The Women of August Wilson: Four Actresses Speak

"Hindsight," my mother frequently reminds me, "is 20/20."  Nothing could be truer now that I've had more time to digest, research, and discuss August Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Gone, which opened recently at CENTERSTAGE in Baltimore.  After a series of interviews with the four ladies who bring to life four very distinct characters in the play, I have a much deeper understanding of their roles and the play they bring to life eight times a week (through January 13). 

Each woman has arrived at this common moment from varied paths of experience, and each has a distinct view of their profession and theatre's place in our culture.  Still, two similar things strike me about all four.  First, all four are passionate about dispelling a common misconception about most of Wilson's play cycle – that women are simply not as important as men in the majority of his works.  Second, all four ladies share a striking resemblance to the character they play in Joe Turner. 

My first interview was with Myra Lucretia Taylor, who plays Bertha, a motherly figure of calm and nurturing in the Holly boarding house where people come and go weekly.  Ms. Taylor gives off that same calm, nurturing vibe, with a gentle cadence to her voice, a sparkle in her eyes and warm, genuine smile.  "Bertha is home – a shelter from the storm, a safe harbor," she says.  "No matter what has happened to you the day before, you know [at Bertha's] you'll get a hot, homemade biscuit, some grits and coffee.  And you'll get a soft place to land.  She really is the glue – the good mother." 

Ms. Taylor, known for her roles on Broadway in the revival of Nine, Chronicle of a Death Foretold and others, got much of her training and experience at Williamstown Theatre, and credits the late Nikos Psacharopoulos there with much of her success.  "Nikos' passion for theatre continues to inspire me.  There was electricity about him."  She also credits the influence of Anne Bogart, who caused her to "Change the way I felt about my body onstage.  I know now how critical a factor it is in storytelling."  Finally, she tells of her mother, "a great storyteller of inspiration.  She, in turn, told me about an old teacher of hers who loved teaching Shakespeare. 'Little girl,' he told my mother, 'you must eat, digest and allow the language to become a part of your anatomy.'"  Not only has Ms. Taylor found success on the Broadway stage, she has done a pretty fair share of television and film.  "I made a promise to myself that I would only do fulfilling projects with interesting people.  Keeping to that has allowed me to have a very satisfying career.    Almost everything I've done has grown into other great opportunities.  When I did Macbeth with Kelsey Grammer, I ate up the way Terry Hands directed us.  Each week, we had to present a sonnet to the company.  I loved it.  He remembered me, and the next thing you know, I'm working with the Royal Shakespeare Company!  Many of those types of things have come my way.  I am a working actor, and I know what a blessing that is.  I've been fortunate." 

Soft-spoken, but strong, Roslyn Ruff carries herself much like her character, Mattie.  "You have a period in the history where an entire group of people are struggling to find their place in the world.  Struggling to find some connection within it and to it. Mattie is searching, like others in the play.  She is searching for a place where she fits, where she matters, for an intimate connection, someone to love and protect her. The only two people we know of that she was close to were her man Jack and her mother.  Jack has disappeared and her mother is dead.  She's a woman alone in the world in 1911." 

Ms. Ruff's resume includes a staggering amount of classical theatre.  "I don't look for classics; it has just worked out that way.  I grew up in theatre in Buffalo, New York, where they have theatre very similar to Chicago, except they don't pay as well, so you can't make a living there.  After school, I knew I needed classical training specifically – as an African-American artist, it is important not to get pigeon-holed."  In the last two and a half years she has performed in four of the plays of Mr. Wilson.  The acclaim she has received for that body of work has earned her an invitation to participate in the Kennedy Center Wilson Celebration this coming spring.  That is an honor she does not take lightly.  "It is incredible to be asked.  It is wonderful to be a part of the now second generation of actors associated with Mr. Wilson's works.  In my experience (especially working with Ruben Santiago-Hudson [a highly regarded Wilson scholar/actor/director]) I've learned that there is indeed a Wilsonian style of acting and it's all in the language. There are unwritten rules for acting these roles connected to the use of the language, not totally unlike the process in place when preparing a Shakespearean role.  When they are recognized these plays can really take off."

Bakesta King, an attractive, confident young woman with a sly smile is very much like her character Molly Cunningham, in that both know what they want and have self-confidence to find it.  "Molly is a progressive woman, a 'new' woman – independent and non-traditional – which she makes a concerted effort to be.  She has, I think, been hurt in the past, and will not allow herself to be hurt again.  In the larger sense, she is the least bound of the women, and she works against being bound."  In the play, Molly shows up, makes a splash, and then she is gone, which Ms. King loves about her character, specifically.  "Yes, Molly goes through a complete journey in this play.  There's a mystery to her and I love it, because I get to create her past.  She's 26, which then was really getting toward being old, so there is this urgency to her.  She's running out of time – it is fading – and she realizes it.  There is an essence to her that is this boardinghouse.  And that's her journey: she's here, she is in one place for a time, and she sees this dysfunctional group as a family, which takes her to a very dark place.  She gets scared and she's gone!" 

"I haven't gotten my feature film.  Yet!," Ms. King laughs.  "I get close – down to just two of us, and they hire the other person!"  Still, that doesn't deter her from wanting to do independent films.  "Like theatre, the work there involves richer stories and full characters."  Her dream role? "Cleopatra!  Ever since I saw Elizabeth Taylor, all I've wanted to do is play Cleopatra – not the Antony and Cleopatra kind – I want to tell her real, truthful story."  In the meantime, she is enjoying her first show at CENTERSTAGE.  "They really go all out to make you feel at home here.  It is really a treat to be treated with such hospitality.  And the audiences here seem so intellectual and curious.  I love that there are 'events' here, too, so we get to interact with the audience.  The education program is so excellent here, too.  It amazes me to see the impact we have on these kids." 

