Everything's Coming up August

Everything's coming up... August?!

As we transition from the afterglow of Black History Month, those of us in Pittsburgh have a extra reason for pride. The Ground on Which I Stand documentary shown on PBS's American Masters was such a boost to region as well as spark renewed interest in August Wilson and the August Wilson Center for African American Culture 2.0.

The afterglow continues in an extended “after-party” of sorts with the Pittsburgh's Public Theater's latest production, How I Learned What I Learned, opening on Thursday.

Penned in 2003, How I Learned is a biographical/memoir written and performance by August Wilson, reminiscing about the influences on his work, including his days in Pittsburgh growing up, as a Centre Avenue poet and how the Hill District community help influence and inspire his epic Pittsburgh (Century) Cycle.

I had an opportunity to chat with Eugene Lee, the actor charged with conjuring a favored son of the Hill. Some of you may recall that Pittsburgh's Montae Russell was in a similar scenario with Thurgood when he portrayed the late Supreme Court Justice. Russell's one-man turn required him to assume 25

different characters whereas Lee only has August. The difference is that Lee is portraying someone who only left us ten years ago in his hometown.

“We're not trying to copy him, look like or sound or walk like August,” says Lee, a veteran of four Wilson plays. “I try to channel his spirit through his words, his characters, his language. (How I Learned) will offer some insight into the man behind the characters.”

As for Pittsburgher and Wilson's long-time dramaturge Todd Kreidler, he feels the weight of the production squarely on his shoulders; he's the director. I ran into him on the way to interview Lee (they both recently did a run of How I Learned in Atlanta), so I asked him. He emphatically said “YES!”as he continued his way ladened with binders and notebooks. Suffice it to say that all are aware of the significance and implications of presenting this production on “ground zero,” here in Pittsburgh.

How I Learned What I Learned by August Wilson, co-conceived and directed by Todd Kreidler is playing now at the Pittsburgh Public Theater through April 5 (no performances on Monday).

Tickets are available calling the box office at Theater Square, 412-316-1600 or purchase online at http://ppt.org. Groups of 10 or more qualify for a group discount. Call Katie at 412-316-8200 x 704 or kconaway@ppt.org for more information.

My review of Mr. Joy by Daniel Beaty

First of all I got to say that Daniel Beaty has become predictable. His plays seem to follow a theme and a formula that showcases his considerable talent. Frankly, in his case, don't fix what ain't broke.

Daniel Beaty is the voice of the anonymous: the faceless, marginalized and unheralded people that we don't acknowledge except if we bump into them, step over or around them as we go about our day-to-day life. We avoid eye contact and render them invisible.

As a playwright, poet, author and performer, Beaty uses his unique gift to  strip away the vestiges of class, religion, ethnicity, gender and race to reveal the hurt, neglect, joy and pain we all experience. If you play attention you'll pick up on a recurring theme woven throughout his work.

“My work speaks about the urgency of issues facing communities of color in our urban centers. I come from a similar environment,” Beaty says.“These communities are not often understood. Part of my goal is to give voice to the people I understand and recognize.”

Beaty has built a productive relationship with City Theatre, a collaboration that has produced a world premiere (Breath & Imagination) and his one man productions, the arrestingly intense Through the Night, Emergency and his poem Knock Knock, still a viral Internet sensation years after his“Def Poetry Jam” appearance.

I first saw Beaty at the August Wilson Center for African Art and Culture as a installment of Mark Southers' 486 Club subscription series. I'd seen a performance on Def Poetry so I already knew I was in for.

Ha! Beaty isn't just a beast, he an effing guerrilla. I had just settled in my seat and leaned back to chill. But this Beaty ninja was having none of that. It's impossible to remain chill during his performance. His prose and poetry will not let you be comfortable. Beaty brings the voice for the aforementioned anonymous to you -all up in your grill- and there's and makes sure that we know them.

Sometimes you across someone with amazing talent that you may think he got your portion. Daniel Beaty is that dude.

Mr. Joy is Beaty's second world premiere in Pittsburgh follows a similar format of Beaty's previous work. Few props, a projector screen for a back wall and a spare stage, except for a covered utility box that doubles as seating and a row of assorted pairs shoes lining the front edge of the stage.

Six-year old Clarissa bounds on stage in a surge of excitement, she want to share the sketches she made in the hospital. She yells that she be back later on. 70-something Aunt Bessie is upset by the rising number of  gangs in the neighborhood and decides to start her own – the Gangsta Grannies because she worries the streets could consume Clarissa like her addicted parents.

DeShawn is a 15-year old still aglow with his recent spiritual awakening. On the way to church he sees a guy just out of jail. After sharing latest info on the neighborhood he invites his friend to join him. John Lee, Mr. Joy's son, is a real estate developer who just completed a major. Grateful for the benefits afforded him by his father's work, he worries about his father's legacy and the inheritance he has accumulated. Ashton, John's estranged son, used his inheritance for a sex change operation.

Rebecca is a longtime customer of Mr. Joy. She panders this association as proof that she's not a racist (think “Legally Blonde”) along with her Black Republican finance who not doesn't want children and suffers from a identity crisis.

To portray these varied characters (and four more) requires more than heart, strength and stamina, it demands a lot of faith – faith in the playwright, faith in your own talent and the ability to step out on faith. All of this and much more is delivered by the sole actor on the stage and in the spot. The nine separate characters of various age, young, old, male, female, transgender, Black, Asian, white, poor, well-heeled, frightened, hopeful; all played by the same actor with no wardrobe change and no intermission. Who does that?

Meet Tangela Large.

