Catching up on Classics (and lots more!) discussion

This thread is the continuing buddy read of the plays of August Wilson.

September 2023 Jitney by August Wilson

October 2023 Ma Rainey's Black Bottom.

November 2023 Fences

December 2023 Joe Turner's Come and Gone

January 2024 The Piano Lesson

February 2024 Two Trains Running

March 2024 Seven Guitars

April 2024 King Hedley II

May 2024 Gem of the Ocean

June 2024 Radio Golf

I read "Jitney" earlier in the week, and it should be a good work for a discussion. It can be read in less than 2 1/2 hours so it's not a big time commitment. "Jitney" is August Wilson's 1970s play in his Century Cycle of ten plays.

I’m looking forward to it :)

Wonderful, Terris!

These are the ones I have read in The Century Cycle, and am glad to add to the list:
(I'm not sure where I got this list, but I'm pretty sure they are not in chronological order)

August Wilson Plays in Order - “The Century Cycle Series” 1-10:
1 - Gem of the Ocean✔
2 - Joe Turner’s Come and Gone
3 - Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom✔
4 - The Piano Lesson✔
5 - Seven Guitars✔
6 - Fences✔
7 - Two Trains Running
8 - Jitney
9 - King Hedley II
10 - Radio Golf

I do have a couple of books I need to finish before I start this one, but hopefully I'll begin within a week.

Terris, you have them listed in the order of the decades when they are set. You've already read half of them! There's no hurry on reading "Jitney" since we'll want Sam's input too.

This is a list with the decades, and the year of the first performance. "Jitney" was the first play written, although "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" was performed first.

1900s-Gem of the Ocean (2003) ✓
1910s-Joe Turner's Come and Gone (1984) ✓
1920s-Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (1982) ✓
1930s-The Piano Lesson (1989) ✓
1940s-Seven Guitars (1995) ✓
1950s-Fences (1985) ✓
1960s-Two Trains Running (1990) ✓
1970s-Jitney (1983) ✓
1980s-King Hedley II (2001) ✓
1990s-Radio Golf (2005) ✓

Connie wrote: "Terris, you have them listed in the order of the decades when they are set. You've already read half of them! There's no hurry on reading "Jitney" since we'll want Sam's input too.

This is a list ..."

Thanks for that info, Connie!

Here is another list of the plays in their written order, decade of setting, and year of premiere on Broadway.


1982 Jitney 1970s 2017 – Samuel J. Friedman Theatre
1984 Ma Rainey's Black Bottom 1920s 1984 – Cort Theatre
1985 Fences 1950s 1987 – 46th Street Theatre
1986 Joe Turner's Come and Gone 1910s 1988 – Ethel Barrymore
1987 The Piano Lesson 1930s 1990 – Walter Kerr
1990 Two Trains Running 1960s 1992 – Walter Kerr
1995 Seven Guitars 1940s 1996 – Walter Kerr
1999 King Hedley II 1980s 2001 – Virginia Theatre
2003 Gem of the Ocean 1900s 2004 – Walter Kerr
2005 Radio Golf 1990s 2007 – Cort Theatre

You will note that Jitney was premiered much later than it was written, after extensive editing and tightening, so though it is Wilson's first written play in the cycle, we are reading a version corrected by a more experienced author. I wish I had an early version of the play to compare but I haven't one.

Sam wrote: "You will note that Jitney was premiered much later than it was written, after extensive editing and tightening, so though it is Wilson's first written play in the cycle, we are reading a version co..."

I love to know information like that. I like to know where the author is coming from when he/she is writing, especially what era of time. I think that makes so much difference when reading their work.

These are additional texts I will be reading or consulting as well as the plays.

August Wilson’s Twentieth-Century Cycle Plays: A Reader’s Companion Sanford Sternlicht
This short volume is kind of layman's cliff notes guide to each of the ten plays. It also has timelines of African-American history for each decade which I found interesting.

August Wilson: Completing the Twentieth-Century Cycle Alan Nadel
This is a longer volume with multiple critical essays on the works, the cycle, and related themes. It is for a more academic analysis.

August Wilson: A Life Patti Hartigan
The just released and praised biography of August Wilson. I bought a copy and like the writing but have not done more than read a few introductory pages.

How I Learned What I Learned August Wilson
A one act play by Wilson that starred Wilson.

I have only read three of these plays, Jitney, Ma Rainey's, and Fences. I will finish me reread of Jitney today. I was impressed on how much more I got out of this reread. I will save those thoughts for further discussion.

