Making the Great White Way a little less white

So, today was a lazy day for the most part. I woke up around two, ate around three, tried to do work but napped until late in the afternoon. Then I went to dinner at Upstein.

After this, however, I went out to take a walk. I decided to go to midtown and attend the August Wilson Theatre dedication and re-naming. The theatre used to be called the Virginia, and I saw The Little Shop of Horrors there last year. It's sort of an odd looking theatre inside, with weird blotchy terra cotta walls, but, still the renaming was significant.

It's the first time a theatre has been named after an African-American.

The evening was really sad, because August Wilson, who was diagnosed with liver cancer slightly earlier this year, died on October 2. He was supposed to have been in attendance if he had lived long enough, and the dedication was used as a way to remember him in a joyful way.

Charles S. Dutton, who directed several of Wilson's plays was on hand to give an excellent dramatic reading from Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, a portion about a preacher who was made to dance by two white men after being left on a train platform while used the "colored" restroom. He had command of the audience and was an excellent speaker.

After this, Lillias White, an amazing singer, sung the song "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom," which is a part of the play (not musical) of the same name. A short excerpt from Seven Guitars was also performed by members of the original cast.

Then, some of August's own words were read in which he spoke of the honor he felt about having the theatre renamed after him:

"This capstone [of my career] will become part of the shroud of memories with which I will blanket myself when I lie down to pleasant dreams." (paraphrased, but pretty accurate)

It was a really nice evening. I'm so glad that the event was opened to the public, because, though I haven't read any of August Wilson's plays, it seems to me as if the message is certainly not to turn people away. The marquee of the theatre was unveiled after the proceedings inside of the theatre; it was a large neon reproduction of Wilson's signature, and it looked really astounding lit up.

The evening really made me want to read some August Wilson plays, but the theatre store that I usually go to was closed, so I'll have to go another day and get one of his plays to read.

I felt like I was a part of something special tonight. The theatre was packed with people full of respect for this man, and it seemed such a fitting and proper tribute to a man who had accomplished so much. He wanted to write a cycle of ten plays set in each decade of the 20th century, and he did it. And, along with this accomplishment, he changed the conventions of African-American theatre.