How I Learned What I Learned

How I Learned What I Learned will be at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley in January.

American playwright August Wilson was famous for the Pittsburgh Cycle—ten related plays set in the city for which it’s named, about the Black experience—one for each decade of the 20th Century.

Productions of Wilson’s plays have launched the careers of legends Angela Bassett and Viola Davis, and starred some of the most celebrated actors of our time, like James Earl Jones, Phylicia Rashad, Laurence Fishburne, Alfre Woodard, Denzel Washington and Chadwick Boseman.

Wilson was an important and acclaimed author with memorable titles like Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and Fences, which won a Pulitzer Prize (one of two) and a Tony. He was a natural born storyteller who regularly made others laugh, which happens to the audience a lot in How I Learned What I Learned, originally performed on Broadway by Wilson himself and coming to TheatreWorks Silicon Valley mid-January running through Feb. 3.

Director Tim Bond, friend and mentee of the late playwright, says, “There’s an incredible sense of humor throughout the whole play—it’s a lot funnier than most people imagine. It might be because they think August is”—here he lowers his voice in mock gravitas—“so serious.”

Even so, the play reveals that August Wilson experienced serious issues; ones that his characters faced—racism, poverty, loss, but also hope, inspiration and love—and Steven Anthony Jones’ deep voice and deeper knowledge of the material conveys both gravitas and humor of Wilson.

“This is a play about Augusts’ life, how he arrived at who he ended up being by the time he was in his late fifties,” says Jones, who explains Wilson first performed this show himself in 2003, two years before he died at 60.

The play is not overtly political, say both director and actor, but by way of telling his life story, contains “a good deal of Wilson’s point of view vis a vis race and politics in America. It’s enormously compelling because he was a brilliant man,” says Jones, who just celebrated the milestone of fifty years in Equity theater.

But although the show discusses important issues and encapsulates many themes that are relevant today, “This is just a guy telling you a story,” says Jones. “He’s skillful, and it’s compelling, it’s funny, it’s thought provoking—” he says while lightly tapping on a table in rhythm to his words—“and it covers a lot of ground.”

Director Tim Bond’s enthusiasm for Wilson’s work—he’s made a life goal to stage all ten cycle plays as well as this show—is infectious. He says that “in all seriousness,” he thinks people should consider seeing the show twice in order to catch all the wisdom.

Bond started as Artistic Director of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival last year after three years as Artistic Director of TheatreWorks. “This piece,” he says of the one-man-show, “is a gift of, ‘let me share with you how I became who I became and maybe it can lead you to see how the experiences in your life have shaped you, and for young people in particular, maybe this will help you find your way into being an artist.’”

Bond’s production of How I Learned What I Learned wowed audiences in Seattle and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Costumer, dramaturgical consultant and the late Wilson’s wife, Constanza Romero, was invaluable and provided a “privileged view” into his life, says Bond.

“I can’t tell you how much she helped me,” says Jones, who spoke to Romero about everything from the backstory behind the play to Wilson’s vocal inflections. Still, that didn’t create pressure for Jones to transform into the literary giant so much as follow the path laid out by the script.

“August is speaking in his own voice,” says Jones of the script, “I never set out to be August Wilson in How I Learned What I Learned, I simply set out to bring as much honesty and truth to the stories, and to the words that August had left us.”

Why now?

The play, according to Bond, “is about the human condition. It is specifically about an African-American man, but August makes very clear in the piece some things that are for all Americans. It is important now because now is a moment about the realization that we are all in this together, whatever background you are as an American, and that African American History is American History.”