Milwaukee Rep - August Wilson's 'Seven Guitars'
Arthur Crudup, a Black bluesman from Chicago’s South Side, wrote a song that became a hit, only to die broke and obscure. The song, “That’s All Right,” was interpreted by Elvis Presley on his first single, launching him toward superstardom even as the song’s publisher resolutely refused to pay Crudup the royalties he was due.
Crudup’s name came up in conversation with Ron OJ Parson, in town to direct August Wilson’s Seven Guitars. It’s the story of the fictional Floyd “Schoolboy” Barton, a singer in 1940s Pittsburgh offered a recording contract, and part of Wilson’s 10-play “American Century Cycle,” an epic exploration of African American life.
Like most theater directors, the Buffalo-born Parson began in acting—in third grade in his case. Parson had no expectation of a career in theater; he focused on sports broadcasting in college but somehow the stage kept calling and he became involved in a small theater company. “Directing happened because everyone had to do everything. One thing led to another,” he explained.
As Parson established himself in Chicago, cofounding the Onyx Theatre Ensemble and currently as the Court Theatre’s resident artist, his circle of friends and colleagues continually overlapped with Wilson. Through the years, “I was around him a lot,” Parson said. “He saw a couple of my productions of his plays. His telling of Seven Guitars for the Milwaukee Rep will be the 31st time Parson has directed Wilson, and the second time he staged one of his plays at the Rep where he directed Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom in 2011.
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Before his death in 2005, Wilson established himself not only as America’s preeminent Black playwright but as one of the nation’s most significant authors of any background. “A lot of people say, ‘Aren’t you tired of doing his plays?’ but good plays—you never get tired of them,” Parson said. He then asked how many plays by Eugene O’Neill or Tennessee Williams are in production by major companies in recent years—three, maybe four? Wilson has become the most performed playwright in the U.S. bar one—the old master himself, William Shakespeare.
The inspiration for the “American Century Cycle” came largely from Wilson’s formative experience in Pittsburgh’s segregated Hill District. According to Parson, the 10 plays didn’t emerge from a master plan. “The characters just talked to him,” he said. “In rehearsal, I try to inspire the cast with his spirit—to bring August into the room, the music of his language.”
As for Seven Guitars’ protagonist, Floyd “Schoolboy” Barton, “he’s a representation of the era and the music industry and what happened to people who are pushed down because of the oppression of Black people in America in the ‘40s.”
What does Parson want the audience to take home after seeing Seven Guitars?
“Dali is my favorite artist,” Parson began. “If 10 people look at one of his paintings, you’ll get 10 different reactions. It’s the same for August’s plays—except that they are about the situation of us as a people in the ‘40s. They are about love—love of family, of culture and relationships, of music and growing things. I start there: ‘Where is the love?’ Everything stems from that.”
Milwaukee Repertory Theater presents Seven Guitars, March 7-April 2 at Quadracci Powerhouse, 108 E. Wells St. For tickets visit milwaukeerep.com or call the box office at 414-224-9490.
