CONNECTING TO THE PIANO LESSON

THE CENTURY CYCLE
AUGUST WILSON BEGAN WRITING PLAYS in the 1970s when he embarked on an ambitious project: he decided to write a cycle of plays about African
American life, each set in a different decade of the 20th century. Seattle Rep is one
of the few theatres in the country to have produced the Century Cycle in its entirety.
A full list of the plays (in order of the decades they explore) appears below.
1900s—Gem of the Ocean
1910s—Joe Turner’s Come and Gone
1920s—Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
1930s—The Piano Lesson
1940s—Seven Guitars
1950s—Fences
1960s—Two Trains Running
1970s—Jitney
1980s—King Hedley II
1990s—Radio Golf
From top: Michele Shay, Khalil Kain and Allie Woods in Gem of the Ocean, 2006; Cynthia Jones
in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, 2005; James A. Williams, Kim Staunton, Craig Alan Edwards and
Stephen Tyrone Williams in Fences, 2010. Photos by Chris Bennion.
CONNECTING TO
THE PIANO LESSON
Think about these questions before you sit down to watch
August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson.
LEO K. STAGE, MARCH 17 @ 7:30 P.M.
Ten high school students perform
3-minute monologues from August
Wilson’s Century Cycle. The top three
performers win a trip to the national
finals in New York.
• How does your family legacy affect your life today?
• Do you believe you will be more or less successful than your
ancestors? Why?
• What is the role of music in you and your family’s life?
FREE
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National Endowment for the Arts | Thomas Wright & Alexandra BrouwerWright | The Chisholm Foundation | Washington State Arts Commission | U.S.
Bank Foundation | Horizons Foundation | Loeb Family Charitable Foundations
National Corporate Theatre Fund | Fales Foundation Trust | AT&T Foundation
season sponsor
Berniece Charles is planning to bestow her family’s antique
piano to her daughter Maretha, but her brother Boy Willie
has other ideas. He wants to sell the heirloom for cash to
buy the land their family once worked as slaves. In this
intimate story, brother and sister struggle over how to claim
their family’s legacy and when to free themselves of the
past. Set in Depression-era Pittsburgh, The Piano Lesson is a
perfect introduction to the late playwright’s Century Cycle,
as well as a touching tale of family, history and survival.
RSVP by calling the Seattle Rep
Box Office at 206-443-2222.
2014–2015 SEASON
producing partner
media sponsor
PA PA B OY
CHARLES
Born 1795
Born 1802
PA PA B OY
WILLIE
MAMA
BERNIECE
Born 1819
(Carved the piano)
T
During the early 1800s, the Charles
family was enslaved to the Sutter family.
The Sutter patriarch wanted to buy a
piano for his wife Ophelia for their
anniversary. To pay for the gift, he
traded two members of Charles family:
Mama Berniece, (the great-grandmother
of the Berniece we see in the play) and
her 9-year-old son.
Ophelia loved the piano, but missed
Mama Berniece’s company and fell
into a deep depression. In an effort
to assuage Ophelia’s loneliness, Sutter
asked Mama Berniece’s husband, Papa
Boy Willie, to carve an image of Mama
Berniece into the piano. Papa Boy
Willie complied and went on to carve
further events from his family history into
the instrument.
Fifty years later, Berniece and Boy
Wilie’s father Boy Charles became
determined to bring the piano back
to the Charles family. Along with his
brothers Doaker and Wining Boy, he
stole the piano from the Sutter estate.
Enraged, allies of the Sutter family
burned Boy Charles’ home to the ground;
he attempted to escape on the Yellow
Born 1826
(Sold for the piano)
PA PA B OY
WA LT E R
THE PIANO
here’s an unnamed character
in The Piano Lesson whose
presence looms large throughout
the drama – the piano. The play begins
with siblings Berniece and Boy Willie
battling over it . To understand why
their feud is so heated, it’s important
to understand the piano’s complicated
history.
A CHARLES
FA M I LY T R E E
MAMA
ESTHER
ABOUT THE
MAMA
NELLIE
Born 1847
(Sold for the piano)
P L AY W R I G H T
Born 1855
Dog Train, but was apprehended
and burned alive.
Who killed Boy Charles and attacked
his family? No one knows, but every
suspect in the murders has died under
mysterious circumstances and these
deaths are attributed to “The Ghosts of
the Yellow Dog.”
MAMA
OLA
Born 1876
W I N I N G B OY
D OA K E R B OY
Doaker’s brother. A musician
and a gambler, Wining Boy
never stays in one place for very
long and is always looking to
borrow money.
Berniece and Boy Willie’s uncle,
and the owner of the house
where Berniece and Maretha
live. He is a quiet, thoughtful
man who works full time as a
railroad cook.
Born 1881
Born 1880
B OY
CHARLES
Born 1879
Fast forward to the present day. The last
surviving Sutter has died, and the land
where the Charles family was enslaved
is up for sale.
Boy Willie is in prime position to
purchase the land—if he can get the
money in time. He wants to sell the
piano. His sister Berniece refuses. The
current owner of the instrument, she
views it as the last connection to their
parents and an important part of their
family history.
BERNIECE
B OY W I L L I E
Born 1902
Born 1906
Born 1896
Boy Willie’s sister, a widow,
and the mother of Maretha.
She is strongly against selling
the piano, as her father died in
connection to it.
Berniece’s brother who lives
in Mississippi. He is very
ambitious, and wants to sell the
piano in order to afford to buy
Sutter’s estate.
C R AW L E Y
MARETHA
Born 1925
Stephen Tyrone Williams (Boy Willie) and Erika LaVonn (Berniece) in the Syracuse Stage
production of August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson. Photographer Michael Davis.
F R I E N D S O F T H E F A M I LY
LY M O N
AV E RY
Boy Willie’s friend and business
partner. He is not as quick-witted
as Boy Willie, but when he speaks
he shows himself to be genuine
and simple in his desires.
A preacher, and a suitor of
Berniece. He believes that selling
the piano will help Berniece
move on from her grief.
A
ugust Wilson was born in 1945
in the Hill District of Pittsburgh,
to a Sudeten-German immigrant
father and an African American mother.
His father was absent for most of his life.
Wilson dropped out of high school in 10th
grade after a teacher wrongfully accused
him of plagiarism. He starting working
and educated himself by spending large
amounts of time reading at the public
library. He developed a passion for writing
poetry, which later evolved into playwriting,
and in 1968 he co-founded Black Horizons,
a Pittsburgh community theater.
Over the course of his career, Wilson wrote
10 plays that each chronicle a decade of
20th century African American experiences
known as the Century or Pittsburgh Cycle.
Wilson’s two Pulitzer Prize-winning works,
Fences and The Piano Lesson, are both part
of the cycle. Seattle Rep is the only theatre
in the country to have staged all ten plays
plus Wilson’s one-man show How I learned
What I Learned. We last staged The Piano
Lesson in 1993. You can read more about
Wilson and the history of our relationship
with him on our website at seattlerep.org.