A departure from Beaty's winning formula of performing his own work, the 26-year old actor fearlessly embraces Mr. Joy and it's many challenges. Her pacing and energy adjust to  the character she's playing. From the effervescent enthusiasm of can't-stand-still Clarissa to the old tired indignant Bessie who is feisty and then fearful.

To be able to pull off such thespian feats requires heart and stamina and Tangela has them in spades as she plunges in the depths of  each character to mine each portrayal. Chameleon-like, Large smoothly shifts from a teenager with a angry indictment :

“all of a sudden just out of nowhere there's a generation of lost black boys? /No. The systematic destruction of a people is loud – it makes a lot of noise./ Why don't you hear our screams?” 

to an old woman clinging on to hopes and  dreams of a six year old.

Large makes use each character's nuance to make each transition authentic and complete. And she does it all (and has a very nice singing voice). Her Pittsburgh debut is nothing short of astonishing. Tangela's last name matches perfectly with her last name

“Mr. Joy” speaks to how we are connected to each other in ways we can't even imagine,” says Beaty. “It poses the idea that even in the midst of tragedy and brokenness there is hope and possibility.”

Given what's transpired in the past year, “Mr. Joy” is chock full of teachable moments. Maybe this will spark “The Conversation.”

Standing on shaky ground

The state of Black arts in Pittsburgh is at best rocky – there is no solid ground. When funders underwrite  studies that barely touch on the fragile status of Black arts organizations (not including the life or death soap opera of the August Wilson Center for African American Culture), it signals that our institutions are in at best a tenuous position.

Aside from the obvious funding issues, what can be done? I offer these suggestions (not be confused with solutions – those aren't my call):

Show the eff up. Empty seats at performances are trifling. White folks outnumbering black folks in the audience is humiliating to presenters and performers because they create their art for Black people (you and me) – in a unending quest to give our voices life. If we don't show up, it sends a very cold message that doesn't inspire faith. It says “I care more about my weave, my nails and rims than I do about the  well-being and vibrancy of my neighborhood and community.”

Priorities. If we don't speak our truth or share our truth we cease to count. Another reason why we gotta show up – everywhere. Show up at the performances and presenters have a better shot of funding (see above). Show up at the voting booth (on a regular basis) ensures that there are people of color in positions of influence and power when budget and funding decisions are made.

Accountability. Our tax dollars are used to fund the arts. If we want to share and preserve our truths, our culture, our voices, we must participate beyond Black History Month, because we have art, culture, truths, history, voice and points of view that shouldn't be relegated to the shortest damn month of the year (there, I said it).

When we become a persistent presence, when we show up, we become secure in standing our ground.

#blackartmatters

Audience wins in Jazz intrastate rivalry

(Originally published Wednesday, 29 February 2012 11:17)

by C. Denise Johnson
For the New Pittsburgh Courier
   With a double-bill headlining two Grammy winning jazz musicians, it goes without saying that in this rivalry, the winner would be those who had enough sense to be in the audience.
    Fresh off of his Grammy Award for Big Band Jazz Performance, Christian McBride continued his winning ways by performing songs of his award-winning release, “The Good Feeling” and yes, that good feeling (and good music) wafted through the near capacity house at the August Wilson Center for another performance featuring the swinging Pittsburgh Jazz Orchestra.
 

JEFF ‘TAIN’ WATTS (Photo by Gail Manker)

---

    Ace bassist Christian McBride was clearly enjoying himself as he led the PJO through his arrangements and engaged in some brief banter introducing the selections. “Shake and Blake” was a nod to longtime musical co-hort Ron Blake (with a tasty passage by saxman Michael Tomaro) while the next tune, “Mister Brother” was a tribute to James Brown.
    The highlight of McBride’s set had to be “Science Fiction” a homage to TV show themes (think “Twilight Zone” and “Outer Limits”) featuring an out-of-this-world flute solo by Kenneth Powell and Alton Merrill’s usual wizardly work on piano.
     McBride brought out vocalist Melissa Walker to recreate the magic her contralto brought to two tracks from “The Good Feeling” CD on “A Taste of Honey” and “The More I See You,” before Jeff “Tain” Watts joined in on drums to trade bars with McBride on “In A Hurry.”
     Following intermission, Pittsburgher Watts assumed the stage with the disarmingly cool he portrayed in the Spike Lee joint, “Mo Better Blues.” But once he picked up his sticks, the fire was stoked.
    Watts paints pictures with his drum work, using the skins as his canvas and sticks and mallets as his brush. His opener, “The Impaler” was right to the point pushing a hard rhythm and Sean Jones used the same urgency with his trumpet solo.
    “Blutain” was Tain’s interpretation of the blues with Powell adding a funky sax solo. “PAEN” is a recent composition that showcased the varied subtleties and textures that Watts brings out of his cymbals.
    “Of August Moon,” a Watts composition dedicated to August Wilson, could serve as a Broadway overture to the Pittsburgh Cycle of plays with its bluesy swing and shifts in rhythms and melody with occasional hints of dissonance and melancholy.
    Another unexpected pleasure was a haunting ballad, “May 15, 2011” (Watts readily admitted he couldn’t conjure an appropriate title), that featured the drummer on vocals. On this night he dedicated the song to Whitney Houston, whose homegoing was held earlier in the day.
    Watts concluded his set and the evening by bringing McBride back to the stage to join him on “Return of the Jitney Man.” “There was already a song called Jitney Man,” Watts explained as he introduced this recollection of his father working out of the Bedford and Chauncey jitney station.
    The Pittsburgh Jazz Orchestra’s next performance will be in April, Jazz Appreciation Month.

‘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.