Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe goes all in on August Wilson

Wali Jamal didn’t write the book on August Wilson, but you might say he majored in the works of the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright.

Jamal is the first and only actor in the world to have performed in all 10 of the plays that make up Wilson’s American Century Cycle. He will star in the late playwright’s autobiographical show, “How I Learned What I Learned,” from Feb. 9-16 at Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe. 

WBTT founder and Artistic Director Nate Jacobs first met Jamal, like Wilson a native of Pittsburgh, in 2019 at the National Black Theatre Festival in Winston-Salem, N.C. 

Jacobs didn’t see Jamal perform at the festival, now known as the International Black Theatre Festival, but when he met the actor he got a good feeling about him. 

Anybody who had that much experience performing Wilson’s plays must be good at what he does, Jacobs reckoned. 

“He (Wilson) is very wordy; an actor really has to commit to those roles,” says Jacobs. “And Wali has performed in all 10 of Wilson’s American Century Cycle plays; that is about as committed as an artist can be!”

After Jacobs decided to revive “Fences” for WBTT’s 2024-25 season, he decided to bring Jamal to Sarasota to present “How I Learned What I Learned” in tandem with the Wilson play set in the 1950s. 

“Fences” tells the story of Troy Maxson, a once-promising baseball player whose career was derailed due to bigotry and a sense of duty. The garbageman (Patric Robinson) provides for his family but seems to determined to thwart his son Cory’s (Zion Thompson) athletic ambitions and to break his wife’s (Ariel Blue) heart with his selfishness. It runs through Feb. 23 at WBTT.

When Jamal appeared in “Fences” in 2015 at Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company, he played Maxson’s buddy, Bono, a fellow garbageman with whom he trades stories and a bottle of liquor.

Speaking of stories, it’s not clear from talking to both Jamal and Jacobs who approached whom first about bringing “How I Learned What I Learned” to WBTT in honor of Black History Month. In the end it really doesn’t matter.

“I thought it would be a great opportunity for our patrons to learn more about August Wilson the man as well as his work,” Jacobs says. “Our patrons love the information we provide during our Community Voices and other educational programs.”

Jacobs spoke with WBTT’s Education Director/Artistic Associate Jim Weaver, who coordinated Jamal’s one-week run of “How I Learned What I Learned.” During his time at WBTT, Jamal will also present a lecture, “August Wilson: Acting in His Plays and How it Led to Writing My Own,” on Feb. 6. 

Courtesy image

Wilson was born in Pittsburgh’s Hill District in 1945 and died in Seattle, where he developed a relationship with the Seattle Repertory Theatre, which produced his 10-play cycle and “How I Learned What I Learned.”

All 10 of the plays in Wilson’s American Century Cycle went to Broadway. “Fences” (1987) and “The Piano Lesson” (1990) both won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Nine of the plays were nominated for Tony Awards for Best Play; “Fences” won.

Oscar-winning actor Denzel Washington has produced and sometimes starred in film adaptations of Wilson’s plays. In 2016, Washington produced “Fences,” in which he played the protagonist Maxson opposite Viola Davis. In 2020, Washington produced “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.”

In November 2024, Washington produced “The Piano Lesson” starring his son, John David Washington, and Samuel L. Jackson. Denzel Washington has a deal with Wilson’s estate to create film versions of the other American Century Cycle plays.

Both Jacobs and Jamal were fortunate enough to meet Wilson before his death in 2005. Jacobs credits a chance meeting with Wilson at the National Black Theatre Festival during the early 2000s with giving him the strength to keep going with WBTT. 

At the time he was considering giving up on his fledgling theater troupe devoted to Black stories, and leaving Sarasota. 

Recalls Jacobs: “He looked at me, and said, ‘Son, if anything is happening for you the way you told me today, for what you’re doing, Sarasota is the place you’re supposed to be.’”

Jamal says he met Wilson at a reading of “Jitney” at the home of Mark Southers, founder and producing artistic director of the Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company. 

“August comes walking in out of nowhere,” Jamal recalls. “He read the character of Turnbo. August was off the chain (slang for wild). I even got to talk with him while we were both on the porch smoking cigarettes.” 

Getting his feet wet in comedy

Jamal was a comedian for 10 years before he became an actor in 1998 and began appearing in the Wilson plays produced at Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre. He was set to make his debut in “How I Learned What I Learned” in December 2017, but a snowstorm canceled the show.

“I got to boo-hooing on Facebook, and a friend, Miss Lynne Conner, invited me down to the UNC at Charlotte, where she is head of the theater department. I performed the play and gave a masterclass on August Wilson,” Jamal says.

Jamal has performed “How I Learned What I Learned” three times at Pittsburgh’s August Wilson African American Cultural Center.

Jamal recalls meeting WBTT’s Jacobs briefly at the National Black Theatre Festival in 2019. “I gave out my information to whoever would take a flyer,” Jamal says. 

Over the years, Jamal’s version of “How I Learned What I Learned” has evolved. “It’s still very dialogue-driven, but it’s a lot sharper, a lot more exciting. I could do this play under a tree.”

In Sarasota, that would be a palm tree if he was forced to perform al fresco. Luckily, Jamal will be onstage in WBTT’s comfortable, black-box Howard Millman Theatre.