How would everyone like to approach the reading? Would you like to continue in written or chronological order? I am open to either.

Since the play was your suggestion, Sam, was there any particular way you wanted to discuss it? We could go through the play, act by act, or just bring up ideas about the themes, characters, etc that we find interesting.

I would like to read more of his plays in the future, and am open to reading them in any order.

I mostly just want to fill in my blank spaces, but I don't care what order I read them in :)

Connie wrote: "Since the play was your suggestion, Sam, was there any particular way you wanted to discuss it? We could go through the play, act by act, or just bring up ideas about the themes, characters, etc th..."

I am quite open to discussion. I will post some thoughts as they occur to me and some from outside reading. I think the plays are rich enough to encourage free expression. For example on my first read of Jitney, I was taken with the interactions of the jitney drivers, some of the themes they expressed compared to other works of the time, and looked a the larger theme of urban renewal as the controlling theme. This read, the personal relations of the characters seemed much more rhythmic and suggestive of wider themes of not only specific African-Amercan themes of the time but of more universal themes in interpersonal human relations. The dialogue between Becker and his son ebding act one is really poignant, well worth reading aloud to oneself. So I suggest we all add thoughts as we go on what interests us and if we have questions just post them and maybe we can answer them together.

Terris wrote: "I mostly just want to fill in my blank spaces, but I don't care what order I read them in :)"

Let us leave deciding the order until after we have discussed this play then and perhaps the direction shall reveal itself from our posts. We can revisit this in a couple of weeks.

Sounds good to me!

The Mark Twain House and Museum is having a Zoom interview with Patti Hartigan, author of August Wilson: A Life on Thursday, Sept 7 at noon ET. I doubt that I'll be home for it, but here's the link if anyone is interested:

https://marktwainhouse.org/events/

I wanted to link Raymond Maxwell's substack blog which has numerous and interesting notes to the plays. I haven't read through them all for comment but previewed a few on Jitney which I recommend. I will leave a second link to those but explore the whole blog.
https://raymondmaxwell.substack.com/?...

On Jitney:
https://raymondmaxwell.substack.com/p...

The Raymond Maxwell blog is a great resource, Sam. I'll start reading his Jitney blog tonight.

Thoughts on Urban Renewal in Jitney

This site from the Court Theatre, titled Jitney Station is useful:
https://www.courttheatre.org › PG_Jitney
You will have to google Jitney Station, Court Theatre since it won't let me paste in the end of the web address. The Court Theatre presented the play at the University of Chicago.

It has information about the "Grand Migration" of African Americans out of the South during the early 20th Century, and reverse migration back to the Southern states in the late 20th Century. It also tells about the Pittsburgh Hill District and urban renewal of the lower hill which displaced more than 8,000 residents: 1,239 black families and 312 white families.

A cultural district known as the "Center for the Arts" was originally proposed to replace the lower hill homes and businesses. That idea failed since the area was too far away from Downtown. I didn't read all the detailed information they included about the urban renewal project, but got a general sense of the problems.

People forced to leave the integrated area of the lower hill moved mainly to neighborhoods that reflected their own race. This was at a time when the United States was trying to integrate the schools.

While there were probably some buildings that needed to be destroyed, urban renewal of such a large area in a short time had many negative effects on the community. It destroyed the black business community which provided jobs. Black families were broken up. There was not enough housing for the relocated families in the other neighborhoods, and the federal government, at that time, did not provide relocation funds. Some people were left homeless or in substandard housing.

There is also the problem of gentrification when new housing is eventually built with rents that are unaffordable for the people displaced.

The theme of urban renewal runs through Jitney when the owner of the jitney station, Becker, gets a notice that his business will be boarded up in a month. August Wilson based this situation on what he saw in his Pittsburgh hometown.

Connie wrote: "Thoughts on Urban Renewal in Jitney

This site from the Court Theatre, titled Jitney Station is useful:
https://www.courttheatre.org › PG_Jitney
You will have to google Jitney Station, Court Theat..."

This is an excellent resource espcially on the Hill District of Pittsburg. Thank you Connie! I was catching up on other tasks and will be adding my own thoughts to the discussion over the weekend.

Thanks a lot, Connie! That is great information!

I had some catchup reading and such but feel caught up enough to begin discussion on this play. I have only read and seen three of August Wilson's plays and this was my third. (Fences and Ma Rainey's are the other two) It was with this play that I first took note of what he was doing with the cycle of plays, which was writing a history of specific issues of concern to black Americans throughout the twentieth century with a nod to those issues of continued or of universal importance over time.

As the play begins, my feeling is that I am in a comedy, an equivalent of a ensemble cast sitcom, like Taxi, but viewed though a black cultural lens like Sanford and Son, or The Jeffersons. As the play develops issues become more serious and take the form of social issues affecting black Americans especially urban Americans, with the issues of urban renewal and black incarceration most significant. The issues are discussed within the context of the human condition however and one doesn't forget the human element of the play in deference to the social issues.

I think the play is at its best in the climax of the first act where Becker confronts his son with his feelings of disappointment and I am not sure if the play succeeds in the second act, but regardless, I think it makes a good starting point for an investigation of these plays.

I'm close to finished, Sam, and should be able to chime in soon!

You've brought up some important issues, Sam. Another theme that stood out for me was black fatherhood and mentoring. We see the conflict between the father and son, Becker and Booster. Youngblood is working two jobs to buy a house to raise his son in, but he's so busy that he hasn't been home. Youngblood is being mentored in a fatherly way by Becker and Doub (another military veteran). Fielding is trying to help Booster by offering to tailor his suit before his job interviews.

I've read that August Wilson's father was usually absent, and he had important father figures in his life who helped him.

I finished last night, and I liked it a lot! I agree with both of your views. I enjoyed the ensemble cast and how they "played" off of each other, though as the story unfolds it becomes more serious.

And the fatherhood and mentoring thread worked its way through much of the story. And even though they often seemed to be jabbing one another, they really were trying to help each other out most of the time. They were all concerned with each other's welfare if/when the building was boarded up. Did everyone have a place to go when this happened? Did they have a job? Could they support their families?

I hated that Becker could not seem to forgive his son, Booster, in any way. Even when Booster was penitent towards his dad, and he had served 20 years for his crime, Becker wouldn't give an inch. It would have been nice if they could have come to some kind of understanding, especially since Becker dies suddenly in the end! But I think this ending is probably more realistic. Life is not often tied up in a pretty bow. Especially when death occurs, there is often an open wound and a jagged scar that people have to live with, and I think this is what happened here.

Terris, I also felt sad that there was no step toward forgiveness before Becker's unexpected demise. Booster has many years ahead of him feeling that he failed in his father's eyes.

September is running away on me! I will post a further note on Booster and Becker tomorrow. I initially was bothered by Becker's rejection of his son, but found more compassion for him on the reread.

In deciding whether to go in publication or chronological order, I think we will get more out of this by following the publication order and watching Wilson develop as an author as well as seeing the his concept of the cycle come to fruition as he gains fame and stature as a playwright. It also allows us to follow up the next two months with his two most recognizable plays in Ma Rainey's Black Bottom and Fences. Both of these have decent film interpretations to watch as well. I am going to reread the plays and hope to add more in commentary, hoping that if you don't reread or rewatch the plays, you will offer your thoughts on them from memory.
So unless someone prefers something different we will begin Ma Rainey in October.

That is fine with me. I have read it but have not seen the movie! So I'm thinking I might try that to remind me of story details :)

I'm not sure if I'll have time to read "Ma Rainey" in October because I'm already overloaded with books that month. Maybe I can squeeze it in at the end of the month.

I should be able to read "Fences" in November.

The Netflix film of Ma Rainey's Black Bottom is pretty good. I think it moves away from the August Wilson vision a bit but compensates with Viola Davis and Chad Boseman star power, fantastic costuming and music with sharp visual impact. I hope you get to see it. Connie, I hear you on too many books. I am juggling too many myself, but at least the plays aren't very time consuming.

Coming in back to Jitney, we had mentioned the fathering and mentoring extant in the play. I would take it a bit further and claim that one of the plays major themes is the depiction and relationship of black men. My memory of the seventies was that it was a period that featured black males stereotyped in numerous negative roles, negative to the point I won't lower myself to recall them now. Many of those negative stereotypes have since been altered or contradicted when seen in comparison with social realities that encouraged or mandated these stereotypes. I don't want to get into a discussion about those issues myself, but I feel Wilson is investigating them a little as a theme in this play. with the dialogue between Booster and Becker being the most poignant part of his investigation. Booster seems the stereotypical young black male who has been unjustifiably persecuted but also has lost his cool in that persecution, acted out and incurred added punishment, while Becker is left to voice the frustration, anger, disappointment, disapproval, and shame over the situation. I see Becker's expression as representative of a combined response of the Black parents to the threat that they perceived and that was wholly real. That threat was growing in the seventies and those parents were impotent when it came to protecting their sons from its consequences. So in Becker's speech, I see a release of that emotion, the outrage, the despair, the embarrassment of that impotence of being unable to protect his son from a societal danger that faced many young black males of the time and that parents though aware of the danger felt unable to intervene and thus expressed many varying different response to compensate.

I love your background information about the relationship of black men and also the stereotypes in that era.

When looking at Becker's reaction and speech to Booster, I think you are so right: "frustration, anger, disappointment, disapproval, and shame" and especially "shame" were the emotions that Becker was dealing with. And the death of Mrs. Becker was the ultimate loss for him. And Booster might have been the reason for her death. Dealing with the shame of Booster's actions around her friends, family, and neighbors might have done her in. So sad :/

Great comments, Sam and Terris!

Ma Rainey's Black Bottom

I listened to a few of the real Ma Rainey's blues recordings on youtube. She seems like a powerful woman with a gravelly voice who was not afraid of singing about controversial topics for that time.

There are a couple of recent films on Chicago's Chess Records and their relationship with the blues musicians they represented that parallel our read. I am linking the trailers from Youtube. They have their flaws but expand on the play theme of White exploitation of Black culture.
Cadillac Records:
https://youtu.be/0S2Z_zuJxQs
Who Do You Love
https://youtu.be/rTWopcUmodo

Sounds interesting! I like knowing some of the background behind August Wilson's plays and what was going on at the time.

I just reread Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, and had a few thoughts on the background of the play:

The play is set in 1927 in Chicago. During the Great Migration, many blacks settled in the south side of the city. Chicago had a booming music industry with clubs, live jazz radio broadcasts, and many recording studios.

Paramount Records started a series of "race music" recordings in 1922 aimed at black consumers. They advertised in black newspapers for mail-order purchase or through independent dealers. Ma Rainey recorded for Paramount for five years until they wanted to reduce her payments.

It's interesting that Paramount Records was an offshoot of the Wisconsin Chair Company that produced phonographs. Every purchaser received some free records when they bought a phonograph.

Levee is a fictional character partly based on the famous trumpet player Louis Armstrong who wants to take music in a new direction. He spent time in New Orleans, and loves to improvise. Ma Rainey's music is more traditional, and Levee calls it "old jug band music."

Connie wrote: "I just reread Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, and had a few thoughts on the background of the play:

The play is set in 1927 in Chicago. During the Great Migration, many blacks settled in t..."

Thanks for the info, Connie. Very interesting!

Sam wrote: "There are a couple of recent films on Chicago's Chess Records and their relationship with the blues musicians they represented that parallel our read. I am linking the trailers from Youtube. They h..."

I checked out the trailers of the films about Chess Records which were set in the 1940s-1960s. It's sad that the same themes of exploitation were true years later than the 1920s portrayed in Ma Rainey's Black Bottom.

Connie wrote: "Sam wrote: "There are a couple of recent films on Chicago's Chess Records and their relationship with the blues musicians they represented that parallel our read. I am linking the trailers from You..."

Thanks for your comments Connie. I am afraid I have been lax on this topic so far this month with other priorities pushing this back. Wilson depicts period issues in his plays but they remain of importance in the present. He shows the roots of the exploitation and appropriation of Black culture but the problem in the music business continued far into the future. There is also the hint of the more general financial undercutting that equates with wage suppression. The incident involving the fender bender is an example of institutional racism being practiced in this case by police. Wilson's incorporating of historical examples of present day injustices gives the added depth to these plays and when contrasted to the sometimes petty issues preoccupying the characters. Levee's character resemblance to Louie Armstrong has added significance when considering an image problem he had with his own race, discussed in the Guardian article below.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/202...

That was an interesting article in the Guardian, Sam. I also read the first few pages of an article about Armstrong as a black Pop star (the online liner notes for The Decca Singles: 1949-1958).

https://dippermouth.blogspot.com/2016...

He was talented as both a jazz and a pop musician. He had a hard early life, so maybe reinventing himself as a pop musician and an entertainer gave him the financial security and recognition he needed. He gave show tunes, gospel, blues, and pop his own sound infused with jazz. Armstrong was not playing the jazz of the 1920s with all the improvising, but there were lots of black artists going in various directions in the '50s and '60s - Chuck Berry's R&B, Otis Redding's Blues, Chubby Checker's Rock, the Motown sound to name a few.

