Steadstyle Chicago
	June 2009 Theatre Review by Joe Stead
	A Song for Coretta I detested Pearl Cleage's first play "Bourbon at the Border," so I approached her latest "A Song for Coretta" with some caution while trying to preserve an open mind.  Fortunately, Eclipse Theatre Company's Chicago Premiere of the latter play is a stirring and beautiful experience that goes to prove that one bad apple doesn't necessarily have to kill the tree.  Ms. Cleage took the death of Coretta Scott King as the inspiration for this touching elegy, which weaves together the reactions and stories of five very different African American women, who have all converged in Atlanta for Mrs. King's funeral.  It is an exquisite character study and an honorable testament to the widow of civil rights giant Martin Luther King, Jr.  Although the play doesn't deal with Mrs. King directly, as one of the characters notes, "Once you've been in the presence of goodness, it's important to acknowledge it," and this play does that. February 6, 2006, a cold and rainy night outside of Ebenezer Baptist Church.  Zora (Niccole Thurman) is a college student and budding reporter who is conducting interviews for a National Public Radio broadcast with those who have braved the elements to stand in line and pay their respects to the late civil rights icon.  Her first interview, Helen (Taylar) actually met Mrs. King twice, the first time as a five or six year-old child during the historic Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1956.  Her initial impression was how pretty Mrs. King was and how good she smelled, "like birthday cake".  After the signs "colored" and "white" had been taken down and Negroes were free to sit wherever they liked, Mrs. King asked the youngster how freedom felt to her.  "If freedom feels like this, I want to be free all the time" was Helen's response. Joining Helen and Zora on that wet February are Mona Lisa (Kelly Owens), a transient artist from New Orleans, a spitfire high school sophomore named Keisha (Kristy Johnson) who finds herself with an unplanned pregnancy, and Gwen (Ebony Wimbs), an Army medic on leave from Iraq.  Hostilities flare between these women of vastly different ages and socio-economic backgrounds.  Helen is mortified at what the community she once fought diligently to earn civil rights has turned into.  "People died for your freedom and the only thing you can think of is getting some drug dealer to pay your rent," she bitterly barks at Keisha.  "Black women used to stand for things," she says, "They were the backbone of the movement".  Mona Lisa takes a more sympathetic role, stating that there is no movement anymore to look out for someone in trouble who is all alone. Gwen has seen first hand the brutality of humanity and wonders where God is in all the atrocities of war.  Mona Lisa shares her story of losing her grandmother during the horrors of Hurricane Katrina, while Gwen relates in grueling detail being forced by her superiors into an act of murder lest she herself be shot for disobeying an order.  Helen understands that death is all a part of living.  The ladies recall that mere days after her husband's murder, Coretta Scott King led a protest march in Memphis in his place.  Even in times of overwhelming grief, what would Coretta do?  "She would get on with it".  Mona Lisa finds a common bond with Zora, that as artist and interviewer they both "wait around for someone to stand still long enough to feel who they are."  The artist "holds up the mirror with love".  Seemingly the least likely presence at the funeral, Keisha reveals that she changed her mind about terminating her pregnancy when she realized her unborn child could possibly become Coretta Scott King.  The five agree that "You gotta have some respect for yourself as a woman or no one else will".  "A Song for Coretta" is a thought-provoking piece of splendid ensemble work.   "A Song for Coretta" plays through July 26, 2009 at the Greenhouse Theater, 2257 N. Lincoln Avenue in Chicago.  The play runs 90 minutes with no intermission.  Performances are Thursday through Saturday at 8:30 p.m., Sunday at 3:30 p.m.  Tickets are $15-25, with discounts for seniors, students and groups.  For tickets call (773) 404-7336 or visit www.eclipsetheatre.com.    About Joe Stead Joe Stead has enjoyed a lifelong passion for the theatre, which has involved acting, directing, producing, designing and reviewing for the past twenty-five years.  He served as founder, producer and Artistic Director of Curtain Up Productions in Baltimore, Maryland and Four Star Players in Tampa, Florida.  Favorite productions have included "Life With Father," "Deathtrap," "The Odd Couple," "The Miracle Worker," "Brighton Beach Memoirs," "You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown" and "Godspell".  