Her friend Chad
In Pittsburgh, Boseman’s love poem captured Vanessa German’s heart
The unexpected death of actor Chadwick Boseman has led Netflix to delay a virtual preview for “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” the upcoming film version of the August Wilson play.
The film was shot on location on the North Side last year with Boseman and Academy Award winner Viola Davis. A preview of the film along with a conversation between Davis and “Ma Rainey” director George C. Wolfe was scheduled Monday, but it was postponed due to Boseman’s death Friday from colon cancer at age 43. The film is to be released later this year on Netflix.
It was not Boseman’s first visit to Pittsburgh.
In 2002, when he was 24, he came here to work with Kuntu Repertory, a community theater group that highlighted African American culture and traditions through drama. He had written a show, “Hieroglyphic Graffiti,” to be staged at the University of Pittsburgh’s Alumni Hall in Oakland. In “Graffiti,” the young playwright blended his admiration for hip- hop theater, his experiences in Washington, D. C., at Howard University and the ancient myth of Osiris and Iris.
Vanessa German, an artist, activist and actor from Homewood, played the female lead and became friends with Boseman, who spent a month in Pittsburgh prior to opening night. She recalled how he taught her breathing techniques and acting skills she uses to this day.
“He was the person who told me I was going to be an artist before I was an artist,” she said this week.
German took Boseman to art shows around the city and to the Shadow Lounge, a now- closed coffeehouse and performance space in East Liberty. He read a love poem about a Black woman with an eating disorder, drawing applause.
“Chad was really cool. He was really beautiful, and he had a different shape of air around him,” German said.
“He actually said, ‘ I don’t do this anymore. I used to do this,’ which surprised me. I was like, ‘ You’re really young. What do you mean used to? How are you so young and you have things you are done with already?’”
Post- Gazette senior theater critic Christopher Rawson praised “Hieroglyphic Graffiti,” and the show was the subject of a recent Tumblr post by Pitt student Lauren Galloway on Rare Books @ Pitt. Vernell Lillie, who was then an Africana studies professor at Pitt, was also the founder and artistic director of Kuntu Repertory Theatre, which closed in 2013. She chose to have her company perform “Graffiti” by the young unknown playwright.
“His approach to his craft was like that of a veteran artist. That was mostly always prevalent about him,” Eileen J. Morris, Kuntu’s then- managing director, said at the time. “He was serious about the art, and it was clear that being involved as a writer, director and performer gave him such gratification.”
In 2002, Boseman was a few years removed from a summer fellowship at England’s Oxford University that he took at the recommendation of one of his Howard professors, actor Phylicia Rashad. His expenses were paid by a benefactor that turned out to be actor Denzel Washington, who served as a producer on the film version of “Ma Rainey.”
Boseman transitioned from theater to film, portraying football running back Floyd Little, baseball icon Jackie Robinson, funk powerhouse James Brown and Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. He is best known for his starring role in the Marvel superhero film “Black Panther.”
German said a friend of hers in Los Angeles asked her why Boseman kept getting big parts in movies.
“He’s more than just a good actor,” German said. “His presence is mind- boggling. He didn’t feel like a regular human being, so every time I took him somewhere, I
felt like I was with a mountain or a king.”
His final film, “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” tells the story of another monumental figure, Ma Rainey, one of the earliest Black blues recording artists. In the play and film, the singer faces rising conflicts with bandmates, her agent and a recording engineer in 1927 Chicago. Davis, who plays Rainey, won an Oscar for her performance in the 2016 film adaptation of “Fences,” another in Wilson’s American Century Cycle of plays. Boseman plays troubled trumpet player Levee, who competes for his own shot in the spotlight.
Scenes for “Ma Rainey” were shot in Allegheny West as well as at the Strip District’s 31st Studios in summer 2019. During that time, Boseman was spotted at Heinz Field watching an evening Steelers practice as part of Family Fest with coowner Thomas Tull, who helped produce the film “42.” He also interacted with wide receiver JuJu Smith- Shuster and injured linebacker Ryan Shazier.
As Boseman’s fame grew, he and German continued to write to each other. She noted his “clarity of purpose” as an actor, never being afraid to fail, and his unwavering integrity. She referenced a 2018 episode of “Saturday Night Live” in which he served as host. She remembered wondering how he was going to go on TV and make fun of people.
“Somehow he went with those writers to come up with material that held the standard of his character, his integrity,” German said. “He didn’t mock people. He didn’t change, and that was on ‘ Saturday Night Live.’”
She noticed changes in Boseman’s appearance over the past few years but she was not privy to his private pain. He was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer in 2016.
“I was really humbled by Chad, and I loved him dearly, and I can’t believe that we only got 43 years,” German said.
“I also know that he believed in us. He was like, ‘ Everything that people say about the Black Panther is true of them. You are the Black Panther wherever you are, wherever you are creating.’”