‘August in August’ serves up tasty morsels of theater

(This originally ran in the August 24, 2011 edition of the  New Pittsburgh Courier)
by C. Denise Johnson
For New Pittsburgh Courier
    Generally speaking in theater circles, revivals refer to new productions of long –
remembered and highly regarded works returning to the Great White Way. Liberty
Avenue may not be Broadway, but last weekend saw the much-anticipated return of
the “August in…” theater sampler to Pittsburgh’s Cultural District in the August Wilson
Center for African American Culture.
    Begun as a collaboration between the Cultural Trust’s Janice Burley Wilson and
Pittsburgh Playwrights Theater Company founder Mark Clayton Southers, it experienced
growing pain and hiatuses while attracting Broadway luminaries James Earl Jones and
Charles Dutton in tribute to Pittsburgh’s Hill District griot.
    A near-capacity house was treated to performances from nationally respected
actors, Broadway veterans and some of the best talent from southwest Pa. in scenes from
ten plays comprising August Wilson’s “Century Cycle” that portray African American
life in each decade of the 1900s.
    To present “August in August” in the AWC in Wilson’s hometown was a full
circle moment reminiscent of the African sankofa bird that returns to where it began.
Metaphors aside, the symbolism was not lost on the audience as they were treated to soul
food in the words and wisdom dispensed through Wilson’s pen.
    The evening began with a taste of things to come in a very brief scene from “Gem
of the Ocean” of an uninvited visitor intent on conferring with Aunt Ester. The ensuing
scuffle disturbs Aunt Ester who queries the insistent intruder with “Didn’t he tell you to
come back Tuesday?”
    We do return, but this time we’re in recording studio awaiting the arrival of Ma
Rainey (Vanessa German). This scene from “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” features
Antonio Fargas (best known as “Huggy Bear” from the 1970 Starsky & Hutch cop
series); film, TV actor and Swissvale native David Conrad; and members of the August
Wilson Center Theatre Ensemble.
    In “Radio Golf,” Harmon Wilks receives a brilliant object lesson in
gamesmanship, race and reality from urban philosopher Sterling; followed by an excerpt
from “Jitney” where Youngblood comes clean to the mother of his child about his
suspicious behavior.
     “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone” features Tony Award-winner Stephen McKinley
Henderson as Bynum sharing his perspective on women and “Two Trains Running”
highlights dialogue on current events (funerals, finance and real estate) steeped in
authenticity as served up by Anthony Chisholm, Sala Udin and Fargas to close out the
first half.
     The second act opened with a scene from “King Hedley” where Tonya and King
argue over whether or not she should keep the child she’s carrying. Powerful
performances from AWCTE member Joshua Elijah Reese and August Wilson
Monologue winner Emily Kolb (an incoming college freshman) captivated the audience,
as did its follow up, a scene between Chrystal Bates and Kevin Brown from “The Piano
Lesson.” Both excerpts highlight the struggle of the sexes for balance with their world
and each other.
    The “dance” between Hedley (Fargas) and Bernice (Andrea Frye) in “Seven
Guitars” sheds a different light on the male-female battle of wills (call this one a draw).
    Family conflict is the centerpiece of the “Fences” excerpt that has McKinley reprising his
Broadway role of Bono and Udin as Troy (the Broadway role played by Denzel
Washington). It’s hard to imagine Washington measuring up to the emotional stakes
ratcheted up by Udin in the confrontation with son Corey (played by Carter Redwood) in
the climatic scene.
    A collective exhale of the built of tension is released with the evening’s closing
scene from “Ma Rainey” with a hilarious, scene-stealing turn by Michaelangelo Turner.
    It truly took a village to put on “August in August” and, as attested by Wilson’s
widow Constanza who was in attendance closing night, would have met his approval
with it’s multigenerational participation onstage and backstage with crew, costumers
(Cheryl El-Walker, Kennedy Guess, Grace Hines, Deryck Tines) and actors. Three high
school monologue winners (Kolb, Devaughn Robinson and Heaven Bobo) held their own
along side theatre and Broadway vets.
     The ensemble spirit was shared among the directors (including JaSonte Roberts
Dean, Tami Dixon, Kim El, Frye, Henderson, Joseph Martinez, Redwood and Southers)
and cast (Jeffrey Carpenter, Jason Shavers, Mark Conway Thompson and Bria Walker).
    Special kudos go to composer Kathryn Bostic who brought her Broadway Wilson
sensibilities to bear on providing the music to providing the comfortable and familiar
soundtrack to underscore the product.
    'August in August' is a fitting conclusion to a season of transition at the AWC and
an appropriate first finale for Southers’ tenure as Artist Director of Theater Initiatives of
the namesake facility of his mentor.

