In Constant Star at the Merrimack Theatre in Lowell, five African-American actor-singers play the forgotten civil rights heroine Ida B. Wells. Wells, who lived from 1862 to 1931, comes to outrageous life in a kaleidoscopic concept developed by playwright and director Tazewell Thompson. All of the actors play Wells at all ages, and they also take the roles of other characters as needed. The approach brings home the point that a single individual can have several sides as Carly Hughes, Crystal Fox, Tracey Conyer Lee, Gayle Turner, and Laiona Michelle speak as Wells separately, together, or interrupting one another in mid-sentence.

Thompson has artfully blended Wells' written words with imag[...]