Stage Preview: Wilson's work was Dutton's destiny
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At the time, it was good, passionate work, says actor Charles Dutton, looking back at his early collaboration with playwright August Wilson and director Lloyd Richards. But to others it was more than that, striking sparks and setting Broadway ablaze with "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" (1984) and "The Piano Lesson" (1990).
Bob GreeneCharles Dutton as Boy Willie in the 1995 Hallmark Hall of Fame TV movie of August Wilson's "The Piano Lesson," directed by Lloyd Richards.
Click photo for larger image.
Then the three careers took different paths. For a while, there was even a rift between Wilson and Dutton. But now, looking back, with both Wilson and Richards no longer living, Dutton can see that "the three of us coming together was heaven-sent, it was destiny. ... I could be doing anything in the world, if I take a breather or reminisce, I go back to those early days. I get emotional melancholy and feel how fortunate we were. I met this writer one day in 1982 and it changed my life.
"There isn't a day when I talk about my life or career that August doesn't come into it. ... I still marvel at it."
Dutton is talking from California, on the eve of a trip to Pittsburgh to do a one-man show he calls "Goodnight Mr. Wilson," a celebration of the work of the great American playwright. Strung together with a narrative account of their collaboration, it draws excerpts from five plays to dramatize Wilson's theatrical thoughts on God and religion, women and womanizing, tragedy, philosophy and life and death.
Now, Dutton is bringing it back to where it all began. Pittsburgh is only the third city to see his tribute, to be staged tomorrow at the Byham Theater, presented by the August Wilson Center on African American Culture.
Who better to do this? Among all the great actors associated with Wilson's work, no one ranks higher than Dutton, who originated three of Wilson's most memorable characters. If any single-performance evening of theater deserves the advance label "can't miss," this is surely it.
Dutton describes the evening as "really hilarious, and at the same time, moving" -- like an August Wilson play. His narrative starts with how they met, when Dutton was a Yale Drama School student actor who had been in prison when he discovered the transforming power of theater.
The show began when Dutton was asked to talk about Wilson at various conferences and grew into a tribute to Wilson at Connecticut's Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, where his early plays were workshopped in the 1980s. It was a one-time thing, but there was enthusiastic response. So Dutton did a part of it at a Wilson conference at the University of Maryland this spring, and now Pittsburgh.
Although he was here for many weeks making the TV movie of "Piano Lesson" in 1994, he says he didn't see much of the Hill District then. "We didn't take time to see Eddie's Restaurant" and other landmarks. But he got a vivid sense of the area and its people when he rode in Wilson's funeral procession through the Hill, past crowds of mourners with hand-made signs.
The five plays Dutton draws on include "Ma Rainey," in which Dutton made his own thunderclap Broadway debut as Levee, the ambitious, angry young trumpet player, and "Piano Lesson," Wilson's second Pulitzer Prize-winner, which was powered by Dutton's high-voltage portrayal of Boy Willie, a genial, passionate force of nature.
Troy, the lead in Wilson's second Broadway play, "Fences," was taken by James Earl Jones, but Wilson wrote the central part in his third play for Dutton -- Herald Loomis in "Joe Turner's Come and Gone." The other two plays he draws on are "Fences" and "Seven Guitars."
Dutton does not confine himself just to the signature characters, but draws freely to create the kind of deeply humorous/serious debate that animates the plays. Included is Troy's speech about death that Dutton did at the playwright's Oct. 8, 2005, funeral at Soldier's and Sailor's Memorial.
While his narrative sets the scenes, Dutton also talks about his relationship with Wilson, how they first met. "We drank many bourbon and waters in many a city in these United States."
He doesn't talk about their rift. It arose when he didn't stay with "Joe Turner" after the Yale premiere. Wilson thought that Dutton was dazzled by Hollywood, and, of course, he has had a substantial career there: "August thought actors shouldn't leave his plays to do film."
But Dutton says he really left because he couldn't face playing Loomis for two years in regional theaters on the way to Broadway, "because the role is so dark." At Yale, he discovered, "this is one of those plays where I have to sit in a dark corner and brood and keep that intensity up. ... It sounds cowardly of me, but it was that difficult of a role. I even warned Delroy [Lindo] when he took it over. ... Two years later, he was walking around at the opening night party, looking like Loomis."
Dutton and Wilson got together again for Boy Willie, the perfect antidote, a sunny, passionate extrovert. But when "Piano Lesson" ended, Dutton took several other cast members with him to do his "Roc" TV show, taking them out of the Wilson casting arena. "We lost some shine on our relationship," Dutton says.
For 13 years he did just TV and film. "Lloyd said, 'Roc, you're really wasting some years, you should have played all the great roles by now."
"I got a little spoiled by August's early plays," Dutton says. The later plays are more strictly ensemble affairs, and Dutton realizes that, "given my physical motor as an actor, I'm uncomfortable in ensemble plays. I like the epic characters ... with those epic, Greek theater moments. ... August always said, 'I'm going to write something for you.' "
Wilson is always with him. He might be in his future, too. Who better than Dutton to work on the much-postponed movie of "Fences," for which Wilson wrote several screenplays? He says, "I definitely have a Troy in me," but his first thought when he considers an August Wilson movie is to direct.
"I know how to act his characters, but I also feel I would know how to direct, with the care and nuance needed. ... I'm actually meeting with [Scott Rudin, who owns the rights]. It would still make a great, award-winning film."
Where: August Wilson Center at the Byham Theater, Downtown. When: 8 p.m. May 23. Tickets: $25.50 to $50.50; students $15; 412-456-6666.
First Published May 21, 2007 6:57 pm
