WBAL: Theaters perform 10 plays to honor August Wilson

Reporter: Brenna Ross

Orignally aired on WBAL-11 on April 23rd at 5:55pm E.D.T

BALTIMORE — A group of Baltimore theaters is coming together to showcase all 10 of August Wilson’s famous plays in chronological order over the course of three years.

Wilson was a famous African American playwright whose stories highlight the African American experience during the 20th century.

Inside Arena Players lies the start of a journey that combines theater and history, as actors and actresses perform August Wilson’s play, “Gem of the Ocean.”

“It covers the diaspora,” said Donald Owens, the artistic director at Arena Players. “It covers slavery. It covers the Civil War. He touches all of this, and he touches on it because it builds the foundation to the other stories.”

“Gem of the Ocean” is the first of 10 August Wilson plays that will be performed throughout Baltimore City as part of The Baltimore August Wilson Celebration. It’s a collaboration of the Baltimore theater community, where theaters all over the city will perform plays from August Wilson’s American Century Cycle in chronological order.

“August Wilson, who is perhaps our greatest American playwright, wrote one play for each decade of the 20th century over his career and we are very excited to do this,” said Lesley Malin, the producing executive director of the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company and the producer of The Baltimore August Wilson Celebration. “It has never been done anywhere else in the country.”

Participating theaters include Arena Players, Chesapeake Shakespeare Company, Everyman Theatre, Baltimore Center Stage, ArtsCentric and Fells Point Corner Theatre.

Other plays in Wilson’s collection include “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone,” “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” and “Fences.” Malin said Wilson’s plays have the power to unite people.

“He’s such a beautiful, poetic chronicler of the Black experience, but yet his work transcends race, transcends class, so it brings in everybody to have this experience and I think the more opportunities to bring the city together and have these common opportunities is really important,” Malin said.

As diverse audiences fill the seats at Arena Players for the first stop on this journey, Owens hopes they leave more enlightened.

“Hopefully, it makes them so they want to be inclusive,” Owens said.

There’s a passport people can take with you on the journey through all the plays. They get a sticker for each show they attend. There is still time to see “Gem of the Ocean” at Arena Players. Click here for information on tickets.

“Joe Turner’s Come and Gone” is the next show in the celebration. The Chesapeake Shakespeare Company will perform it starting in September. For more information on the August Wilson Celebration, click here