Theater Preview
Musical honors tradition of African-American women and their hats

By Misha Berson
Seattle Times theater critic

JOHN LOK / THE SEATTLE TIMES Intiman Theatre kicks off its new season with (the musical “Crowns” this week. It showcases African-American church (women’s love (affair with hats. Cast members are from left, Cynthia Jones, Josephine Howell, Deidrie Henry, Shaunyce Omar, Gretha Boston and Felicia V. Loud (front), who plays a young Brooklyn woman who learns about hats from her grandmother.

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"That first day we all went down to Henrietta Price's hat shop, and just played with hats," Moscou recalls.

The six actresses had a field day in the Madison Valley store, trying on broad-brimmed straw millinery, veiled chapeaus, cloches, pillboxes, turbans, feathered and flowered numbers. Price looked on, adjusting brims and sharing her sartorial philosophy which is, in essence: "Hats make the woman."

Some 125 hats supplied by Price will adorn the Intiman stage for "Crowns," and about 30 will be worn (just so, with Price's advice) by performers who include Tony Award-winner Gretha Boston.

The hats are much more than props, or mere costume accessories. They are invitations into the lives of proud, regal African-American women for whom going to church on Sunday without a decorative head-covering would be as unthinkable as going barefoot.

Theater preview "Crowns" previews tonight and Tuesday, opens Wednesday and runs through May 28, Intiman Theatre, Seattle Center; $27-$46, $10 aged 25 and under (206-269-1900 or www.intiman.org).

The show's characters are based on hat-wearers originally profiled in the handsome 2000 book "Crowns," by photographer Michael Cunningham and writer Craig Marberry.

Even before the well-illustrated volume was published, McCarter Theatre in New Jersey invited writer-actress Regina Taylor to adapt it into a stage piece.

"I immediately wanted to do it," says Taylor, from her home in Dallas. "I just recognized all the women photographed, as members of my own community, as my mother and aunts. Looking at their wonderful faces, reading their stories — it all smacked of truth."

The book has no narrative through-line, just anecdotal comments from each of those depicted. That didn't deter Taylor, who sensed dramatic potential in the material.

"Each hat tells you so much about a woman's life — from memories of a first date, through a marriage. And you learn a lot about a woman's personality from how she wears a hat, to the side or backwards, and what type it is — loud and flamboyant, or a pillbox."

	JOHN LOK / THE SEATTLE TIMES Henrietta Price, left, adjusts a hat worn by actress Deidrie Henry recently at the Intiman Theatre in Seattle. Price, owner of Henrietta's Hats in Seattle, is a consultant in the theater's production of "Crowns," a musical play looking at the lives of some African-American women and their attachment to ornate hats.

As a narrative device, Taylor created a teenage character, Yolanda (portrayed at Intiman by Seattle singer-actor Felicia V. Loud), who goes from Brooklyn to South Carolina to live with her grandmother. Soon she is exposed to the custom and symbology of hat-wearing among Southern black females.

"Yolanda speaks to the generational divide," Taylor notes. "She acts as a witness to these women we are being introduced to as she gets baptized into their history, and initiated into their circle."

Taylor based her dialogue and characters mostly on the women interviewed in the book. But she also dipped into the tradition of "Ain't Misbehavin' " and other black musical revues, to thread together vignettes and monologues with rousing and familiar tunes.

"I figured if you start with churchwomen and their hats, you have to start with church music," she explains. "The music is what pulls us through, as we witness a day in these women's lives, and go backwards and forwards over different Sundays.

"We see them get ready for church, a church service, a wedding, a baptism, a funeral. It was fun for me going through songs I sang as a child in Dallas, to find music for each of the passages."

The theatrical "Crowns" received affirming notices when it premiered Off Broadway in 2002 and later in Minneapolis, Chicago, Atlanta and other cities.

Though she's not seen a prior production, local director and Intiman artistic associate Moscou was eager to mount a Seattle edition. "I think the book struck a chord, and then the play turned it into an active celebration of community," she suggests.

At Intiman, Moscou is adding in a short prologue to accentuate the African origins of head decoration. Two prominent Seattle artists, choreographer Donald Byrd (head of Spectrum Dance Theater) and gospel expert Patrinell Wright are responsible, respectively, for the movement and musical direction.

A piece of casting good fortune came when Boston, an imposing singer who earned a Tony for her Broadway turn in a hit "Showboat" revival (and shone in Seattle as Bloody Mary in a touring "South Pacific") joined the cast.

"I really wanted to do this piece," Boston says. "And someone told me if I had an opportunity to work with Jackie, I should. I also get to sing one of my favorite songs from childhood: 'His Eye is On the Sparrow.' "

Local actor-singers Cynthia Jones, Shaunyce Omar and Josephine Howell, and out-of-towners Doug Eskew (seen here recently in "Dreamgirls") and Deidrie Henry round out the ensemble. Joining them onstage are guitarist Bill Sims (who was in Intiman's "Lackawanna Blues") and keyboard player Mark L. Sampson.

And it was a snap to find a hat consultant and supplier for the show. As one of Seattle's most beloved milliners, Price has sold scads of toppers (designed by herself, and others) at Henrietta's Hats and Accessories during her 20 years in business. She's also been selling flair and attitude.

"When you decide to be well-dressed you need a hat of some kind," Price states unequivocally. "Yes, you want to have your nice dress, your handbag, your gloves and other accessories. But the hat is your crown and your glory."

A self-described Southern belle, the 70-ish Price has provided hats for a slew of weddings, including an affair with a black-and-white color scheme. ("Everybody who came had to wear a hat. It was right there on the invitation, and I said, 'You go girl!' ").

Even for a less formal occasion, Price encourages women not given to hat-wearing to go for it. "It gives you a type of elegance men want to see," she insists. "And a lady who wears a hat has to be proud, because she is going to get compliments."

Yet despite the ubiquity of hats on women in previous eras, the practice is dwindling today — even among churchwomen. The shift, Price and others point out, began in the '50s and '60s, when many African-American women started braiding, bleaching and processing their locks, and a lot of women chose bouffant and beehive hairdos. Fitting on a head-covering became difficult — or too much of a distraction from your 'do.

Can "Crowns" help inspire a new wave of hat fashion?

"It's been a dying tradition, but it's coming back," swears Taylor. "Working on this piece was very eye-opening for me, and created a dialogue between me and my mother. She took me to her closet, walked me through her hats and their stories. Now I wear hats, too."

"I love hats," affirms Boston. Raised in the small, church-going community of Crossett, Ark., she was influenced by a grandmother who wore "hats, gloves, the whole thing. She was the most elegant woman I ever knew."

Even Moscou, who "didn't grow up in the traditional church" is becoming a convert. "When we were at her shop, Henrietta put 10 hats on me and in each one I was a different person. It was wonderful."

Intiman will host a special Mother's Day matinee of "Crowns," when moms and daughters are urged to come in chapeaus. And through the run, hats (from Price's shop, and other outlets) will be sold in the lobby.

For her part, Price remains "passionate" about hats. She insists the art of hat-wearing "has never gone away, and it never will." And she still believes there's nothing like a "crown" to make an impression. "Wear a hat," she advises, "and they'll never forget you."

Misha Berson: mberson@seattletimes.com

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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