The Piano Lesson

The Piano Lesson
Written by	August Wilson
Date premiered	26 November 1987
Place premiered	Yale Repertory Theatre New Haven, Connecticut
Original language	English
Series	The Pittsburgh Cycle
Setting	Pittsburgh, 1936

The Piano Lesson is a 1990 play by American playwright August Wilson. The Piano Lesson is the fifth play in Wilson's The Pittsburgh Cycle. Wilson began writing this play by playing with the various answers regarding the possibility of "acquir[ing] a sense of self-worth by denying ones past".[1] The Piano Lesson was awarded the 1990 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

Inspired by a Romare Bearden painting titled The Piano Lesson, Wilson was inspired to write a play featuring a strong female character to confront African-American history, paralleling Troy in earlier Fences.[2] However, after finishing his play, Wilson found the ending to stray from the empowered female character as well as the question regarding one's self worth. The final question proposed by The Piano Lesson seems to ask, "what do you do with your legacy, and how do you best put it to use?". [3]

Set in 1936 Pittsburgh during the aftermath of the Great Depression, The Piano Lesson follows the lives of the Sutter family in the Doaker Charles household and an heirloom, the infamous piano. The play focuses on the arguments between a brother and a sister who have different ideas on what to do with the piano they own. The brother, Boy Willie, is a sharecropper who wants to sell the piano to buy the land that his ancestors had toiled on as slaves while the sister, Berniece, remains emphatic about keeping it. The piano shows the carved faces of their great-grandfather's wife of son during the days of their enslavement.

Cast and crew

• Director: Lloyd Richards
• Set Designer: E. David Cosier, Jr.
• Costume Designer: Constanza Romero
• Lighting Designer: Christopher Akerlind
• Sound Designer: J. Scott Servheen
• Musical Director: Dwight Andrews
• Production Stage Manager: Maureen F. Gibson
• Stage Manager: Gwendolyn M. Gilliam

Cast for this production as follows:

• Doaker: Carl Gordon
• Boy Willie: Samuel L. Jackson
• Lymon: Rocky Carroll
• Berniece: Starletta DuPois
• Maretha: Chenee Johnson/Ylonda Powell
• Avery: Tommy Hollis
• Wining Boy: Lou Myers
• Grace: Sharon Washington

SECOND PRODUCTION,

• Opened: 9 January 1988
• Location: Huntington Theatre Company in Boston (Yale Repertory Theatre production)
• Producing Director: Peter Altman
• Managing Director: Michael Maso
• Director: Lloyd Richards
• Set Designer: E. David Cosier, Jr.
• Costume Designer: Constanza Romero
• Lighting designer: Christopher Akerlind
• Sound Designer: J. Scott Servheen
• Musical Director: Dwight Andrews
• Stage Manager: Gwendolyn M. Gilliam

Cast for this production as follows:

• Doaker: Carl Gordon
• Boy Willie: Charles S. Dutton
• Lymon: Rocky Carrll
• Berniece: Starletta DuPois
• Maretha: Jaye Skinner
• Avery: Tommy Hollis
• Wining Boy: Lou Myers
• Grace: Sharon Washington

THIRD PRODUCTION,

• Opened: 16 April 1990
• Location: Walter Kerr Theatre on Broadway in New York City
• Director: Lloyd Richards
• Set Designer: E. David Cosier, Jr.
• Costume Designer: Constanza Romero
• Lighting designer: Christopher Akerlind
• Sound Designer: G. Thomas Clark
• Musical Director: Dwight Andrews
• Production Stage Manager: Karen L. Carpenter
• Stage Manager: Russell Johnson

Cast for this production as follows:

• Doaker: Carl Gordon
• Boy Willie: Charles S. Dutton
• Lymon: Rocky Carroll
• Berniece: S. Epatha Merkerson
• Maretha: Apryl R. Foster
• Avery: Tommy Hollis
• Wining Boy: Lou Myers
• Grace: Lisa Gay Hamilton

(All production history gathered from The Piano Lesson, August Wilson Century Cycle, forwarded by Toni Morrison, published in 2007)

Film adaptation

Hallmark teleplay VHS cover

A Hallmark Hall of Fame movie entitled The Piano Lesson aired on CBS on February 5, 1995, starring Charles S. Dutton and Alfre Woodard.

