What: Reading of “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone” by August Wilson
Where: Washington State History Museum, 1911 Pacific Ave, Tacoma
When: 7:30 p.m. June 6
Cost: $12
Information: 253-591-5894, www.broadwaycenter.org
Interview with: Rosalind Bell, director
What’s the play?
It’s the second of the 10-play Pittsburgh Cycle by August Wilson, the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright who lived the last decade of his life in Seattle. Each play is set in a different decade, told from the perspective of the African American community in Pittsburgh.
This is the second reading in the series, right?
Yes. There will be two readings a year for five years, with local actors.
Who’s organizing it?
The Northwest Playwrights’ Alliance, the Broadway Center, the Washington State History Museum, and Samuel French Inc.
Tell us about “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone.”
It’s 1911, roughly 50 years after emancipation. It’s a time of great upheaval, especially for black people in America. The play’s set in a boarding house in Pittsburgh, a way-station for people coming from the south to the north for jobs. Joe Turner, in the title, was the brother of the governor of Tennessee who would capture black men and force them to work for him for seven years. In the play a man called Herold Loomis is released from that, and he’s traveling north through Pittsburgh to search for his wife and daughter. There are 10 other characters, like Molly, the femme fatale; Jeremy, the up-and-coming musician; Bynum, the conjurer.
These characters create an archetype for African Americans in the early 20th century.
The play deals with the search for self, with racism, injustice. It’s my favorite play of Wilson’s.
When’s the next one?
“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” set in 1924, will be performed next year.
Rosemary Ponnekanti, The News Tribune
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