Vanessa Finney: Tim, welcome.
Tim Bond: Thank you so much. Vanessa,
VF: First of all, give us some context with how "Jitney" fits into that Century Cycle of Wilson's.
TB: 鈥淛itney鈥� was the first play that Wilson wrote, actually back in the 70s, but he didn't revisit it again and put it into the American Century Cycle until 2000, and so it represents the 70s decade of that cycle, which covers each decade in the 20th century. And it's one of his most hopeful and resilient and powerful plays in the whole August Wilson canon.
VF: And the Oregon Shakespeare Festival has been presenting that cycle one by one over the years, right?
TB: Yes, indeed. And we're now in the 70s decade and then the last two we have to complete the cycle is the 80s and the 90s. So we're getting close, and I'm very excited to kind of reintroduce to our audiences the opportunity to have completed the whole cycle.
VF: Right? You can't really study August Wilson without studying history as families experience it, or individuals. He once said that if you don't know your grandparents, you're lost. And I read a quote from the director who directed Jitney on Broadway for the first time. He said that any August Wilson production requires honest actors who bring their grandparents into the room. So there is that sense of history.
TB: Absolutely, you know, we circle up before each rehearsal with the whole cast. And you know, we often bring our grandparents and other ancestors into this space with us, just to honor them and to know that we stand on their shoulders and to ask them for their wisdom and to build on all that they went through as we do the work. And it's just a very powerful experience, and so I find myself laughing at certain jokes that are in there that I know go back to my uncle or my grandparents or my parents, and then find myself very moved when I feel the presence of them come into the room as we work on this play. It's an extraordinary thing that August has created.
"It's one of (the) most hopeful and resilient and powerful plays in the whole August Wilson canon."
VF: That's marvelous, I was wondering if you guys were having those kinds of conversations. So at one time, you worked with August Wilson in Seattle, right? What was that experience like, and how does it inform the way you approach directing his work?
TB: Well, you know, I spent many years knowing August before he passed, watching him in rehearsals, working on his plays as they were on their way to Broadway. I watched him at the O'Neill Center in Connecticut, back when he was developing 鈥淪even Guitars,鈥� and spent time with him here 鈥� actually, in Ashland, quite a bit when he would come to see plays that his wife Constanza Romero was working on. She's a costume designer, and those were some of my productions. And as he was writing the last three plays in the cycle, he talked to me about them, basically recited them right on the bricks at Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and told me, 鈥淭his is the next play I'm working on. It's called 'Gem of the Ocean.' It deals with this.鈥� And then suddenly he's basically reciting the play to me. And so I've heard the play out of his voice and his rhythms with his emotional connection and spiritual connection with these characters. So it was an extraordinary privilege to know him. I miss him deeply every day, and I promised him I was going to complete his cycle. That was the last thing I said to him before we learned he was ill, so I have a great affinity and love for August Wilson and hear his voice in my head.
VF: Those are some deep insights from that experience! So let's get into 鈥淛itney.鈥� Take us to the Pittsburgh Hill District where it's set.
TB: Yes, the Hill District in Pittsburgh is a predominantly black neighborhood. It was very vibrant back in the 1930s and 40s, and then when urban renewal hit it in the 60s and 70s, it devastated that community, as many black communities experienced throughout America as gentrification or urban renewal - or what we call urban removal - was going on in those communities. 鈥淛itney" takes place in 1977 when they're boarding up buildings and getting ready to push everyone out of the neighborhood. So the jitney station, is an unlicensed taxi cab station run by the black folks in the community to make a few bucks to get people their rides when white taxi cabs would not go into the Hill District. So it's a really vibrant, funny, beautiful group of men who are all working as jitney drivers, and the community is under siege from urban renewal at that time. So it's a vibrant set that really captures that world, both inside the station and outside is the Hill District, which, as it's described, has many hills. So there's a car that sits outside of the station that you see on a hillside and people walking up and down the sidewalk. So you really feel like you're plunged into that vibrant place called The Hill District in Pittsburgh, where August set 9 of his 10 plays.
VF: You could say there are sort of two tensions in this play, as there often is: the social forces that you just described and family tensions. Because at the heart of the story is also a father and son, right?
TB: Absolutely, yes, and the father and son are affected deeply by the social forces that are going on at that time. The son, who was accused wrongly of having raped somebody, which is totally not the case, and he is been in prison for 20 years, and he's getting out, and they haven't spoken in those 20 years. And the scene between James Williams, who plays Becker, who's the father, and Chris Butler, who plays Booster, the son, who had all the possibilities of going to the University of Pittsburgh and becoming a scientist - he was a brilliant, brilliant young man - it鈥檚 one of the most heartbreaking and powerful scenes in all of Wilson's canon. And I would say in any American play. It is a master class in writing and an extraordinary scene for these two actors who are Wilson Warriors, and who bring this scene to be one of the most powerful things I've ever directed and experienced. It nails me every time we do the show.