Injustice of Apathy

May 17, 2011 - Primary Election Day


We were warned of the implications of not voting last November. One would think that we learned our lesson. One would be wrong.


The Rethuglicans and Tea Party-ites are not playing. 


To date, there are only two Blacks in the newly-elected Pennsylvania governor's cabinet, the one in is executive staff is a bodyguard and the advisory commissions on Asians, Hispanics and African Americans are now history (under the guise of budget cuts).


It seems as if I've signed more online petitions against legislative attempts to roll back the clock on Capitol Hill in the first five months of the year than any of the previous years combined. Yet when I cast my vote this afternoon at 5 p.m. the poll worker crossed off number 18 on her precinct tally sheet. Even my optimism won't allow me to be deluded in the hopes of mass absentee voting.


Is it possible that that there are no eligible voters in my community because they are all felons? Nope. They aren't registered? Maybe. Or is it despair and apathy? You betcha.


Sometimes its hard to muster enthusiasm for something as abstract as voting when you struggle with the immediacy of making it from day to day keeping the kids feed, clothed, paying bills, rent and daycare. This is not justification or an excuse. This is a reality in our inner city communities.


Voter apathy is the collateral damage of complacency, ignorance, laziness and a general lack of intelligence and an abundance of decaying brain mass from a lack of critical thinking.

My first drive by...

May 14, 2011

Well, I've just seen my first dead body in the street. Only took an hour for the police to put a sheet over the corpse. Young black male, no belt, faded sagging blue jeans, red shorts, grey wife-beater, very indigenous, wooly 'fro, face-down across the street from Ammons Community Center. DOA at 16:25. Drive-by, three shots.

It was a perfect spring day. Not too hot, just comfortable enough for kids to be outside playing. The little league games had just finished up, a great afternoon for hanging out. I was just getting my strength back after being waylaid by some kind of bug that snuffed out my voice for the better part of the week. I was following up emails and getting caught up on projects I didn’t have the focus or fortitude to complete and do a few loads of laundry.

I was in the midst of forward a link to an article about the return of urban radio to the airwaves when shots rang out. Three distinct pops punctured the slow urban samba of a late sunny afternoon, immediately followed by the screech of sudden departure by car.  An eerie stillness commandeered the neighborhood as I raced to my deck to see what could be seen.

A woman daintily pranced catty-corner to someone lying in the street next to the curb, face down. I realized that I was seeing the aftermath of a drive-by, only this wasn’t TV. I went back inside to call 9-1-1.

My hoarse voice calmly relayed the location and details after what seemed like an eternity of recorded messages urging me not to hang up. I gave the dispatcher my name, number and my cell number as I was going to see what else I could learn. He mentioned that several other calls were coming in about the same incident and suggested that I remain inside.

Ignoring the advice I grabbed my cell and keys, locked the door then went outside. Less than 500 feet away, near the intersection of Bedford Avenue and Kirkpatrick is where the young man lay in between here and there. I thought I saw him move.

The cops arrived on the scene just after I walked to the corner. People materialized from everywhere. A few appeared to know the young man. Police officers secured the area and shooed onlookers away. The yellow crime scene tape went up wrapped around utility poles. A pair of uniformed officers approached the young man. One examined him with gloved hands. Neither made an effort to attend to his injuries.

The crowd grew as onlookers gathered to watch and offered their commentary.

“It’s going to be a long, hot summer.” (It’s only May).

“There were a couple of women out here there other night fixin’ to knife-fight.”

“You can hear ‘em racing up and down the street all hours of the night firing guns.”

“When I heard the shots I immediately got down,” said one man casually as his leashed lapdog checked out the real estate.

