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It’s the fall of 1977 in the Hill District. The urban area just west of downtown Pittsburgh is predominantly African American, and in a time of de facto segregation, untraveled by run-of-the-mill taxis. Transportation options are limited, and unlicensed “jitney” cabs are as common there as legal yellow cabs are in white neighborhoods.

Community, Empowerment & Being Human in August Wilson’s 'Jitney'

She didn’t know it at the time, but Andi Chapman’s first encounter with legendary playwright August Wilson was prophetic. “He said ‘hello’ and told me I had hands like his mother,” said Chapman—who, 22 years old and beginning graduate school at the Yale School of Drama, wasn’t sure what to think. Today, however, “That’s a sp...

Meet Center Theatre Group August Wilson Program Advisor Andi Chapman

Congratulations to Aryana Williams and Alexander Villaseñor on terrific performances in the ninth annual National August Wilson Monologue Competition on May 1, 2017 at the August Wilson Theatre on Broadway. Their performances marked the end of a long and fulfilling journey into Wilson’s work; both Williams and Villaseñor had partici...

August Wilson Monologue Competition Finalists Take Broadway

On February 27, 2017, a century of the African-American experience came to life on the Mark Taper Forum stage through the words of August Wilson and the voices of Los Angeles high school students. Since 2011, Center Theatre Group has served as the Southern California home for the national August Wilson Monologue Competition. Each year, over 100 stu...

A Journey of a Century Begins With a Single Student

The uptight etiquette of ballroom dancing ruled American dance floors at the beginning of the 20th century. This came to an end in the decade during which Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom takes place: the Roaring Twenties and the Prohibition Era. F. Scott Fitzgerald famously documented the social freedom of these years in The Great Gatsby: “The parties...

Let’s Do the Black Bottom

“For me every story starts with the script—the words. And Mr. August Wilson was very specific. It’s 1927, Chicago. So that’s your inspiration,” said Tony Award®-nominated costume designer Emilio Sosa on how he got started working on Center Theatre Group’s production of Wilson’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (onstage at the Mark T...

Emilio Sosa Puts his own Spin on the 1920s

June 26, 1996—20 years ago this year—August Wilson ascended the stage at the national conference of Theatre Communications Group, the national service organization for professional theatres, to deliver the keynote lecture. Wilson had long been one of the nation’s most eminent playwrights, and the audience of theatre community members...

The Ground on Which I Stand

“God can kiss my ass,” says Levee, the young, ambitious, and angry trumpet player in August Wilson’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (onstage at the Mark Taper Forum through October 16, 2016).

Two Levees in Conversation

Lillias White has wanted to play Ma Rainey for a long time.

Lillias White Plays the Mother of the Blues in August Wilson's 'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom'

The blues is much more than a musical genre to the title character of August Wilson’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, which plays the Mark Taper Forum through October 16, 2016. To the Ma Rainey of August Wilson’s imagination, the blues is “life’s way of talkin’.” She goes on to explain, “You don’t sing to feel better. You sing ’cause...

10 Blueswomen who Changed Music Forever

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (onstage at the Mark Taper Forum September 1 – October 16, 2016) was written shortly after August Wilson moved to St. Paul, Minnesota in 1977. There, Wilson worked as a cook for a social services agency, earning $88 a week. It was enough money to give him the freedom to write, and from that freedom sprang the story...

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