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In the audience for one play here was a young August Wilson seeing his first professional production

Friday, January 17, 2003

By Christopher Rawson, Post-Gazette Drama Critic

Athol Fugard has been well received in America, where he joined the Theatre Hall of Fame in 2001. And he has been pretty well represented in Pittsburgh, too.

In its first 15 years, the Public Theater produced more Fugard (four) than any other playwright except Shakespeare. At the end of March, 1991, the Public's "My Children! My Africa!" overlapped with City's "The Road to Mecca" and the Fugard franchise was passed -- now City has staged four Fugard plays, as well.

Two have been important milestones. The Public's "Sizwe Bansi Is Dead," was the first professional theater seen by the young August Wilson, inspiring him to see that black life had a place in mainstream theater."Mecca," starring Liz Orion and Robin Walsh, the last show at City's small Oakland home, was its best then and in some memories has never been bettered.

Fugard is an actor, too, and has been seen here in several films, among them "Gandhi" and "The Killing Fields."

There have been several smaller pro productions here, included in this list, which gives the year each play was written but is arranged in the order of its first Pittsburgh production. Many Fugard plays have not yet been seen here.

"Sizwe Bansi Is Dead" (1972): Public Theater, 1976.

"The Blood Knot" (1961, revised 1966): Public Theater, 1978.

"A Lesson from Aloes" (1978): Pittsburgh Lab Theater, 1983.

"Nongogo" (1959): McCurdy Arts Complex at Westinghouse High School, 1985.

" Master Harold ... and the boys" (1982): Public Theater, 1986; Perspective Theater at Pitt, 1993.

"The Island" (1973): Perspective Theater at Pitt, 1988; Global Posse at Hamburg Studio, 2000.

"My Children! My Africa!" (1989): Public Theater, 1991; A Mixed Company at Live on Stage, 1998.

"The Road to Mecca" (1984): City Theatre, 1991.

"Playland" (1993): City Theatre, 1993.

"Valley Song" (1996): City Theatre, 1999.

"Sorrows and Rejoicings" (2001): City Theatre, 2003.