Donna Summer Always Loved

By Brenda C. Siler WI Contributing Writer

“Love to Love You, Donna Summer,” a new documentary, premiered on May 20 on HBO and HBO Max. The storytellers are Summer’s three daughters, her siblings, her husband, her parents, her colleagues in music, and the star herself. The footage of home movies and performances captures the life of the “disco queen.” Her voice for the film’s opening previews what viewers will hear.

“I have a secret life. You’re looking at me, but what you see is not who I am,” says Summer. “How many roles do I play in my own life?”

Some of the secrets are what many people assume about entertainers. But Summer was always a loving and loyal family person, who loved her family unconditionally, her colleagues, and her fans.

She grew up in the church so being a dance hall favorite was not a foreseen trajectory, but Summer’s family always knew she was an entertainer. Her salacious first hit “Love to Love You Baby,” on which the documenta - ry’s title is based, was a hit in Eu rope before it created a huge fol lowing for the singer in America, especially among the gay com munity. Summer had her eyes on being a film director, which makes sense with all the film footage that is the foundation for this documentary. She was al ways shooting films of her life on the road and at home. Like a lot of entertainers, we learn Summer had other creative talents in ad dition to the one for which they are most known. She also was a painter.

Co-directors are Oscar® and Emmy®-winning filmmaker Rog er Ross Williams and Summer’s daughter Brooklyn Sudano. They capture the pure essence of the singer through reflective memories from Sudano’s sisters and Sum mer’s husband Bruce Sudano. It took a lifetime for Summer to say who she was, and viewers will ap preciate that and will see that pro cess in “Love to Love You, Donna Summer.”

View the movie trailer of “Love to Love You, Donna Summer” on You Tube and read more on washington informer.com. WI

By Micha Green WI Managing Editor

For multi-hyphenated artist Marcus Hummon, “American Prophet,” has been a seven-year labor of love, now beginning to gain acclaim with six 2023 Helen Hayes Awards nominations. Inspired by the eerily and powerfully poignant words of Frederick Douglass, Hummon, who grew up in the D.C. area, continues to be excited about the work and the piece’s possibilities for growth after its premiere at Arena Stage last summer.

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“As a writer of theatre, it makes me feel excited about continuing this part of my life– the validation,” said Hummon, composer and co-book writer of “American Prophet” and a 2023 Helen Hayes nominee for the “Charles MacArthur Award for Outstanding New Play or Musical.” ”I want to focus on ‘American Prophet,’ I want it to move on, I want it to go to New York and I want it to go on a national tour and we’re working on it. But it also encourages me to keep writing.”

“American Prophet,” has come a long way in seven years. What began as a commission by the Episcopal Cathedral of Nashville to artistically showcase Hummon’s “thoughts on ‘the prophetic’ in a theatrical form,” and then an oratorio, turned into a musical highlighting the genius of the great American abolitionist, and why his words and lessons are still necessary today.

“I wanted to use Douglass’ own language because he wrote three autobiographies,” Hummon told the Informer. “He basically spent his life telling his own story, so it seems only proper that we allow him to do it.”

In the Arena Stage production that starred Cornelius Smith Jr. as Douglass, “American Prophet,” beautifully showcased the many layers of a man who was “woke,” before “wokeness,” was a thing, and who continues to offer lessons the world can use today.

“When he says things like, ‘Power concedes nothing without demand, it never did, it never will,’ it’s unbelievable, in a way, how contemporary he is, so that’s something I felt from the very beginning and I felt it even more when I heard Cornelius say those words because he’s such a fantastic actor.”

THE EVOLUTION OF ‘AMERICAN PROPHET’

With his theatrical productions regularly rooted in history, Hummon grew more excited by Douglass’ life. In digging deeper into the justice seeker, orator, newspaper publisher and family man, he realized there were so many moving pieces.

“That’s when I thought this is a big show, and I need help– another writer, if possible, who’s also a director. And I was introduced to Charles Randolph-Wright, who is brilliant,” Hummon said. “That’s when things really took off.”

Randolph-Wright had one major suggestion to help the show pop. Hummon’s oratorio was originally titled “The Making of an American Prophet.”

“One of the first things Charles said to me was, ‘That’s a terrible title,” Hummon said laughing. “He goes, ‘I’ve got an idea. Why don’t we just shorten it?’”

Then the focus became turning a specific portion of Douglass’ life (up to about 1865 with Lincoln’s death and the end of the Civil War) to a musical.

“We wanted to make this about a guy who is growing and changing,” he said.” There's so much to write. Things are funny sometimes. There’s also sad, and triumphant, people falling in love, and that’s the stuff of a musical.”

A Homecoming

For Hummon, bringing “American Prophet,” was not only intentional due to Douglass’ life, but his own.

Douglass had a major connection to the D.C. region, which is why D.C. Statehood advocates offer “Douglass Commonwealth" as the new state name.

“He and Anna (his wife) both passed at the Cedar House, and that was their final home in his capacity as marshall of Washington. And the whole moniker, ‘Lion of Anacostia,’ and there we were right on the Anacostia River basically– it was extremely poignant,” Hummon explained.

Then there’s Hummon. Although he’s called Nashville home for 38 years, Hummon still has love for the DMV area, where he moved in his adolescence after first living overseas with his family.

“For me, it's a coming home.”

WI

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5 “Little Richard: the King and Queen of Rock 'n' Roll” premieres on PBS’ “American Masters on June 2.

(Courtesy Photo/ Pictorial Press Ltd.)

4 “Ringo Starr from the documentary “Little Richard: the King and Queen of Rock 'n' Roll” premiering on PBS’ “American Masters" on June 2.