VF: It sounds powerful. So how have rehearsals been going? What's it been like working with the actors in this cast?
TB: Oh, it's been a love fest. It's been just an opportunity for us to really reconnect. I've got some actors I haven't worked with in almost 20 years that are coming back into this cast. They are Wilson warriors that have been here at the festival for a number of years. Kevin Kennerly, Tyrone Wilson, I mentioned Chris Butler, who's come back this season. Aldo Billingslea, who hasn't been here for almost 20 years, who's from the Bay Area. Just an incredible group of folks really feeding off of each other. We do push ups together every day as part of our ritual. We dance. We feel such an affinity for August. James Williams, who plays Becker, was with August at the very beginning of August鈥檚 career in Minneapolis, St Paul, when August was just starting, and was part of the original cast of many of August鈥檚 plays, and he鈥檚 done all 10 plays in the canon. And we had Constanza Romero, August鈥檚 widow and my dear friend who's been our script consultant. And so having all of us in the room together has been just one of the great experiences of my life.
VF: Wow, so meaningful for that cast. And I'm glad you mentioned Constanza. I want to hear about the craftspeople behind the scenes, like the set designer and the costume designer.
TB: Yes, Scott Bradley, who's the set designer, has designed many of August's plays, including - I believe he did the set on Broadway for 鈥淛oe Turner's Come and Gone.鈥� And he's also done 鈥淪even Guitars鈥� by August on Broadway. He has also worked around regionally, and he worked with me on 鈥淛itney鈥� 22 years ago. And so I've been able to bring Scott back to work on this version. And then Helen Wong, who's from the Washington, DC area, has designed many times with me as well, and has done a lot of Wilson. And she's working on it. Michael Keck is doing sound for the show, and Michael has done, I think, five Wilsons with me now. So we have this veteran team of designers who work with each other and on these plays. And, you know, we turn up the music before we start, 70s music, and we all dance in the aisles when we're working on tech and really try to dig in deep to tell the story that August is telling and having a great time. The costumes. I mean, they come on stage and you're transported instantly into 1977 and that's back when I was in high school, so I just remember it all so well, and it's a treat. It's a treat, but yet somehow this play feels very, very apropos to today, even with all the sounds and all the costumes and props and everything taking us back to the 70s. I mean, we have a dial phone. We had to teach one of our younger actors who's going to become a Wilson Warrior. You know, that you put in the dime first and then you dial.
"I feel like that whole question of redemption is one that we all are trying to figure out in society right now, as we see revenge and other things taking place, versus finding reconciliation."
VF: Well, you're a veteran director of August Wilson, and it sounds like a lot of people involved in this production are veterans as well. Have there been any surprises that have come up during rehearsals over the past many weeks, something harder or greater than anticipated?
TB: Well, all these plays are mountains to climb. He really sets the bar high for his extraordinary language, which is always a challenge. Anyone who's a Wilson Warrior actor knows that learning his lines is not easy, but when you get the music of them right, these plays really sing, and the younger actors have been learning it. None of that is a surprise to me, but I will say it's always a great joy to watch when someone finally hears and connects to the rhythms of the language, and then suddenly what it does to the rest of the play. It just lifts everything else up to another level. And I guess I would say for me, I'm surprised at how I can cry every single time. It's in different places, but that the play moves me so powerfully each time is something I figure, 鈥淥kay, today I'm not going to cry. I'm just going to do this other thing,鈥� and it grabs me anyway. Something new grabs me every time. So, yeah, we're having a ball and the play is funny. A lot of people are surprised by how funny it is. They forget how funny Wilson was. And this play is one of his funniest and one of his most joyful and most hopeful plays in the canon, and that feels very comfortable.
VF: What do you hope audiences will take away from this play?
TB: Well, I hope they'll feel the resilience of these characters and maybe see that even though we're in tough times right now, that we can be resilient. To see the power of a group of people in a community, building community when their community is getting torn apart and holding on to that community and that they'll find hope from that. And the power of forgiveness. This play, in terms of the father and son relationship that you mentioned earlier - the whole question is, 鈥淲ill they ever get to a place of forgiveness for each other and for themselves?鈥� And I feel like that whole question of redemption is one that we all are trying to figure out in society right now, as we see revenge and other things taking place versus finding reconciliation. So I hope they leave with reconciliation and hope.
