Gipson finally gets her chance to play ‘Lady Day’
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"Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill" is a show Carla Gipson has wanted to do since the mid '90s.
That desire becomes a reality Friday when Gipson both directs and stars in the play with music by Lanie Robertson at Hopewell Theatre for a two-weekend run.
The show is set in a Philadelphia bar where singer Billie Holiday is performing. In between the songs, Holiday shares details of her tumultuous and often tragic life and career. It takes place in 1959, the same year she died at age 44 from heart failure and cirrhosis of the liver.
"I really loved Billie Holiday, and I loved that piece," Gipson said. "I sent for information (in 1994) because I wanted to see if there was some way to do it. That just didn't work out."
Flash forward to earlier this year when Gipson was directing the play "Steal Away" at Hopewell. Regina Rees, then president of the community theater's board, asked her if she was familiar with the show and if she would be interested in starring in it.
Gipson's first thought was that she was too old for the role, but she ultimately said yes.
"I think that sometimes you just have to wait on something for it to be the right time," she said. "It kind of came back full circle to me with the ability to be able to do it. I had to put aside the fact that now maybe I'm a woman that is not a little bit younger than she was, but I'm a little bit older than what she was.
"But I am more strengthened and more mature as an actress to be able to handle some of the things that are necessary for this script, and I know a little bit more about her now than I actually knew then. I'm still finding out things about her. I think the wait was a good wait because, again, that probably just was not the time. This is more the time."
Rees, a veteran director, is Gipson's stage manager, and Gipson said she's relying on her expertise.
"I knew that, one, I could trust her, and she has experience," Gipson said. "I knew that, where I couldn't be the eyes to see what's happening, Regina would be there to say, 'Yeah, that looks OK. That doesn't. You should do this or that.' She's probably more like a co-director in that sense."
Holiday spent time in reform school and survived sexual assault as a child. She battled addiction to alcohol and heroin, and at the peak of her career in 1947 she was sent to prison for possession of narcotics.
"Just so many things were tragic and traumatizing in her life, but still she rose above all of that, and she never lived like a victim," Gipson said. "She lived like an overcomer, and I hope that people will have an opportunity to see that about her, not only from this piece but from any other research they do about her, because this play certainly does not just just show her in the light of just being a talented and entertaining performer and singer. It also reveals the traumas that she went through, because she talks about them and tells everybody about them, and they see it."
She described her approach on the songs -- which include "God Bless the Child," "'Tain't Nobody's Biz-ness if I Do" and "Strange Fruit" -- as a portrayal, not an imitation.
"To exactly mimic her voice is a little hard because it was so unique, and that might make it difficult," Gipson said. "I'm just working to find a way to try to maybe emulate it a little bit, mixed with my own voice, and come up with something that is Billie Holiday-ish enough for people to understand where the uniqueness was and the beauty was in her voice. It's not an imitation of her voice, but trying to honor her style and her uniqueness."
Gipson isn't the only one doing double duty in Hopewell's production. Music director Ellis Anthony also plays Jimmy Powers, Holiday's pianist, on stage. And set designer Martin Charles Moore plays Hal Emerson, owner of the bar where the show takes place.
Emerson isn't an on-stage character in the original production, but Gipson reworked the script to give some of Powers' dialogue to the bar owner.
"The pianist is pretty shy, and he has never done a role in a theatrical production before, so he was really kind of nervous," she said. "There were a couple of parts where I knew that I could help him by alleviating some of the things that he was going to have to say. It would be fitting for Emerson, the bar owner, to do that just as well."
If you go …
WHAT: "Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill"
WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Friday and Sept. 18 and 19 and 2 p.m. Sunday and Sept. 20
WHERE: Hopewell Theatre, 702 Mahoning Ave., Youngstown
HOW MUCH: Tickets are $28.22 for adults and $26.14 for students and senior citizens and are available online at hopwelltheatre.org and by calling 330-746-5455.