Celebrating Black History Month: LisaGay Hamilton Remembers the 'Perfect Company' of The Piano Lesson

In honor of Black History Month, Broadway.com asked actors, directors and playwrights to tell us about black theater-makers who inspired them. Stars jumped at the chance to honor those who came before them, and in the process, taught us about the fundamental contributions of black artists to the American theater. To read the other entries in this series, click here.

LisaGay Hamilton currently plays Calpurnia in To Kill a Mockingbird on Broadway. She made her Broadway debut in the 1990 Broadway production of August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson, which would not be her first encounter with the great playwright; she starred as Black Mary in Gem of the Ocean (2004). When asked what black theater artist inspired her, Hamilton chose to honor the entire cast of The Piano Lesson. 

The Piano Lesson, inspired by a Romare Bearden painting of the same name, was the fourth play in August Wilson's The Pittsburgh Cycle, a series of 10 plays that explored the African-American experience across the 20th century. About a Southern black family who moves to the urban north in the 1930s, The Piano Lesson was first developed at the Yale Repertory Theatre in 1987 by director Lloyd Richards, who would go on to direct it on Broadway. The production was further developed at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. and the Doolittle Theatre in Los Angeles. On Broadway, The Piano Lesson received five Tony nominations, including for actors S. Epatha Merkerson and Charles S. Dutton, and ran for 328 performances.

Hamilton on The Piano Lesson: "In 1989, I joined the Broadway bound company of August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson, directed by the intellect and creative giant Lloyd Richards. I played Grace who did not enter until the end of the second act. For an entire year, from the Kennedy Center, to the Doolittle and finally on Broadway, I sat in the balcony and watched in awe as S. Epatha Merkerson, Charles S. Dutton, Rocky Carroll, Lou Meyers, Apryl R. Foster, Tommy Hollis and Carl Gordon—may I say—acted their asses off! To this day, I can see this perfect company singing, dancing, crying, loving, needing, pleading and weaving family history, my history. I can see S. Epatha (Bernice) pound Dutton’s (Boy Willie’s) chest, decrying, ‘He ain’t here! He ain’t here!’ I can see and hear all the men sitting at that small kitchen table singing ‘Oh Lord Berta Berta.’ Carroll’s (Lymon) hat, twirling and grasping in its own clear and distinctive language. Dutton doing the jig with his heavy body and light feet. These moments and more have stayed with me through my life. The Piano Lesson’s cast was one of the greatest gifts given to me. The journey was an extraordinary class."