The Pittsburgh-born playwright August Wilson (1945-2005) left a theatrical and literary legacy. His 10 plays spanning 100 years tell, decade by decade, the story of African Americans in America. Most of the plays are set in Pittsburgh’s Hill District, where Wilson educated himself at the public library after quitting school because a teacher, reasoning that no young black boy could write well, accused him of plagiarism. Wilson went on to become one of America’s greatest, most produced, most awarded playwrights, receiving both a Tony Award and a Pulitzer for “Fences” (1987) and a second Pulitzer for “Two Trains Running” (1992). Today, both a cultural center and a street in Pittsburgh bear his name, as does a theater on Broadway. Until Dec. 4, The University of California, San Diego Department of Theatre and Dance is producing Wilson’s 1988 “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone,” set in 1911 in Seth Holly’s boarding house. Kyle Donnelly, the Molli and Arthur Wagner Endowed Chair in Acting, directs. Head of the UCSD MFA Professional Actor Training Program, she charges scenic designer Colin McGurk with creating an entire world within the black cinderblock walls of the Sheila and Hughes Potiker Theatre, and the result is a masterpiece aficionados must not miss. Holly (Kyle Anderson) creates pots and kettles from sheet metal and tends a truck garden. He and his wife, Bertha (Ngozi Anyamwu), who provides clean sheets and two meals a day, run a respectable boarding house, though the presence of Bynum Walker (Gabriel Lawrence), who performs pigeon blood rituals in the backyard, is sometimes troubling. Walker, a throwback to the African Griot, seeks the life-changing “Shining Man” he once encountered on the road. Other boarding house residents are the flirtatious Jeremy Furlow (Maurice Williams), who plays guitar and has an eye for residents Mattie Campbell (Anne Stella) and Molly Cunningham (Daivee-Chantel Allen). Into this milieu comes the wild-eyed Herald [sic] Loomis (Bowman Wright) with his child, Zonia (Ella Donnelly). Loomis, who was taken prisoner by the notorious Joe Turner and forced to work on Turner’s chain gang for seven years, is seeking his wife, Martha (Megan Robinson). He figures if he could see her face once again he could find “a starting place” for the rest of his life. Despite the experience of numerous productions, it has never been so apparent that Bynum, known as the Binding Man, brings about the play’s stunning conclusion, in which the wanderer finds his “song” again. This is due to the clarity of Donnelly’s production, brimful of Wilson’s engaging characters, including Zonia’s playmate, Reuben (Brian Bose). Scenes are knit together by powerful vocalist JerVae Anthony. Sandra Foster King choreographs exuberant Juba dances. Lighting designer Rebecca Bonebrake and sound designer/composer/music director Blair Robert Nelson enhance spine-tingling moments. Remaining performances are at 8 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 27, 7 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 28, 8 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 3 and 2 and 8 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 4. For information, visit http://theatre.ucsd.edu/season or call (858) 534-4574.
