August Wilson is the only playwright, Terrence Spivey told us in our interview over the weekend, to
have ALL of his works appear on Broadway. Wilson wrote ten plays, each framed
in a different decade of the twentieth century, depicting African American
experience.
Tonight, Spivey, the artistic director at the Shore Cultural
Centre in Euclid, launches an ambitious effort to demonstrate the
fertile legacy that Wilson depicts through readings of his plays beginning
with Gem of the Ocean.
Leon Bibb, the noted broadcaster [recently retired from
Channel 5], is featured in Gem, which is set in the year 1904.
Spivey emphasizes the message of preservation of
heritage, history, and remembrance that is uniqueness to all of
Wilson’s plays. The tone of spirituality and healing
reverberates soundly inside an African American
community that finds itself in a situation demanding heedfulness
to introspective dialogue that simmers the core of how we perceive race,
oneness, and dignity. Wilson’s plays will render your emotions
“fighting on the inside.”
As a director, Spivey highlights the value of
approaching his craft organically and working from how the actors are
feeling at that moment. He eschews the excessive pre-staging and
writing prior to the rehearsal that could stifle the performer’s natural
power and delivery. He believes that yielding to inventive freedom
at appropriate moments delivers a grander experience than could have been
scripted - and no erasing is needed.
This series of readings of Wilson’s plays, The American Century
Cycle, will continue on October 30 with Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, featuring Peter Lawson Jones.
For tickets,
visit here.
Shore Cultural Centre is located at 291 East 222 St., Euclid OH
44123 [216. 289-8578].
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