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[PAST EVENT] Joe Turner's Come and Gone By August Wilson
October 7, 2012
1pm - 4pm
Location
Phi Beta Kappa (PBK) Memorial Hall, Dodge room601 Jamestown Rd
Williamsburg, VA 23185Map this location
Joe Turner's Come and Gone is the 1988 winner of the New York Drama Critics Award for Best Play and Wilson's second installation in his Pittsburgh Cycle that chronicles the lives of black Americans in the 20th century. In a 1997 interview with scholar Bonnie Lyons published in the journal Contemporary Literature, Wilson stated, "Joe Turner was his favorite play."
Wilson offered no explanation as to why the play is his favorite. However, Green states, "it is probably his favorite of all the other plays in the cycle, Joe Turner is most exemplary of his personal convictions and artistic aesthetic of linking to the past in order to make connections in the present and determining a philosophy for the future."
Herald Loomis, the play's central character, is free in body but not in spirit. Haunted by his seven year enslavement on Joe Turner's chain gang and the losses assumed with his unwarranted incarceration, Loomis embarks on a physical and spiritual journey to reconnect the fragmented pieces of his life.
The play will open on October 4, just two days after Wilson's passing in October 2005 of liver cancer. His passing, although seven years ago, still saddens me. But Wilson's genius offered something special to the world and I am excited that his estate has offered us the opportunity to honor him by producing his most favorite work during this time, Green says.
The production will offer a companion art exhibit of the work by Asa Jackson Titled " A Walk to Freedom."
When some of us think of our ancestors in a plea to better understand ourselves today. In staying with the tradition of August Wilson, the paintings in "A Walk to Freedom" show scenes of Black America in an attempt to understand the collective Black experience and how it has shaped our country.
For tickets, please contact the Box Office Tues. - Fri. 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. or visit us online at {{http://www.wm.edu/boxoffice, Box Office}}.
Wilson offered no explanation as to why the play is his favorite. However, Green states, "it is probably his favorite of all the other plays in the cycle, Joe Turner is most exemplary of his personal convictions and artistic aesthetic of linking to the past in order to make connections in the present and determining a philosophy for the future."
Herald Loomis, the play's central character, is free in body but not in spirit. Haunted by his seven year enslavement on Joe Turner's chain gang and the losses assumed with his unwarranted incarceration, Loomis embarks on a physical and spiritual journey to reconnect the fragmented pieces of his life.
The play will open on October 4, just two days after Wilson's passing in October 2005 of liver cancer. His passing, although seven years ago, still saddens me. But Wilson's genius offered something special to the world and I am excited that his estate has offered us the opportunity to honor him by producing his most favorite work during this time, Green says.
The production will offer a companion art exhibit of the work by Asa Jackson Titled " A Walk to Freedom."
When some of us think of our ancestors in a plea to better understand ourselves today. In staying with the tradition of August Wilson, the paintings in "A Walk to Freedom" show scenes of Black America in an attempt to understand the collective Black experience and how it has shaped our country.
For tickets, please contact the Box Office Tues. - Fri. 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. or visit us online at {{http://www.wm.edu/boxoffice, Box Office}}.
Contact
For additional information about the production, you may contact the director [[avgreen, Artisia Green]] at 221-2616.