Actor Wants People to Lead with Love

Ramone Nelson portrays Jim Conley in the musical Parade. Photo provided by Broadway in Chicago.
Ramone Nelson portrays Jim Conley in the musical Parade. Photo provided by Broadway in Chicago.

Actor Wants People to Lead with Love

By Tia Carol Jones

Ramone Nelson fell in love with musical theatre in high school when he was cast as Jean Valjean in the production of “Les Misérables.” He fell in love with the research of it and the work he had to put into the character.

Nelson, who comes from a sports family, started playing, but didn’t really love playing sports. He wanted to find something he really loved and found music. He went from the recorder to the saxophone and discovered that musical theatre would let him sing and act. The Atlanta-native attended a performing arts school in Conyers, Ga. After his performance as Jean Valjean, he remembers seeing the emotion in an audience members’ eyes.

“He looked at me and told me, please don’t ever stop doing this artform because you’re really special in it,” Nelson recalled.

Nelson portrays Jim Conley in the musical Parade. Parade will be at the CIBC Theatre, located at 18 W. Monroe, from Tuesday, August 5th to Sunday, Aug. 17th. The musical tells the story of the 1913 trial of a Jewish man who was accused of the assault and murder of a 13-year-old girl in Atlanta. Nelson describes his character as a complex character, who while he doesn’t have many words, when he does speak, what he says is important. Nelson said Jim is a man who is just trying to survive as a Black man in America in 1913, the same way Black men in 2025 are trying to survive.

In preparation for his role as Jim, Nelson was able to meet Jason Robert Brown, who wrote the music and lyrics for Parade, and Alfred Uhry, who wrote the book. Nelson was able to ask Brown questions about his inspiration behind writing a Blues song for Jim and other questions. Nelson was able to gain insight during his meeting of Uhry, as well as watch Uhry’s interviews about who Jim was and how he lived. He said there were lots of documents and artifacts that helped him develop his portrayal as Jim, along with him taking who he is and what he stands for and putting that into the role.

“I want to do theatre and pieces and storytelling that is pushing the edge a little bit. I want to highlight stories of Black and brown people, of queer people and marginalized communities, and so, I always want to bring who I am into a role,” he said.

Nelson was in the original Broadway cast of “MJ The Musical.” He said it was everything he could’ve wanted in a Broadway debut. After that production, he was missing doing the kind of theatre that made people think long term and making people a little uncomfortable. He believes that in the uncomfortable, it causes people to have conversations, which causes people to think how they and the people they are around move in the world. He said that makes it a better world and a better society. He read the material for Parade and enjoyed it, because he said it enables people to hold up a mirror to themselves and truly see what will happen when hate leads. Nelson said he hopes that through this production, audiences will leave the theatre wanting to lead with more love.

Nelson said the song he really likes from Parade is “Hammer of Justice,” because of the music. Nelson said he hopes the audience is able to take away the ability to lead with more love and light. He said in today’s world, there is a lot of selfish thinking and there is an opportunity for people to look outside themselves and see people are more similar than they are different, even if they are from different places and different backgrounds. He said he is hopeful that audiences that come out to see Parade are just as affected by it as he is.

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