"Crowns"

Theatre review
"Crowns" at Syracuse Stage
Ithaca Times
May 20, 2009
737 words
"Crowning Glory"

full text here

Crowning Glory

Mark Tedeschi

"Crowns" by Regina Taylor, adapted from the book by Michael Cunningham and Craig Marberry. Directed and choreographed by Patdro Harris. Starring Dennis W. Spears, Shannon Antalan, Chandra Currelley, Crystal Fox, Roz White, Valerie Payton, and Terry Burrell. With musical director/pianist William Hubbard, percussionist Otis Gould, scenic designer Felix E. Cochren, costume designer Reggie Ray, lighting designer Jennifer Setlow, and sound designer Jonathan R. Herter.

I am not a fashion expert. In fact, you could say I'm more of a fashion minimalist. I missed out on the discussion of Aretha Franklin's recent inauguration headgear, and when I hear the word "hattitude," I think of Gary Busey giving a slipshod motivational speech in Rookie of the Year. Clearly I have a lot to learn, but fortunately for me, Syracuse Stage's Crowns offers an absorbing and in-depth investigation of a bright corner of the universe of hats - and the people under them.

This past season at Syracuse Stage, the second under producing artistic director Timothy Bond, has comprised myriad glimpses of global culture from Cambodia to Southern California. The final production, Crowns, directed by Patdro Harris, offers a look at African-American women and the role of church hats in their lives. Basically. It's not the hats that are important per se - rather, it's the surrounding societal circumstances and the empowerment these crowns represent.

Regina Taylor based Crowns on a black-and-white photography book from 2000 called Crowns: Portraits of Black Women in Church Hats. To transfer the rich stories embedded in the pictures to the stage, Taylor created a premise to illustrate the specifics of this historied phenomenon: Yolanda (Shannon Antalan), a spunky teen from Brooklyn, has to relocate to South Carolina after her brother is killed. She moves in with her welcoming grandmother, Mother Shaw (Chandra Currelley), and meets four of Mother Shaw's sagacious hat-enthusiast friends.

Costume designer Reggie Ray, owning the stage with his many gorgeous creations, has dressed the five women in easily distinct color motifs: Mother Shaw wears white; flirtatious Jeanette (Crystal Fox) usually dons an aqua blue; the animated Velma (Roz White) wears a regal purple; dependably candid Mabel (Valerie Payton) is adorned in red; and the fastidious Wanda (Terry Burrell) can always be seen in some kind of yellow. The ladies change costume several times in the show, but Dennis W. Spears, playing a multi-character "Man," has to change at least twice as often as the women. Spears's demanding parts range from an impassioned preacher to an ailing old man, and he plays all of them with equal dedication.

The acting in Crowns is all-around fantastic, and so is the musical performance. Like the costumes, the songs span a wide range of styles, serving the audience portions of drum-heavy African dance music, call-and-response church worship hymns, and even a spirited rap performance from Yolanda.

In solos, each of the women prove formidable tone and control, but White's Velma, in particular, brings forth an exhaustingly committed, carefully paced interpretation of "His Eye Is on the Sparrow" that will stick with you well after you leave the Archbold Theatre.

Behind the scenes (actually, behind a translucent backdrop on Felix E. Cochren's wooden-wonderland church set), William Hubbard goes to work on the ivories and percussionist Otis Gould beats the hell out of anything near him. Their sound controls the mood and directs Harris's choreography, a frenetic blend of African and American spiritual fervor.

The influence of African tradition in Crowns extends beyond its music and dance; the characters are modeled partially from devotional elements in the Western African Yoruba religion. Additionally, for many cultural groups in Africa, adorning oneself for worship is a standard practice, revealing African roots in the church hats' significance.

Yolanda's grandmother and her friends eagerly elucidate the intricacies of hat-tradition, including hat humor. They demonstrate the proper way to hug a woman in a hat and chuckle about garish lampshade-esque hats or those with big red feathers: "It looked like it could fly!"

The crowns in Crowns act as storytelling relics. They spark familial memories even for Yolanda, who clutches her brother's red baseball cap for most of the play. Moreover, the elaborate hats are status symbols (as are the matching shoes, gloves and pocketbooks), despite the "modest apparel" church worship supposedly calls for. But the characters do acknowledge the objection to their evident materialistic inclinations. When Spears's priest decries their regular appearance in new hats despite their claimed inability to consistently pay tithes, Mabel defends their actions and insists the hats are not more important than praise.

But she doesn't really need to explain. Church hats are a powerful cultural symbol for many people, period. Crowns may not exactly tell you why, but it'll show you how. And I can guarantee it will provide you with a healthy and thorough understanding of the word "hattitude."



Valerie Payton, Crystal Fox, Dennis Spears (The Man), Shannon Antalan (Yolanda), Roz White (Velma), Terry Burrell (Wanda) in "Crowns." (Photo by T. Charles Erickson)