TELEPLAY PRODUCTION[5],

• Year: 1995
• Adapted for: CBS Hallmark Hall of Fame Teleplay Production
• Director: Lloyd Richards

• Cast for this production as follows:
• Boy Willie: Charles S. Dutton
• Berniece Charles: Alfre Woodard
• Doaker: Garl Gordan
• Avery: Tommy Hollis
• Wining Boy: Lou Myers
• Lymon: Courtney B. Vance
• Maretha: Zelda Harris
• Grace: Rosalyn Coleman
• Ace: Tommy Lafitte
• Miss Ophelia: Lynne Innerst
• Papa Willie Boy: Harold Surratt
• Mama Berniece: Elva Branson
• Sutter: Tim Hartman
• Watermelon Man: Ben Tatar
• Watermelon Lady: Alice Eisner

Characters

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Plot

• Act 1, Scene 1:

The Boy Willie and Lymon enter into the Charles household at dawn with a truck full of watermelon they intend to sell. Against his better judgment and Uncle Doaker's insistence, Boy Willie calls awake his sister, Berniece who he has not seen in three years due to his sentence in the Parchment Prison Farm. Altogether, the family members and Lymon celebrate the drowning of Sutter (the family who owned the Charles's family during slavery) in the well. Tired of her brother's stupid actions, Berniece dismisses her brother's words and wishes him to leave the house as soon as possible. To annoy her further, Boy Willie calls upon Maretha, Berniece's daughter, in the middle of the night to stir her from her sleep, causing Berniece to run back up the stairs. Switching topics, Willie then asks of his Uncle Wining Boy, who has become a wanderer in his middle age looking for the past he seems to want to relive. Lymon then brings up the piano. Willie intends to sell the watermelon and the piano to buy the Sutter's land the Charles family had once toiled upon. Doaker insists that Berniece will not agree to selling the piano and Willie insists that he will convince her. Seeing Sutter's ghost dressed in a blue suit, Berniece then screams at the top of the stairs. Her brother, Willie tells her that she is imaging things and that Sutter is looking for the piano to be rid of the Charles household. After Doaker rambles on about his railroad stories, Maretha comes downstairs and Willie asks her to play the piano. She plays the beginning of a few simple tunes and he answers her song with a boogie-woogie. Willie then asks Maretha if she knows the origins of the piano and is surprised to discover she does not. Avery and Berniece reenter the room and Willie casually asks his sister if she might still have the protective buyer's name. Finally professing his want to sell the piano for land, Berniece refuses to listen and walks out.

• Act 1, Scene 2:

Wining Boy and Doaker are having a conversation of the daily events and together they muse over the present and the past. Boy Willie and Lymon enter and claim that they have already bargained with the piano purchaser. Both of Willie's uncles warn Willie that the white man Sutter is cheating him and that he should be more careful. Seeing himself as equal to the white man, Boy Willie refuses to listen. The story behind Lymon and Boy Willies term in the Parchment Prison Farm is revealed. Lymon and Willie both gather different perspectives from their experiences. Lymon feels that he should flee to the North where he will be better treated while Willie feels that whites only treat blacks badly if the blacks do not try and stop them. Wining Boy is then asked to play the piano, instead he gives a short speech regarding his inexistence due to playing piano his whole life and knowing nothing more. On the topic of the piano, Doaker then tells the piano's story to Lyman. The story represented the enriching values that the piano bestowed on the Charles family. When he finished the tale, Willie firmly declares that these are stories of the past and that the piano should now be put to good use. Willie and Lymon then attempt to move the piano to test its weight for moving day. As soon as they try to move it, Sutter's ghost is heard. Berniece commands Willie to stop and informs him that he is selling his soul for money. Willie refutes her, Berniece blames Crawleys death on Willie, and the two engage in a fight. Upstairs, Maretha is confronted by the ghosts, and she screams.

