Hats off to seamless adaptation in ‘Crowns’

“When I get dressed to go to church, I’m going to meet the king, so I must look my best.” So says one of the women interviewed for “Crowns,” a book documenting, in photographs and interviews, the hats that are such a vibrant part of churchgoing in the African American community.

Published in 2000, the book has since been transformed into a gospel musical that is rapidly showing up on the schedules of theaters across the country and has arrived in the Southland in a spirit-lifting, roof-raising presentation by San Diego Repertory Theatre.

Hewing closely to the material recorded by photographer Michael Cunningham and journalist Craig Marberry, actress and playwright Regina Taylor has come up with a show that reveals church hats as powerful symbols of family, community and history. A wide range of music -- field hollers, spirituals, blues and rap -- helps to convey the message. So, of course, do hats -- hats with wide, flat brims or short, creased ones; hats decorated with ribbons, feathers, silk flowers and spangles; hats in every color of the rainbow.

Our guide into this realm is, at first, reluctant to undertake the task. She is a young woman from Brooklyn (Monica Patrice Quintanilla) who wears a red baseball cap as a way of staying connected to her murdered brother. After the killing, she’s sent to South Carolina, where a grandmother (Peggy Ann Blow) and the local church community (Charyn Cannon, Karole Foreman, Ronald McCall, Lisa H. Payton and Valerie Payton) gently reach out, again and again, to coax the angry and resentful young woman off of a dangerous path.

Many of the personal histories in the picture book -- provided by 54 women, ranging in age from 22 to 78 -- are divvied up among the characters.

Stepping apart from the hand-waving, praise-giving proceedings at church, the women talk about their hats, as well as those worn by their mothers and grandmothers. This sends us reeling back to times when hat money was hard to come by, as were individual liberties. Then, as today, hats were worn with dignity, as declarations of cultural pride, and with joy, as statements of personal expression.

The words are as elegant as the hats. “When you present yourself before God, there should be excellence in all things, including your appearance,” one woman says. Another reverently describes a sea of hats nodding in agreement with the minister’s words, swaying from side to side in time with the music and whipping around to confront children making too much noise. And one lady impishly invokes the “hattitude” that a woman must possess if she is to display her crown to the best advantage.

The nearly two dozen songs -- which often reach foot-stomping, hip-swaying climaxes -- are mostly old favorites: “When the Saints Go Marching In,” “I’m on the Battlefield,” “Take Me to the Water” and, yes, those wonderful old lyrics: “I got a crown up in-a that kingdom, ain’t-a that good news.”

The performances -- bursting with life and radiant in every way -- are seamlessly woven together by director-choreographer Patdro Harris, whose vision meshes with that of hat and costume designer Jennifer Brawn Gittings in one especially gorgeous sequence, when the white lace on a hat becomes the fabric of a life story, as wedding veil, infant swaddling and burial shroud.

By the end, the distinction between theatrical performance and church service has entirely disappeared, which is only fitting, since in ancient Greece and again after the Dark Ages, Western theater blossomed from the glory given to a higher power.

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‘Crowns’

Where: San Diego Repertory Theatre at the Lyceum, 79 Horton Plaza, San Diego

When: 8 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays; 2 and 7 p.m. Sundays. Also 2 p.m. this Saturday only.

Ends: Oct. 31 with 2 p.m. only performance

Price: $32.50 to $41.50

Contact: (619) 544-1000 or www.sandiegorep.com

Running time: 1 hour, 40 minutes