January 18–February 13 written by August Wilson directed by Ron OJ Parson

PLAY GUIDE

About the ma rainey’s black bottom Play Guide This play guide is a resource designed to enhance your theatre experience. Its goal is twofold: to nurture the teaching and learning of theatre arts and to encourage essential questions that lead to enduring understandings of the play’s meaning and relevance. Inside you will find: • Contextual and historical information including a list of characters, plot synopsis and information about the playwright. • Evocative, thought-provoking articles on topics surrounding the play, which are meant to incite conversation and analysis. • Bridgework activities connecting themes and ideas from the play to your curriculum. • Oral discussion and writing prompts encouraging your students to draw connections between the play and their own lives. These prompts can easily be adapted to fit most writing objectives.

We encourage you to adapt and extend the material in any way that best fits the needs of your community of learners. Please feel free to make copies of this guide, or you may download it from our website: ActorsTheatre.org/ education_guides.htm. We hope this material, combined with our pre-show workshop, will give you the tools to make your time at Actors Theatre a valuable learning experience. Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom student matinees and study guides address specific educational objectives:

Table of contents 3 Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom Synopsis, Characters, Setting 4 About the Author: August Wilson 5 Sharing Beauty with the World— Liz Fentress and August Wilson 6 The Century Cycle 7 Adrien-Alice Hansel on Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom 8 Music as Storytelling, How Much Did That Cost? 9 Gertrude “Ma” Rainey—Mother of the Blues

Institutional Racism: Some Terms and Definitions



Language in Ma Rainey—Dr. Thomas Offers Her Insights

10 Discussion Questions, Bridgework Glossary 11 Writing Portfolio 12 Other Reading and Works Cited

Actors Theatre Education

Steven Rahe, Director of Education Jacob Stoebel, Associate Director of Education Julie Mercurio, Education Fellow Jane B. Jones, Education Intern/Teaching Artist Christina Lepri, Education Intern/Teaching Artist Liz Fentress, Teaching Artist Jessica Leader, Teaching Artist Keith McGill, Teaching Artist Study guide compiled by Adrien-Alice Hansel, Jane B. Jones, Christina Lepri, Mik Mroczynski, Steven Rahe, Jessica Reese, Jacob Stoebel, Amy Wegener. Cover image by Matt Dobson. Graphic design by Elissa Shortridge.

• Students will identify or describe the use of elements of drama in dramatic works. • Students will identify or explain how drama/theatre fulfills a variety of purposes. • Students will identify a variety of creative dramatics.

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The Kentucky Arts Council, the state arts agency, supports Actors Theatre of Louisville with state tax dollars and federal funding from the National Endowment for the Arts.

The Crawford Charitable Foundation

supports Actors Theatre of Louisville’s 2010-2011 education programs.

Cast of Characters Ma Rainey Based on Gertrude “Ma” Rainey, an influential Blues singer from the 1920s. She is portrayed as an outspoken if not difficult artist who has no illusions that her white associates are only interested in her for the money. She is fiercely protective of her artistic integrity and personal interests. Mel Sturdyvant Owner of the

Chicago South Side recording studio where the play is set. Mel is frustrated by Ma’s behavior and is very vocal about it throughout the play. However, he knows that Ma’s music is quite popular. Despite his complaints, he puts up with her to make money.

Irvin Ma Rainey’s manager. Irvin acts as liaison between Mel and Ma Rainey. He tries to smooth over any problems that arise throughout the play to ensure that the record gets made.

Ma Rainey and her Georgia Jazz band, 1924

Setting

Cutler Trombone and guitar player

Mel Sturdyvant’s recording studio in Chicago’s South Side, 1927. Chicago’s South Side has long been associated with the city’s African American population. It began to be developed after the fire of 1871, when Chicago residents began to move out of the city center.

in Ma’s band. A career musician, Cutler is the leader of the instrumentalists. He understands that Ma Rainey has the final word and is interested in maintaining the peace in order to get the job done.

Chicago’s African American population steadily increased after the Civil War because of job opportunities there. It became an especially popular destination for Northernmigrating African Americans between World War I and the 1920s. With many industrial jobs opening up because of World War I, there were increased financial opportunities for African Americans in a vibrant and politically active community.

Slow Drag Bass player in Ma’s band.

African American artists also thrived in Chicago. The black literary output from Chicago between the 1920s and 1950s rivaled that of the Harlem Renaissance, with authors such as Richard Wright, Willard Motley, William Attaway, Frank Marshall Davis and Margaret Walker.