Young mothers with their children strained to see who was lying in the street. One young lady was visibly distraught, repeatedly sobbing “On my god!” An middle-aged woman was hysterical in denial – “That can’t be… it be can’t be.” She had to be physically restrained as others attempted to comfort her.

The EMTs arrived in what seemed like about 20 minutes after the first shot was heard. They seemed to be slow motion –- there was no urgency at all. Maybe the call had become too routine.

The murmured conversations were broken by the drama of screams and cries of family members arriving on the scene cloaked in horror and disbelief.

The medical examiner’s vehicle pulled off just before 6 p.m. 90 minutes later, the neighborhood resumed its day in a grotesque normalcy of business of usual

“Testimony” is a stirring revelation

This review first appeared in the May 11-17, 2011 edition of the New Pittsburgh Courier

Although there is a script, there was so much more than mere theater on the stage of the August Wilson Center for African American Culture that May 6 evening. There was a rite of passage, a catharsis, a purging of the soul, a “laying on” of hands and healing of the spirit. It was a communal cleansing from a deathly conspiracy of deep silence finally unbroken in a story circle.

Uprise: Raising Black Men Project, is the culmination of months of discussions, interviews and documentation through an engagement process with local arts, social service, criminal justice and education organizations led by siblings Carlton and Maurice S. Turner, collectively known as M.U.G.A.B.E.E. (Men Under Guidance Acting Before Early Extinction), and recorded by videographer Christopher Ivey, yielded the ingredients for a hardy, spicy gumbo brewed by August Wilson Fellow (and New Pittsburgh Courier contributor) Tameka Cage served up —“Testimony.”

The stories of Pittsburgh’s Black men are rarely told, much less heard, as a first-person account. They are the aspirations of young men beginning to make their mark, those who grew up with and (or) without their father’s influence, the men who live the consequences of their choices and the ones who simply remember, recall and share their accumulated wisdom.

Cage’s script simmers with attitudes, differences, conflicts and commonalities and reaches a boiling point of truth, triumphs and tears much more potent than machismo and testosterone. The countenance and nuances of Black men season the directing by Mark Clayton Southers, AWC’s Artistic Director of Theater Initiatives, who likened the creative process to “an awakening.”

Southers called on his roots (and production team) from Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company to conjure the set of a community center basement in a former church that essentially projected into and made the theatre audience an “amen corner” as the onstage dialogue frequently drew a call of response.

“Testimony” is truly an ensemble piece drawing on the talents of local theater veterans, theatre “babes” who’ve grown up on the stage including Jonathan Berry, Jonas Chaney, David Conley, Lonzo Green, Michael Jackson, Carter Redwood, Devaughn Robinson, Leslie Ezra Smith, Khalil Stanback, Emmanuel Walker, Joshua Wilder and Broadway’s Tony Award nominee Anthony Chisholm.

“Testimony” serves as proof of the depth of the talent in Pittsburgh Black community. The portrayals on stage are not caricature or stereotype but bring a sense of tangible authenticity.

Fortunately for all of us, Uprise: Raising Black Men Project and “Testimony” will have an afterlife. The play and its creative process of story circles and interviews will be compiled on a DVD that will be ready for distribution in the fall; and something more profound can result if we truly discern what was presented—continuing of the dialogue presented on stage, moving past the misconceptions and misperceptions of our image of Black men and begin a new era of understanding.

TALKBACK - The actors and creators of UPRISE: Raising Black Men Project in dialogue with the audience after their performance of Testimony. (Photo by C. Denise Johnson)

Friday the 13th in Harrisburg - The Demise of Diversity

The Internet is truly illuminating. While surfing my Facebook page, I came across this nugget, posted May 13, 2011 on the PA Governor's Advisory Commission on African American Affairs’ profile:

Dear FB Family, our page will soon be taken down. As of the close of business 5/13/11, the staff has been relieved of duty. It has been a pleasure working on your behalf over the years.

In a separate email from GACAAA: Please direct any communication that you would normally send to our office to Luke Bernstein, deputy chief of staff. Luke oversees the Office of Public Liaison. According to page E2.1 of the Governor's budget proposal: "The Office of Public Liaison provides advocacy services for the commonwealth's Latino, African-American and Asian-American communities. The office also advocates for women and girls."

