Kenny Leon: August Wilson, Radio Golf and Me
As the director of Radio Golf, Kenny Leon had the unique privilege of helping shape the final play written by August Wilson before his death from cancer in October 2005. Set in 1997 in Wilson's native Pittsburgh Hill District neighborhood, Radio Golf brought to a close the playwright's epic history of 20th-century African-American life, one play set in each decade. Leon's own career is flourishing: In a decade as artistic director of Atlanta's Alliance Theatre, he produced 10 world premieres, including Elton John's Aida; in New York, he directed the all-star Broadway revival and subsequent film of A Raisin in the Sun, the recent off-Broadway production of Daniel Beaty's Emergence-See and the Broadway production of Wilson's Gem of the Ocean. His next Wilson-related labor of love will be shepherding the Kennedy Center's presentation of the playwright's entire 10-play cycle. Leon recently reflected on Radio Golf's bittersweet journey for Broadway.com
I met August Wilson in 1987 after I saw the Broadway production of Fences for the first time. I was a directing fellow with the National Endowment for the Arts, and from that day forward August was at the center of my artistic life. We began corresponding after that, and I was lucky enough to receive his input and notes on productions of his plays that I directed throughout my career.
This history and relationship helped us navigate the challenges Radio Golf faced over the last two years. But it was when I came on to direct Gem of the Ocean in Boston and on Broadway that we truly formed an artistic force. Along with Todd Kreidler, dramaturg and longtime writing partner to August, and Narda Alcorn, Production Stage Manager, we overcame some of the toughest challenges I had faced as a director. We replaced a lead actor in tech, saw the near closing of the production as funding ran short, but in the end, we opened on December 6, 2004, and August and I formed a unique bond that would serve us greatly in the coming year.
Before we opened Gem, August asked me to direct this final installment of his historic cycle. I was scheduled to direct Toni Morrison's opera, Margaret Garner, that coming spring and so was unable to begin with Radio Golf at the Yale Repertory Theatre. I was flattered when August called me after closing at the Yale Rep and asked me to come onto the production.
I learned so much from this great and poetic man. In the all too brief moments that I spent with August at his home in Seattle, I truly got to know him. Not that he put me "under his wings" and consciously taught me, but I watched him sit on his porch and live and talk like a man. A very wise man: Live life to its fullest, claim your birthright, feel inferior to no one, and die with dignity.
When August completed a draft of Radio Golf in September of 2005, he knew it had to be the last. He put changes in that normally would have evolved over the course of three or four cities, and it is beautiful. I've been playing catch up ever since. In each city we have performed in, I have learned something new about the play. I have found a new layer, and it is a vast and deep ocean of a play.
All of us who have worked on this piece for the last two years had one collective goal: to bring the final words of this great poet to Broadway. We have succeeded, and it is a bittersweet victory. August had three directors who worked on his plays from their inception, and it is an honor to be in the company of the late Lloyd Richards and Marion McClinton. I also see it as a particular honor to have been able to work on the first and last play of this great cycle.
"Hold Me To It." That's what Sterling Johnson challenges mayoral candidate Harmond Wilks to use as a campaign slogan in Radio Golf. August always said, "I wrote it, now do your part." I promise to do my part, August. You can hold me to it.