Toledo Piano player in Ma’s band. A

Synopsis

Levee Young and arrogant, Levee is a

Blues music may be pervading the streets of 1927 Chicago, but inside this Paramount studio it is a little too quiet. Ma Rainey, the Mother of The Blues herself, is late to her own recording session. Her producers are frantic, the band is bored, and her trumpeter Levee won’t stop talking about his new shoes. As the band – Cutler, Slow Drag, Toledo and Levee – wait around for Ma, they swap stories about their experiences with racism, religion, and, of course, music. Each musician has his own way of dealing with his frustrations and anger at the unfairness of the music industry. Toledo philosophizes, Levee rages, and Slow Drag drinks. When Ma finally arrives, she immediately asserts her authority demanding that her stuttering nephew Sylvester be given a speaking part on the record. Levee, who dreams of having his own band someday, is meanwhile trying to get the producers to record his new hip version of “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”, and Ma is having none of it. As Ma, her white producers, and Levee wrestle for control in the studio, ambitions and grievances slowly build up to a shocking tragedy.

Sylvester Brown Ma Rainey’s 20-something nephew. Ma wants him to do the introduction on the “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” record, but his stutter causes conflict with the rest of the band.

--Jane B. Jones and Christina Lepri

He got his name by slow dancing for hours to win a contest. A professional musician in his mid-fifties, he has worked with Cutler for more than 20 years.

self-educated and literate member of the band, Toledo speaks eloquently about the black man’s experience at the time and tries to educate the other members of the band. talented trumpet player who considers himself an artist. His ambition to write his own music and make it big with his own band causes tension with the rest of the band.

Dussie Mae Ma Rainey’s young lesbian lover. Dussie Mae’s own ambition is evident in her willingness to entertain Levee’s advances in the few moments when she is able to call attention to herself.

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About the Author: August Wilson August Wilson was born Frederick August Kittel in 1945. He spent his early years in Pittsburgh’s Hill District, a vibrant, mixed-race neighborhood. After dropping out of high school at age 15, Wilson spent many hours at the local public library and immersed himself in the works of African American literary luminaries such as James Baldwin, Ralph Ellison and Langston Hughes. When he wasn’t at the library, he was listening to and observing the people around him, especially his elders. This early immersion in the culture of the Hill District and its voices would significantly influence his work. Another major influence on Wilson was The Blues. In 1965, around the time he bought his first typewriter, he picked up a Bessie Smith record, “Nobody in Town Can Bake a Sweet Jelly Roll Like Mine,” and listened to the song 22 times in a row before realizing that he could turn over the record. In the rhythms and attitudes of The Blues, Wilson found the connection to his ancestry that he had lacked growing up as the biracial son of a German immigrant and an African American woman descended from sharecroppers. When his father died, he took his mother’s maiden name as his own to solidify his ties with his African American heritage, and was thereafter known as August Wilson. Sharing the story of the African American experience onstage was Wilson’s careerlong mission. His major work is the tenplay Century Cycle, a powerful portrait of twentieth-century African American history that resonates with audiences across lines of race, class and gender. In the Century Cycle, Wilson explored universal themes such as self-awareness, love and dignity through the struggles of his characters in their particular historical moments. All of the plays in the Century Cycle have been produced on Broadway, starting with Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, which debuted in 1984. He won a Pulitzer Prize and a Tony Award for Fences in 1987 and a second Pulitzer in 1990 for The Piano Lesson. In June of 2005, Wilson was diagnosed with liver cancer. Before he died in October of that year, he finished rewrites for the last installment in the Century Cycle, Radio Golf, which would open on Broadway in 2007. Wilson’s work continues to be produced on Broadway and all over the country. Critics and audiences alike continue to respond to the depth of his characters, his uniquely lyrical style, and his ambitious historical and social vision. —Jessica Reese

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August Wilson in 2004. Photo by David Cooper.

Sharing Beauty with the World Actors’ Teaching Artist Liz Fentress and August Wilson “He was a wonderful human being, a kind, gentle man with a beautiful spirit.” In 1982, Liz Fentress, now a local actress, playwright, director and teaching artist was struggling to make it as an artist in New York City. Having studied acting and theatre, she was in New York trying to work as an actor. However, she found that she had lost her sense of self. A chance encounter would put her back on the path of artistry. She went to visit a friend in Waterford, Connecticut who was working at the O’Neill Theater Center’s National Playwrights Conference. It was in the dining hall at the conference that Liz first met August Wilson, a young playwright working on his new play Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. On the bus back to New York, Liz sat in the empty seat next to August and struck up a conversation. The next morning as Liz was finishing her duties as the cleaning lady for New Dramatists, an organization supporting the development of playwrights, Wilson came down the stairs from the guest rooms. Recognizing each other and the grand coincidence, they went out to breakfast. This became their habit throughout the summer that August was in New York. Unfortunately, on what would have been their last breakfast, they missed each other. But, when Liz next went to work, she found a note on the bulletin board from August with a poem for her. It’s a poem she has with her to this day. At a time when she felt deeply dissatisfied with her life in New York, Liz found a special message for her in this poem:

Teaching Artist Liz Fentress in the classroom

You see beauty in this life, and that is a wonderful thing. You need to share that beauty with the world. Through the poem and their brief friendship, Liz felt that August had validated her need to express herself as an actress and a writer; he made her feel as though her heart was valid. Liz began to make changes. She left New York and went to work as a promoter for the Franzen Bros. Circus, a one-ring circus where she had once been a ringmistress. Her life and career took a well earned upswing. Liz went on to a career as a writer, performer, executive director and producing director of regional theatre in Kentucky. August Wilson went on to become a famous playwright. The story could end there, but it doesn’t. In 2001, August Wilson came to Louisville

when Actors produced The Piano Lesson and Liz and August had breakfast one last time. Older, wiser, happier, they were able to meet again. Liz brought the poem August had written her, and August brought the letter Liz had sent him from the circus. Liz Bussey Fentress was the executive director of Playhouse in the Park in Murray, Ky. and then the associate producer of Horse Cave Theatre (now Kentucky Repertory Theatre at Horse Cave). Liz’s one- woman play, Liz’s Circus Story, which she wrote, performed and adapted into a one-hour film, won the 2005 National Educational Television Association award for Best Dramatic Narrative and is part of the KET Arts Toolkit. In 2008, her play The Honey Harvest won the North American Actors Association annual Playwriting Competition and was staged in London’s West End. ~Jane B. Jones

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The Century Cycle The ten plays of August Wilson’s Century Cycle—one for each decade of the 20th century—chronicle in the African American experience. Here’s a decade-by-decade guide to Wilson’s groundbreaking work. With the exception of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, all of the plays take place in Wilson’s home neighborhood, the Hill District of Pittsburgh.

Gem of the Ocean (1904) Guided by centuries-old

sage Aunt Ester, a free man named Citizen journeys into the collective memory of the Middle Passage, the torturous transatlantic voyage to the Americas that newly enslaved Africans were forced to endure. Citizen’s journey into the past is difficult, but it allows him to navigate the no-man’s-land between slavery—still a living memory at the turn of the century—and freedom.

Pat Bowie in the 2006 production at Actors Theatre.

Radio Golf (1997)

Harmond Wilks is an African American real estate developer whose most lucrative deal yet will require demolishing the house of Aunt Ester, who has presided over the Century Cycle as an embodiment of African American history. As Harmond considers the deal, he realizes that he will have to choose between honoring his heritage and pursuing financial and political success.

Joe Turner’s Come and Gone (1911)

This mystical play is set during the Great Migration, when many members of the first generation of African Americans born free left the agrarian South for the urban North, only to find that prejudice and loss pursued them there. Protagonist Herald Loomis is on a pilgrimage to find his wife, but the other wanderers he encounters at a Pittsburgh boardinghouse are looking for something too: the sense of identity which slavery stripped from them and their ancestors.

king hedley (1985) The sequel

to Seven Guitars, King Hedley II explores the devastating consequences of African American disenfranchisement during the boom times of the Reagan administration. Just released from prison, King Hedley plants a garden and joins his community in the search for redemption and security in the midst of confusion, regret, loss and senseless violence. August Wilson outside his childhood home.

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Charles Parnell in the 2002 production at Actors Theatre.

jitney (1977)

The workingclass employees at a community cab company face the government-sanctioned demolition of the abandoned storefront they use as a cab station. The play celebrates the creative, community-oriented survival strategies of an inner-city neighborhood as it copes with the destabilizing effects of the passage of time and the misguided urban renewal policies of the seventies.

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (1927) A tense recording session on Chicago’s South Side exposes the exploitation of African American musicians in the whitedominated commercial music industry. Successful, demanding Blues singer Ma Rainey battles her producers and her band members, including the talented and ambitious trumpeter Levee. Wilson depicts the psychological consequences of African American musicians’ struggles for economic and artistic self-determination in the face of racism and a shifting marketplace.

Ma Rainey and her band.

Two Trains RunninG (1969) Regulars at

a soul food diner examine life in the wake of the death of Malcolm X. The Hill District is changing—the diner is for sale, and no one can escape the question of whether or not to assimilate into mainstream white culture. But despite a lack of guarantees in romance, business or life, the members of the community who stay true to themselves ultimately triumph.

Ray Anthony Thomas and Joshua Wolf Coleman in the 2001 production at Actors Theatre.

The Piano Lesson (1936) Timber cutter Boy Willie

travels north from Mississippi to retrieve a piano from his sister, Berniece. Boy Willie wants to sell the piano to finance a farm, but Berniece wants to keep it because it is a family heirloom carved with the story of their ancestors, who were slaves. The siblings must decide not only the fate of the piano but also how to come to terms with their family’s painful history.

Seven Guitars (1948) Part murder mystery, part memory play, Seven Guitars depicts the events leading up to the untimely death of Floyd “Schoolboy” Barton, a gifted Blues guitarist. Released from jail after serving time for the crime of “worthlessness,” Floyd tries to retrieve his guitar and get to Chicago to make a record. He believes he is on the brink of a career breakthrough, but bad decisions and worse luck prevent him from leaving Pittsburgh.