If I am reading it correctly, I am led to believe that the all of the Governor's Advisory Commissions as well as the Pennsylvania Commission on Women have been eliminated and now come under the purview of the Office of Public Liaison.

Putting aside my knee-jerk conspiracy theory response, I would assume that consolidation is a budgetary function, although I doubt that the specific needs of four distinct constituencies can be effectively addressed in the one office charged to recognize and promote the public advocacy of issues that affect every resident of the commonwealth.

Additionally, in light of this merger of the advocacy needs of every state resident, I assumed that there would be a wide range of ethnic and racial diversity of reflected in the make up of the Governors Cabinet and Executive Staff. I was exponentially wrong.

Going strictly by the posted photos on the Governor's Web Site, two of the 24 cabinet positions are held by Blacks - Secretary of Corrections John Wetzel and Inspector General Kenya Mann Faulkner. The Executive Staff is even more disturbing.

The lone Black member (Brian K. Westmoreland) holds the esteemed position of Personal Assistant to the Governor (not to be confused with the Executive Assistant to the Governor) - the brother is essentially Corbett's bodyguard.

Is the public aware of this situation? Is it possible to bring this attention of the community? The prospect of living under this kind of state government through 2014 does not bode well for the well-being of Black folks in this Commonwealth. I shudder to think what will trickle down from the top.

C. Denise Johnson

Hill District

Pittsburgh, PA

Nudges from Above

I received an email from a family friend that contained a selection of inspirational thoughts that are more than apropos in these trying times. Some of them were corny or grin inducing, others had me co-signing in agreement out loud. Then there are the ones that were so on point it was scary.

“You can tell how big a person is by what it takes to discourage her.” I like this but one of my issues is weight so I really wasn’t feeling the size reference.

I fancy myself as a humorous person so this one hit home: “When you get to your wit’s end, you find that God lives there.” Yep, this is worthy of me. However, given my story-line of late, I’m glad God is at my wit’s end. It could been really ugly.

“The task ahead of us is never as great as the Power behind us.” This is a necessary reminder as I muddle through the madness of my life.

Coping is a skill I really need to get a better grip on, so this one really resonated: “Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass. It’s about learning to dance in the rain.”I’ve being so busy dodging raindrops; this could be one of those signs that I need to embrace.

Now this one brought me to a complete stop: God promises a safe landing, not a calm passage. I thought I deserved a smooth ride; especially since I’m a chronic good-deed doer. Although I could have managed without all of the drama and uncertainty of the past few years, I should take my own advice: if it doesn’t kill you it will make you stronger. A lot easier said than lived.

This next one is the one that I’ve missed for quite a while. “The Will of God never takes you to where the Grace of God will not protect you.” Exhale.

I chuckled to myself as I thought it was a neat coincidence to receive these messages. But I was wrong:

“Coincidence is when God chooses to remain anonymous.”

Please continue to pray  for Haiti

C. Denise Johnson can be reached at cdenisejohnson@gmail.com

The story continues...

Originally posted Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Decades come and go as countless people pass through our lives. Each one touches us for a specific reason, known or unknown. I've been privileged to have many incredible people to contribute to my worldview and I'd like to think they all have in some way made me a better person. This has not been the smoothest ride but it has definitely been an adventure. I've been blessed to  experience incredible highs and to crawl up from some very deep depths. Although I have no idea of what is ahead or how it will end, I thank you for your participation in my storyline. 

There have been some sections and paragraphs I'd love to delete, but they  add to the structure for the the rest of tale. As I begin Chapter 53 please know that every phrase you've said, every laugh we've shared and every spoken word will contribute to make the narrative of my life fuller and richer.

(c) C. Denise Johnson

Do we get it now?

Originally posted on Tuesday, January 11, 2011

So much to consider - the death of an innocent child born on 9/11/01, the anniversary of the police beating of Jordan Miles and the anniversary of Haitian earthquake. With all the vitriol, fear, ignorance, intolerance, violence and uncertainty we must remember that we are all in this together. As one goes, we all go. 

NOW, this is time to stop the madness and let the healing begin. We don't exist to hurt, maim or kill one another, otherwise the human race would be extinct. If we can't make things right for ourselves, let's make it right for our children and their children and their children's children.