• Posted By landismom @ 10/03/2005 10:39:00 AM • • •
Monday, October 03, 2005
August Wilson, Presente!
I was really saddened this morning to open the paper and see that August Wilson had passed away. His gigantic ambition--to write a play about African American life in every decade of the 20th century--was a tremendous addition to American literature.
In my early adulthood, I worked as a stage manager on a production of Fences in San Diego. It was one of the last plays that I did before deciding to leave the theater and become a full-time outside agitator. It's a phenomenal story about the toll that segregation takes on a family in Pittsburgh. The father, Troy, who suffered the indignation of seeing baseball's Major Leagues break the color line just as he was too old to play, now has to fight against a boss who won't let blacks drive the garbage trucks--just haul the cans. He wins that fight, but ultimately the lifelong effects of segregation drive permanent wedges between Troy and his sons. It's a complicated play that tells a complicated story, and doesn't pull punches. If you haven't read it (or better yet, seen it), you should.
Thank you, August, for allowing us to see with your eyes.
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