby.

He attended Southeast, where he graduated with a degree in communications. He studied theater along the way but said his current role, Jim, is special. Not only has he been tasked with playing a principal character, he's to play a runaway slave nearly twice his age.

"Kenn Stilson is a really flexible director," he said. "He knows how to give you creative freedom to make choices. You're allowed to do our own research and make the character our own."

For this show, Twiggs said much of his own research has been trying to comprehend what it meant to be a slave. He's a 21st-century man, with blue jeans and a smartwatch, trying to do just that.

"It's almost impossible," he said. "To even relate to slavery. ... But you try to get yourself in the mindset, YouTube old Negro spirituals. Try to get into that timeframe."

He said he looked to the speeches of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. to study and channel the dynamism and purpose of the civil rights era.

"It's such a relevant show," Twiggs said. "Given the political season we just went through, so much talk of exclusion, and even race relations in Ferguson, I really hope this show solidifies the feelings of tolerance that so many people already have."

The show's protagonist, Huckleberry Finn, starts off unsure about the idea of abolitionism, but comes to appreciate Jim's common humanity and goes to great lengths to help him pursue a better life as a free man. Twiggs said the show hopefully will have the power to, "open the eyes of people who may not be so understanding of people who are different than them."

"We all bleed red, so it really doesn't matter what color you are on the outside," he said. "That's one of the main messages the show's about."

Brodrick Twiggs poses for a photo in character on Wednesday at Southeast Missouri State University's River Campus. Twiggs plays Jim in the upcoming production of "Big River" at the Donald C. Bedell Performance Hall.Laura Simon

But while Twiggs appreciates the show's themes, he said in the end, he's just grateful to be a part of such a production. It's a show about life on the Mississippi River, put on in a theater overlooking the same river, 10 years after the same show on the same stage helped him pursue a passion.

For Twiggs, it feels like home.

tgraef@semissourian.com

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