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'Constant Star': It takes five actors to portray activist

By Rich Copley rcopley@herald-leader.com

Rich Copley | Staff

Sylvia Howard is one of five actors who play Ida B. Wells and other characters in Actors Guild of Lexington's production of Constant Star, which plays at the Downtown Arts Center through Oct. 5.

Rich Copley | Staff

(L-R) Cathy Rawlings, Sylvia Howard, Maya Harris (back to camera), LaNora Faye Long, and Lisa Clark all play Ida B. Wells and other characters in Actors Guild of Lexington's "Constant Star." Tazewell Thompson's "Constant Star," a spiritual musical about journalist and activist Ida B. Wells, will be presented by Actors Guild of Lexington at the Downtown Arts Center in Lexington, Ky., Sept. 11-Oct. 5, 2008. Photo by Rich Copley | Staff.

• IF YOU GO: Constant Star, presented by Actors Guild of Lexington
• 'Dazzled' by her story

Late in the first act of Actors Guild of Lexington's production of Constant Star, Cathy Rawlings portrays Ida B. Wells dreaming of a life of peace and dignity and then describing a lynching in graphic detail.

In those moments, playwright Tazewell Thompson got to the core of the journalist and activist: Her dream could not be realized for herself or other African-Americans in post-emancipation America due to rabid, often court- and government-sanctioned racism and murder.

Wells' is a name largely forgotten by history.

At a pre-show chat Saturday, the New York-based playwright said that's probably partly because history has been largely written by white men, who preferred more polite activists.

There was nothing terribly polite about Wells; she refers to Booker T. Washington as a "civil rights tourist" in the show.

Wells was a character so large and passionate, it took five actors to portray her, a trick that works really well in Thompson's script and Sidney Shaw's production for Actors Guild. All five performers portray Wells and other characters, and all excel, particularly Maya Harris as an indomitable young Ida and Lisa Clark as the complex young woman.

All of the women, under the music direction of John LaMar Cole, deftly handle the spirituals that color the story of a woman who wouldn't compromise in the face of gross injustice.

Yes, Ida B. Wells has been left out of a lot of history books. But with Constant Star, Thompson adds a fascinating chapter about her, and Actors Guild gives it a fine read.