That’s because the show, which opens Friday in the Little Carver Civic Center, deals partly with the Eastwood Country Club. Her grandmother liked to go there to hear the music, and she often brought her 4-year-old granddaughter along.
“As kids, we went in, and we sat in a corner until we’d fall asleep,” said Lakey, the show’s dramaturge. “I was one of the kids that tried to stay awake.”
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Listening to the “Divas” cast work on the music, she said, “It’s almost like I can see Etta James singing — ‘wow, that’s what that would have looked like.’”
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‘Divas of Eastwood’
When: Opens Friday. 8 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays through Feb. 6, with one matinee at 4 p.m. Sunday.
Where: Little Carver Civic Center, 226 N. Hackberry
Tickets: $24 at the Carver box office and ticketmaster.com.
“Divas of Eastwood” focuses on female vocalists and deals with San Antonio’s place on the Chitlin’ Circuit, a segregation-era network of nightclubs at which African American performers played for African American audiences. The clubs featured in the show are the Eastwood, the Keyhole Club and the Carver Community Cultural Center.
“It’s a really interesting period, and it’s a period that we don’t really celebrate,” said Bill Lewis, who wrote and is directing the show. “And it’s probably one of the most important periods in African American music.”
The script comes partly from oral histories that Lakey conducted with musicians and others with a connection with the San Antonio clubs. Among others, she spoke to Kenneth Dominique, whose father owned the Keyhole Club; saxophonist and band leader Spot Barnett; and and guitarist Curley Mays.
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“It’s amazing talking to them and seeing their faces light up,” she said. “Because no one asks them those questions any more. No one talks to them about their memories.”
The fact that “Divas” draws on history was part of the appeal for Cassandra Small, one of the show’s high-powered vocalists.
“I think it’s important for younger people to be able to get a handle on some of our history because the schools are cutting it out, parents are busy, it’s no longer taught at home, and so kids just think things are the way they are now because they invented stuff,” Small said. “And they don’t realize that what they have now is a result of someone else’s work and effort and sacrifice from a time they don’t know anything about.”
Small said she has learned some things herself since she started working on the show. She and Danielle King sing “Hound Dog,” the hit associated with Elvis Presley. She didn’t know that it was first recorded by Big Mama Thornton.
“The music is pleasing and and appealing to listen to, but when you begin to hear the story behind the music, why it was created, who sang it, how it was produced, where it was performed, those kinds of things, each piece of music, then, is like its own character,” Small said.
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At a recent rehearsal, most of the women ran through a series of songs — including “You Can’t Hurry Love,” “Love Child” and “His Eye is on the Sparrow” — filling music director Darrin Newhardt’s studio with sound. When the actresses weren’t singing themselves, they were listening.
“We’re really not divas,” said Alisa Claridy. “Where I come from, people don’t like to share the limelight. But we all really love hearing each other. And I’m loving that.”
The Little Carver is being set up as a nightclub for the show. “Divas” is structured as a live radio broadcast, with Jessica Mitchell serving as the DJ. Mitchell isn’t much of a singer, she said, but she wanted to take part in the show and was glad that Lewis came up with a way for her to do that.
In addition to providing narration, Mitchell also is writing and will perform poems and rap lyrics to complement the other music. As impressed as she is with her castmates — “Once they get to singing, I’m transformed,” she said. — they are blown away by her contributions to the show.
“The effect that Jessica says we have on her with our vocals, she is just as powerful with her words,” King said. “There was one time (at a rehearsal), I quit singing because I was listening to her words. I forgot to sing!”
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“Divas” is the first original work that the Renaissance Guild has produced. And it’s not done yet. The two-weekend run is designed to give Lewis and the rest of the team a chance to see where things stand and what still needs to be done.
The show is a big step in the development of the company, which is in the midst of its 14th season.
“It’s great to see the progress, that we’ve gotten to this point,” said King, a founding member. “It’s great to work with a group of people who have so much talent and are willing to give it to this production so that we can take the Renaissance Guild even further.”
dlmartin@express-news.net
Twitter: @DeborahMartinEN
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