Finally, there is Donnetta Lavinia Grays, who is as intense and passionate as her character Martha Pentecost.  Like the others, Grays finds that Martha represents something very specific.  "She represents a past that (central character) Herald Loomis can't go back to."  In her character's search, she finds strength in "borrowed faith from Western culture.  She has a 'fixed point' in God.  Go with God!"  Ms. Grays sums up the role of women in Joe Turner quite succinctly.  "If you put all of the women in Joe Turner together, you get one full woman."  Ms. Gray's role offers a difficult challenge for the actress – she only comes in at the very end of the play.  It is one scene, but it is amazingly powerful.  "Usually, you get two or three scenes, so if you don't do so hot in the first one, you can sort of make it up.  But this is so hard – the most difficult.  The audience knows her before I enter.  And so, I do this warm up so I come in full speed.  You can't go half way with this part."   

Rehearsing wasn't easy.  "I had lots of time to really think.  It was challenging because I am used to a full four week process.  Doing scenes over and over is a real comfort.  Derrick [Sanders, director] took time out and worked with me.  We went through it and really learned her history.  I kept asking, 'Am I right?' but it got easier once we started running it and running it.  Once I started investing in it, it gained so much power!  This role is really unnerving – it transforms you.  I get off stage and it takes me an hour to calm down.  I've learned to leave it here, too.  I go home and get really into 'America's Next Top Model'!"  Her co-star, Ms. King says of Grays' powerhouse performance, "I told her, 'this is why we do it.  You have to experience it fully for the audience to get it.  They will never experience that for themselves.'" 

The role of women in the plays of August Wilson has been a frequent point of critical debate now that the late playwright's ten play cycle is complete.  All four actresses agree that it is a misconception that women in these plays get the short shrift.  Ms. Ruff says, "People talk about the lack, which is unfair.  Women are not lacking.  August Wilson puts amazing insight into his women, and the words he gives them are amazing."  Ms. Grays feels that "people only see one representation or facet."  Ms. King sees it is possibly another issue.  "It takes a talented actress to play an August Wilson woman – to give her a rich portrayal and a past and a present.  Perhaps some actresses don't focus on that."   

Much of what an actress brings to the character in these plays is not on the page.  Ms. Taylor explains, for example, that "It has to do with the quality of the writing; what is said and what isn't is very specific.  Bertha and Seth are mad about each other.  Sure they argue and fuss – what married couple doesn't – but that comes through in the play even though it is never specifically stated."  Ms. Ruff's character is by nature a very quiet presence, "but she is present always.  I love the challenge of these characters.  You have to find life in the character without words."  That is especially true in her understated performance.  One only needs to watch her while everything around her is loud and chaotic; Mattie says as much in her reactions as she does in any speech she gives.  An actress with several Wilson plays on her resume, she emphasizes, "August Wilson never just sticks in a character.  They are all there for a reason, no matter how long they are on stage." 

"August Wilson, is after all, a man, and speaks as one.  Naturally, the men will take more space – they are all in conflict with God.  It comes across as dominating," explains Ms. Grays.  Ms. King agrees, saying, "Then the women come in and are a voice of reason.  I think Mr. Wilson has nothing but a high regard for women." 

The appeal of Wilson's work is not lost on these ladies, either.  All four emphatically agree that, trite as it may sound, his plays are universal.  Each play is so specific and rich, yet "that specificity makes the works universal."  Joe Turner, for example, has the theme of searching and finding "your song."  Ms. Taylor feels that "it is an American ideal.  Find your purpose.  Why are we here?  It is a personal struggle, even though parents, institutions and politicians want to tell us who we are.  August Wilson tries to tell us we search and struggle, but that we must always be the best we can.  And you figure it out, then you pass it on.  I found my song, sang it to you, and you were soothed.  In turn you will do the same for someone else.  Ultimately we have to learn to agree.  We all got here by different routes, but we are all here together.  We are AMERICANS, not factions."  Ms. Ruff adds, "[Wilson] is one of the greats.  He loved African-Americans – all of them.  He loved and respected his community.  That love of community comes through in his plays.  People of all backgrounds are profoundly affected." 

The universality and specificity, though, may not translate to non-traditional casting, any more than an all white Raisin in the Sun or African-American The Diary of Anne Frank would work.  Still, with the recent casting announcement of an all-Black Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, the ladies did give it some thought when considering the Wilson canon.  "James A. Williams (co-star in Joe Turner) told us about a competition of Wilson monologues where a white young man did one of Bynum's speeches from this play," says Ms. Taylor.  "And I've heard about a Japanese cast doing Fences," says Ms. King.  "I'm guessing it works because father/son and husband/wife relationships are universal to every culture."  Ms Taylor continues, "The most exciting theatre to me is where race doesn't play a part at all.  There is a play by Oni Faida Lampley called Tough Titty, about a breast cancer survivor – Lampley herself lives with a rare form of the disease.  But in this play, she specifically calls for an Asian actor to play a Black doctor.  All of the parts are assigned that way, without regard to race or gender.  It forces everyone involved to rely on the story, not the types.  Because we are all in the same room (actors, audience) and LIVE, theatre really has a unique ability to affect lives."

PHOTOS courtesy of CENTERSTAGE.  TOP to BOTTOM: Mrya Lucretia Taylor as Bertha; Ms. Taylor; Roslyn Ruff as Mattie; Ms. Ruff; Bakesta King as Molly; Ms. King; Donnetta Lavinia Grays; Ms. Grays.

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