In the early 2000s, actor John David Washington wasn’t able to attend homecoming celebrations while attending Morehouse College because he played football.
“I never got to enjoy the festivities,” he told the AJC. “My friends and family would come to see me and experience it more than I would. We were shipped out around Thursday because the coaches didn’t want us to get distracted. I see what the hype is about now.”
He received an overdue warm welcome when he returned to his alma mater Thursday night.
The son of Oscar-winning actor Denzel Washington visited the all-male historically Black college for a screening of “The Piano Lesson.” The two-hour film, adapted from the Broadway revival of August Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play, tells the story of two siblings debating over whether to keep or sell a family’s piano, which revives unhealed traumas and unresolved family issues.
“The Piano Lesson,” the directorial debut of John David Washington’s younger brother Malcolm Washington, stars Samuel L. Jackson, Danielle Deadwyler, Corey Hawkins and features a guest appearance from Erykah Badu. It has a limited theater run beginning Nov. 8, before its release on Netflix on Nov. 22.
John David Washington plays Boy Willie, a sharecropper from Mississippi who wants to sell the piano to purchase land. He made his Broadway debut playing the same role in 2022.
Before the screening, the “BlacKkKlansman” and “Tenet” star toured campus, stopped by the football field to share encouraging words to student athletes, gave hugs to extended family in the lobby and greeted a screaming audience full of students in the Bank of America Auditorium.
Working on “The Piano Lesson” was a family business. Katia Washington, the brothers’ sister, was the film’s executive producer. Their father came onboard as a producer.
The Washingtons had portraits of their elders carved into the custom piano in the film. Malcolm Washington says “The Piano Lesson” is an archive for him and siblings.
“You want to work with people you admire and trust. We wanted to come together to honor the people that made our lives possible and have young Black people see themselves in it. Everybody put everything they had into it,” he said.
Set in 1936 in Pittsburgh, “The Piano Lesson” was shot throughout Georgia and on a soundstage at Shadowbox Studios. Deadwyler, a native of Atlanta and an alumna of Spelman College, said the fact that several scenes were filmed around Athens, Georgia, her parents’ hometown, gave her connections to the story.
“This is the soil from which I’m grown from, so it roots me to the ground,” she said.
In 1987, “The Piano Lesson” made its theatrical debut at Yale Repertory Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut. The stage production is the fourth play in Wilson’s Century Cycle, a collection of 10 plays that chronicle the Black experience throughout the 20th century. Three years later, the show made its Broadway debut.
Wilson died from liver cancer in 2005. Kenny Leon, who directed three of Wilson’s works for Broadway, created the August Wilson Monologue Competition at Tri-Cities High School in his honor in 2007. The contest challenges high school students to express themselves through theater and has expanded to 19 cities.
During a talkback after the screening with a select cast, the Tony-Award-winning director said preserving Wilson’s legacy starts with allowing youth to find personal connections to his storytelling.
Credit: Christopher A. Daniel
Credit: Christopher A. Daniel
“The way to keep August Wilson alive was to put his writing in the hands of young people,” Leon told the audience.
“As Black artists, we have a responsibility to pass the stories forward. If we don’t, we lose it. What Malcolm, John David and Danielle are doing is exactly what August Wilson wanted to happen. He wanted everybody to show up and work as hard as he did.”
In September 2022, “The Piano Lesson” returned to Broadway at Ethel Barrymore Theater, under the direction of LaTanya Richardson Jackson, Samuel L. Jackson’s wife. She became the first woman to direct a Wilson play for Broadway.
Ending its run in January 2023, her rendition earned two Tony Award nominations and became the most-successful revival of a Wilson play in Broadway history.
Malcolm Washington says he wanted to turn “The Piano Lesson” into a cross-generational work of art that can hopefully start a trend.
“We’re trying to push these stories forward. I wanted to make something that communicated to younger Black people that it’s not just for their parents or grandparents. There is power in them accepting, recognizing and being tied to their lineage,” he said.
Deadwyler says themes in “The Piano Lesson,” like generational trauma, West African spirituality and overcoming grief, give Wilson’s work the depth of classic literature. “Black cultural art and history is always on time. It’s something that should be explored and constantly shared on a massive scale,” she said.
The stage-to-screen version of “The Piano Lesson” left several Morehouse College students encouraged.
Ryan Sams III, a graduating senior majoring in theater at Morehouse, said hearing from both Samuel L. Jackson and John David Washington gave him the confidence to pursue a career as an actor.
“I’m going to appreciate this memory for years to come, hearing from fellow alumni who started their legacy here and looked me in my eyes as they answered my question,” he said.
Sophomore Fredro Green says the evening was “soul food.”
“I wanted to take it all in and hear the gems. The night was breathtaking for me,” Green said.
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