The Piano Lesson wrestles with the problem of what African Americans can best do with their cultural heritage. It seems to ask the question of how best to put history to use. August Wilson has been quoted as saying, “My generation of blacks knew very little about the past of our parents. They shielded us […]

August Wilson’s JOE TURNER’S COME AND GONE is set in a Pittsburgh boarding house in 1911. Owners Seth and Bertha Holly play host to a makeshift family of people who come to stay, some for days, some longer, during the Great Migration of the 1910s when descendants of former slaves moved in large numbers from […]

The eighth play in August Wilson’s Pittsburgh Cycle is set in a gypsy cab station in 1977. Regular taxi cabs will not travel to the Pittsburgh Hill District of the 1970s, and so the residents turn to jitneys—unofficial, unlicensed taxi cabs—that operate in the community. This play portrays the lives of the jitney drivers at […]

Imagine a kingdom located in CVille, uncorrupted by the wyte gaze. Imagine if Vinegar Hill, Gospel Hill, Star Hill had survived and thrived. If traditions from West Africa, South America and everywhere else we were stolen from created a community that resisted an Anglo sensibility, what would that look like? Sound like? Feel like? This […]

The focus of Wilson’s attention in Fences is Troy, a 53-year-old head of household who struggles with providing for his family. The play takes place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; although never officially named, it makes mention of several key locations in Pittsburgh. In his younger days, Troy was an excellent player in Negro league baseball and […]

We all know the story of Macbeth: the weird sisters, the blood, the insanity, all that good stuff. But why? Why tell this story? BLACK MAC seeks to answer that question. This July, the Charlottesville Players Guild presents a retelling of The Scottish Play seen and told through the eyes of Blackness. This ain’t your […]