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S29E2: August Wilson: The Ground on Which I Stand | Clip

The Essential Ingredients for an August Wilson Play

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Tony-award winner Ruben Santiago-Hudson, now directing the Broadway premiere of August Wilson’s Jitney, shares what he feels are the essential ingredients for any August Wilson play.

TRANSCRIPT

The essential ingredients for an August Wilson play - first of all, the actors must come honest. They also must bring their grandmother and grandfather into the room, which means African-American culture from the South to the North. So - what I call northern colored people - so you have to listen to the blues you have to look at Romare Bearden, you have to read a little bit of Baraka and then you come in and you do your August Wilson, because then you have delved directly to African-American culture from the times back, to the times now.