Fences (1957) In the backyard of their Pittsburgh home, garbage collector Troy Maxson and his family wrestle with the fallout from his failed baseball career and the betrayal and disappointment stemming from Troy’s pursuit of the American Dream. Wilson explores father-son relationships, marital infidelity, and the dangers of self-delusion in this depiction of the rise and fall of a tragic Everyman. Ernest Perry Jr., Stephanie Berry and Bowman Wright in the 2005 production at Actors Theatre.

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Ma Rainey’s Blues When Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom opened in New York in 1985, it was the second non-musical play by an African American to run on Broadway. The previous play, Lorraine Hansberry’s drama A Raisin in the Sun, opened in 1959, 36 years before. Writing about the premiere in The New York Times, Frank Rich wrote that August Wilson’s play “sends the entire history of black America crashing down upon our heads…. This play floats on the same authentic artistry as The Blues music it celebrates.” Wilson would go on to have his complete Century Cycle produced in New York City, placing the experiences of black Americans at the center of his work. His opus forms, as Ellison says of The Blues, “an autobiographical chronicle of a personal catastrophe expressed lyrically.” Expressed so lyrically, indeed, that the details of Wilson’s characters both live as expressions of their specific situations and resonate beyond their specific decades to form a story of African American life as it was, could have been, and can yet become. Set in a Chicago recording studio in 1927, and inspired by reallife Blues legend Gertrude “Ma” Rainey, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom follows a session with Ma, her band members, and the white producer and manager who both make a better living on Ma’s music than she does. Ma’s Blues are popular throughout the rural South, but her producer sees a larger market moving towards the swing and big bands coming out of Harlem, and has some new plans for the recording session. Ma, for her part, hates traveling North and is willing to be as stubborn as she needs to be to keep her records on track.

Greta Oglesby in the 2011 production of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom at Actors Theatre. Photo by Alan Simmons.

“The Blues is an impulse to keep the painful details and episodes of a brutal experience alive in one’s aching consciousness, to finger its jagged grain and to transcend it, not by the consolation of philosophy but by squeezing from it a neartragic, near-comic lyricism. As a form, The Blues is an autobiographical chronicle of a personal catastrophe expressed lyrically.” —Ralph Ellison

At the heart of the play lies a struggle for what Ma’s music is and means. Levee, the young trumpet player in Ma’s band, has been writing up-tempo settings of her songs at the request of the studio owner. When Ma learns that he plans to record Levee’s version of her signature song, she threatens to walk out. “It’s what the people want now,” explains Ma’s manager. “They want something they can dance to…makes ’em forget their troubles.” But Ma, along with her other bandmates, sing to help people remember, not forget. “White folks don’t understand The Blues,” Ma tells Levee. “They hear it come out but they don’t know how it got there. They don’t understand that’s life’s way of talking. You don’t sing to feel better. You sing because it’s a way of understanding life.” Ma gets her way on the recording, but all that Levee doesn’t understand—about life, about music or about how life works for African Americans in the 1920s, even in the North—has tragic consequences for him and the rest of the band. Director Ron OJ Parson finds August Wilson’s work—and Ma Rainey in particular—a stunning reminder of just how much there is to remember about the African American experience. “I’m a better person, directing August Wilson. Because of what I learn about the past, sure, but his plays always connect me to the ancestral spirit of my people.” And in reconnecting his audiences to The Blues—the “near-tragic, near-comic lyricism” of African American legacy in the United States—Wilson recrafts the lives of these long-forgotten musicians into a lesson on suffering and resilience. —Adrien-Alice Hansel

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Music as Storytelling With Music? About Music?

consequences of racial inequalities for African American characters.

So it’s not a musical? No, not exactly. A musical uses song and dance to further the plot of a play. But Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom is a play with music, and about musicians. August Wilson uses Blues music within the play to inform us about the underlying social, political and emotional lives of the characters. The Blues acts almost as another character in the play, telling us all the secrets that the characters are not able to say aloud. Music illuminates the emotional

Classical Blues music developed and became popular at a time when African American racial identities were changing. The communal spiritual music that had unified the African American community during the abolitionist movement was shifting to reflect a growing individual and self-determined identity. However, emancipation did not mean the end of racism, segregation and prejudice. The Blues gave voice to personal and political difficulties facing African Americans.

Okay, so why a play about musicians? Bands, in their own way, form a sort of family, and have their own internal structure: the band leader at the top and the supporting musicians below. Bands are all brought together by the common goal of creating and performing music. However, artists each have their own motivations, creative and monetary, which can cause conflict. By also including the band manager and record producer, Wilson shows us more motivations for making music. -Jane B. Jones

How Much Did That Cost? $1 in 1927 has the equivalent value of $11.90 in 2007.