He has also performed leading roles in "Fiddler on the Roof," "Pippin," "The Phantom of the Opera," "The Front Page," and most recently as Hucklebee in "The Fantasticks" for Waukegan Community Players.  Joe holds a degree in Commercial Art from Tampa Technical Institute.  As a critic, he has reviewed everything from Broadway to community theatre and major regional theatres throughout the United States including the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., Paper Mill Playhouse in New Jersey, Goodspeed Opera House in Connecticut, and the Asolo Theatre in Sarasota, Florida.  Since 1998, he has been a proud resident of Chicago, the greatest theatre city in America.  He served for two years as Theatre Editor for College News and Central Newspapers.  He created the website Steadstyle Chicago in 2000 to showcase the city's outstanding and diverse theatre scene.  Joe was proud to serve alongside a distinguished panel of theatre professionals as a judge for two seasons of Speaking Ring Theatre's "Vitality" Festival of original short plays.  His most fulfilling role, in addition to reviewer and all-around theatre fanatic, was as director of the 2007 production of Peter Shaffer's "Equus" at Actors Workshop (now Redtwist) Theatre, which was nominated for five Joseph Jefferson Award Citations and won for Best Actor (Peter Oyloe).   Second Thoughts by Alan Bresloff Everyone knows about the triumphs of Martin Luther King and what his efforts did to change the world, but most of us are unfamiliar with the part his wife played in the movement that he forged for African Americans.  Pearle Cleage's "A Song For Coretta" takes us to the Ebenezer Baptist Church  in Atlanta Georgia on February 6, 2006 as the mourners waited outside for their chance to view her body and pay their last respects.  In Ms. Cleage's story we meet five women who all have different lifestyles and experiences who wait for their turn outside the church in the rain to say their final goodbyes.  Each of these women is different and each has a different reason for making the journey to the church. Zora (Niccole Thurman) is a student who is trying to become a radio journalist and is there to interview as many people as she can in order to put together a story of what Mrs. King meant to the black women of yesterday and today.  Her first interview is with an older woman named Helen, a remarkable character played by Taylar.  In her lifetime Helen was part of the marches and the first bus rides and actually met Mrs. King.  The second to join the line is Mona Lisa, skillfully played by Kelly Owens, who has just been transplanted due to Hurricane Katrina.  She has seen things today that she would not have imagined possible and feels the need to be here for the reality the Kings produced for her people and her generation. Keisha is a high school student who arrives on the scene with a baby doll that she is supposedly caring for as a student project.  She has come from an abortion clinic where she has decided that she must keep her child and will call her Coretta in honor of Mrs. King.  Her daughter will be someone and have a better life.  Kristy Johnson appears to have this role down pat; she is exactly the type of kid you see on the street The last arrival in the group is Gwen (a solid performance by Ebony Wimbs), a soldier on leave from Iraq who is considering never returning.  While they are all from different worlds their stories have an intertwining as told by Ms. Cleage and directed by Sarah Moeller on the small studio stage at The Greenhouse Theater.  Through their interviews and interaction we learn more about the role that Mrs. King played in the changes that her husband began and we see some of the parallels in these women's lives. This is a learning experience as well as a quality theatrical experience.  All five women play roles that seem very real and the picture that is painted by the words of Ms Cleage and the movement of Ms. Moeller is one that will cause people to perhaps learn more about what took place, not just what was shown to us on TV or we read in the newspapers, but the real affect it had on the everyday people whose lives were changed by the King family. This is a ninety minute look at how during the wait, these five ladies bonded with each other and became friends and despite their own personal angers and frustrations were able to be as one, if only for that day.  What took place that day would forever be a memory, a positive memory in their lives as they look forward to the future, knowing that the past has brought them together.  This is part of Eclipse Theatre Company's "Celebration Series" and a Chicago premiere that is well worth seeing.