How does one adapt poetry to the stage?
How much reverence should one have
to the delicacy of structure and articulation
of the meter that one is adapting? There
can no more be another August Wilson play
than there can be another August Wilson.
He was unique and individual. Thus must
this performance be; we must separate it
as far as possible from anything resembling
an August Wilson play. That is what I truly
believe will be the honor and the tribute to
the man.
UNIVERSES are all poets. Adventurous
and fire-breathing artists. When they
approached me about directing their new
musical inspired by the poetry of August
Wilson, I was instantly skeptical, only
because there has been such reverence surrounding
his work. And of course, I’m not
one known for reverence. Being a playwright
myself, I look at any work and seek to break
it open and make it as fully alive as possible.
The challenge of this project is to tell a
wholly original story inspired by one of the
greatest dramatists to grace the Earth, without
tying our tale to any particular thread
of August Wilson’s biography. The poetry
is glorious and at times frightening, and I
hope the story that it has inspired of a Poet
haunted by Seven Terrors is just as thrilling.
This is not a poetry reading or slam. For
the most part, you will not be hearing any
one complete piece of poetry from August
Wilson. I disclose this, not to lessen your
expectation but to change and maybe even
enhance it. This performance is created by a
collective of Poets being inspired by another
Poet. Like Shakespeare and the Greeks have
inspired hundreds of dramatists through the
centuries, I would hope that by the end of
our journey you will sense a reverence, from
one creative mind for another.
—Robert O‘Hara