Black Empowerment

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Black Empowerment:
Playwright August Wilson Less Known By Blacks

(New Pittsburgh Courier )

August Wilson is the most successful African-American playwright of all times. He is well on his way toward his goal of writing a play about African-American life in each decade of the 20th century. His works debut at major Broadway theaters and over the last decade he has been honored repeatedly with Pulitzer, Drama Desk and Tony awards.

Wilson's first Broadway hit, and probably still best known work, is "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom," which premiered in 1985. The following year he won America's most prestigious literary honor, the Pulitzer Prize, for "Joe Turner's Come and Gone." He was awarded the Pulitzer again in 1990 for "Fences," which starred James Earl Jones on Broadway. His most recent play is "Seven Guitars."

Ironically, while Wilson has been honored by the white-dominated theater establishment and is respected by the primarily white Broadway theater audience, he is much less known by ordinary Black folks. Most of us don't get to see his plays. It's not surprising that Wilson would depend on mainly white producers to put on his plays and mainly white audiences to by the tickets.

They don't call Broadway the "Great White Way" for nothing. In spite of--or perhaps, because of--this situation, Wilson recently has begun to advocate for a separatist approach to Black professional theaters, claiming that white people cannot write roles of Blacks, attacking colorblind casting," that is the casting of Blacks and other people of color in roles, for example, those written by Shake-speare, that were not originally written for them. Wilson called for a fully separate and exclusive Black professional theater.

He first made these separatist views public in a keynote address delivered to the biennial national conference of the Theatre Communications Group, whose members are representatives of non-profit professional theaters around the country, where he asked that white-controlled government agencies, corporations and foundations which now fund white and multi-cultural non-profit theaters around the country bankroll separate Black theaters.

Not surprisingly, Wilson's views have found little support among working Black actors, dramatists and directors. They need to work in existing theaters to make a living and want the opportunity to perform more roles, not less.

The theatre establishment--very white and very liberal--was also stunned. Wilson found his most ardent opponent in Robert Brustein, former head of the Yale Drama School, artistic director of the American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, Mass., and drama critic for The New Republic. Their debate has been the debate between two political/cultural positions which have both failed the African-American community--liberalism and cultural nationalism.

The problem with the cultural debate is the extent to which the Black community has been left out. How the Black community can develop a sophisticated and popular theater reflective of its history and culture and relevant to the current cultural economic, political and social circumstances in our country is a serious question. We would hope that August Wilson, who claims to represent African-American culture in the theatre world, would bring the African-American community into the dialogue. So far, he hasn't.

If Wilson is serious about creating a viable, new Black theatre, why isn't he talking to us? Why was his debate with Brustein held at a Times Square theater instead of the Apollo in Harlem? Black "nationalists" and "separatists" who speak (and present their plays) to whites have, in my opinion, little credibility as leaders, cultural or otherwise. I urge Mr. Wilson, who is one of America's greatest play-wrights, to speak to African- American people. I would be very happy to provide Wilson with opportunities to present his position to and have a dialogue with the Black community.

Wilson and Brustein held a public debate last month before an overflow crowd of theatre artists at a Broadway theater. Brustein insisted that "things have changed" over 300 years and particularly the last 30 for Black people. Wilson took on this classically liberal and condescending view. Brustein challenged Wilson to put his plays where his mouth is by premiering his next drama at an African-American theater. Wilson replied: "I myself am personally a playwright. I am not interested in starting a theater." His response was greeted with boos.

Cultural nationalism is a legitimate--although in my opinion, misguided and ultimately hypocritical--response to the racism of American society. While I disagree with Wilson's separation (especially a separatism funded by white-dominated institutions), I think that it's important that the Black community be a place to dialogue in an informed and intelligent way on all the cultural and political options open to us.

(Lenora B. Fulani twice ran for president of the U.S. as an independent, making his-tory in 1988 when she became the first woman and African- American to get on the ballot in all 50 states.)

"Black Empowerment: Playwright August Wilson Less Known By Blacks." New Pittsburgh Courier, 03-05-1997, pp PG.

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