
DATE: Thursday, October 23, 1997            TAG: 9710230086

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY KIA MORGAN ALLEN, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:  110 lines

THE BLACK ANNIE THE HURRAH PLAYERS HAVE BROKEN WITH TRADITION, CASTING A 10-YEAR-OLD BLACK GIRL IN THE LEADING ROLE

``DOES ANNIE have to be white?''

The eight judges who asked that question were in the middle of selecting the lead performer for the Hurrah Players' production of ``Annie.''

Hugh Copeland, founder and artistic director of the group, told them that Annie just had to be a kid who could sing, act and dance.

``No, she doesn't have to be white,'' he told the judges.

``That's all we needed to know,'' they said.

And so Friday at the Virginia Beach Pavilion, Adrienne Warren becomes perhaps the first African American to play Annie in the famed musical. At least, the first in Hampton Roads.

It's been such a happening that Warren, a fifth-grader at Portsmouth's Lakeview Elementary, was featured in Jet, a national magazine.

Copeland's casting of Warren as the redheaded, freckle-faced orphan who goes from rags to riches, has met with little local opposition.

``We got a few calls,'' acknowledged Copeland, ``but for every (negative) call we had, we had at least 50 calls saying, `Right on, we support you.' ''

The decision to select a black Annie, Copeland says, was based solely on the fact that Warren was good. Real good. So good that she wowed the judges and brought onlookers to tears when she belted out ``Tomorrow,'' the musical's signature song.

``She's awesome,'' Copeland said. ``She just belts out songs and she has people crying. She's dynamic. We could not be a worthwhile family theater if we don't teach kids to judge each other on ability, talent and who they are as performers and not on the basis of race.''

He says Annie could have been Asian, Filipino or white as well, because kids of all colors were encouraged to try out for roles. Some 200 kids auditioned.

Copeland, who started Hurrah Players 14 years ago, says he has upended conventional rules before. He cast a rainbow coalition of kids in ``The Sound of Music.''

He received no calls about that, he said. No one made a sound about it.

Copeland is concerned, though, that the race issue over Annie has been ``blown out of proportion.'' He said the Jet magazine article overemphasized the issue.

``We had more people support the decision than question it,'' Copeland said.

Copeland also denounced allegations that the company's decision to cast a black Annie was a media ploy.

As for the little leading lady, Copeland simply said, ``She is the best.''

It took the judging panel a week to trim the field of 98 Annie wanna-bes who flooded a casting call at Military Circle Mall earlier this year.

First to 40. Then 30. Then 17 and to four before selecting Adrienne.

``It was nerve-wracking,'' Adrienne said. ``All those other girls wanted the part of Annie, and they were really good.''

The soft-spoken actress looks more like she'd be at home in a schoolyard than on stage. She's an avid basketball player, a dancer, an Odyssey of the Mind member, and a straight-A student. She's a busy bee with brains.

``She's simply a jewel,'' said Isaac Askew, principal of Lakeview Elementary. ``There's nothing she can't do. She appears to be almost a perfect child.

``She is certainly a role model for the other boys and girls here. She will go far.''

Askew said teachers realized early on that Adrienne was talented beyond her years.

So did her parents.

``She's been singing since she was 3,'' said Andrea Warren, Adrienne's mom. ``She used to sing with her father at church.''

Warren says her daughter has worked with the Hurrah Players for five years and is usually cast in less appealing roles.

Copeland agreed, saying, ``She's usually just cast as the third girl in the back, but she doesn't need the spotlight to give it all she's got.''

Adrienne says she won the role of Annie because persistence prevailed.

``I did the best I could, and it worked,'' she said.

Andrea Warren said Adrienne - who lives in Portsmouth with her mother and her father, Samuel - told her parents that she wanted to audition for the role.

``She thought it would be fun,'' Warren said.

But when they learned that Adrienne had actually beaten out a slew of competitors to capture the leading role, Warren said, ``I just cried.''

Adrienne said, ``I couldn't stop laughing.''

Having played a townsperson in the play ``Aladdin'' at age 7, a mouse in ``Cinderella'' at 8, a role in ``Charlotte's Web'' at 9 and now the lead in ``Annie'' at 10, Adrienne seems to have acting in her blood.

At a recent run-through rehearsal inside a cramped dance studio in Ghent, the stomping ground for the Hurrah Players, Copeland joked with Adrienne as he watched her mother struggle to wrap the actress' thick hair, trying to make it flat and secure under a stocking cap.

``Adrienne, make your hair go down,'' he said.

``Does anyone have any bobby pins?'' asked Warren. She tugged and tucked Adrienne's hair before balancing a wig atop her head, one of three red wigs Annie will wear, including a curly one.

Adrienne waited patiently for her mother to finish fiddling with her locks. She twitched her face.

Finally the silky red wig was placed on her head, completing the transformation from Adrienne to Annie. Soon, Adrienne bounded onto the make-shift stage, dazzling and charming everyone watching in the wings.

``She does so beautifully,'' said Adair Heyl, an onlooker. ``I just get so choked up.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]

NHAT MYER

The Virginian-Pilot

Adrienne Warren was chosen from among 98 girls who tried out for the

role of Annie.

RICHARD L. DUNSTON / The Virginian-Pilot

Besides acting, Adrienne Warren is a basketball player, dancer and

straight-A student. KEYWORDS: INTERVIEW