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Regina Taylor isn't a hat queen. A hat queen, like her mother and other ladies Taylor knew growing up in west Dallas and attending the Progressive Baptist Church, owns at least 100 hats. Taylor, author of the popular musical "Crowns," claims she's only about halfway there.

"Each hat has a story," says Taylor, riffing about the subject of the musical, which opens Friday at the Grand Theatre. "Each hat gives you so much information about the woman who is wearing it. Each hat has gone through so many weddings, baptisms and funerals, and each tells so much about the life of the wearer."

Taylor, 47, earned a Best Actress Golden Globe for her role as Lilly Harper in the TV series "I'll Fly Away" and currently stars as Molly Blane in "The Unit," another groundbreaking role for its depiction of a complex and loving marriage.

She has enjoyed comparable commercial success in the theater world, directing the 2002 premiere of "Crowns," which she wrote after a commission by New Jersey's McCarter Theater Center. The musical brought to life images from Michael Cunningham and Craig Marberry's photography book of the same name.

Taylor will return to Utah for the opening of the regional premiere of "Crowns," which took shape in the summer of 2002 as she worked with a choreographer, musicians and actors at the Sundance Institute's Theatre Lab.

The idea of the play, telling stories about older African-American women and their relationship to their church community through hats, "seemed like a wildly theatrical idea," said Philip Himberg, producing artistic director of the theater program. Adding relevance to the story is that it unfolds through the eyes of Yolanda, a young urban girl who comes to claim her heritage as she learns more about hats and the women who wear them.

Since that first production in Princeton, the musical has gone on to more performances in more venues around America than any other play supported by Sundance labs, Himberg says, including regional productions and a national tour.

Drawing on history: Taylor attributes "Crowns' " success to its roots in the storytelling and musical traditions of African-American culture, as well as the incorporation of theatrical elements of black church services. "If you think about gospel music in this country, it starts with the African drum," Taylor says. "We included that history, that lineage, going from that African sound to these very American lyrics, to make this time bridge from past to present."

The New York Times opined that "Crowns" "seems to arise out of spontaneous combustion, as if a bevy of department-store customers simultaneously decided to stage a revival meeting in the changing room."

For Rita Martin, associate producer of the Grand Theatre production, a favorite moment is the song "In the Morning When I Rise." Martin, who has acted in a handful of Salt Lake City community theater productions, was tapped by director Richard Scott as a liaison to Utah's African-American community. The semi-professional theater company assembled an ensemble of black performers, combining professional actors and talented singers with less acting experience.

Martin claims her collection of hats isn't that notable - amounting to just more than 30 - but working to produce "Crowns" has provided her an occasion to go shopping. She names one good local source as RL Fashions at 3573 S. Main St. in South Salt Lake.

Like Taylor, she observes that hat-wearing ladies in local black churches are aging, and few younger women seem to have adopted the tradition. Martin's observation of the hat-titude on display Sunday mornings at Salt Lake City's Calvary Baptist Church poignantly underscores another of Taylor's stories.

The actor was in a grand Chicago department store, shopping for the right hat to wear to the local opening show, when she saw a a 50-something mother, and her daughter, about 25. "I'm just to the side, doing my shopping and eavesdropping," Taylor recalls, "and the daughter was choosing all the wrong things."

After a while, the mother started selecting hats for the daughter to try on, and both left the store changed, each knowing a bit more about the other's taste.

The way Taylor tells the story in a phone interview years later reveals something important about the relationship between mothers and daughters, about tradition and women's fashion choices. In one moment in a hat department, the themes of the musical "Crowns" had become tangible, a real-life moment as charged as live theater.

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* ELLEN FAGG can be contacted at ellenf@sltrib.com or 801-257-8621. Send comments to livingeditor@sltrib.com.

Hat trick

* "CROWNS" plays Friday through Feb. 9 at the Grand Theatre, 1575 S. State St., Salt Lake City. Curtain is at 7:30 p.m. for shows on Friday and Saturday, Jan. 30-Feb. 2, and Feb. 4-9, with 2 p.m. matinees Feb. 2 and 9.

* TICKETS ARE $18 and $24 for main-floor seating, and $10 for balcony seats, available by calling 801-957-3322 or visiting http://www.the-grand.org.

* "PORTRAITS OF BLACK WOMEN IN CHURCH HATS," by photographer Michael Cunningham and writer Craig Marberry, is open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., Mondays through Thursdays, through Feb. 29 at the Utah Cultural Celebration Center, 1355 W. 3100 South, West Valley City.

* UTAH PHOTOGRAPHER VICTOR M. RIVERA'S portraits of Utah women wearing hats will be displayed from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays through Fridays through Feb. 9 in the lobby of the Grand Theatre, 1575 S. State St., Salt Lake City.