Theater News

Paula Kelly, Suzzanne Douglas, et al. Set for Crowns at Pasadena Playhouse

Suzzanne Douglas
Suzzanne Douglas

Casting has been announced for the Pasadena Playhouse engagement of Crowns, to run July 10-August 23. Israel Hicks directs this co-production with Ebony Repertory Theatre.

Adapted by Regina Taylor from the book by Michael Cunningham and Craig Marberry, the piece explores the lives of the “hat queens,” six women in the South whose stories of love, loss, identity and sisterhood are woven into the hats that crown their heads and the songs that speak their truth.

The show will star Emmy nominee Paula Kelly as Mother Shaw, Suzzanne Douglas as Wanda, Sharon Catherine Blanks as Velma, Vanessa Bell Calloway as Jeanette, Clinton Derricks-Carroll as Man, Angela Wildflower Polk as Yolanda, and Ann Weldon as Mabel. Dawnn Lewis, who was in the Ebony Repertory Theatre engagement, has left the cast in order to appear in The Wiz, currently at New York City Center.

The creative team will include Keith Young (choreography), Edward E. Haynes, Jr. (scenic design), Dana Woods (costumes), Lap Chi Chu (lighting), and Cricket S. Myers (sound).

For more information, visit www.ebonyrep.org or www.pasadenaplayhouse.org.