The Philadelphia Women’s Theatre Festival presents Pancake Queen

What Auntie said

Pancake Queen is a fictionalized account of Nancy Green, the first woman hired to embody Aunt Jemima. Although Quaker Oats/Pearl Milling Company used at least 11 different performers, Green instantiated the character at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair (the same fair that introduced "belly dance" to the States). Personally, I have a love-hate relationship with Aunt Jemima. In 2020, when Quaker Oats finally canceled the brand, I couldn’t understand why the company used a racial stereotype as a brand logo for so long. On the other hand, I felt sad to see a piece of history with a Black figure disappear. Growing up, my aunt collected Mammy figurines because it was the only representation available then.

Knight and I discussed the complex history of Aunt Jemima during one of the show’s laugh-filled rehearsals. She envisioned the play during her graduate theater program. The resulting text won her Villanova's Sue Winge Playwriting Award and later the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre’s Playwriting Competition (2018). According to Knight, Pancake Queen is “a highly stylized fictionalized retelling of what it must have been like” and addresses “themes of Black women's bodies building the commerce of this country.”

Glynnis Nadelbaum, PWF artistic director, agreed and felt the play’s underlying themes made it a “timely” re-staging for the Philadelphia Women's Theatre Festival’s tenth anniversary. If that doesn’t make you excited for this production, stage manager Emmie Parker hinted the use of miming, props, and projection to further visualize the written page to the physical stage.

Director STARFIRE served as the charismatic host throughout. Perfectly wrapped from head to toe, she introduced me to various cast members while sharing their histories during the interviews. Nazeer Harper, a local musician who recently dropped a new album, plays the husband Hiram Green and feels his “character is part of [Nancy Green’s] subconscious.” Newcomer Imani Lee Williams who just graduated from Florida A&M’s Conservatory is “excited” to play a “grounded” character like Green. However, STARFIRE remains just as enthusiastic for this production as she is for her cast. In a moment of seriousness, she stated, “I feel like this play, it's finally getting a chance to sing … it’s just one cohesive love song.”