THEATRE PREVIEW:
Published
in
A woman sits on a red stool in the center
of a huge rehearsal hall. She purrs
conspiratorially into a hand mike, sharing her secrets and stories. Dancers, singers, musicians and designers
mill about. But when she starts singing,
her emotion and energy rivet the room.
She's electric, energetic, charismatic. But what
makes her a diva?
"It's an unbelievable story,"
says director L. Kenneth Richardson, who co-founded
"A young girl starts out at age
eight with a vision of herself as an artist.
And it's a light within her that from an early age shone through. Like a calling. She followed that vision and light without
question, into show business. And the
she was tested through fire and water.
She experienced personal tragedy and loss, sexual and emotional abuse,
and also profound joy. She was given the
mantle, or lodestone, of diva. And after
almost thirty years, she had this breakthrough, realizing that her light is
real...
"Her 'story' is told as patter
between songs. It's a new hybrid
form. Part concert, part
theater. A
rapper and two backup singer-dancers.
And a four-piece onstage band. A concert ambiance. And like a concert, someone's gonna be out
there hawking T-shirts -- Ren's 14 year-old son, Duran.
"I haven't had feelings like this
about a show before it opened since 'The Colored Museum' ten years ago,"
"When I first saw Ren,"
says Salovey, "I was 16 years old.
I'd never seen a Broadway-style show before. She was playing Dorothy in [the national tour
of] "The Wiz." It was a
bring-down-the-house performance. She
was also in her teens, but you could feel her energy, feel the rumble of her
heart and talent."
Fifteen years later, Salovey watched Ren
audition.
"She gave the most impressive,
extraordinary singing audition I've ever heard," Salovey recalls. "The size and power and poetry of her voice, and the size of
her heart! She could tell a story
in a song that was not just about the song... You never expect an actress to
come in and remind you why you love the theater. "
In 1992, Ren's powerhouse voice rattled
the Rep's rafters in "Spunk."
She's also written and performed her own songs ("Take Me to
Heaven" made it big a few years ago) and appeared on-screen (recently,
"Crazy World"; also, "Car Wash," "Forrest Gump,"
"9 to 5," "Jumpin' Jack Flash" and others). Folks still remember her knock-your-socks-off
rendition of 'Aquarius' in the film version of "Hair." She's guest-starred on TV many times, and
currently plays recurring roles on "Relativity" and "Sabrina,
the Teenage Witch." In her teens, she played Fanta in "Roots,"
with O.J. Simpson as her father; her earliest 'diva' behavior was refusing to
take her top down in her scene. Ren's
stage experience has included "
"I've always been amazed at
Ren," says Stark, who wrote all the show's songs, several in collaboration
with Ren. "Her voice has a great
sweetness and strength. But it's more
than voice; it's what's behind the voice, the sensibility. In the show, she connects with a wide range
of musical roots -- folk, rock, R&B, gospel, blues,
jazz -- and makes them her own. Most
singers can't do that."
When Salovey saw a video of the
Blacksmyths workshop of "Diva," he was stunned. "When I sit and cry at a video, I know
it's gonna catch on fire in a theater.
My belief is that people will find this one of the most powerful and
moving theater experiences of their lives.
And the music will make them want to get up and dance... We all hope
that a year from now, this will be in
Two
The 90-minute, intermissionless, episodic
piece chronologues various memories, events or fantasies in Ren's life.
"Some of it is very unpleasant and
some is painful. And some of it is
totally hilarious," says Ren.
"I really wrote this piece [with co-writer Julian Plunkett-Dillon]
so I'd be able to live with, not wallow in, the things that have happened to
me."
One of the seminal events she recounts is
Bobby Kennedy's presidential campaign stop in
"On my way home from Catholic
school, I wandered over, and he picked me up and put me on the
merry-go-round. I stood up there and
thought, 'I am a star.' At eight years
old. That same day, I strayed down this
alley and wound up outside The Cotton Club.
It was mysterious and dark.
Honey, I heard that Wilson Pickett bass-line, and I couldn't wait to get
in there. And there were my two cousins,
Vallery and Brenda, singin' as The Voltaires.
My eyes bugged outta my head. I
said, 'This is a mortal sin. They're
wearin' eye makeup and shakin' their asses.
They're gonna burn. Mhmm,' I
thought, 'and so will I!'"
She went right home and formed a singing
group called Three Little Souls (later renamed Sunday's Child). They
were an immediate sensation, scoring appearances with Johnny Carson, Sammy
Davis, Jack Benny and Bob Hope's final USO tour to
When young Ren said she wanted to grow up
to be Diana Ross, her mother, who features prominently in the show, insisted
she'd be a writer. Now, Ren thinks of
herself as "a woman first, then a writer.
And then as a performing artist."
She's also a mother and fiancŽe.
All she wants is to follow her calling
and spread her self-affirming message, in a way that's "part Mahalia
Jackson, part Marianne Williamson, part John
Bradshaw." She'd like audiences
"to come away with the feeling of complete confidence that you can
overcome anything. You can heal any kind
of pain and you can make yourself well and whole again. I'm walking, living, singing
proof."
DATEBOOK
"A
DIVA LIKE ME"
Ren Woods wrote and stars in an
autobiographical concert/story-theater world premiere. Performances
Wednesday-Saturday 8 p.m., Sunday & Tuesday 7 p.m., Sunday 2 p.m. Wednesday matinees Feb. 5
and 19. January
31-February 23. (Low-priced
previews January 24-26, 28-30). Lyceum Theatre (in
PAT LAUNER is a
San Diego-based freelance writer.
©1997 Patté
Productions Inc.