Coke

8 oz. glass bottle: $0.05

12 oz. can: $1

Car

New 1925 Model T Ford: $300

New 2011 Ford Taurus: $24,810

Fancy pair of men’s shoes

Handmade leather shoes: $8.50

Handmade leather men’s shoes: $325

Record

A new Ma Rainey record: $0.39

New CD at Borders: $15-$20

Steak sandwich at the Cotton Club: $1.25

Steak sandwich at Jack Fry’s: $10.75

Sandwich

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Gertrude “Ma” Rainey Mother of The Blues The character of Ma Rainey may seem larger than life, but the fiery diva was actually one of the most popular Blues artists of the 1920s. The real Ma Rainey was born Gertrude Pridgett on April 26, 1886 in Columbus, Georgia. Gertrude first performed at the age of 14 at the Springer Opera House. In 1904, she married fellow performer Will “Pa” Rainey and the couple began touring together as “Rainey and Rainey, Assassinators of The Blues.” Although they divorced 12 years later, Ma kept her stage name for the rest of her career. After her divorce, Ma’s popularity as a solo Blues singer skyrocketed in the South and she became one of the foremost performers of The Blues. Paramount Records signed her in 1923, making her one of the first African American Blues singers to snag a recording contract. Ma performed with some of the greatest musicians of her time, including Louis Armstrong and Fletcher Henderson, she was a star in her own right. Ma Rainey performed songs that contained provocative images of women who were independent, and defiant. Through The Blues, Ma was able to address some of the most stringently taboo subjects of her time, like domestic abuse and female sexuality. Ma quite openly referred to her own bisexuality in lyrics like “Went out last night with a crowd of my friends, They must’ve been women, ‘cause I don’t like no men” from the song “Prove It On Me Blues.” Another hit, “Black Eye Blues” portrayed women who were the victims of domestic violence, and yet still come off as resilient and powerful forces to be reckoned with. “Take all my money, blacken both of my eyes, Give it to another woman, come home and tell me lies; You low down alligator, just watch me sooner or later, Gonna catch you with your britches down.” Strange as it may seem, one of the most revolutionary ideas Ma brought to her fans was travel. Ma belonged to one of the first generations of black women who had freedom of movement, a fact she sang about in songs like “Leaving This Morning,” “Runaway Blues,” and, one of

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The real Gertrude “Ma” Rainey

Ma’s favorites, “Traveling Blues.” In a rare interview, Ma talked about an act where she would come onto the stage dressed in traveling clothes and carrying a suitcase: “I put the suitcase down, real easy like, then stand there like I was thinking—just to let them see what I was about. Then I sing. You could just see them…wanting to go someplace else.” Ma recorded more than 92 songs with Paramount Records between 1923 and 1928. But in the 1930s, female Blues singers began to wane in popularity, including Ma. She eventually moved back down to Columbus where she managed two theatres until she died in 1939. Unfortunately, due to the low quality of the records made for Paramount’s black customers, many of Ma’s albums suffered severe damage over time. Yet her legacy lives on. In 1983, sixty years after her first recording for Paramount, Ma was posthumously inducted into The Blues Foundation’s Hall of Fame and into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990. She lives on as an example of female resilience, autonomy, and musical influence that can best be summed up in Ma’s well-earned nickname: the Mother of The Blues. -Christina Lepri

The world of ma Rainey and Institutional Racism Ma Rainey’s world exists just 64 years after the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation (which declared freedom for African American slaves in Confederate States) and during the heart of the Great Migration (the movement of 2 million-plus African Americans from the south to the north). Intense disenfranchisement and strict segregation was preeminent. Individual racism was strong and unabashed–1927 witnessed race riots, lynching, violence and harassment. Institutional racism was ubiquitous. Not suprisingly, in this cultural milieu of oppression, the music business was no exception. When African American vaudevillian music legend Mamie Smith’s record sold an unprecedented 100,000plus copies in 1920, producers realized the untapped financial potential of marketing African American music. Struggling financially in the early 1900s because of the growth of commercial radio, the overwhelmingly white-controlled and operated recording industry was more than happy to profit from the growing popularity of African American music and the untapped potential of African American audiences.

Racism Any deed, intentional or not, which oppresses an individual or group on the grounds of their race. Institutional racism

Institutional racism is the built-in discrimination of governments, public organizations, corporations and businesses on the grounds of racial difference. It is a powerful, insidious force in American history. As it is inextricably embedded within social structure, institutional racism is often difficult to see and define except in retrospect, when examples come into focus as glaringly obvious. Therefore, its menace lies in its ever-present subtlety to those not experiencing its oppression. Institutional racism is a form of discrimination that can be both explicit and implicit.

