When “Radio Golf” officially opens Jan. 23 under the direction of Kenny Leon, the Goodman Theatre will have produced every work in August Wilson’s astonishing 10-play cycle depicting the African-American experience in each decade of the 20th Century.
When the first nine of those plays arrived at the Goodman–invariably on their winding way toward Broadway–they were unfinished, especially in terms of the script. But Wilson died on Oct. 2, 2005.
“No one is going to rewrite the words of August Wilson,” says cast member Anthony Chisholm, a longtime Wilson collaborator and a pallbearer at the writer’s Pittsburgh funeral. “That would be like messing with Shakespeare’s last play.”
In every past case, Wilson came in person to Chicago with his plays.
He typically stayed for weeks–rewriting scenes, adding and subtracting monologues, listening to how things sounded, changing the cadence. After rehearsals and preview performances of, say, “King Hedley II” or “Fences,” he could invariably be spied out on the sidewalk of Columbus Drive (at the old Goodman) or Dearborn Street (at the new). A Trilby atop his head and a cigarette in his fingers, Wilson would lean on a convenient lamppost and shoot the theatrical breeze with whoever happened to enter his line of vision. He liked Chicago.
Obviously, the lack of Wilson in the rehearsal room is causing some adjustment difficulties.
“Actually, you never adjust to him not being there,” says Leon, who has been working on the play across the country since Wilson’s death. “The play gets easier–but the void of the man not being here does not get easier. Everything reminds you of his presence.”
“I worked with him for 16 years,” says Chisholm, “he never missed a rehearsal process.”
Wilson didn’t entirely miss the process for “Radio Golf.” He attended the play’s first rehearsals at the Yale Repertory Theatre in early 2005. “But then we moved on to Los Angeles,” Chisholm recalls, “and August didn’t show up. I was trying to believe that he was just overwhelmed with writing projects. But after a week, I suspected something was wrong.”
Wilson soon made it public that he was suffering from an advanced form of cancer.
As Leon sees it, Wilson knew that his time was short. “He knew what was ahead of him and so he accelerated the process. He needed to finish the cycle. It has taken these five different productions for the actors and the director to catch up with the genius of his writing.”
Though Wilson didn’t write his famous cycle in chronological order, “Radio Golf” deals with the 1990s and is the last play in his series. The immediate prior play, “Gem of the Ocean,” dealt with the first decade of the 20th Century. Leon directed that one too. “I’ve been entrusted,” Leon says, “with the bookends.”
This final time, the plot involves real-estate development and community responsibility in the Hill District of Pittsburgh, where Wilson was raised and where he set all of his major plays (except for “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” which is set in Chicago). Most of the major works have separate characters and distinct stories, but some characters (or their descendents) appear in more than one play. In particular, Aunt Ester (over whose ancient house the characters of “Radio Golf” battle) functions as the spiritual parent of the entire cycle.
And although the plays can be understood and enjoyed individually, common themes permeate. In play after play, central characters make the painful discovery that true happiness–and even salvation–can flow only to those who understand the sacrifices of their ancestors and pay homage to those who stood on the ground before them. And Wilson’s characters also have to learn that doing the right thing doesn’t always mean following the law or common practices of the land–but does entail sacrificing naked, selfish ambition for the good of an entire community. Only then does one not die in vain.
At Wilson’s real-life funeral, the procession wound through that same Hill District neighborhood. “Hundreds of people were out on the sidewalks, holding signs,” Chisholm recalls. “They were saying, `We love you, August. We miss you.'”
Aptly, the Goodman is the play’s last developmental stop before the final production, slated for Princeton, then Broadway. Wilson was pleased about that. He liked the Goodman–even though he was never afraid to criticize his benefactors.
When he wasn’t working on his own play, Wilson would invariably traipse across this town to see the latest efforts of Chicago’s Congo Square Theatre Company, a young and promising African-American troupe that regards Wilson as its spiritual and aesthetic father. On at least one occasion, Wilson and this reporter numbered about one-quarter of the audience at a very early Congo Square production a few years ago. But Congo Square has come a long way since then.
