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Tuesday, February 20, 2018
The Next Page: A new award recognizes theaters that have staged all 10 plays of August Wilson’s Cycle
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: It’s one of the great achievements in American literature, perhaps the greatest in American playwriting: the 10-play sequence of August Wilson’s American Century Cycle, inspired by the life he observed in his native Hill District, where nine of the 10 take place.
I'm so proud of Chicago for being the first place where the cycle was completed. I love the cycle and have since I was introduced to it in my sophomore year. We take the August Wilson monologue competition very seriously and I competed in it from sophomore year on. I also think it's really awesome that Pittsburgh is spear heading giving these awards out. I think August Wilson would be very grateful that the people in the Hill District are still being represented. Those plays hold his heart, soul, and life. I want the Century Cycle to be continued on film as well. I think it's incredibly important that all black people get to see these chronicles of the black existence in a place where black people are ignored. Theatre is incredibly inaccessible. I had never seen an August Wilson play before the movie Fences, though I had read much of his work, because I couldn't afford to go to see Two Trains Running at the Goodman when I was old enough to understand Wilson's work. Eventually I want every black person to be taught about this feat of literature and be able to experience it themselves.
I've had the extreme honor of being able to experience both "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" and "King Hedley" while i was in Los Angeles. All of August Wilson's work is rich with struggle, pride, and the realties of African-Americans living in the Hill district. August Wilson truly created a work of genius with the century cycle and all that its brought to the theatrical world in terms of recognition and activism for African-American lives in America. This award is an incredible honor and highly necessary, it shows that theaters like the Goodman and American Stage are aware and committed enough to not only cast all of ten plays with all African-American actors but tell extraordinary stories of perseverance and pain. Wilson has been one of the few playwrights that have shook me thoroughly leaving a theater, and the more theaters performing this, the more audience members can develop the power of awareness, respect, and tolerance for the struggle of African-Americans for hundreds of years living in the United States.
2 comments:
I'm so proud of Chicago for being the first place where the cycle was completed. I love the cycle and have since I was introduced to it in my sophomore year. We take the August Wilson monologue competition very seriously and I competed in it from sophomore year on.
I also think it's really awesome that Pittsburgh is spear heading giving these awards out. I think August Wilson would be very grateful that the people in the Hill District are still being represented. Those plays hold his heart, soul, and life.
I want the Century Cycle to be continued on film as well. I think it's incredibly important that all black people get to see these chronicles of the black existence in a place where black people are ignored. Theatre is incredibly inaccessible. I had never seen an August Wilson play before the movie Fences, though I had read much of his work, because I couldn't afford to go to see Two Trains Running at the Goodman when I was old enough to understand Wilson's work. Eventually I want every black person to be taught about this feat of literature and be able to experience it themselves.
I've had the extreme honor of being able to experience both "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" and "King Hedley" while i was in Los Angeles. All of August Wilson's work is rich with struggle, pride, and the realties of African-Americans living in the Hill district. August Wilson truly created a work of genius with the century cycle and all that its brought to the theatrical world in terms of recognition and activism for African-American lives in America. This award is an incredible honor and highly necessary, it shows that theaters like the Goodman and American Stage are aware and committed enough to not only cast all of ten plays with all African-American actors but tell extraordinary stories of perseverance and pain. Wilson has been one of the few playwrights that have shook me thoroughly leaving a theater, and the more theaters performing this, the more audience members can develop the power of awareness, respect, and tolerance for the struggle of African-Americans for hundreds of years living in the United States.
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