An example of explicit Institutional racism

Race records, as all African American music in the era came to be dubbed, took off. It is estimated that 15,000 race records were released between 1920 and 1930 – approximately 10,000 Blues, 3,250 jazz and 1,750 gospel songs. Of these songs, negligible profits went to the African American artistic pioneers who innovated, performed, and in many cases, wrote them. For example, of the 160 songs she recorded for Columbia records, Bessie Smith, the “Empress of Blues,” received not a single royalty payment. And, while white jazz

Explicit institutional racism A form of institutional racism

which is overt in an institution’s policy, mission and/or actions. An example of explicit institutional racism can be found at Chicago’s Chess Recording studio, where well into the 1960s black musicians were only allowed entrance through the back door. Any segregation-era image of a business with a “Whites Only” sign in the window serves as another example, for it explicitly denies non-whites service on racial grounds.

musician Al Jolson (who performed in blackface, cork makeup donned to imitate dark skin) was valued at $10,000 per record in 1924, Ma Rainey’s comparable work was compensated at $200. Ma’s producers’ attempts to reduce her pay to $100 prompted her to quit. -Mik Mroczynski

Implicit institutional racism A form of institutional racism

which is hidden and embedded within bureaucratic policies and procedures which systematically exclude based on race. When Ma Rainey’s band members request to be paid in cash, they are responding to the implicit institutional racism of the banks, which made it nearly impossible for African Americans to cash checks. Steering, the practice of real estate agents guiding minorities to minority-dominated neighborhoods, is a present-day example which elucidates why residential divisions on racial lines are the norm.

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Language in Ma Rainey U of L professor Dr. Thomas offers her insights The African American Theatre Program (AATP) has begun its 17th year as a special discipline within the University of Louisville’s Theatre Arts Department. It consists of thirteen different courses and two productions yearly on the mainstage season in black history, literature, culture and performance. Each course provides insight into the heritage and culture of peoples representing the African Diaspora. These courses serve two undergraduate minors and a Graduate Certificate in African American Theatre making the University of Louisville the only institution with such a program. In the fall of 1997, there was a flurry of activity at U of L’s AATP. I was preparing for my Louisville stage debut, at the same time we were preparing to debut August Wilson’s plays in Kentucky and premiere one of Wilson’s one-act plays, The Homecoming. My debut was marked with excitement and trepidation for I would be portraying Ma Rainey in Wilson’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. In 1986, my friend and I mistakenly saw the play on Broadway. While visiting New York from the University of Michigan, we were looking for a musical to see and on the marquee of the Cort Theatre, I saw Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom; so I told my friend it was a hot musical. You will understand my surprise once you see the show. After stopping for a snack, we began talking about the play. We loved the great actors in the play and aptly renamed it “The Boys in the Band”—Joe Seneca and Charles Dutton were marvelous in their performances. More importantly, we loved the story for what we learned and the reminisces of what we remembered from history and childhood experiences. In addition to the brilliant stories, we were amused by Wilson’s colorful language, which includes an over indulgence of the N-word. Moreover, while some object, I do not. Having spent some time living in Chicago, I can say it is realistic. When others feel that they should have the same right to use that word since blacks use it, I do object. There is a sacredness of respect that should be enforced. Paul Farhi writing about Laura Schlessinger in the Washington Post’s August 18th article states, “To illustrate her claim of a racial double standard, she said that black comedians often use the N-word on TV without criticism, but the word is forbidden for white people.” There is no double standard. Other ethnicities use derogatory words with each other. Moreover, if a person from another culture uses them they will be admonished or more by the other culture. I have never used those words in reference to these groups, for I know my place is to honor and respect the intimacy utilized by other cultures as they do or should do about the N-word. Therefore, others should not use the N-word in relation to African Americans. It is sacred. Moreover, there is no difference in Niggah or Nigger. Leave it alone—you do not have the same permission as August Wilson has. Wilson has the exceptional quality of getting, keeping and sustaining our attention. His other colorful language using curse words denotes a status hierarchy of emphasis. They are words that attract attention, engage the listeners, and many times demand a response. I remember a person saying that some blacks used curse words because their vocabulary is not as wide and they are looking for words that will have a major impact. I think Wilson has used them expressively and they are not overdone. These words do not diminish the prime objective but heighten the action of the play.

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Dr. Lundeana Thomas—Professor, Director of U of L’s African American Theatre program

Finally, here we are in the Bible belt with a play that blasphemes God. Surely, we are in danger of Hell’s fury. I think not again, it is realistic. Rather than be angry with Levee for cursing God, we should empathize with his plight. He does not know God, he cannot see or feel God because of the pain that has engulfed him. He cannot see his future or his victory because he is stuck in the ugliness or horridness of his past. Bad things can happen to good people, but good things are there if you choose to look. Levee did not know that God had already made plans for the men who had raped and killed his mother as well as injured him. If he could have believed that then maybe he would have been able to let the past go. Then he could have seen the good days ahead. Therein lies the irony of the Black Bottom . . . Believing you are on the Bottom while being black. Our AATP and productions of August Wilson are still flourishing since our debut in 1997 as Actors Theatre of Louisville is now producing its 5th August Wilson play. I look forward to seeing all ten at Actors Theatre.

