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Friday, January 25, 2002

By Chris Rawson, Post-Gazette Drama Critic

No one else is likely to think of it this way, but this Sunday CBS will have a telling Pittsburgh doubleheader -- at 12:30 p.m., the Steelers' AFC showdown with the Patriots, and then at 7 p.m., a profile of August Wilson on "60 Minutes." From brawn to soul, sports prowess to arts stardom, multimillion-dollar Heinz Field to derelict sections of the Hill -- that's quintessential Pittsburgh.

I called CBS to point out this interesting (some might say ironic) coincidence. It would be a natural tie-in for the football announcers to mention. I wonder if they will.

But if things go badly in the game (God forbid) don't expect Wilson to express regret, because the "60 Minutes" interview by Ed Bradley was filmed May 21. Wilson described his and Bradley's visit to his old stomping grounds on the Hill in my post-"King Hedley II" interview on July 5. (I referred to it again in this space three weeks ago.) They visited the Crawford Grill, and Wilson said they wanted to go to Gladstone High, which Wilson famously walked out of in his sophomore year, but "it was pouring rain, so we had to abandon that. But we did go to the Oyster House and get a fish sandwich."

I haven't seen the "60 Minutes" segment yet, but a source at CBS says it heralds Wilson's many achievements and deals with his unhappy school experiences here -- including the daily racist tauntings at Central Catholic -- as well as his early, frustrating attempts to write plays, back when he considered himself a poet.

Wilson, who lives in Seattle, was gratified by his recent Olivier Award nomination (London's Tony) for "Jitney" -- which, by coincidence, is now opening at Seattle Rep with many of the same actors who started it in Pittsburgh in 1996, took it to New York in 2000 and to London this fall.

There's another Wilson TV appearance in the offing, this on "The Play's the Thing," an episode of the PBS series from WNET called "EGG the arts show." It broadcasts on WQED at 11 p.m. Feb. 21. The report is all about "Jitney" and "Hedley" and from its description must have been made a year ago. Other segments on that show deal with playwright Kenneth Lonergan, the musical "Urinetown" and "The Guys," Anne Nelson's post-Sept. 11 off-Broadway play starring Sigourney Weaver and Bill Murray.

Go Steelers! Go August!