Finding Aunt Ester: Phylicia Rashad at 1839 Wylie Avenue in the Hill
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Lake Fong, Post-Gazette
Fictional house in a real place: Phylicia Rashad at 1839 Wylie Avenue, site of the home of playwright August Wilson's legendary Aunt Ester.This is the second time in just over a month that a distinguished visitor, here at the behest of CMU, has wanted to pay tribute to August Wilson by seeing related sites on the Hill.
First it was South African actor/playwright John Kani, who gave an inspiring speech to CMU drama students and the next day went with drama head Liz Bradley and me on a tour led by Larry Glasco, Pitt professor and historisn of black Pittsburgh.
Yesterday it was Phylicia Rashad, famous for her years on TV's Cosby Show, but most remarkable to me for her Tony-winning role in the 2004 revival of "A Raisin in the Sun" and especially her earthy, regal and luminous portrait of Aunt Ester in Wilson's "Gem of the Ocean."
Here just for a day, Rashad had the second string Hill tour, which means I was standing in for the more knowledgeable Glasco.
(And the Post-Gazette later, April 28, published a map of the Hill District with conjectural locations for Wilson's Pittsburgh Cycle plays.)
Accompanying us yesterday were Rashad's friend, Gary Kline, CMU drama teacher, and Dan Green, TV and film producer/director and past president of the CMU Alumni Association. Green was to preside later in the day over her appearance before a full auditorium at CMU.
We visited Wilson's childhood home, of course, as the big picture of Rashad in front of the house in Thursday's PG showed. "We have to save this house," Rashad said, noting the broken windows and sagging eaves of the rear extension, where the Kittel-Wilson family lived.
In Thursday's picture, Rashad has her cell phone out, partly because it's a camera and she was taking pictures, but also because she had just had a call from actress Michelle Shay (coincidentally a CMU grad). Shay has been cast as Aunt Ester in the "Gem of the Ocean" that Rashad is going to direct at Seattle Rep in the spring. As a further coincidence, the backyard Wilson remembered as a boy, beyond the brush at the right rear in the picture here, was the inspiration for the backyard in "Seven Guitars," in which Shay memorably originated the role of Louise, going on to play it on Broadway.
The main other site we visited was 1839 Wylie Ave., the address of Aunt Ester's house and so the spiritual center of Wilson's Pittsburgh Cycle. Of course it's a fictional house -- mythic, one might almost say -- but it's in a real place.
Thank heaven there's no house at that address, just a high vacant lot -- there's no way any real house could live up to the expectations we would have for it. In fact, if anyone builds on that lot, they'd better use 1837 or 1841 unless they want to stir up some potent ghosts.
Rashad seemed inspired by the place, soaking in its height and the view down the hill southward (though there would have been houses blocking that view in 1904). She was also interested in the architecture of the older houses nearby, which might suggest that of Aunt Ester's aging house, which would probably have been a mansion of the sort that once occupied the area that started as Pittsburgh's first suburb.
There was little street life on this cold February weekday, but as we stood talking on Wylie, a good looking man of 40 or more walked by, staring at Rashad and saying, "You're . . . are you . . . ?" "Phylicia Rashad," I helpfully supplied.
He stopped and took a good look: "Yeah!" Then he blurted out, "You're short!" But he immediately recovered himself and added, "but just as beautiful." "It's because of TV," she said, meaning that TV gives a false sense of stature. They shook hands and he said meeting her had made his day.
In fact, Rashad is not at all short, just average height, but she is indeed beautiful. She glows with both warmth and the regal quality that I remember added so much to her Aunt Ester.
I asked if she had ever talked about the Cosby Show with Wilson, who said in interviews that he found it a false image of black life. "He was wrong," she said. "But that's because he grew up here" -- gesturing around us at what Wilson always said was a hard city -- rather than in Texas (like Rashad) or North Carolina or wherever there was a long-established, land-owning, well-educated black middle class.
As we drove up Wylie I suggested stopping in at Westbrook's jitney station, but Rashad was due to start her visit to CMU soon, and I realized you couldn't introduce her to a group of admiring jitney drivers and expect to leave a few minutes later. It would have made the day for a lot of them, as well.
In parting, I asked her to sign a book Wilson once gave me. She did it on page 285. Wilson fans will know why.
Dan Green, left, and Gary Kline with Phylicia Rashad in the lot beside 1727 Bedford Avenue. The part of the building at the right was August Wilson's childhood home.Click photo for larger image.
First Published August 2, 2007 7:00 pm