A week after “Radio Golf” opens at the Goodman, Congo Square opens its revival of Wilson’s “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone,” in rented space at the Owen Theatre, down the hall from “Radio Golf.” Wilson would have liked that, too.
“August was our first major donor and supporter,” says Congo Square artistic director, Derrick Sanders. “His presence is missed. But his spirit is still strong in the room.”
Sanders is up to his eyeballs in Wilson’s presence right now. Aside from directing “Joe Turner,” he’s Leon’s assistant director on the Goodman’s “Radio Golf.” And Sanders also is preparing to direct a New York revival of “King Hedley” as part of the Signature Theatre’s widely praised August Wilson season.
“I know all about August’s high standards, believe me,” Sanders says. “Now it’s just a matter of trying to live up to them.”
“August went over and saw Congo Square’s production of `The Piano Lesson’ and fell in love with them right,” says Chuck Smith, a resident director at the Goodman Theatre and a frequent director of Wilson’s work. “That was one of those matches that was meant to be.”
Leon references a spiritual responsibility. Sanders talks about a duty. Chisholm tells of his belief that Wilson is right there with him in the theater.
Clearly, “Radio Golf” is neither a sport nor on the radio. It’s an homage, writ live.
`Radio Golf’
When: Jan. 13 to Feb. 18 in the Albert
`Joe Turner’s Come and Gone’
When: Jan. 20 to Feb. 18 in the Owen
Where: Goodman Theatre, 170 N. Dearborn St. Price: $20-$68 (Albert) and $26-$37 (Owen); 312-443-3800 or www.goodmantheatre.org
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A complete legacy
With its staging of “Radio Golf,” the theater will have produced all 10 works in August Wilson’s cycle of plays depicting the African-American experience in the 20th Century.
1900s
“Gem of the Ocean”
Goodman world premiere in 2003; directed by Marion McClinton.
We first meet Aunt Ester, the spiritual parent of the Hill District. She takes new-arrival Citizen on a redemptive journey to the City of Bones.
1910s
“Joe Turner’s Come and Gone”
Goodman production in 1991, directed by Jonathan Wilson.
Harold Loomis arrives in Pittsburgh to look for the wife he thinks has deserted him. The mysterious Bynum helps him find a deeper truth.
1920s
“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”
Goodman production in 1997, directed by Chuck Smith.
The Chicago story of blues singer Ma Rainey, who refuses to let her mercurial white producers break her spirit. The members of her band are not all so lucky.
1930s
“The Piano Lesson”
Goodman production in 1989, directed by Lloyd Richards.
A family fights over a historic piano. Must they honor the struggles of their ancestors? Or should they cash in the keys and take the money?
1940s
“Seven Guitars”
Goodman world premiere in 1995, directed by Walter Dallas.
The final days of the Pittsburgh blues musician Floyd Barton. Who killed him? And for what?
1950s
“Fences”
Goodman production in 1986, directed by Lloyd Richards.
An ex-Negro League baseball slugger builds himself a fence and takes out his abiding anger on his adoring son.
1960s
“Two Trains Running”
Goodman production in 1993, directed by Lloyd Richards.
Denizens of a Hill District diner fight off gentrification and the encroachments of outsiders. Aunt Ester keeps watch on all.
1970s
“Jitney”
Goodman production in 1999, directed by Marion McClinton.
The oldest play in the cycle, this is the tale of Pittsburgh’s maverick jitney taxi operators, living outside the law but also serving their community.
1980s
“King Hedley II”
Goodman production in 2000, directed by Marion McClinton.
Wilson’s long howl of anguish at the decade’s deadly profusion of black-on-black violence. Hedley is a petty criminal poisoned by anger–he’s king only of his dreams.
The 1990s
“RADIO GOLF”
Goodman production in 2007, directed by Kenny Leon.
Real-estate developer Harmond Wilks–the grandson of a character in “Gem of the Ocean”–has to decide whether to demolish Aunt Ester’s old house for his own expedient needs. Should he move forward with personal ambition? Or must he pay homage to the needs and spiritual soul of an entire community?
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cjones5@tribune.com