• Act 2, Scene 1:

Doaker and Wining Boy are again together in the house alone. Doaker confesses that he saw Sutter's ghost playing the piano and feels that Berniece should discard the piano as to prevent spirits from traumatizing the Charles family. Wining Boy disagrees and changes the subject. As this happens, Lymon and Willie walk into the room after a watermelon sale. Wining Boy sells his suit and shoes to Lymon promising its swooning affects on woman. Both Lymon and Willie leave the house in hot pursuit of women.

• Act 2, Scene 2:

Later that day as Berniece is preparing for her bath, Avery enters and proposes that Berniece should open up and let go. He tells her that she cannot continue to live her life with Crawley's memory shut inside her. Berniece changes the topic and asks Avery to bless the house, hoping to destroy the spirit of the Sutter Ghost. Avery then brings up the piano and tells Berniece she should learn to not be afraid of her family's spirits and play it again. Berniece breaks down her story of her mother's tears and blood mingled with her father's soul on the piano and refuses to open her wounds for everyone to see.

• Act 2, Scenes 3-5:

Boy Willie enters the Charles House with Grace and begins to fool around on the couch. Berniece orders them out and opens the door to see Lymon. Lymon is upset over his disability to woo woman and begins to talk about woman's virtues to Berniece. The two kiss, breaking Berniece's discomfort over Crawley's death and Berniece heads back upstairs. The next morning, Lymon and Willie try to move the piano out and is stopped by Uncle Doaker. Willie becomes frustrated and demands that he will sell the piano no matter what extents he has to reach. As the next day passes, the day to move the piano draws closer. Excited to sell the piano, Willie quickly partakes on his actions without a care of his sister's words. Berniece appears with Crawley's gun leading Doaker and Avery to urge them to talk it through first. Sutter's presence as a ghost is suddenly revived, Avery attempts to drive the ghost away with his blessings but is not successful. Suddenly, Berniece knows that she must play the piano again as a plea to her ancestors. Finally, the house is lead to a calm aura, and Willie leaves.

Awards and nominations

Awards

• 1990 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play
• 1990 New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best Play
• 1990 Pulitzer Prize for Drama
• 1995 Peabody Award

Nominations

• 1990 Tony Award for Best Play
• 1995 Emmy Award Outstanding Made for Television Movie
• 1996 Emmy Award Outstanding Television Movie or Mini-Series

References

• Wilson, August (1990). The Piano Lesson. New York: Plume. ISBN 0452265347.
• [1] Bryer, Jackson R. and Hartig Mary C., Conversations with August Wilson p. 25
• [2] Bryer, Jackson R. and Hartig Mary C., Conversations with August Wilson p. 25
• [3] Shannon, Sharon G., The Dramatic Vision of August Wilson p. 146
• [4] Wilson, August: The Piano Man (August Wilson Century Cycle) "Production History"
• [5] www.imbd.com
• [6] Wilson, August: The Piano Man Act 1, Scene 2
• [7] Wilson, August: The Piano Man Act 1, Scene 2
• [8] Wilson, August: The Piano Man Act 1, Scene 2
• [9] Wilson, August: The Piano Man Act 2, Scene 3
• [10] Wilson, August: The Piano Lesson Act 1, Scene 2
• [11] Shannon, Sandra G.: The Dramatic Vision of August Wilson
• [12] Wilson, August: The Piano Lesson Act 2, Scene 4
• [13] Wilson, August: The Piano Lesson Act 2, Scene 4
• [14] Wilson, August: The Piano Lesson Act 2, Scene 2
• [15] Wilson, Agust: The Piano Lesson Act 1, Scene 2

Bibliography

Bryer, Jackson R., and Mary C. Hartig. Conversations with August Wilson. Jackson: University of Mississippi, 2006. Print.

Shannon, Sandra Garrett. The Dramatic Vision of August Wilson. Washington, D.C.: Howard UP, 2004. Print.

Wilson, August. The Piano Lesson. New York: Theatre Communications Group, 2007. Print.

External links

• ​The Piano Lesson​ at the Internet Broadway Database
• The Piano Lesson at IMDb