In the Fall of 2000, The Goodman ushered in a new chapter of its legacy when it moved from Columbus Drive to Dearborn Street. August Wilson commemorated the occasion with his timeless and powerful Keynote Address.
With our first major revival of August Wilson’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom since 1997 now in performances, Associate Director and Music Director Harry J. Lennix has re-recorded a rousing interpretation of Mr. Wilson’s speech.
Listen here:
View the Closed Captioned version of Harry Lennix’s recording of August Wilson’s dedication speech.
August Wilson was born Frederick August Kittel on April 27, 1945. Growing up in the Hill District of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the setting for many of his plays, he was born to a German-American father and an African American mother. In Hill District, he was surrounded by a richness of culture and language that he later poured into his works.
Originally a poet, August Wilson considered Jitney (1979) to be the beginning of his playwriting career. Soon after came Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (1982) and Fences (1983), solidifying his determination to write work that illuminated the African American experience. He set out to complete 7 more plays, each set in a different decade to document the experiences of African Americans at that time, to achieve this purpose. We now know this collection of 10 plays to be the American Century Cycle, or the Pittsburgh Cycle. On the eve of his world premiere of King Hedley II being produced at the theater, August Wilson delivered the keynote dedication speech to the new home of the Goodman Theatre in 2000 on 170 N Dearborn St.
Between the years of 1986 and 2007, the Goodman Theatre produced all 10 plays in the cycle, becoming the first theater to do so.
Harry J. Lennix is a distinguished film, television stage actor and producer. He returns to Goodman Theatre following productions of Inherit the Wind, How I Learned What I Learned (produced by Congo Square in association with The Goodman) and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. Recently at Steppenwolf Theatre, he appeared in Purpose. He also appeared in Purpose on Broadway and was Tony-nominated in the Lead Actor in a Play category. He starred for 10 seasons on NBC’s The Blacklist. Moviegoers know Lennix from The Justice League, Man of Steel, Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice, The Matrix: Reloaded, The Matrix: Revolutions, Ray and The Five Heartbeats. Lennix also recurred for 7 seasons on the Showtime series Billions. Lennix made his Broadway debut in Radio Golf. He has directed A Small Oak Tree Runs Red, The Five Heartbeats and The Glass Menagerie. He has starred in King Hedley II at the Mark Taper Forum and in 2001 he played in Cymbeline for Theatre for a New Audience at the Royal Shakespeare Company. In 2014, Lennix created Exponent Media Group.
