As a Pittsburgh native, I grew up reading August Wilson’s Century Cycle plays that chronicle a century of Black life in an ever-changing Pittsburgh, but not everyone is so lucky to have been exposed to Wilson’s work. Regardless of whatever age you come to Wilson’s playwriting, his lessons and observations resonate widely and deeply. His 10th and final play in the 10-play cycle, Radio Golf, is being put on at Bethesda’s Round House Theatre this summer. The play centers issues of gentrification and settlement in the city’s historically Black Hill District neighborhood. The Hill was a major jazz center and the area where seminal Black artists like Mary Lou Williams, Teenie Harris, and Wilson himself called home. Growing up in Pittsburgh and seeing the gentrification of the city makes the play resonate personally with me, but being a D.C. transplant adds additional meaning to its theme. The District and its residents are confronting a shifting economic and cultural period similar to the one depicted in Radio Golf. May we turn to art like this play to better understand how to properly respond this time around. August Wilson’s Radio Golf runs June 7 to July 2 at Round House Theatre. roundhousetheatre.org. $46–$81.
August Wilson’s Radio Golf
