August Wilson’s American Century Cycle is a towering achievement: 10 plays that collectively chronicle a century of change in one predominantly Black neighborhood of Pittsburgh. With a production of Wilson’s “Radio Golf,” the Black Rep is celebrating an achievement of its own.
In 2007, the company became just the third to complete productions of the full cycle with “Gem of the Ocean,” the first in Wilson’s 10-play sequence. Since then, the Black Rep has produced the plays once again, in chronological order. That 18-year process culminates with “Radio Golf,” the conclusion of the American Century Cycle.
“It's a monumental task. It's a major accomplishment for the company. It's been a major accomplishment for a group of artists, too,” said Ron Himes, founder and producing artistic director of the Black Rep.
“Radio Golf,” which continues performances through June 1 at the Edison Theatre on the campus of Washington University, also marks a personal milestone for two actors in the show. Himes has now acted in all 10 plays. So too has Ronald L. Conner, a St. Louis native now based in Chicago.
Conner saw his first Black Rep production when he was 8, later becoming an intern at the company and then an actor performing in shows there.
“It was always a goal of mine” to act in all 10 plays of the American Century Cycle, Conner said before a rehearsal at the Edison Theatre, “and so to complete the cycle here at the Black Rep is just a full circle, fulfilling moment for me.”
A golf cart ride into the smoky backroom?
The play is set in 1997 and concludes the series of plays, also sometimes known as the Pittsburgh Cycle or just the Century Cycle.
Wilson published “Radio Golf” not long before his death in 2005. It asks whether there’s a route to prosperity for Black Americans — in a society where access to economic opportunity is often regulated by predominantly white institutions — that brings the less fortunate folks along, rather than shutting them out.
The play centers on two Black businessmen who return to Pittsburgh’s Hill District, where they were raised, to tear down a block of it and build a housing and shopping development complete with a Whole Foods supermarket and a Barnes & Noble bookstore.
Lead developer Harmond Wilks is also running for mayor of Pittsburgh. His partner, known in the play only as Roosevelt, is a newly minted vice president at a bank who is starting a golf camp for Black children. A poster of Tiger Woods hangs on the wall of his office.
Roosevelt rhapsodizes about the power of golf to give African Americans access to a culture of country club dealmaking. That detail resonates strongly with Himes.
“One of the reasons that I started playing golf was because I could play golf with people who Ron Himes, the producing director of the Black Rep, could not get a meeting with,” said Himes.
“Radio Golf” protagonist Harmond believes his development project will lift the neighborhood up — though longtime residents he meets with aren’t so sure — and he is scrupulous about making sure property owners in the development zone are compensated. Roosevelt is more focused on the business opportunities to come. He’s quick to break into his high school fight song in a burst of nostalgia but has come to view the old neighborhood as a crime-ridden place where it’s not recommended to leave your car unattended.
Their dynamic is familiar in Black communities, said actor Velma Austin. She plays Mame, a public relations professional who is married to Harmond and begins losing professional opportunities when he becomes more outspoken about backroom deals that hold Black residents back.
“Somewhere along the line, we got lost. We went downtown and somebody told us that we were better than our brother that lives on the south side, and we believed it," Austin said. “Somebody lied to us and told us we were worth 25 cents. So now we start looking at our brother like he's not worth a dime. That's what I get out of this play — the loss of our neighborhoods, and how we used to love on each other.”
A monumental literary achievement
Wilson won Pulitzer Prizes for two plays in his American Century Cycle, “Fences” and “The Piano Lesson."
It’s not necessary to see or read all of the plays in order to understand them, though there are continuities. An abandoned house crucial to the plot of "Radio Golf" was the site of the action in "Gem of the Ocean," the first play in the cycle.
Together, the plays paint a complicated portrait of a neighborhood’s changes over time and its residents’ efforts to build their lives in a society that often denies them opportunities.
“August Wilson is the American Shakespeare,” said actor Kelvin Roston Jr., another St. Louis native who plays a Pittsburgh handyman in the Black Rep’s production.
“There is a rhythm. There is a technique. There is a musicality," Roston added. "He gives you the soul of a person.”
