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Also see Ann's review of Elemeno Pea
Wilson wrote this piece, and he and Todd Kreidler formed it into a one-man show for Wilson himself to present for ten performances at Seattle Repertory Theatre in 2003 (they didn't give it what Wilson jokingly said should be the title of his first one-man show: I'm Not Spalding Gray). Wilson said these were stories of events he was lucky to survive, and the subject matter covers what one might expect to be part of life in Pittsburgh and the Hill District in the 1960s and '70s: the importance of family, trouble in school, music, racial conflict, need for work, love and sex, and jail—and, for a smaller segment of that population, including the playwright, involvement in the urban arts scene. There's no shying away from the anger that rose naturally in response to racism. Jump ahead to 2013, when the Signature Theatre in New York presented this play, starring Ruben Santiago Hudson and directed by Todd Kreidler. Now, at the Pittsburgh Public Theater (where, then on the North Side, Wilson saw his first professional play, Sizwe Bansi Is Dead, in 1976), Kreidler directs a similar production of How I Learned What I Learned. Presenting Wilson's own words, within walking distance of "The Hill," is actor Eugene Lee. Lee has a comfortable rapport with the audience. The director once told NPR How I Learned ... is supposed to be, in part, "a homey visit with a playwright," and Lee delivers on that promise. He meanders the stage with an easygoing gait, and delivers the lines as if they are from his own stories, told many times to many people. That stage is part of David Gallo's striking scenic and projection design that features a raised wooden platform holding a few pieces of well-worn furniture, with the back wall of the O'Reilly's thrust stage filled floor to ceiling with rows of pieces of paper, hanging on lines. On those pieces of paper are projected story titles, letter by letter in a in a Courier-like font, with the accompanying tap-tap sound of a manual typewriter. (Gallo also designed the Signature production, and has brought along costume designer Constanza Romero, lighting designer Thom Weaver, and sound designer Dan Moses Schreier; the Public's Zach Moore does associate sound designer duties.) It is a perfect representation of the theme of the play, and an updated rendering of the 2003 original, which had only an armchair, a stool, and a small table with a pitcher of water and ashtray for the heavy smoker Wilson. We all suffer the loss of the additional plays August Wilson could have written had he not died so young at age 60, but what an enriching experience it is to listen to his words telling us what bright and tarnished stars aligned to put him in a position to write an important part of theater history. As Eugene Lee as August Wilson asks, "How do you know what you know?" How I Learned What I Learned for Pittsburgh Public Theater, through April 5, 2015, at the O'Reilly Theater. For performance and ticket information, call 412-316-1600 or visit ppt.org/.
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