March 2012

Centaur Stage features Ranee Lee

Suzanne Shugar speaks with the inimitable Ranee Lee. The famous Canadian Jazz singer, songwriter, author and talented actress has garnered countless honours, including the Order of Canada and a Dora Mavor Moore Award for her portrayal of Billie Holiday in Lady Day. In this touching interview, Ranee discloses why Intimate Apparel and the character she plays strike such a profound chord within her soul.

Ranee Lee

Suzanne ShugarLucinda Davis plays Esther, a seamstress who lives in a boarding house and sews elegant undergarments. You play her landlady. What can you tell us about your character?

Ranee LeeMrs. Dickson is a self-sufficient, engaging, practical, mature and experienced woman at the turn of 20th century Manhattan, where she owns a well-established and vibrant boarding house.
There is a congenial and maternal-like connection between her and Esther whom she’s known and sheltered for years. Esther is an independent, but inexperienced middle aged woman that Mrs. Dickson attempts to guide and nurture. The union that develops between these two women is sometimes conflicting with undertones of apprehension, but there is a common respect for each other’s position, and mutual consideration. Intimate Apparel will be the first time that Lucinda and I join forces on the theatre stage; her brilliant personality and artistic ability transforms her creatively with a definite depth and knowledge of Esther. The bonds of support and camaraderie were formed early in rehearsal between us, and Quincy, Tamara, Eliot and Patricia.

SSWhy did you want to play this role?

RLThe assemblage of this grand cast and our renowned director Micheline Chevrier is in itself rewarding.  Micheline captures the heart of this powerful and well-constructed play and breathes into it her profound innovative responsiveness and vision that recaptures an era of time. The opportunity to be welcomed as Mrs. Dickson grants me not only the introspection of my life and the women of a period, which my mother and grandmother represented,  I’m also able to recognize the paradigms of struggles, efforts, dreams and desires in the cultures from which the play is taken. It’s like looking backwards into the looking glass.

Initimate Apparel production poster

DESIGN : STEVE ROSS

SSTell us about your childhood in Brooklyn and the mother and grandmother who embodied the indomitable spirit of the African American women of this era.

RLMy mother, a single mother after the war, made sacrifices and I identify her daring. She and her mother were born in Jamaica. I never knew my grandfather, and my grandmother died when I was twelve.  I remember the proper behavior my mother and grandmother emitted throughout my childhood though. They were domestics; mother worked in a bomb factory and studied court stenography, but eventfully she became the head cook of the Lighthouse for the Blind in Queens N.Y. I am the only child, of an only child, so we were extremely close. She played piano, and sang in her church choir. They cooked, served, cleaned, sewed, and knitted impeccably, and enjoyed the company of their friends and relatives immensely. My mother eventually owned a brownstone apartment house in Brooklyn where she rented to an unwed mother, a married couple, and a woman who was a nurse, looking after her own aged mother I recall.  So one would say it was a boarding house.

SSWhat a coincidence. Playing Mrs. Dickson must bring back fond memories of your mother and her boarding house.

RLIt certainly does, and although the spirit of my mother exists in most everything I do it is truly evident that I channel her style as Mrs. Dickson. The colourful array of people who came and went, were hardworking and carefree. Mom was a no-nonsense landlady, but believed in helping others. She provided me with the advantages of the privileged, from music lessons to educational opportunities.  Her love however is what cemented her every endeavor.  Her support was armor to me, and all she expected from my life’s outcome was to be productive, happy and successful, honouring her sacrifices for obvious reasons. My Mom and her mom were indivisible, and respectful of one another, they loved and depended on each other as I recollect and understand today.   In my youth I was taught there is a special place, person or belief from which to draw strength, and we have to depend on our mentors to supply their knowledge and guidance. I have learned from their examples, and I try to honor and instill this example to my children, and their children.

Ranee Lee and 4-year-old Ranee

SSYou have wonderful grandchildren including a gifted, young teenager who is following in your footsteps. She dances, sings, acts, and writes, and as fate would have it, her name is also Ranee!

RLThe spelling of my name (Ranee with an “A”) has always been a source of contention because it is pronounced Renee. This was my mother’s choice. Bestowing this name on my namesake causes her no less debate at times, but she is as unique as her name.   Ranee embodies the women of our family I proudly observe. She is talented, beautiful, loyal and strong in her beliefs. She is fair, and concerned with the issues of today, and attaches great importance to honesty and virtue. She’s told me that she is enjoying her life. Everyone who knows her from family to friends, associates and teachers take delight in her qualities. When Ranee participated in Mullato Nation, a play presented by the youth program of Black Theatre Workshop, the pride that radiated from my granddaughter to be part of this production was transmitted directly to my heart’s core, and that of the spirits of her ancestral great grandmothers I am sure.  I am inspired by the promise of what I know she will become because of her inheritance.

SSWhen Ranee watches you perform in Intimate Apparel, she will witness the spirit of her great-grandmother shine through you. Thank you for this interview.

Suzanne Shugar is a Montreal journalist, broadcaster and Centaur Theatre's PR and Web Writer