In a recent video interview, Jackson explained how she navigated the gender politics of Wilson’s play, what it was like working with Samuel L. Jackson and John David Washington, and how the director was truly her first love. We talked about how we discovered something. These are edited excerpts from that conversation.
You are the first woman to direct an August Wilson play on Broadway. How did your perspective as a black woman influence his approach to his work?
August was such a man.When he directed “Two Trains Running” for Kenny Leung’s True Colors Company in Atlanta, I told him [Leon]”As a woman, I see things differently. What may seem trivial to you, I think is the key point.”
I remember telling Pauletta [Washington]We can’t have conversations about women being cut and stabbed to death like it’s part of everyday life. Our presence matters.
In “The Piano Lesson”, Bernieth, like Lisa, is the only female in the cast.
Yes, Bernieth is surrounded by all this testosterone. I remember asking August after seeing the premiere of this play at Yale. Where are the parts for women? ’ And he said, ‘Well, Joe Turner has a woman. I said, “But we are always singular.”
As my mentor Douglas Turner Ward puts it: They try to do something, and if it’s great, a spirit visits them and they just write. It is the job. Usually for good writers it’s bigger than intended. ’ And it turns out that’s true for August as well.
You embrace the otherworldlyness of this story. why was it important to you?
October 2nd was the anniversary of the transition in August, so I’ve been thinking about him and his widow, Constanta Romero, and how to approach this story spiritually. I tell everyone, “This is a ghost story.” I believe there is another world where something is happening even if we can’t see it. In order to express that in the play, I felt like all the members of that house were fighting their own ghosts.but sutter [the white slave owner] It represents the specter of racism and the cruel ways we have had to survive life in this country. Augustus metaphorically shows us that this ghost was an albatross around our neck. But he wanted to make it explicit visually so that there would be no question that we were trying to get rid of it.