'Color Purple' actresses Felicia P. Fields and Lynette DuPree make sure cast eats well on tour

WHEN FELICIA P. Fields and Lynette DuPree hit the road to perform in the touring company of "The Color Purple," there's one thing they need no matter where they are staying.

It's not high-count sheets or a room with a view.

These women need a kitchen.

Since the smash Broadway musical's national tour began in August 2003, Chicago native Fields, who plays Sofia, and DuPree, a New Yorker who plays gossipy church lady Jarlene, have been the resident soul-food cooks for cast and crew. When these sassy ladies aren't onstage, they're in their hotel rooms cooking up feasts on stovetop burners and organizing potluck dinners backstage.

The two longtime theater actors have been cooking for most of their lives and, coming from families with Southern roots, they've perfected such essentials as collard greens, fried chicken, turkey with dressing and dozens of other dishes that provide culinary comfort to road-weary performers.

The ladies are so beloved for their soul-food specialties that their recipes landed in an online cookbook promotion, "The Food We Love: The Color Purple Cookbook" (www.colorpurple.com).

We talked with them recently about their love of cooking, their life on the road and their soul-food secrets. "The Color Purple" ends its four-week run at the Academy of Music on Sunday.

Q: So how did you discover you loved to cook?

Fields: I grew up on the south side of Chicago, but my parents were from New Orleans originally, so everything was rice with every meal. I was an adult before I even had mashed potatoes. My dad was from New Orleans and my mom was from a country town outside of Baton Rouge. So they did a lot of seafood, and we did a lot of gumbo at home. Red beans and rice became my specialty. When I was a teenager, we had to start cooking.

DuPree: I started cooking really early by watching my mother. She is an excellent cook. We grew up in Rochester, N.Y., but my great-grandfather originally moved the whole family from Alabama to find factory work up there. My mother learned to cook from her mother-in-law because when she got married she was very young and wanted to be a good cook for her family. So she learned her [mother-in-law's] recipes and improved on them. I was the only one out of the three of us children who would spend time in the kitchen watching her, and I picked up a lot of things from her.

I cook traditional black Southern cuisine. I love cooking. The whole time I'm cooking, I am thinking about how much people will enjoy it. I think cooking is kind of emotional.

Q: What are your specialties?

DuPree: We are two of the people in the show who really love to cook, and we are kind of famous for our potlucks. People go all out for them. I make my sausage dressing - everyone likes that. This time we are having a potluck here [in Philadelphia] and probably 80 to 100 people are bringing food. We always have plenty. . . . But my sausage dressing, I will give you the recipe for it - it is good.

Fields: Most of the time the cast likes my macaroni and cheese. It's a lot more cheese than macaroni - sharp cheddar, American, Asiago, Muenster and provolone. The recipe actually started off with my godmother, and I started to embellish upon it. Most people don't put pepper in their macaroni and cheese but I put salt and pepper. I use an evaporated milk and sometimes I use cream cheese - Philadelphia Cream Cheese, actually.

Q: So what is the secret to good soul food?

Fields: Cook everything slow, whatever you cook. Like the secret to making turkey is to cook it slow and to add a can of cream of mushroom soup and a can of cream of celery soup. You get a good flavor and a good gravy. Put it in at 300 degrees at 6 in the morning and let it slow-cook for five hours. . . . If you let the food take its time, you barely have to chew it, it's so tender.

Q: When you are on the road, how does this work? You look for places with kitchens and plan meals?

Fields: We go from place to place and, depending on where we are, we make sure we will be able to cook. Whenever either of us gets there before the rest of the cast, we get to the store and cook up the [collard] greens. The last city I was in, I had a Residence Inn room with a full oven. So when I got to Philly, I had a Residence Inn room, so I went to Super Fresh and bought turkey wings. I seasoned them, and then I got up at 5 a.m. the next morning to put them in the oven - and there was no oven. I had just two burners on top of the stove. I had just assumed I would have a whole oven.

So I boiled them, and they came out just as good. I brought them to the cast. The next day I made spaghetti sauce and put it in Tupperwares and brought that to the cast. When you are on the road for eight weeks at a time you [want home-cooked food].

DuPree: My husband and I are traveling together along with our dog, so whenever we're in places for more than a couple of weeks we try to get a place with a kitchen. This time, in Philadelphia, we rented a condominium. We just like to cook at home - the food quality is better. Your body gets tired of burgers and pizza.

Q: So how did the potluck, which you hold once in each city, originate?

DuPree: We started it about a year ago. One thing we were striving to do was to put everyone together, the cast and the crew. Everyone is invited. We hold it backstage on a day when we have two shows back to back. [In Philadelphia, that was Sunday]. Felicia started it and I helped her organize it. It has gotten so big, and everyone is invited - it is so much fun. Everyone brings a dish and the food is amazing. *

Send e-mail to

lisanta@phillynews.com.

To see the online cookbook, go to www.colorpurple.com and click on "News and Events."

"The Color Purple," Academy of Music, Broad and Locust streets, 7:30 tonight, 8 p.m. tomorrow, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday and 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday. 215-893-1955, KimmelCenter.org or Kimmel Center box office, Broad and Spruce streets. $28-$87.50, discounts ($49.50 or less) Thursday and 6:30 p.m. Sunday performances.