Repeating the cycle

Next week, The Black Rep will further extend its margin as a leading producer of Black theater. Very few theater companies in the nation – or the world – can boast that they have produced all 10 of the plays from the iconic cycle of plays by Pulitzer Prize-winner August Wilson. The plays reflect Black life in each decade of the 20^th century.  When “Radio Golf” opens next week at The Edison Theatre, the Black Rep will have twice completed the feat. 

The Black Rep created a home for August Wilson plays long before his work became a standard on stages around the globe.

“I remember when we first started doing August Wilson [in regional theater],” Himes said. “Back then actors were coming out of those big programs and they couldn’t even speak it. The rhythm and the cadence had kind of been trained out of them. Now there are what we call Wilsonian actors.”

Producing his work is in alignment with their mission of providing a platform for Black playwrights – and actors. 

“Just like the Shakespeare canon [for everyone else], because of August there are roles for Black actors starting at the age of nine or ten up through 368,” Himes said. “For me early on, I was playing a lot of the younger roles. The first time I was in ‘The Piano Lesson,’ I played Levy. The second time, I played Toledo.” 

In the Black Rep’s upcoming second staging of “Radio Golf,” Himes plays Elder Barlow. 

“This cast is pretty amazing and we are still making new discoveries as we rehearse and prepare,” said Ron Himes. “We are going to have something really special to close season 48.”

Directed by Jon Royal, the SDCF Lloyd Richards New Futures Artist in Residence at The Black Rep, the show will run May 14 – June 1 and features Reginald Wilson and Black Rep veterans Velma Austin, Ronald L. Conner, Himes and Kelvin Roston Jr.

The performance will also be a milestone for Conner, who will complete his first cycle of August Wilson plays as an actor through The Black Rep’s production of “Radio Golf.”

“Once I found out there were ten plays, I knew I wanted to do all ten,” Conner said. “It still hasn’t hit me that it is actually happening – and at The Black Rep of all places.” 

The experience is a full circle moment for him in more ways than one. 

“I remember going to the shows with my grandmother back when the theater was on St. Louis Avenue,” said Conner, now an experienced actor with stage, film and television credits. 

At ten years old he accompanied her on a trip to New York City, where he was able to see Denzel Washington on Broadway in “Checkmates.” 

“Despite the generation gap, my grandmother and I were both laughing at the same things,” Conner said. He noticed all of the different people from different cultures, races and backgrounds sharing a universal experience.  “I said,’ ‘I want to do that,’” Conner said. 

Seven years later, It was The Black Rep that introduced him to August Wilson. 

“My senior year of high school, I think it was senior year, I saw A.C. Smith in ‘Two Trains Running,’” Conner said. “As a matter of fact, Kelvin and I saw it together.”

They were both students at Cardinal Ritter College Prep. Since then, Conner has performed with Smith, a nationally renowned Chicago based actor, twice in “Two Trains Running.” Roston and Conner are both currently based in Chicago – and both received their professional foundation through The Black Rep. 

“To be able to see what both of them have accomplished and be where they are in their careers and to have them consider The Black Rep home is a wonderful feeling,” Himes said. “So is the fact that whenever they can come back home, they do.”

The Black Rep’s production of August Wilson’s Radio Golf will take place from May 14 -June 1 at Washington University’s Edison Theatre, 6465 Forsyth Blvd. For more information, call 314.534.3807 or visit www.theblackrep.org. 

Living It content is produced with funding by the ARPA for the Arts grants program in partnership with the Regional Arts Commission of St. Louis and the Community Development Administration.