1839 Wylie Ave.

	Gem of the Ocean		1839 Wylie Ave.	Radio Golf
Skip to:	Introduction		Inspiration	Timeline
Intro		Screen Adaptation of Two August Wilson plays + modern component.
Inspiration		For Black History month this year I decided to complete my studies of August Wilson. Being a fellow pgh playwright, with both public success and enviable awards – New York Drama Critics Circle and Two Pulitzer Prizes, he is worthy of study. He is also African American and fairly contemporary.
Summary		I won’t give away the two plays, other than to say a central character to both is a Spiritual Griot with the name of Ester Tyler and there is a neat tie in with relation to her in both plays. Both take place in the Hill District (where I grew up) and 1839 Wylie Ave, a critical setting in both plays, is also the address of my first employer, a community center that sat right across the street from my backyard. My addition to the play, beyond giving it the live sense of a film where the action unrolls in front of you instead of on a far away stage, is the incorporation of a third modern setting, a school set on 1839 Wylie Ave full of students studying his plays, which takes us again to the August Wilson Cultural Center- a real place in downtown Pgh, PA.
Timeline		August Wilsons play first read by me ~2000 His ten year play cycle finished in April of 2009, the last two plays I read were Gem of the Ocean and Radio Golf, the last two plays he wrote before dying in 2006. My favorites are Jitney, Two Trains Running, as well as these. The difference between these and my selected plays are they occur in a lively setting while 2 Trains and Jitney are locked in a single location. Gem of the Ocean and Radio Golf involve settings, major events that happen off stage which is a travesty in the story telling world. I wanted to make them come alive- and cheaper for the audience than a play ticket. April 2009 I began the process of typing up Gem of the Ocean and Radio Golf, and transferring them to Screenplay format. This was finished in August of 2009 Currently the draft is 205 pages, 96 scenes, which is about 98 pages too long. I may hope to sell it straight to DVD, where the length will be less of an issue as users can select which or both plays to view; or I will cut a lot of material, which will take some of the “August Wilson” out of the story, but highlight dramatic interest.

Soundrack		N/A
Read More		Here you will find the opening, which consists of the frame and the first two pages of Gem of the Ocean. For more, go to your local library/bookstore and read the original plays.
View Trailer		N/A