Thank you, Arena Players, for an excellent ‘Gem of the Ocean,’ start of the August Wilson series

As mentioned in my column of April 4, starting with the current production of “Gem Of The Ocean” at Arena Players, a collaboration of Baltimore theater companies will stage August Wilson’s 10 plays about 20th century Black life over the next three years. That means a whole new generation of theatergoers will get to see live performances of all of Wilson’s award-winning works, right here in Baltimore. The collaboration is a gift to all of us who love theater, and the premier production is superb. Congratulations to director Donald Owens and the outstanding cast of “Gem,” including Sharon Carter Brown, Isaiah Evans, Nikki Scroggins, Richard Peck, Rysheem McGirt, Evan Carrington, William A. Walker, Keyonna LaShawn, Antoine Williams and Mo Stewart. The Arena production achieves all that Wilson might have wanted with this play — a powerful, at times humorous portrayal of Black life in Pittsburgh’s Hill District four decades after the Civil War and 800 miles north of bondage; a study in the freed man’s struggle with freedom in 1904, when slavery was still a living memory; and a consecration of the suffering of the Middle Passage as a way to honor the dead and redeem the living. It’s a fascinating play, and Wilson’s respect for the humanity of his characters — their struggles, how the past informs the present — is, as in all his works, paramount. The Arena Players’ production honors this great playwright.

Wilson died in 2005 at age 60. He did not write his plays in chronological order, but the plan is to present them that way: “Gem of the Ocean,” set in 1904; “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone,” set in 1911; “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” set in 1927; “The Piano Lesson,” 1936; “Seven Guitars,” 1948; “Fences,” 1957; “Two Trains Running,” 1969; “Jitney,” 1977; “King Hedley II,” 1985; and “Radio Golf,” set in 1990. For more information about the series: https://bmoreaugustwilson.org/

Arena Players is the oldest continuously operating African-American community theater in the United States.