Crowns, the play, at Lee Hall Auditorium

Consider this my Black History Month post for the year, okay?

I was in Atlanta last weekend and took the opportunity to visit with one of the "daughters" my wife and I have collected through her work in college theater. Marion Wright is a native of Gainesville (she's been involved with us for more than a quarter-century and our interactions with her began with the University of Florida Upward Bound program), a FAMU graduate, earned a graduate degree from Illinois, and is now lecturing at Spelman College:

Isn't she beautiful? Last weekend they were concluding their production of Crowns, a fantastic play by Regina Taylor and quite an homage to black women and their hats. As it turns out, my wife is directing that very same play at FAMU this weekend. 

Yes, that's wifey. Isn't she beautiful? Though that shot is from a trip we took to St. Augustine back in the 80's, she's still got that Carolina Lowcountry beauty -- and she wears her "crowns" particularly well, too.

I'm expecting family and friends from Jacksonville (today is my mother's 77th birthday), Orlando, Miami, Atlanta, Philadelphia and New York to make their way over to The Hill to see the show. So this is going to be a great weekend for me.

I want to close with a shot of the flyer FAMU's Essential Theatre produced for the show; it's just an incredibly good shot of a woman in her magnificent hat and I just hope it comes across on this blog. There's something about the photo; at times, I just can't seem to stop staring at it:

I hear that Valencia has put together an excellent cast and it's a great production. She is supremely talented at what she does so that doesn't surprise me at all. As you probably noticed, T"Keyah Crystal Keymah has come home to headline the show and it is complemented by a good collection of current FAMU students, a four-piece band from the music department, and one alumnus who is also a faculty member, Marci Stringer:

Marci, by the way, will probably be the next star to come from Rattler Nation (she got her graduate degree from U.F., by the way, so she's another one of us RattlerGators) and may very well be heading out to Hollywood soon.

I especially wanted my mother to see this show (she's fierce with her hats!) but she's been battling pneumonia and this winter just won't seem to let up. Hopefully she is able to make it over and enjoy the heck out of her special day.

Comments

[Ree]

You Married Well J.B., Congrats.

SMILE

[RattlerGator]

Yes I did, Ree, yes I did.

It turned out to be a fantastic production and very well attended. They had better, more appropriate hats up in Atlanta at Spelman but we had the better actors, better set, better production. As we should have -- they used a cast made up entirely of students and our show had some pros mixed in. With the President of the University attending and folks from all over the community, it was a great weekend for the Essential Theatre at FAMU.

After seeing the show, I can (without any bias at all) report that we've got at least one new star coming through the program and this woman can truly sing and act her behind off!

Most fun for me from the weekend, however, was the fact that my mother, the mother of her church and emblematic of the whole "Crowns" thing, was able to make it over from Orange Park and thoroughly enjoyed the show -- wearing her Crown. So, too, did her sister from Jacksonville and the fact that the two of them (and multiples of their children) got to participate in this part of my life was very gratifying. My older brother (the father of the soldier back from Iraq) has had many good-natured battles with my wife but says he may now have to actually give her some dap (imagine that!).

Wifey heads out to the San Francisco Bay Area this weekend for some pow-wows (along with some other black college faculty) with the folks at Berkeley Repertory Theatre. FAMU already has a good working relationship with, and has placed kids at, the American Conservatory in San Francisco. We'll see how this goes.

[pharmacy]

I have to admit that the third woman has the most beautiful smile that I have seen in while.