Thoughts on August Wilson's How I Learned What I Learned

Last night, I went back to one of my favorite NY spots - the Signature Theater - to see the third show in my subscription series.  I chose to see August Wilson's How I Learned What I Learned because I do so love an August Wilson play.  His language is like no other and I thought it would be fascinating to see another grand actor walk in August Wilson's shoes.

Ruben Santiago-Hudson is a wonderful actor and director; I very much enjoyed his direction of The Piano Lesson last season.  Apparently, Wilson had put together How I Learned What I Learned as an autobiographical one-man show for himself, but then he asked Santiago-Hudson to do it instead.  After Wilson died, it took Santiago-Hudson a few years to gather the perspective to do it.

 

Photo credit: Joan Marcus

The show is still early in previews, so I'll only offer a few thoughts.  I enjoyed myself greatly at the show - Ruben Santiago-Hudson has a wonderful ease with the audience and with the material.  The text is funny and moving, thought-provoking and heartbreaking.  You get a lot of context for the lives of the characters in Wilson's plays, along with how he arrived at his world view.  There is music and joy, but also sorrow at the state of race relations.  There is a lot of casual dialogue and there are moments of heightened poetry, which was Wilson's specialty.  The bit about his first kiss was especially lovely.

 



Photo credit: Joan Marcus
 

The set is spectacular, designed by David Gallo.  Gallo also did the projections, which added a lot to the evening.  I'm sure they're still honing and refining, but the show is already in really good shape and it can only get sharper as previews continue.  I really enjoyed the show and living in August Wilson's world again, if only for 90 minutes.  And this production made me yearn for another revival of...anything.  Jitney, I think.  That's the only one of August's plays in the Century Cycle that I haven't seen.  Let's put good vibes out in the world for that.  And everyone should stop reading and go buy tickets to August Wilson's How I Learned What I Learned.  It's worth the trip.