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A Homewood teen interviews August Wilson for a video documentary Originally published July 9, 1997 Thursday, December 16, 1999 By Michelle K. Massie, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
Joe Anderson went to Chicago a couple of weekends ago. Nothing unusual about that. Lots of 18-year-olds hit the road during the summer for adventure and fun. But very few have the opportunity to meet a legend, let alone spend three hours with him. Anderson got the chance to do that and more when he traveled 500 miles to meet playwright August Wilson.
Anderson went to the Windy City as a student intern with Community Media, a nonprofit, youth-centered organization founded in 1989 to provide production and presentation experience for inner-city youth. For three years, Community Media has been working on its fifth video documentary, "Things That Fit." It chronicles Wilson, the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and Pittsburgh native, along with his play "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom."
For Anderson, a Homewood resident and a 1997 graduate of Westinghouse High School, his encounter with Wilson was like a dream come true.
"At Westinghouse you read his plays and you see him on TV," he said. "When I go back to Westinghouse to see my teachers, I can say, `I met August Wilson, I interviewed him!' "
Anderson's interest in video began while he was a student at Westinghouse. "People used to say, `J, you can't play football, you're too small,' and I got tired of being hurt (physically), so I found it better to bad-mouth everybody and write stories about them," he recalled.
He went on to act as the videographer for several of the Westinghouse sports teams. Through volunteer work at Project Rediscovery, a community improvement and tutorial program, he happened upon his first media internship, with Prime Sports. This fall he will attend Carnegie Mellon University to study journalism.
His Community Media internship grew out of the Prime Sports connection. "I've been with Community Media for three or four months but it seems like a year," he said. "We work early and stay late and you go home and have nightmares about the editing" that still needs to be done.
The August Wilson interview was one of the final steps in making "Things That Fit." Four people, as well as pounds of film and production equipment, were packed into a Chevy Lumina for the trip to Chicago. Anderson was excited about stepping from behind the camera and putting his interviewing techniques to work, but not without some worry.
"I'm not really prepared for August Wilson," Anderson said. "When you interview an adult it's intimidating. They'll say something and laugh and I just sit there because I didn't understand."
Arriving in Chicago, with the Wilson interview less than a day away, Anderson remarked, "I probably won't get the jitters until tonight when we all go to bed."
In preparation, Anderson attended a preview of "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" at the Goodman Theatre. As it turned out, Wilson was sitting two rows directly ahead of him.
"It's funny, he's sitting in the audience and no one knows who he is," Anderson said.
"Ma Rainey," Wilson's first big success that made his name on Broadway in 1984, left Anderson speechless with its themes of racism, hope and violence. Then right afterwards, he got an unscheduled chance to meet the author. A quiet man at first meeting, Wilson helped Anderson to relax. "I didn't expect him to be so down to earth," Anderson said.
The following day, he and Billy Jackson, program director at Community Media, arrived at the Whitehall Hotel where Wilson was staying and learned a third helper couldn't make it.
"This is the hard part," Anderson said at the time, "just me and Billy hooking up all the lights." They set up the equipment and completed a sound check.
When Wilson arrived, he gave a 45-minute interview before the taping, recounting his growing up in the Hill District. Then it was Anderson's turn to step from behind the camera.
"I'm a little nervous but I can knock this one out, I'm just going to ask the basic questions," he said.
His nervousness was evident in his voice, but in his first time as an interviewer he stuck to his plan. His basic questions about Wilson and "Ma Rainey" guided him fairly comfortably - questions about character development, plots and Wilson's personal connections to the characters, settings and story lines. Having also seen Wilson's "Seven Guitars" and "The Piano Lesson" was valuable preparation.
Jackson asked questions, too, and the combined interview ran roughly an hour, but Wilson did not leave right away. For at least another hour he remained to talk informally about family, friends, Ebonics, culture and life.
"It was a fun and beautiful experience and very educational," said Anderson. "Getting to see August Wilson in person, many teenagers don't get that chance. There were absolutely no disappointments this weekend."
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