Todd Kreidler met August Wilson on Oct. 27, 1999, as the famed playwright was getting ready to premiere his new play “King Hedley II” at Pittsburgh Public Theater.
He started out as Wilson’s assistant, but their conversations about storytelling and poetry blossomed into a friendship and, eventually, Wilson enlisted Kreidler’s assistance while crafting his plays.
“We fell into this unlikely, strange relationship where we began to slip out of rehearsal and disappear for hours,” the Apollo native and Duquesne University alumnus told the Post-Gazette. “He just sort of invited me into this world. It wasn’t an art source job ... or a relationship he really had before.”
Wilson let Kreidler “into the page and architecture” of his scripts for the last three of his 10-play “Pittsburgh Cycle”: “King Hedely II,” “Gem of the Ocean” and “Radio Golf.” Before Wilson’s death in 2005, the duo also collaborated on “How I Learned What I Learned,” an autobiographical one-man show written and performed by Wilson and directed by Kreidler.
There are few folks with more insight into Wilson’s creative mind and writing process than Kreidler, which is probably why Downtown’s August Wilson African American Cultural Center invited him and fellow dramaturg Taylor Barfield to lead a guided tour of “August Wilson: The Writer’s Landscape” to mark a year since the exhibit showcasing Wilson’s life and work debuted. Anyone can register for the free tour and subsequent conversation at awaacc.org.
On Saturday, the celebration will continue Downtown with the “Take Center Stage: Higher Ground Gala” at the August Wilson Center and Westin Pittsburgh. Tickets to the center’s annual fundraiser are available at awaacc.org. Janis Burley Wilson, the August Wilson Center’s president and CEO, said the gala’s proceeds go a long way toward ensuring the center can continue offering free admission to “The Writer’s Landscape.”
About 2,500 visitors have taken in “The Writer’s Landscape” since it opened in April 2022. Its hook is allowing patrons to step into individual rooms representing each of Wilson’s plays.
“The Writer’s Landscape” was designed by Victoria Renee Edwards, who died of complications from COVID-19 and never got to see the finished exhibit. Wilson said that Edwards and well-known local sculptor Thaddeus Mosley will be honored with luminary awards during the gala.
She credited the exhibit’s early success to Edwards’ hard work and support from the likes of Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company founder Mark Clayton Southers and folks involved with the Carnegie Museum of Arts’ Teenie Harris Archive.
“Having so many people that really committed — not just because it was their job but personally committed to the mission of the project and memorializing and celebrating the work of August Wilson — I think really translates as you walk throughout the exhibit,” Wilson said. “There’s a lot of love.”
One of the few times Wilson was nervous about how the exhibit would be received was when Kreidler and veteran theater director Kenny Leon — who co-founded the National August Wilson Monologue Competition in 2007 with Kreidler — saw it for the first time. Kreidler said that he had a few nitpicks here and there, but was ultimately overwhelmed by the “love, respect and honoring the heights of his achievement.”
“I think my jaw was just slack the whole time as we went through it,” he said. “I can’t express to you how deeply moving it was. It’s just extraordinary. ... It achieved something singular. They should do this with Shakespeare.”
Kreidler appreciates how anyone checking out “The Writer’s Landscape” will leave with “a more intimate feel” for Wilson’s work, which is also how he feels about the recent Pittsburgh-shot film adaptations of the plays “Fences” and “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” shepherded by Denzel Washington. Both Kreidler and Wilson were surprised to learn that Netflix’s cinematic take on Wilson’s 1987 play “The Piano Lesson” was being filmed in Atlanta, not Pittsburgh.
“I love Atlanta, but I don’t see Pittsburgh in Atlanta,” Kreidler said.
Janis Burley Wilson hopes at least some of “The Piano Lesson” ends up filming in the Steel City. Either way, she appreciates the amount of attention these movies bring to August Wilson and his namesake organizations. She recalled attending an event in the United Kingdom and telling folks where she worked. They weren’t familiar with the name August Wilson, but they recognized “Fences” and “Ma Rainey” thanks to those films.
Those who watched the film versions of the two Pittsburgh Cycle plays may be interested to hear Kreidler and Barfield opine on Wilson and his oeuvre later this week. Kreidler said his goal is to “bring people closer to” these plays. Rarely do you get a “dramaturg-to-dramaturg” discussion about a single artist like the one that will be taking place Thursday, Wilson said.
At Saturday’s gala, one of the highlights will be the presentation of a legacy award to Dana Harris and her late husband, Steelers legend Franco Harris, a significant contributor to the August Wilson Center over the last five years.
“People should support the arts and the organizations that really work to benefit the community,” Wilson said. “We are one of those. If you’re not doing anything on Saturday and you want to buy a ticket, dress up and support August Wilson, come to our gala!”
Joshua Axelrod: jaxelrod@post-gazette.com and Twitter @jaxelburgh.
First Published: May 3, 2023, 4:24 p.m.
Updated: May 3, 2023, 6:36 p.m.