photo by: Courtesy of Theatre Lawrence

Tiffani Smith, left, plays Yolanda, and Andrea Billings-Graham plays Mabel during a rehearsal for Theatre Lawrence's production of "Crowns."

Theatre Lawrence is opening its new season Friday with a musical that explores the lives of Black women and, along the way, delves into an array of divides – Black/white, rural/urban, North/South, young/old, shame/pride.

“Crowns,” as director Annette Billings says, “is a very celebratory play, and I think it fits so well in our current times of lots of personal and professional and (national) stressors.”

Written by Regina Taylor in the early 2000s and based on a book by Michael Cunningham and Craig Marberry, the musical follows the experience of young Yolanda, who travels from the urban North to her grandmother’s home in the rural South after her brother is killed in the city. There she encounters something very different from the street life she’s accustomed to in New York: “a group of hat-wearing, church-loving, jubilant women,” as Billings describes the quintet of mentors who shepherd Yolanda through her darkest valley.

The five women all tell Yolanda what hats have meant to them individually and to African Americans throughout history. In the process, much is revealed about their struggles, both private and social, and also their triumphs.

photo by: Courtesy of Theatre Lawrence

Gay Glenn plays Wanda during a rehearsal for Theatre Lawrence’s production of “Crowns.”

They use “a lot of storytelling and music to convey to her her roots,” Billings says. “She’s trying to find herself, and each of these women in turn, they minister to her.”

As the title suggests, the role of headwear, whether African tribal adornment or modern millinery, plays a central role in the musical as a form of pride and self-expression.

During slavery, Billings says, the only place where slaves were allowed to congregate was in churches, and presenting oneself before God and the congregation in one’s finest — with a fancy hat being an outfit’s crowning glory — became a way for an abused and marginalized people to reclaim their stolen dignity, their “sense of royalty.”

“Church became a very powerful influence,” Billings says. It was “a safe place, a place they could draw strength from and add strength to.”

The intermingling of fashion and faith — and entertainment — became a hallmark of Black churches and spilled over into the broader community.

“The wearing of hats, the wearing of finery to decorate oneself is something that’s very familiar and common to us as a people,” Billings says. “Throughout the things that we’ve endured through time, we have maintained that sense of importance and royalty and right — the right to be, the right to be oneself and the right to express oneself in a way that feels familiar and empowering.”

The musical, which features a good deal of gospel music as well as nods to jazz and rap and other African American art forms, is also about relationships and how “supporting one another can be such a vital part of living,” Billings says.

photo by: Courtesy of Theatre Lawrence

Tiffani Smith as Yolanda in Theatre Lawrence’s production of “Crowns”

In the end, via her elders’ influence, the ballcap-wearing Yolanda, through a figurative — and often funny — process of wearing different hats, goes from feeling lost to regaining a “sense of what her rightful place is in the community,” Billings says, “and the world is good again for her.”

The dozens of hats that appear in “Crowns” have their own unique histories — some known, some lost forever — as most of them are real hats that belonged to real women.

The “vast majority” of hats in Theatre Lawrence’s inventory have been donated over the years, says Jane Pennington, the theater’s longtime costume designer.

“We made some of the specialty hats,” but most of the best period pieces “have come from Grandma’s closet,” she says, describing a typical process where people go through a relative’s closet, come across a fancy hat, recognize that it’s too special to throw out, and donate it to the theater instead.

“We’ve become the guardians of many families’ heirlooms,” says Pennington, who’s more than happy to give the ornate toppers a second life and a chance to be admired anew.

“Crowns” opens Friday at 4660 Bauer Farm Drive and will have multiple performances through Oct. 1. For information about tickets, call 785-843-SHOW (7469) or go online at theatrelawrence.com.

After the Oct. 1 performance, the theater will host a panel discussion with Billings; the Rev. Rachel Williams-Glenn, pastor of Lawrence’s St. Luke AME Church; and Amber Sellers, a Lawrence city commissioner.

Sellers was a vocal proponent of the recently passed municipal ordinance known as the CROWN Act, which stands for Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair. The ordinance makes it illegal to discriminate based on natural hairstyles such as braids, afros, bantu knots, cornrows, curls, locs, twists or hair that is tightly coiled or tightly curled.

“This is culture to us,” Sellers said ahead of the City Commission’s unanimous vote last month. “This is us showing the world our history and celebrating where we come from, who we are. The CROWN Act has that value to it — it allows us to wear our crown in all of its wonderful glory.”

photo by: Courtesy of Theatre Lawrence

Janine Colter as Jeanette in Theatre Lawrence’s production of “Crowns”

photo by: Courtesy of Theatre Lawrence

Gay Glenn as Wanda in Theatre Lawrence’s production of “Crowns”

photo by: Courtesy of Theatre Lawrence

Kimberly Allen as Velma in Theatre Lawrence’s production of “Crowns”

photo by: Courtesy of Theatre Lawrence

Andrea Billings-Graham as Mabel in Theatre Lawrence’s production of “Crowns”

photo by: Courtesy of Theatre Lawrence

Lynda Anders as Mother Shaw in Theatre Lawrence’s production of “Crowns”

photo by: Courtesy of Theatre Lawrence

Joseph Washington-Brown as Man in Theatre Lawrence’s production of “Crowns”