International Slavesister Bg Eminem Amityville Slave Sister The Cool As Hell Theatre Podcast

Podcast #187

[C.As.H]:
The very first thing I have all guest do on the cool as hell theatre podcast is, I give them 30 seconds to describe what the show is about. The show you are directing for Theatreworks is called Radio Golf by August Wilson. 30 seconds. Go.

[Harry Elam]:
The play is about Harmond Wilks who is running to be the first black mayor of Pittsburg. However something happens along the way when an old man who means something to his past enters into his office and changes everything.

[C.As.H]:
You are a “expert” on the works of august Wilson. Coming from that perspective and having done a lot of research on his plays and what his plays mean to the black audience and the world, what do you think has been the most misunderstood aspect of August Wilson’s work?

[Harry Elam]:
What’s misunderstood is the idea that somehow he has written the whole black experience in these 10 plays. And what we understand is that there more to the black experience so there room for other playwrights there rooms for other artists to speak to the black experience or that he covered in these ten plays. If he lived who knows what more he would have said about the black experience. I think one of the things that is interesting about this play is that this is a play that deals with issue of race and class in ways that none of the other works do. S it’s interesting how he speaks to the black middle class and their relationship to the black masses in Radio Golf…[more in audio]

[C.As.H]:
There is a point of conflict for the ambitious character, Harmond Wilks, as he goes and tries to become the first black mayor and he comes to a point where he faces Aunt ester. And Aunt Ester has significance across multiple August Wilson plays. Can you talk about her a little bit?

[Harry Elam]:
August Wilson said that Aunt Ester is the most important character in his plays. That she is the mother. The way he put it was, all the rest of the characters re her children. And if you think of the word Aunt Ester and say it again, it sounds like ancestor. And she is a great ancestor. She was born when the first slave’s ships came over in 1619. So she’s as old as the African American presence in the United States. So one of the main things in Wilson’s drama is that you’ve gotta connect to that past, to that history, to that ancestor…[more in the audio]

[C.As.H]:
Speaking of past history and capitalism today, does August Wilson have anything specific to say about urban gentrification in this play?

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