From 2005 to 2008, the Lucy Craft Laney Museum of Black History staged live readings of most of the Pittsburgh Cycle, by late renowned playwright August Wilson, directed by award-winning actor and Augusta native Jerome Preston Bates.
In August, the museum revisited Wilson’s work, with a live reading of the play “Seven Guitars,” also directed by, and starring, Bates, which led to a packed house. This weekend, that revival will be followed up with “King Hedley II.”
“That’s kind of why we’re bringing it back, to kind of introduce it to a brand-new audience and to re-engage with the old audience,” said Corey Rogers, executive director of the Lucy Craft Laney Museum. “The first time we did it… it sort of energized a lot of folk, and it brought August Wilson to a lot of people who didn’t know about him, so people were wanting us to bring it back.”
August Wilson’s Pittsburgh Cycle, also known as the Century Cycle, is a series of 10 plays about Black American life, each set in a different decade in the 20th century, and most of them set Wilson’s hometown of Pittsburgh, Penn. “Fences,” set in the 1950s, and “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” set in in the 1920s, are two plays from the cycle that have been recently adapted as feature films.
“Seven Guitars” was the Century Cycle’s 1940s entry. Its direct sequel, “King Hedley II,” tells the story of its title character, ex-con King Hedley, as he strives to support himself and his wife in Pittsburgh’s Hill District in 1985.
While the stage plays explore Black life in particular places and times, Wilson, who passed away in 2005, wrote them so that diverse audiences could appreciate—and relate—to the universally human struggles of the characters.
“Even though they’re set in Pittsburgh, he wrote them in a way where they’re kind of a microcosm of other communities,” said Rogers. “If you go see one of the plays and you see this character develop, you probably can identify with someone in your community that reminds you of that character.”
The theatrical revival is also a way to remind the Garden City of one of its most successful native sons. Bates, who graduated from Lucy C. Laney High School, has been involved with several original productions of Wilson’s plays, both acting and directing, and also has several television and film credits, including “Law and Order,” “All My Children,” “NYPD Blue” and “Oz.”
“I often talk about the notion of acknowledging that James Brown transformed entertainment, acknowledging that Jesse Norman transformed opera,” Rogers said. “But yet, Augusta’s bench is much deeper than Jessye Norman and James Brown. So by acknowledging Jerome Preston Bates connection, I think that’s a really a great way for Augustans and others to fully appreciate the amount of talent that has come out of Augusta.”
The live staged reading of “King Hedley II” by August Wilson, directed by Jerome Preston Bates, will be Saturday, Nov. 16 at the Lucy Craft Laney Museum of Black History, 1116 Phillips St., Augusta. For more information visit https://lucycraftlaneymuseum.com/.
Skyler Andrews is a reporter covering business for The Augusta Press. Reach him at skyler@theaugustapress.com.