Glossary Arrangement: An adaptation of a piece of music intended for a particular instrument, group of musicians, performance context, or style of music.

Juke joint: An informal, often-rowdy bar, dancehall and performance space popular among African Americans in the rural South. Juke joints were a key incubator for The Blues.

Band room: A rehearsal space and break room separate from the studio and control booth. In Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, this is the domain of the African American band members. Black Bottom: A popular dance of the 1920s that incorporated syncopated rhythms and suggestive movements. It developed in the African American neighborhoods of New Orleans. Brogans and clod-hoppers: Two terms that refer to heavy work shoes. Both terms also imply that the wearer of these shoes is a low-class, rustic person.

Florsheims: A brand of shoes, in this case men’s dress shoes. In contrast to the other band members’ old clod-hoppers, Levee’s shoes are new, expensive Florsheims. Improvisation: The act of playing a piece of music without prior planning or consulting written musical notation. Improvised pieces can be brand-new pieces created in the moment or spontaneous riffs on familiar tunes. Improvisation is common in the Blues and Jazz.

Control booth: The area designated for the operation of technical equipment. In Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, this is the domain of the white producers, situated above the studio. Cornet: A brass instrument similar to a trumpet. Levee plays the cornet in Ma Rainey’s band.

Jug band: A makeshift group of musicians playing upbeat popular music on homemade and found instruments such as washboards, bottles and kazoos, in addition to other instruments such as harmonicas and banjos. Jug bands likely originated in Louisville in the early part of the 20th century.

Manager: A business professional whose job is to guide the career of an artist in the entertainment industry. Duties include negotiating contracts and scheduling performances and recording sessions. Reefer: Slang term for a marijuana cigarette or joint. Release form: A legal document that surrenders certain rights and privileges. In Ma Rainey’s case, signing the release form gives permission to Irvin and Sturdyvant to sell her recordings. Shuffling them feet: An allusion to minstrelsy, a performance genre that popularized negative caricatures of African Americans through music, dance, skits and the use of blackface (makeup used to darken one’s face, used by both black and white performers). When Slow Drag says Levee is “shuffling them feet” for the white producers, he means that instead of maintaining his dignity, Levee is groveling in order to get ahead in the music industry. Slow drag: In addition to being the name of a member of Ma Rainey’s band, it is also a popular dance that evolved in New Orleans in the 1890s. The slow drag features syncopated steps and alternating quick-slow rhythms that reflect West African and Caribbean influences. Uppity: An adjective meaning “pretentious” or “arrogant.” “Uppity” has historically been used to refer especially to African Americans who did not “know their place” in a social structure built on racism.

—Jessica Reese

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Discussion Questions Pre-show 1. Ma Rainey takes place inside the

recording studio where Ma and her band are trying to make their new Blues record. How do you imagine music being used in the show? What kind of instruments do you associate with The Blues? How would you describe a Blues performance? What songs do you associate with The Blues?

2. Institutional racism was a major force

in the world of the recording industry, and Ma Rainey’s world at large. The characters of the play, true to history, live their lives responding to this oppressive force. Have you ever seen examples of institutional racism in the media? In your own lives? How do you imagine that racism will be portrayed onstage?

Post-show 1. The play is called Ma Rainey’s Black

Bottom, but Ma herself doesn’t get a lot of stage time. Why do you think that is? How do the only two female characters, Ma and Dussie Mae, try to have a voice in this male-dominated recording studio?

2. Spoiler! Why do you think Levee lashes out at Toledo? Can you relate this act of seemingly senseless violence to any modern equivalents?

3. Who do you think was the main

character of Ma Rainey? Is there a protagonist of this piece? An antagonist? Do you think they are specific people or part of the situation?

BRIDGeWORK At Your Desk

1. The characters in the play are Blues musicians. Blues songs

are usually about some personal problems and how the singer is feeling about those problems. Write lyrics to your own Blues song.

On Your Feet 1.

Ma Rainey is a lady who knows what she wants- much like a queen. Select one person to be the Queen. The group forms a circle around the Queen. The Queen goes around from person to person in whatever order she likes and demands an offering from her subjects by saying “And What Do You Have For Your Queen?” The offering could be a song, a dance, an imaginary object; whatever you think will please the queen. If the Queen does not like it, he or she yells “Off With Their Head!” and that person is out of the circle. The last person standing becomes the new queen. Queen often works well when the teacher plays the part of the Queen.

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2. Ma Rainey was a real Blues singer who recorded many albums. Listen to one of her albums and write a review.

