August Wilson’s 70th birthday celebrated
It’s just April, but 2015 has already been an august year — as in August Wilson.
Today is the 70th birthday of the Pittsburgh-born playwright many call the American Shakespeare, and this year is also the 10th anniversary of his death.
His birthday was celebrated Saturday afternoon with “Celebrating August Wilson!” before a small audience at the Hill House Association, and that evening with “August Wilson’s Women,” a program of music, dance, theater and discussion at the packed August Wilson Center, Downtown. Birthday cakes were served at both.
In the past two months, there have also been major documentaries in the PBS “American Masters” series and on BBC radio. On stage, the Pittsburgh Public Theater had Mr. Wilson’s autobiographical “How I Learned What I Learned.”
National celebrations included Chicago, where more than 20 theaters and universities surrounded full and concert readings of Mr. Wilson’s 10 plays with panels and seminars.
Saturday night’s “August Wilson’s Women” provided what it promised and more.
At its heart was a collage of speeches from some of his 22 women characters, directed with intimate knowledge by Mr. Wilson’s longtime collaborator, Todd Kreidler, and read with intelligence and feeling by Eileen Morris, Karla Payne and Thembisile Gxuluwe.
But the event also marked the hopeful rebirth of the August Wilson Center for African American Culture, recently saved from bankruptcy by the City, County and three large foundations. The center celebrates African American dance, music, art and theater, and with “August Wilson’s Women,” it did just that.
Following a genial welcome by emcee Sala Udin, the program began with the Geri Allen Quartet with jazz numbers that leaned toward the blues Mr. Wilson loved, featuring musician/pastor Dwight Andrews, who was music director on five of his plays on Broadway.
Next came Reed Dance, in which three dancers embodied much of the drama of Mr. Wilson’s women. In conclusion, music, dance and Mr. Wilson’s words were knitted together.
Act 2 was a symposium with actor/director Eileen Morris, Mr. Andrews and scholars Caroline Jackson Smith and Ladrica MensonFurr. Each took the women in three or four plays and described their particular strengths and resilience.
The evening ended with Mr. Wilson’s niece, Kim Ellis, speaking of his commitment to political justice, family and friends.
The afternoon’s celebration at Hill House included tributes by representatives of WQED, historian Laurence Glasco and Mr. Udin, plus statements sent by leading Wilson scholars. Acting interludes included a scene from “Fences,” upcoming at Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre (May 8-30), and student standouts from recent August Wilson Monologue Contests. Alexis Payne, a Pittsburgh CAPA senior, won the play competition sponsored by WQED.
Ms. Ellis stressed that today Mr. Wilson “would have been standing with the people who are overlooked ... the black working poor.” She then led everyone in singing “Happy Birthday” — both the traditional and Stevie Wonder versions.
Famed literary figures frequently enter into semi-obscurity until posterity awards their due recognition. It was Saturday’s underlying theme that it is up to us all to keep Mr. Wilson’s work alive.