Local Production Play "Constant Star"

[Guest rohale]

Last Sunday I had the chance to be in attendance at the Laguna Beach Playhouse in Southern California to one of the most passionate plays I have seen in quite some time now. The theme of the play alone is very controversial. It delves into Race and Slavery. I know some people dont have the stomach for it, but if one can get passed this theme, this play is worth watching. I walked away with a very good imopression of the production as a whole.

 

From wrongs to rights this production is a preachy but powerful play that brings neglected civil-rights activist Ida B. Wells to full-bloodied life. THis play captivated my attention from start to finish.

 

Ida B. Wells is not an easy person to like. Nor is she an easy person to portray. It takes five actresses to bring this pioneering civil-rights activist to life in all her strident and complicated glory. But it's well worth the effort. The vigorous and focused staging directed by Tazewell Thompson demonstrates why this play has been fairly popular on the regional circuit since it's debut in a few years ago in North Carolina at the PlayMakers Repertory Comany. Preachy but passionate, often tragic but ultimately inspiraional, it makes a case for what I like to call Polemical Theater. The director uses a chainsaw rather than a scalpel to somehow address race and it's roots in Black Slavery during the 19th century. But material this indecendiary, that's an undeniably effective approach.

 

Well's herself was the oldest of eight children, she was forced into a leadership when her parents both prominent social activists died while helping the sick during an epidemic of Yellow Fever. Her brother also persihed. Ida only sixteen years of age decides to raise the her siblings on her own. As she grows older and watches people she knows suffer and later becomes an unknown civil right's activist in her own right. There's no doubt she will succeed. From the beginning, the playright shows that Wells is a force of nature, a hurricane of anger, indignation adn righteus of moral conviction, driven by events in her life and the horrible state of 19th century race relations to change her world.

 

Thompson is also smart to approach Wells evenly by dividing amongst his talented five actresses. The division is random, each performer plays her at various ages. Now I admit that at times this play was somewhat confusing. but at the same time, by having different actresses playing the same character, it definitely gives the scriptan energenized, steam-of-consciousness feeling that aptly captures Well's manic energy. This takes the focus of the individual performers, but there are standout moments nonetheless. Laiona Michelle captures the young Id'a can-do vigor. Tracy Conyer Lee shows Ida the jounalist as a take-no-prisoners powerhouse, and Lee owns the ensemble's best singing voice.

 

Those songs are absolutely crucial. The 20 or so tradional spirituals, sung a cappella, life Thompson's play out of itself, offering trasscendent beauty to counterbalance gut-wrenching decriptions of lynching and other horrors ( I apologise if anyone finds this offensive ). During the songs, During the songs, Donald Eastman's gritty newsroom set fades as Robert Wierzel's imaginative lights soften Ida's universe. Off course, myself along with the audience were taken in by the spell of the singers. The audience is reminded of this music's powerful ability to heal and soothe a troubled community. It's a gift that Ida, for all her talents, didn't possess.

 

This production was tremendously well done and it's something I will remember for a long time to come. I hope with financial backing, this play really goes nationwide, instead of keeping it regional. I hope you guys get a chance to see this production when it comes to your area.

 

Rohale