arts & entertainment
August Wilson: A Modern Blues Shakespeare
By Brian Stimson
of the Skanner news
M
a Rainey, in real life, was a ground
breaker. She was part of the first
generation of female Black record-
ing artists. Her legend was so great that in
1982, playwright August Wilson further
immortalized the blues singer in “Ma
Rainey’s Black Bottom.”
Still riding the critical praise of last year’s
“Radio Golf,” The Portland Playhouse will
begin its run of “Ma Rainey” this weekend
to sold-out audiences. The play follows the
turmoil between the legendary entertainer,
her bandmates, and a record producer, dur-
For Jones, who chose to direct the play for
the Playhouse, Wilson’s work on “Ma
Rainey” is a huge metaphor about power,
born out of old-fashioned American oppres-
sion.
Indeed, during a recent rehearsal at the
Playhouse, that power dynamic was well at
work. Ma Rainey, ready to record, makes a
demand that, if not met, will mean further
delays to the recording session.
She wants a Coca-Cola.
Mel Sturdyvant, the studio’s owner, will
have none of it.
But despite Ma’s dwindling star power,
everyone knows she’s still a force in the
music industry, and is a money maker for
Mel. While the White studio
owner refuses to help, she
gets Slow Drag, the band’s
bassist, to go for her.
Backstage, all the tension
and aggression of the play
drifts away. The actors are
laughing and joking, chiding
each other like a bunch of
college dorm mates.
With only about a 4-week time schedule
to put the play together, Jones says the pro-
duction is an immersion into the world of
Wilson.
Julianne Johnson, who plays the title role,
says getting the language right – a hurdle
for almost every August Wilson production
– is one of the chief challenges of the play.
“The language for me, it’s almost like
doing Shakespeare. Shakespeare to jazz,”
she says with a laugh. “We’re all just too
dang proper these days. You have to be able
Wilson’s “Ma Rainey’s Black
Bottom” is a metaphor about
power, born out of oppression
ing a single recording session toward the
end of Rainey’s career.
Director Kevin Jones says the blues
always played an integral part in the life of
Wilson and his writings. And The Blues
provides the perfect backdrop for a play
about human beings acting out on other
human beings.
“I’m not sure if he chose it or it chose
him,” says Jones, of why Wilson picked the
setting he did to tell the story of Black-on-
Black violence and racial subjugation in
early 20th century America.
to go back to not conjugating everything
and just giving it a chance to sing. We just
keep searching until we find it. And when
we find it, the piece just moves seamlessly.
And when we lose it, it just comes screech-
ing to a halt.”
Johnson says Ma is a character that
reminds her very much of her mother.
“She is one of the first group of profes-
sional women who really had to face a
man’s world and keep their dignity and their
self-respect through all the things that were
happening that were adverse to that,” she
said.
At first glance, Ma Rainey doesn’t evoke
much sympathy.
“She had to live at one place which was
aggressive, direct, uncompromising,”
Johnson said. “She’s alone and she knows
she’s alone.”
All qualities that are not natural to the
actor portraying the singer.
“I have to find that place to make it ring
true,” she said.
Johnson says there are glimpses in the
play of Ma Rainey that show her softer side
See raineY on page 14
april 6, 2011 The Portland Skanner Page 9