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Growing up black in the '50s
"Pretty Fire' at Horizon in Norristown
Steve Cohen
Norristown, the Montgomery County seat, was once largely Italian and almost exclusively white. Today it's mostly African-American. Should we be surprised, then, that Theatre Horizon opened its attractive new 120-seat space downtown with Pretty Fire, Charlayne Woodard's one-woman play about an African-American girl's civil rights-era childhood in Albany, N.Y., and Georgia?
Woodard, born in 1953, is best known for her recurring TV roles in "Roseanne" and "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air." Instead of broadening her scope to appeal to a universal audience, Woodard chose to be specific about black society.
In five narrated episodes that she says shaped her adult life, Pretty Fire recalls church services, Sunday family dinners and choir practices, with R & B music and hymns like "Give Up to Jesus" and "God Gave Me a Song" that many in the audience joined in singing.
Nothing wrong with that, of course, especially when a black-oriented play is presented as part of a diverse season. (A forthcoming Theatre Horizon play concerns the relationship of a Japanese woman and an American Jewish man.) Yet this production made few concessions that would lead suburban whites to bond with Woodard's character.
One exception: Many school kids, regardless of race or ethnicity, will relate to a sequence in which Charlayne tries out for her church youth choir, then auditions for a solo in front of an intimidating choir leader.
The play's mostly upbeat subject matter was tempered by the description of Ku Klux Klan riders who burned a cross on her lawn, and a harrowing scene of a sexual assault.
As portrayed by the highly animated Cathy Simpson, Pretty Fire captures Woodard as a juvenile and pre-adolescent— jumping about, grimacing and grinning in reaction to her experiences. Simpson's exuberance filled the wide stage, which had a simple set and few props. In a tour de force reminiscent of Anna Deavere Smith, Simpson changed voice and expression as she assumed the roles of each of her family members and some neighbors as well.
Woodard, born in 1953, is best known for her recurring TV roles in "Roseanne" and "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air." Instead of broadening her scope to appeal to a universal audience, Woodard chose to be specific about black society.
In five narrated episodes that she says shaped her adult life, Pretty Fire recalls church services, Sunday family dinners and choir practices, with R & B music and hymns like "Give Up to Jesus" and "God Gave Me a Song" that many in the audience joined in singing.
Nothing wrong with that, of course, especially when a black-oriented play is presented as part of a diverse season. (A forthcoming Theatre Horizon play concerns the relationship of a Japanese woman and an American Jewish man.) Yet this production made few concessions that would lead suburban whites to bond with Woodard's character.
One exception: Many school kids, regardless of race or ethnicity, will relate to a sequence in which Charlayne tries out for her church youth choir, then auditions for a solo in front of an intimidating choir leader.
The play's mostly upbeat subject matter was tempered by the description of Ku Klux Klan riders who burned a cross on her lawn, and a harrowing scene of a sexual assault.
As portrayed by the highly animated Cathy Simpson, Pretty Fire captures Woodard as a juvenile and pre-adolescent— jumping about, grimacing and grinning in reaction to her experiences. Simpson's exuberance filled the wide stage, which had a simple set and few props. In a tour de force reminiscent of Anna Deavere Smith, Simpson changed voice and expression as she assumed the roles of each of her family members and some neighbors as well.
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