2. Levee spends a lot of time in the play trying to convince

everyone to do his version of Ma’s hit song. Think of a time when you tried to convince someone of something you wanted very badly. Break the class up into groups of 4-5. Each person will have five minutes to arrange the other people in their group into a frozen picture or tableau that represents that moment from their own life when they tried to get something they wanted. Each member of the groups should arrange their own tableau. Then perform them for the other groups in silent succession and discuss with your audience what they gleaned from this frozen parade of images.

Cross-Curricular Connections geography

The play takes place in south side of Chicago in 1927. What about the location and history of Chicago in the 1920s that makes it an appropriate location for this play? What was happening in Chicago at that time?

math

What are the time signatures of Blues music? What effect do those time signatures have on the overall feeling of the music?

history

The Blues is an American musical form. When did begin? How has it changed over time? Create a timeline of The Blues and how it has developed over time.

Ma Rainey’s record, “Dream Blues”

Writing Portfolio Personal

Many of the characters in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom suffer from lack of control over their music, their pay and other aspects of their lives. Write a personal narrative about a moment from your own life when you did not have control over a situation. What were the circumstances? How did you react to them? Did you accept the situation or fight back? Were you ever able to gain control?

Literary

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom is part of August Wilson’s Century Cycle. Pick another play from the Century Cycle. Read it and write a paper comparing that play to Ma Rainey. What were the themes and issues of the other play by Wilson? How were the character portrayed? Was the structure similar? What about the language?

Transactive

Write a review of the performance of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom that you saw at Actors Theatre of Louisville. Describe what it was like to watch the play, but be sure to write more than just the plot of the play. Think about how the play tells the story. Make the experience come alive for the reader by using lots of sensory details when writing about several of the play’s elements, like the costumes, lights, props, music, how the actors said their lines, and how the director realized the vision of the play. Let the audience decide for themselves if the play is worth seeing.

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Works Cited “African Americans,” Encyclopedia of Chicago. Chicago Historical Society, 2005. Web. 3 Nov. 2010. Bloom, Harold, Ed. Bloom’s Major Dramatists: August Wilson. Library of Congress, Chelsea House, 2002. Print. Davies, Angela Y. Blues Legacies and Black Feminism. New York: Pantheon Books, 1998. Print. Derks, Scott. The Value of a Dollar: Prices and Incomes in the United States, 1860-2004. Millerton, NY: Grey House, 2004. Print. Ellison, Ralph, “Richard Wright’s Blues.” The Antioch Review 5.2, Summer 1945. “History of Jazz Before 1930.” The Red Hot Jazz Archive. Web. 27 Oct. 2010. . JAZZ: A Film by Ken Burns. PBS: Public Broadcasting Service, 2001. Web. 21 Oct. 2010. Knowles, Louis L. and Kenneth Prewitt, eds. Institutional Racism in America. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1970. Print. Moon, D. Thomas. “Strange Voodoo: Inside the Vaults of Chess Studios.” Blues Access. Web. 27 Oct. 2010. . Morra, Frank. “Vintage Costs: Dancing Was Never Cheap!” Swing and Lindy Hop in DC. Web. 27 Oct. 2010. . Parson, Ron OJ. Interview by Adrien-Alice Hansel. 20 Aug. 2010. Rich, Frank. “Wilson’s Ma Rainey’s Opens.” The New York Times, 12 Oct. 1984. Web. Randall, Vernellia. “Institutional Racism.” Race, Racism and the Law. University of Dayton, n.d. Web. 27 Oct. 2010. . Salamone, Frank A. “Rainey, Gertrude ‘Ma’ (1886-1939).” St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture. Ed. Sara Pendergast and Tom Pendergast. Vol. 4. Detroit: St. James Press, 2000. 168. St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture. Web. 13 Oct. 2010. Schoenberg, Loren, and Geoffrey C. Ward. “Race Records.” JAZZ: A Film By Ken Burns. PBS: Public Broadcasting Service. Web. 27 Oct. 2010. . Shafer, Yvonne. August Wilson: A Research and Production Sourcebook. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1998. Print. Shannon, Sandra. The Dramatic Vision of August Wilson. Washington, DC: Howard UP, 1995. Print. Snodgrass, Mary Ellen. August Wilson: A Literary Companion. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2004. Print. The Blues. PBS: Public Broadcasting Service, 2003. Web. 21 Oct. 2010. “What Is Institutional and Structural Racism?” Education Research Advocacy Support to Eliminate Racism. Web. 27 Oct. 2010. .

If you liked Ma Rainey... Books

Plays

Institutional Racism in America edited by Louis L. Knowles and Kenneth Prewitt

The August Wilson Century Cycle by August Wilson

Mother of The Blues: A Study of Ma Rainey by Sandra Lieb

The Color Purple, a musical adapted from the book by Alice Walker

Film Cadillac Records (2008) Lady Sings The Blues (1972) St. Louis Blues starring Bessie Smith (1929)

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A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry