Critic's Notebook

Where are Black Voices and Stories?

by Jacqueline Trescott
SeeingBlack.com Contributing Theater Critic

August Wilson is a cunning wordsmith, whose love of the people he writes about does not have to be validated by his craft's awards. Yet he has all the laurels, from a Drama Critics Award for "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom," Pulitzer for "Fences, "Best New Play from the Critics Circle for "Joe Turner's Come and Gone." And "The Piano Lesson" garnered a trifecta: Drama Critics, a Pulitzer and a Drama Desk Award. You can bet this brother in Seattle is not keeping his trophies in a gypsy cab station, They're probably showcased in a way that shows he is in touch with the richness of life, if not the riches.

But there are issues that nag you as you watch "Jitney." (I caught the off-Broadway production in New York.) Why should it be so unusual, eight black men and one black women, hashing out life—without tap shoes, without breaking into "Wiz"-like routines? Why are there so few plays out of the Black experience given a four-star treatment on Broadway, off-Broadway, on cable, on commercial television? The work is there. "Jitney" won the New York Drama Critics' Circle award, the 7th time for Wilson His plays are a guaranteed way of losing yourself in fine writing.

Why can't we have more voices?

What really bothers me is wondering where these actors have been. The faces look familiar but why aren't they the marquee stuff? It turns out they have been toiling in the theater and on television. Russell Andrews, who plays Youngblood, had some parts on "Homicide" and "The Cosby Show.' Willis Burks II appeared on "New York Undercover' and "NYPD Blue."

So they have been playing that police officer behind the desk and doing lots of theater. And since few of us live in cities where a vibrant Black theater operates, to produce or simply host, a number of Black theater productions are never seen.

It turns out most of these men have been bringing Wilson's work to life. Andrews and Burks have starred in "Jitney' all around the country. Butler, with many credits in television, theater and movies, did the Broadway company of "Piano' Anthony Chisholm, Leo V. Finnie III, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Barrry Shabaka Henley are all Wilson veterans. And Wilson has argued that same point, raising his voice to ask for more regional Black theaters and bemoaning their shaky existence.

Witness the news that Crossroads Theater in New Jersey would not operate this season as it reorganizes.

So if Wilson is also providing full employment opportunity for African American actors, while giving full interpretation of Black life during the last century, we should embrace him even more.

-- April 9, 2001

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