When the singer Nina Simone made justice her forte

A few years ago, Regina Williams and some fellow actresses were sharing a dressing room. They brought along some of their favorite music.

Williams kept being struck by what she thought were several different, distinct voices — but each time she asked who was singing, she was told it was Nina Simone.

"I was so fascinated by the idea that I didn't know she was," Williams recalled. "How could I not know who this voice was?"

Williams knows better now. She plays Simone in a new play about to open at Park Square Theatre, focusing on a crucial turning point in the singer-songwriter's career.

Simone came to prominence in the 1960s, when she melded her musical talent with her passion for racial justice. But she spent much of her later life in obscurity.

Now she's enjoying a bit of a cultural renaissance.

Last year Netflix released a documentary about her, and now Hollywood is releasing a bio-pic called "Nina." Closer to home is Park Square's "Nina Simone: Four Women."

After her dressing-room introduction to Simone's work, Williams said, she "had to know who the heck she was." But she did more than get to know her — she became a spokesperson for her, producing an evening-long tribute to Simone's life and music.

Then she persuaded Park Square Theatre to produce a play about Simone.

"I think she needs to be as well-known as Dr. King was," Williams said. "People need to know who she is. She's part of our history, and not just African-American history — black history, music history, women's history. We need to know who she is."

Simone got her start as a classical pianist and made her money as a jazz and show-tune crooner. But in the early 1960s, racial hatred and violence was all around, from the assassination of Medgar Evers to the Alabama church bombing that killed four little girls.

Director Faye Price said that while the play includes several of Nina Simone's songs, it's no jukebox musical. It focuses on the moment when Simone decided her music couldn't just be about art anymore.

"It's about sisterhood, for lack of a better phrase, and I don't mean that tritely by any stretch of the imagination," she said. "It's really a wonderful opportunity to see these women come together and find each other during this horrible, horrible time — 1963, in the bombed-out 16th Street Baptist Church."

Simone paid a price for singing about racial justice. Some accused her of exploiting the violence for personal gain.

Price said that while the play is set more than 50 years ago, it bears a strong tie to current events, and Simone's lyrics resonate with present-day frustrations.

Park Square Theatre commissioned playwright Christina Ham for the work. The cast consists of four black women, inspired by Nina Simone's song, "Four Women."

Ham said it's extraordinary for a play's director, author and cast to all be black women.

"I'm hard-pressed to think even nationally where a production like this is, and that's why it's so special," she said.

Regina Williams said Simone's story inspired her to look deeply at her own career and ask how she might better serve racial justice through her art.

"A woman with so many voices speaking for so many of us," Williams said. "Whether we knew it or not, she was speaking on our behalf."

"Nina Simone: Four Women" runs through March 26 at Park Square Theatre in St. Paul.