America’s Shakespeare
Regine Vital celebrates August Wilson with 'Seven Guitars'
Regine Vital might have been more interested in Phylicia Rashad than August Wilson when she went to see the Huntington Theatre Company’s production of “Gem of the Ocean” in 2004. But Vital left the production crushed by the power of Wilson’s work.
“I don’t even remember if I just went to see Phylicia Rashad, that might have been the draw,” the actor told the Herald. “But I was just taken in by it. At the end of the second act, I remember I was in tears. I was completely moved. It was one of the best things I had ever seen.”
This month, Vital will be part of the Actors’ Shakespeare Project production of “Seven Guitars” — now through March 5 at Hibernian Hall. The production is part of a long journey Vital has taken from first seeing “Gem of the Ocean” through the works of Wilson (and Shakespeare).
Vital works with the Huntington Theater Company
as the manager of curriculum and instruction. She also works with August Wilson New Voices, a national competition that engages students with Wilson’s work. Oh, she’s also a Shakespeare expert. Her history and talents give her a unique perspective on “Seven Guitars.”
“If August Wilson is America’s Shakespeare… what would ‘Seven Guitars’ partner play be?” she asked. “It feels a bit like ‘King Lear.’ It also feels a bit like ‘Hamlet.’”
Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, “Seven Guitars” follows the ill-fated career of up-and-coming blues musician Floyd “Schoolboy” Barton through a flashback of his last days. Set in 1948, it’s a bawdy comedy heavy with blues, humanity and longing.
There are many parallels between Wilson and Shakespeare that make this production perfect for the Actors’ Shakespeare Project. Vital points out that there are ten plays in Wilson’s Century Cycle — the playwright’s chronicle of Black America over 100 years — and Shakespeare wrote ten histories. And that within those histories are layers of meaning, language, emotion and more.
“texts do multiple things at once,” Vital said. “They are full of history, full of knowledge and spirituality, and aesthetic and tradition. So a company like Actors’ Shakespeare Project doing August Wilson furthers their mission.”
There’s plenty to connect to two giants of theater, but even without the artistic overlap, “Seven Guitars” deserves to be put on. It deserves to be produced again and again — as do the other nine works in the Century Cycle.
Vital reports there’s a great chemistry and a mighty charge to the rehearsals even though the play “begins in a heavy place and ends in a heavy place.” That energy will no doubt translate to the stage.
“These characters are very much alive and living and grabbing on to experiences,” Vital said. “There seems to be this electricity in the air even in the most quiet moments. It’s been an interesting space to occupy and I’m having a blast doing it.”
For tickets and details, visit actorsshakespeareproject.org.