Unveiling August
Long-time Seattle Rep Managing Director Benjamin Moore shares his impressions, insights, and anecdotes from working on all of August Wilson’s plays
By Joanna Horowitz |
Seattle Rep Managing Director, Benjamin Moore |
In some ways, August Wilson looms larger than life at Seattle Rep. Literally—he is
memorialized in a statue just south of our building, welcoming people into the Seattle
Center campus via a pathway that also bears his name.
He looms figuratively, too. There is a sense of wonder when we talk about Mr. Wilson’s
legacy at the theatre. After all, we are the only country to have produced all of his plays
(his 10-play Pittsburgh Cycle, as well as his one-man show How I Learned What I Learned).
When Mr. Wilson passed away in 2005, he became for many of us who did not know him
personally like a character his plays, a figure working diligently to illuminate the
African American experience in the United States during the 20th century.
But like all playwrights, sometimes his plays didn't work. Sometimes he was difficult to
work with. And his relationship with Seattle Rep, though ultimately a positive one, was also
complicated by the fact that Mr. Wilson was an outspoken critic of members of the League of
Resident Theatres, large regional theatres like the Rep who, though many were doing his work,
were largely geared towards white audiences. (You can read Mr. Wilson’s fascinating 1996
address to the Theatre Communications Group, The Ground On Which I Stand,
online here.)
We sat down with Managing Director Benjamin Moore who has the unique perspective of
having been at the Rep for every production of Mr. Wilson’s work. In fact, Mr. Moore’s first
season at the Rep, 1986, coincided with the production of our first Wilson play, Fences, now
being re-staged in a 25th anniversary production.
Seeking a frank and simple discussion of Mr. Wilson’s work and his relationship with
Seattle Rep, we said the name of a play, and Mr. Moore responded with his candid impressions
and most vivid memories. Here are his thoughts.
 |
Fences, 1986
(L-R) Samuel L. Jackson, Gilbert Lewis, Frances Foster, Robert Colston. Photo by Chris Bennion. |
Benjamin Moore: This was my first introduction to August. I was kind of a green manager at
the time. It remains my second favorite, after Joe Turner’s Come and Gone. Like many of his
plays, we partnered with a network of regional theatres across to the country on Fences to
develop and produce the work on the way to Broadway, theatres like Yale Rep, The Goodman,
Huntington, Mark Taper Forum.
 |
Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, 1986
|
BM: Joe Turner was the play I was most moved by, partly because Delroy Lindo was in it.
Deliciously kind of mysterious and dark and complex. Directed by Lloyd Richards.
 |
Two Trains Running, 1990
(L-R) Lawrence Fishburne, Charles Patterson, Al White, Ella Joyce, Sullivan Walker. Photo by Chris Bennion. |
BM: Wonderful cast, including Laurence, then Larry, Fishburne. We launched his career,
in my view. And I began to really understand August’s writing. I also remember during the
show my son Brady was born. Very unexpectedly as I was standing near the green room, August
gave me a Tiffany teething ring. There were these little moments that came out of the
blue.
 |
The Piano Lesson, 1993
Michael Jayce. Photo by Chris Bennion. |
BM: Probably his most celebrated play. It’s what brought his presence to the fore, in the
theatre business anyway. It’s when I appreciated his particular kind of humor. All his
plays had this otherworldly, mystical quality. I found that engrossing in this play. And I
believe the piano we used actually belonged to August.
 |
Seven Guitars, 1997
Cynthia Jones. Photo by Chris Bennion. |
BM: I programmed this play in the season because we were between artistic directors. It was
a production that was a little unlike the others before because it was something we
developed from the ground up, it hadn’t come to us from somewhere else. There was difficulty
with the director: I remember August storming out of the theatre and me chasing him down
the walk to try to bring him back in the fold.
 |
King Hedley III, 2000
Tony Todd. Photo by Chris Bennion. |
BM: It originated in Pittsburgh, but we commissioned it. The play was way too long. By the
time I saw it in New York I hoped it would have shrunk a great deal more, but it hadn’t. It
was dark, particularly depressing, and really suffered for being as windy as it was. But I
got a sense that it was a play that more thoroughly embodied August's deepest feelings.
While he was working on it, I went to meet him at one of his haunts in Pioneer Square. He
started giving me the story, encapsulating King Hedley. I was spellbound, it was like
sitting at August's knee.
 |
Jitney, 2002
(L-R) Russell Andrew, Stephen McKinley Henderson. Photo by Chris Bennion. |
BM: This was the first play he wrote, and it was first a one-act. Before he was known as a
playwright, he was more known as a poet. He wrote this and put it in a drawer and didn’t
revisit it until the middle of his journey. It never got as long as the others and because
of that it might have been his most accessible. After Hedley, it redeemed him in the eyes
of our local audiences. Also, Marion McClinton directed, and she had a kind of rawness about
the work, which was different from the gentle nature of Lloyd [Richards, previous director].
She understood August to the core. And I loved the set, which we inherited from New York,
via London.
How I Learned What I Learned, 2003
|
BM: This was August’s one-man show, and he had never performed before. When he got into it,
he was very anxious and started making demands and became more difficult. But once he
gathered his energy and got on stage, it was quite funny, full of wonderful stories, and it
made me look forward to what he might be writing when he finished this self assigned cycle
of plays. That's the thing I regret the most—there was this opportunity for a whole other
quality of writing I began to see he had.
 |
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, 2005
(L-R) Wendell W Wright, Cynthia Jones, Cast. Photo by Chris Bennion. |
BM: I don’t remember August being a part of the production. This was the point where we
got aggressive in doing all of August's plays. It fit very well into our season, though
it was a little fraught: I remember having to change out cast members.
 |
Radio Golf, 2006
|
BM: It was a miracle, frankly, that we were able to lead the way with three other
theatres involved. We had another show drop out and had a hole to fill, which this fit
perfectly. The play wasn’t quite finished, but [dramaturg] Todd Kreidler stepped in to
help. He and August had a really interesting relationship. He would spend hours, days,
sitting on the porch over in Capitol Hill just drinking it in, and there was a sense he
was anointed. August really entrusted him a great deal. I felt the play was lacking his
final touches, though because he was very ill when it was going through its final paces
down in Los Angeles—some of the character development hadn’t been completed. But it was
a glorious thing to be a real catalyst in putting that together—the emotion of that loss
got us all galvanized.
 |
Gem of the Ocean, 2007
(L-R) Michele Shay and Khalil Kain. Photo by Chris Bennion. |
BM: With August gone, now whoever was going to direct had to be blessed by Constanza
[Romero, Wilson's widow and a costume designer], and she had the idea of Phylicia
directing. She did a remarkable job. It was wonderful to be able to finish off the
canon.
