The Hill District

Sadly, August Wilson just died. It got me thinking about the Kennedy Center. Way back in 1992, me and my brother Brent got to see “Two Trains Running” before it went to Broadway. This was because our Aunt Dodie and Uncle Jim would always give us these great tickets to the Kennedy Center. See, Aunt Dodie only liked to see comedies and musicals. So the straight plays, we’d get to see.

They’d also take us to the other ones too but the dramas, we’d go to by ourselves.

So we saw a good number of plays.

We saw a play called “The Twilight of the Gold’s” which had a pre-nose job Jennifer Grey. And also the uncle from Family Ties(not Tom Hanks of course, but on Stephen’s side. His brother who had the sibling rivalry with him and made him feel guilty about their dad.)

We saw “Oleanna” before it went to Broadway with W.H. Macy and a wooden actress who I didn’t know then but would later turn out to be Mrs. Mamet, Rebecca Pidgeon.

(By the way, there was a young actor in “Two Trains Running” who turned out to be Laurence Fishburne later on.)

We also saw “Cats”* and “Les Miserables” and “Me and My Gal”*(which was particularly fun because it was with Tim Curry, who I just got to see in Spamalot on Saturday.)

I remember seeing “Phantom of the Opera” when I did this summer workshop at the Kennedy Center. And we met the cast. And asked them such great questions as “isn’t it scary singing from up there?” Referring to the point where the Phantom sings from up top over the stage.

And I also remember, to bring it all back to August, asking my dad about the Hill District. Because August has written a lot about that area. Both of my parents are from Pittsburgh, but I don’t recall every going there. And my dad said, “Why are you asking about that? Why would you ever want to go there?”

I guess that’s the point that August was trying to make.