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Writer thrilled about staging of play here
Tuesday, May 25, 1999 By John Hayes , Post-Gazette Staff Writer
"Ooooo, weeeee!" squealed P.J. Gibson on the phone. "You're doing my play in my hometown!"
The 48-year-old author of some 30 plays, poetry and erotic literature couldn't contain her giddiness over New Horizon Theater's production of her drama "Long Time Since Yesterday." Arrangements had been made through the play's publisher, and Gibson, an assistant professor of English at New York City's John Jay College of Criminal Justice, had been left out of the loop.
"I get my work [performed] all over the world," she said. "Europe, South Africa, all over the United States. I was wondering when my hometown was going to do it."
Apparently, no one told her about Kuntu Theatre's performance of the same piece in September 1988, either.
Gibson was born in a house in Homewood and lived there with her grandparents until she was 5. Although she still has family here, her contact with Pittsburgh has been infrequent.
"But I visit Pittsburgh all the time in my imagination," she said, "and the city shows up in my stories."
"Long Time Since Yesterday," a drama about secrets revealed among old friends, is set in New Jersey. But, Gibson says, "Brown Silk and Magenta Sunsets" and several of her short stories are set in the communities surrounding the three rivers.
"Pittsburgh is where I started thinking about stories, when I was only 4 or 5," she said. "When you're an only child raised by older people you have to use your imagination to survive, and my imagination was very alive and well. The hillsides in Pittsburgh reminded me of green Afros when I was 4 years old ... and I remember Nat King Cole picking me up in a nightclub when I was very, very small. My palate of colors came from Pittsburgh. I have vivid memories of my childhood there and I use them in my work."
"Long Time," she said, is her most produced play, but "Konvergence" was recently performed twice at Juilliard, and "Annie Maye's Child" was done this year in Buffalo. Two final installments of her three-part "ancestor" series were recently staged in New York. The first part, performed out of sequence but in the order in which it was written, is slated for a reading next month in New York. Her poetry, contemporary literature and erotica have been published by several companies, and Gibson said she's close to finishing her first novel.
One of the hallmarks of her work is the frequent use of professional and highly educated African-American characters.
"Too many times black people are portrayed as impoverished or criminals," she said. "Most of my characters are not destitute. When the curtain rises on a suburban home, well-decorated and with women who are highly skilled professionals, it makes the audience feel good about seeing themselves as other than the stereotypical images."
Gibson had planned to return to Pittsburgh for a family reunion in July. But since she found out about New Horizon's production of "Long Time," she's trying to reschedule her summer so she can see the show.
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