Candy McLellan-Davison has long been one of the most versatile performers in the city. Now she has turned to directing. She is helming Aurora Theatre’s version of “The Color Purple.”
The story has been with her for a long time.
“I saw the movie at a very early age,” she told Georgia Voice. “It became a monthly thing. I know it so well. Despite the hard things and the trauma, it has so much joy and heart. It’s the story of a Black woman who is overcoming and being resilient. It’s about sisterhood. It has all the themes that I love.”
Celie (Amitria Fanae’) plays Celie and Tiffany Denise Hobbs plays Shug Avery, the woman she falls in love with. According to Fanae’, Shug changes Celie’s life and gives her confidence.
“Shug shows me a version of love I have never experienced before,” Fanae’ said. “It did not start off that way, but I feel like for the first time in a long time outside of [sister] Nettie, this is the first person who has come along and has a conversation with Celie and cares what she thinks. I think there is gravitational pull towards each other because both of these two women have been shunned in society.”
Hobbs calls Shug a new-age woman in this society who marches to the beat of her own drum.
“She doesn’t follow societal expectations, but she is trying to find herself and make a name for herself,” Hobbs said. “She gets out of the bondage society wants to put on her. Then she meets Celie and sees something in her that she has not seen in any other person – this honesty and capacity for love she has not experienced. She falls in love with this woman. They unlock something in each other they were not expecting. They feel so safe with each other, emotionally, spiritually and physically.”
Director McLellan-Davison wanted to put her stamp on the material.
“I feel Steven Spielberg has a white man’s lens and I have a younger millennial’s lens,” she said. “It’s taking the generations and how we view arts and putting that on and saying, ‘This is how I want to tell the story.’”
Spielberg’s version was a box office success and Oscar nominee, but it was criticized by some for being too pretty and for downplaying the relationship between Shug and Celie.
“I did not want to shy away from that, because a lot of productions do,” McLellan-Davison said. “The love they have for each other — It’s so important to show this love. We should not shy away because it’s two women.”
Out actor Markwell Williams is part of the ensemble of Horizon Theatre’s new “Wild With Happy,” written by Oscar nominee Colman Domingo.
An off-Broadway hit from 2012, it’s about Gil (Enock King), who is trying to find the ideal resting place for his mother. After her death, he decides to have her cremated, which does not sit well with everyone in the family. Eventually, Gil winds up on a road trip with his best friend and his mother’s ashes.
Williams describes the work as a dark-ish play that creates some comedic moments out of death. Gil and his mother had had a good relationship; she knew he was gay.
“It was a very healthy relationship,” Williams said. “What this play does so well is asking without asking — how relationships become impacted when we get news that we are not expecting about someone we care about, and how that ultimately alters how we respond to the people that we love.”
The actor feels many people will be able to relate to the material.
“I don’t know many gay men who don’t have strong relationships with their mothers,” he said. “For myself, I have a strong relationship with my mom and am able to talk about things. This relationship seems very familiar and honest and true, and I thought this is something a lot of people can relate to, not just gay people. At the heart of this is the way Black women communicate with their sons.”
“The Color Purple” runs through September 15 at Aurora Theatre
“Wild With Happy” runs through September 15 at Horizon Theatre