Critics of the original production of Trouble in Mind found much to praise. Harry Raymond of The Daily Worker wrote, "Trouble in Mind is a play with an important point of view about the problems of Negro actors in the theatre. She has written about it with a brightness and compassion that sends the audience home with some sound thoughts on one of the major social problems in the field of American culture." The critic of the New York Times agreed with Raymond's sentiment, arguing that "Miss Childress has some witty and penetrating things to say about the dearth of roles for Negro actors in the contemporary theatre, the cut-throat competition for these parts, and the fact that Negro actors often find themselves playing stereotyped roles in which they cannot being themselves to believe." Subsequent critics, like Helen Keyssar in her 1984 essay "Foothills: Precursors of Feminist...