I remember Armstrong was a frequent guest on the Mitch Miller show in the '60s with his renditions of "Hello, Dolly" and "The Saints Go Marching In." The big band music was something my Dad liked, while I was a teenager into the Beatles! I really would not be able to comment in depth about either Armstrong or the history of black music.

Your comment about how we can identify injustices in the play with what is still going on in society today is spot on. That's probably what Wilson wants us to take from our reading or viewing the play.

Well, real life intruded on me shrinking my contributions and extra planned reading on August Wilson. The only added thoughts I wanted to make were to point out the Black on Black competition especially male vs. male leading to violence that I find a reasounding theme so far in Wilson's plays.

We are moving on to Fences next and I will post on the weekend some thoughts on that play. Anyone wishing to read along or contribute, feel free to jump in anytime.

I reread the first act of Fences and was impressed how good this play is. There is so much depth and so many different ways to interpret the play. For our purposes, we are considering the play as part of the cycle that represents African American history in the twentieth century specifically the decade of the Fifties, but the play is so much more. It can be seen through its allusions to Greek and Roman tragedy or allusions to Old Testament stories. It can be seen as a slice of realism of the time, either as a portrait of the family or as the decline and fall of the patriarchal male. And it is certainly a play that is capturing the period and the hints of change that are about to happen in traditional social and political values. I also think it is an actor's showcase. James Earl Jones won the Tony for the role of Troy Maxson in 1978 and Viola Davis won a Best Supporting Oscar for Rose Lee in 2017. If you can find the time, the play is well worth rereading.

I did not get to see the James Earl Jones version but here's a great clip comparing the staging of the "How come you never liked me," scene with Troy played by Jones as compared to Washington.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jE2dD...

Sam, I totally agree that the play has so much depth, and can be looked at from many perspectives. I just finished writing a review, and hardly touched on all the things that could be mentioned.

Title of "Fences":

Starting at the beginning, I thought that "Fences" was a good choice as a title for the play. A fence can keep people out or enclose people in, emotionally and physically. That symbol is used many times in the play regarding relationships, Troy's time in prison, the baseball field, as a barrier from the Grim Reaper, and representing racial discrimination.

Epigraph:

Conversations give us Troy's past history as the son of a stern, abusive father. Troy is a flawed man with a severe parenting style with no room for listening to his children's dreams - although he loved them in his own way. The epigraph of the play, poetry written by Wilson, is about the influence of fathers:

"When the sins of our fathers visit us
We do not have to play host.
We can banish them with forgiveness
As God, in His Largeness and Laws."

Thanks for the link to the clip of the "How come you never liked me" scene. It was terrific! I felt scared for the son, just watching the James Earl Jones version.

Gabriel

Gabriel is Troy's brother who is mentally challenged after a head injury in the war. He talks about the Archangel Gabriel, Saint Peter, and the Judgment Day. He blows his trumpet to open the gates of Heaven (view spoiler)[on the day of Troy's funeral. (hide spoiler)]

It was a nice coincidence today to find a painting in my in-box of Judgment Day with a black Archangel Gabriel blowing his trumpet, painted by the black artist Aaron Douglas. (GR Art Lovers group features a different painting every day.) So I'm passing on the link to the National Gallery of Art:

https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-ob...

When we think of Troy and Judgment Day, his actions are not all good or all bad, but many shades of gray. His harsh upbringing had a big influence on the man he became. He often imitated his stern father when his boys needed love and encouragement.

Connie wrote: "Gabriel

Gabriel is Troy's brother who is mentally challenged after a head injury in the war. He talks about the Archangel Gabriel, Saint Peter, and the Judgment Day. He blows his trumpet to open t..."

Thanks for this Connie. I agree with all you are saying. I did sometimes wonder if Troy was exaggerating or even falsifying his background but I believe Wilson meand for us to accept Troy's account about the father.

I was going to post my final thoughts on this today but decided to push it up to next Sunday after the Thansgiving holiday. If anyone has any final thoughts save them till then. That will move my first post on Joe Turner's Come and Gone to around the 7th or 8th of December.

I'm sorry I haven't kept up with comments here, but I do plan to read "Joe Turner" at the beginning of December!

I enjoy reading your and Connie's comments :)