Absolutely, ... but he'd have to be totally committed and shut down the businesses. He couldn't do anything else. He'd have to say, 'For these five or six months, I have to be about looking at and studying August's work.' It would definitely take some work, but I think he could do it. |
August's accomplishments are unsurpassed - to me, the only writer to come close is Shakespeare, ... He has been the epitome of American theater for the last 23 years. He's defined it. His plays not only serve an artistic purpose, but they also serve a social purpose because they look at ourselves as Americans. |
By the end of the run, people were talking about the play, ... A young generation of people came to that play expecting to see Puffy or Clair Huxtable. When it was over, people were saying, 'Who is Lorraine Hansberry? I want to read her. I want to know who she is.' |
encompasses all the strength and power that theater has to offer. |
He put our history in a storytelling context and put a human face on those people who were free from slavery but had no jobs. He gave his characters big voices, when the broader community thought they had little voices, that they had nothing to say. |
He's my hero because he's not only the anchor of my career, he's my growth as a man. |
I don't have to make up what I love about Atlanta, ... This is going to be genuine, honest and heartfelt. |
I feel a huge responsibility to finish what he [August Wilson] started, in the way he would have finished it. |
I love the feeling of the gathering, |
I never think about putting my stamp on anything, ... If someone watches a play and they don't see the hand of the director in it, if it's seamless and seems effortless, then I will have achieved what I'm after. I want folks to sit and hear August's music. |
I want to be a champion of African American work, but I'm defined by more than race, |
I'm from the South and I really studied Tennessee Williams, ... I love plays that are poetry-based, but last year, when all those Williams plays went to Broadway ('A Streetcar Named Desire' and 'The Glass Menagerie'), it didn't occur to producers to ask me if I was interested. |
In casting somebody like Puffy and having him bring in all his fans, you get the people in the hip-hop generation to see the play, |
It's the ultimate universally engaging play, ... It was important to have 20-year-olds and 80-year-olds in the audience, to have blacks and whites in the audience. |
The play has taken on a greater height of spirituality. He didn't make it. That was a painful thing, but it feels absolutely right that we are here. His family is here. His people are here. |