AugustWilson.net
August Wilson: A
Maverick Playwright with Unadulterated Wisdom
(New York Amsterdam News)
August Wilson's success, which has garnered two Pulitzer Prizes, a Drama Desk award and a following of a contingent of diehard theater aficionados, has not remotely tampered with the revered playwright' s urgent pleas for an expansion and cultivation of Black theaters.
"We need more Black theaters," says Wilson, who won a Pultizer Prize for "Fences" (1987) and "The Piano Lesson" (1990) and the New York Drama Critic's Circle Awards for "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom," "Fences, " "Joe Turner's Come and Gone," "The Piano Lesson," "Two Trains Running" and "Seven Guitars."
"We need [Black] theaters in the Black communities as a Black institution. So that theater becomes a natural part of life in the community, which is very often for those who go to the theaters, they have to leave their communities and go somewhere else."
The widely respected Wilson plays have been performed nationwide and on Broadway, a venue not often frequented by those representing the hip-hop generation but a segment of the population he hopes to attract.
Wilson,
however, expresses that to obtain this goal, the younger audience must see the
theater as a vehicle for expression. "The hip-hop generation has carved out
their own thing; if they saw where the theater could be a viable means of
expression then I think more people would get involved," he indicated, in a
telephone interview from Crossroads Theatre Company in New Brunswick where he
was an artist-in-residence for his play "Jitney."
Besides viewing the theater as a source of entertainment, Wilson conceptualizes this entity as a resourceful educational mechanism. "The whole idea of drama is that it educates us about ourselves. That is why people go to the theater to see Shakespeare or Lorraine Hansberry or whomever. I think this is vitally important for our children. They need to learn something about their history."
Touring a New York high school produced an unfortunate encounter for the advocate playwright. "One of the children thought that American slavery ended in 1960," he remorsefully recalls. "This is really tragic. All I could think of was that this was my fault. We just assume that high school students know these things and very often they do not."
Wilson is modest, candid, uncompromising and, now, controversial for his crusade to escalate the percentage of Black theaters; but he is also equally revered. "He is an artist who is very truthful to his roots and craft," says New Federal Theatre founder and producing director Woodie King Jr. "He came to a level of consciousness during the Civil Rights Movement, and he is a part of that process." Harold Scott, as associate artist of Crossroads Theatre and a former colleague of the late actress and accomplished playwright Lorraine Hansberry, described Wilson as "brilliant, and he has [created] an incredible body of work."
Retired educator and seasoned actress Linda Gravatt defines Wilson as a historian. "He has in mind and experience documented the men I admire and adore in my life, and I thank him for keeping their memories and vitality alive in the American theater," says Gravatt.
In most of Wilson's plays he documents history. His plays are often compacted with history of the African diaspora, jazz and religion. Familiarity with the subject matter is mandatory to gain a minimum appreciation of the writers work. Consequently, after seeing one of his plays, particularly "Joe Turner's Come and Gone," one is likely to be faced with a barrage of new discoveries over a lengthy period of time. As Wilson continues to work on his next project, a play set in the '80s, he intends to continue incorporating more African-American history in his plays.
Ethnic NewsWatch © SoftLine Information, Inc., Stamford, CT
Author not available, August Wilson: A maverick playwright with unadulterated wisdom. New York Amsterdam News, 05-17-1997, pp PG.
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