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Copyright by Charles Patrick Tyndall 2002 The Dissertation Committee for Charles Patrick Tyndall Certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: August Wilson’s Play Cycle: A Healing Black Rage for Contemporary African Americans Committee: Ann Daly, Supervisor Oscar G. Brockett Charlotte Canning Joni L. Jones Stacy Wolf August Wilson’s Play Cycle: A Healing Black Rage for Contemporary African Americans by Charles Patrick Tyndall, B.A., M.A. DISSERTATION Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY The University of Texas at Austin May 2002 Acknowledgements First and foremost, I would like to thank God, without whom I would not have been able to complete this endeavor. I must acknowledge my supervisor, Ann Daly, for her tireless devotion to this project. Thank you for helping me with my transition from student to scholar. You know I could not have done this without your support, tenacity, dedication, and humor. Thank you to my committee members, for making an insane process pretty painless. I appreciate the immense knowledge that you brought to this experience, both in and out of the classroom. I would like to acknowledge my family, especially: Mom, Dad, Chris, and Carl, for helping to shape me into the person I am today. Much thanks to my friends: Lana Williams, Richard Perry, C. Francis Blackchild, and Jacqueline E. Lawton, for enduring the madness with me! Much appreciation to the Department of Theatre and Dance at the University of Texas at Austin and the Drama department at the University of Arkansas – Fayetteville, where I currently teach, for all of the support offered to me. iv August Wilson’s Play Cycle: A Healing Black Rage for Contemporary African Americans Publication No._____________ Charles Patrick Tyndall, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2002 Supervisor: Ann Daly With this dissertation, I intend to answer the following question: In producing an African-American genealogy through his play cycle, how does August Wilson recuperate the experiences and politics of black rage as a means of healing for contemporary African Americans? August Wilson is a leading American playwright whose works have been produced from Broadway to California to the heartland. He won the 1987 and 1990 Pulitzer Prize for Fences and The Piano Lesson, respectively. With his speech, “The Ground On Which I Stand,” delivered to the Theatre Communications Group’s Eleventh National Conference in Princeton, New Jersey in June of 1996, Wilson galvanized a national debate on race and culture. Since 1981, Wilson has been writing a ten-play cycle of history plays dealing with the African-American experience, with each play in the cycle chronicling a specific decade of the twentieth century: Joe Turner’s Come and Gone (1988), set in v 1911; Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (1981), set in 1927; The Piano Lesson (1990), set in 1936; Seven Guitars (1996), set in 1948; Fences (1986), set in 1957; Two Trains Running (1992), set in 1969; Jitney (1979), set in 1977; and King Hedley II (not published), set in 1985. The focus of my analysis is the black rage exhibited by key characters throughout Wilson’s cycle. In Killing Rage: Ending Racism, black rage scholar bell hooks argues that black rage is born out of displaced grief and pain; when compared to anger, rage is distinctive in that it is embodied to a deeper degree. My goal with this dissertation is to provide some shelter to African Americans by urging them to acknowledge the daily bombardment of racism, how it connects to continuous grief and pain, and point out that by owning the pain, the African American in question can become empowered by it. I intend to read the ways in which Wilson recuperates a “healing black rage” for contemporary African Americans. In doing so, I will answer the following questions: what are the various forms of black rage in Wilson’s plays? What precipitates the rage? What are its effects, and consequences? vi Table of Contents Introduction..............................................................................................................1 Chapter 1 Joe Turner's Come and Gone ...............................................................27 Chapter 2 Ma Rainey's Black Bottom...................................................................54 Chapter 3 The Piano Lesson .................................................................................87 Chapter 4 Seven Guitars .....................................................................................113 Chapter 5 Fences.................................................................................................138 Chapter 6 Two Trains Running...........................................................................166 Conclusion ...........................................................................................................189 Bibliography ........................................................................................................199 Vita .....................................................................................................................222 vii Introduction Since 1619, when the first African was brought to Jamestown, Virginia, American race relations have been an important topic of study, as witnessed by the plethora of books, articles, plays, and dissertations on the subject. With August Wilson’s body of work and this dissertation, the investigation continues. Wilson, a major playwright whose works have been and continue to be produced from Broadway to California, illuminates the African-American experience in his cycle of history plays. In producing this African-American genealogy, how does Wilson recuperate the experiences and politics of black rage as a means of healing for contemporary African Americans? Wilson uses different types of black rage to show his African- American audience how to navigate their way through American society. Why should we pay attention to Wilson’s dramatizing of yesterday’s black rage and its consequences? For a number of reasons: to see how far race relations have come in this country, to learn our own history, to use the past to make our paths into the future smoother, and to pay homage to the ancestors who paved the way for us. Black rage is a useful tool for analyzing Wilson’s plays since he uses his characters’ respective embodiments of black rage to define his characters. Their respective rages oftentimes leads to their own self-discovery, which delivers a powerful message to his audience about the importance and necessity of black rage. In an interview with Wilson, he elaborated: “[black rage is] certainly within the plays. Certainly what I would call political elements that deal with outrage: moral outrage, social outrage. Yes, that is a part of it, that’s a part of the plays, yes, that’s a part of black American life” (Wilson, 1 13 Nov. 1998). In Wilson’s plays, black rage exposes the various facets of African- American life and history. Black rage can help us discover what it means to be Africans in America. Since 1981, Wilson has been writing a ten-play cycle of history plays dealing with African-American life, each play in the cycle chronicling a specific decade of the twentieth century. Wilson has written the following plays: Joe Turner’s Come and Gone (1988), set in 1911; Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (1981), set in 1927; The Piano Lesson (1990), set in 1936; Seven Guitars (1996), set in 1948; Fences (1986), set in 1957; Two Trains Running (1992), set in 1969; Jitney (1979), set in 1977; and King Hedley II (not published), set in 1985. With each decade, Wilson tracks a slice of African-American life, never losing sight of the ancestors who came before. Although Wilson is not writing about his own specific lineage, he is shining a massive spotlight on an African-American family tree, illuminating those niggers, Negroes, Coloreds and Blacks who made American history simply by existing and surviving, paving the way for contemporary African Americans. These triumphs and tragedies in Wilson’s plays are the building blocks of his theatrical genealogy and uphold the legacy for present and future African Americans. For Wilson, the tribulations are as important to African-American self-understanding as the victories; the suffering played a part in developing who African Americans are today. There is no growth without struggle; rage and resistance are symbiotic. Wilson believes that ignoring the pain and struggle of the past will prevent present- day African Americans from growing. This is why Wilson argues that African Americans have to embrace the past, even the odious parts, in order to move forward. Each play in Wilson’s cycle is a branch that makes up the African-American family 2 tree; these branches do not define African-American history—they are merely a part of it. Accordingly, Wilson has become an ambassador for some members of the African-American community. In his function as spokesperson and playwright, Wilson has accrued a number of firsts: he is the first and only African-American playwright to have two plays, Fences and Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, running on Broadway simultaneously (“August Wilson’s Come to Stay” 82). Wilson has won the 1987 and 1990 Pulitzer Prize for Fences and The Piano Lesson, the first and only African American to win the Pulitzer in Drama twice. Wilson has been and continues to be heralded by critics as an exceptional dramatist, as evidenced