A Play Report
Seven Guitars by August Wilson
Part A
The 1995 play, Seven Guitars, by August Wilson delves on seven characters of African American origin in 1948.These seven characters live in the city of Pittsburgh. Apparently, the play depicts the African-American life in Pittsburgh in the 1940s, therefore representing the entry in the Pittsburgh Cycle. The play is characterized by vibrant conversations, which are often exemplified by language techniques such as metaphors. These conversations indicate the dreams, emotions and the African American legacy. The main theme of the play is based on the past biographical life of a singer and guitarist, Floyd Barton who is adept in the Blues music genre.
The main character, Floyd as a singer and guitarist, has dreams and aspirations of becoming a famous recording celebrity. Because of his ambitions and aspirations, he is determined to make his dreams into a reality by getting finances in order to travel to Chicago in order to record a couple of presentations. However, being incapable of gaining the finances resulting from the assured unscrupulous individuals and his frivolity, Floyd decides to rob a loan office. With the stolen money, Floyd purchases a ticket for himself and his girlfriend, Vera to travel to Chicago. However, Floyd abandons his girlfriend and instead heads to Chicago alone in order to record his song.
Meanwhile, Hedley, who is also another character in the play, aspires to own his personal plantation. Being slightly mentally ill, Hedley possesses the notion that the ghost of a man who owed his father money is going to return and pay him his father’s dues. Consequently, after Floyd traveled to Chicago, he attempted to retrieve her when he returned. Afterwards, an attractive woman, Ruby arrives pregnant and claims that Hedley is the father of her unborn child. After his return, Floyd is requested by his record label executives to return to Chicago to produce more songs. Since the recording of his foremost album, Floyd desecrates the payment he obtained from recording, discarded his girlfriend for another woman and got abandoned by same woman, hocked his guitar, was arrested and spent ninety days in jail for walking.
Part B
The conflict forming the play is considerably attributed to racism. This is because the play is based on the fight for the privilege of the African American man. The theme revolves around the African-American man’s struggle for his individual humanity, self-comprehension and self-recognition in the visage of personal and communal tribulations. Because of the theme, the conflict rages between Floyd and the racist society. This prevents him from attaining his dreams. This comes after Floyd experiences challenges and tribulations that force him to change his perception and seek changing the past year’s rights, wrongs, and get back to Chicago. However, as he attempts to correct the wrongs, he dies. Moreover, various metaphors represent the conflict attributed to racism. For instance, the speech about roosters in the states of Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi, by Canewell indicates the African-American leaders who fought against racial oppression in the states. The rooter as a metaphor represents black leaders who voice against injustice. Eventually, in the play Floyd becomes irritated by the rooster crowing leading to the murder of the rooster by the demented aged man, Hedley. This action signifies that the rise of African American leaders speaking against injustice is eventually halted. The voice of the rooster was silenced connecting it to the silencing of Black leaders who rise to speak against racial injustice.
Part C
A director’s concept refers to the fundamental idea that amalgamates all the essentials of production to make it exceptional. The concept of the play would focus on the creation of a structured memory that goes through Floyd Barton’s epigrammatic life. Moreover, the concept will be aimed at reliving the lives African Americans lived and experienced right after the end of the First World War by focusing on the issues of racial prejudice, patriotism, poverty, sex and intimacy and culture. The issues aforementioned refer to an audience that will play an active role in questioning the morals displayed by the characters of the play by agreeing or disagreeing and even empathizing with the characters. Moreover, the play will concentrate on developing and criticizing present mindsets regarding the prevalent issues characterizing the American society by incorporating both theatrical imagination and societal reality. Staging is a crucial part in developing the play’s production concept. This is because it refers to the positioning of incumbent elements of the play that will create the intended effect on the audience through modification, selection, design and adaptation of the performance space. Foremost, the positioning of the cast members on stage is one of the most essential parts of staging. For instance, the positioning of the main character of the play, Floyd Barton, will be at the center of the stage with the stage lighting focused on him. This is to make sure that the audience develops a firm and recognizable image of the character and the events that encompass him throughout the play. The use of blocking as intended for by the director is essential since it enables the picture of the stage provide appropriate attention to the apposite places and enable smooth transitions. Additionally, there will be the placement and occasional appearance of dramatic symbols that relate with the production concept. These dramatic symbols will represent the major issues addressed by the characters in the play. For instance, in the play Seven Guitars, dramatic symbols such as the rooster and the machete were utilized to denote the issue of racial prejudice on the African American society in the 1940s. The background of the performance space is also designed to conform to the production concept. The man made scenery in the play represents the background. The background conveys an image or description of a real life place where the events are taking place. Props and costumes also facilitate the background of the play. Props are used by the acting cast to advance the plot of the play. The costumes aid the actors in portraying their age, gender, occupation, social class, character aspect and historical information that relate to the occurrence of the event.
Part D
Selecting the ideal cast for the play requires individuals that can deliver the production concept and the main theme of the play. Each cast member should be able to perform the parts assigned to him or her to generate the intended effect on the audience. Additionally, the cast members should be cooperative with the director, designer and other cast members in order to prevent misunderstandings during the play. The cast members should also be able to portray the personalities and any other feature that is distinctive of the play’s characters. For instance, Seven Guitars comprises seven characters namely Floyd Barton, Hedley, Canewell, Red Carter, Louise, Vera and Ruby. These seven characters have distinct features that require the cast members to indicate to the audience through their personality as well as their outward appearances through costumes. By acting in synchronization with the characters of the play, the cast members will be able to assist the audience in identifying with the characters by understanding their personalities and other aspects related to their take on the concepts and themes of the play. The cast members should also be able to be in synchronization with the moral sides of the characters: they should be compromising. For instance, there is use of sexual connotation in the song by Louise can come off as a deviant behavior to another person acting as her who would not want to associate with the character.
Part E
One of the major characters in the play Seven Guitars is Floyd Barton. Floyd is a hopeful Blues singer and guitarist. He aspires to be a famous and wealthy musician. The objective of the character Floyd is the representation of implication of racial prejudice in the American society. This is indicated by the tumultuous challenges Floyd went through in order to achieve his aspirations. For instance, Floyd, after returning from his mother’s funeral on his way home was arrested without committing any criminal offense. The obstacles represent the barriers that prevent him from achieving his dreams. For instance, Floyd was deceived by the record company and the manager, which forced him to be unable to further his dreams. The risks associated with Floyd are based on his impunity, which sets in whereby Floyd agrees to receive a one-time fee instead of the percentage of the profits received from selling his hit. The other major character is Hedley. Hedley is a demented and drunken old man in the play. Hedley’s objective in the play is to indicate the death of African American dreams. This is signified by his murder of Floyd and the rooster, which represents the death of African American voices. The obstacle facing Hedley is demented imagination that leads him to murder Floyd. The risks involved with Hedley are attributed to his grandiose dreams, which force him to live in a permanent state of fallacy throughout the play.
Part F
The costumes can be set in a manner that depicts the African American culture in the 1940s. For instance, the women can dress up in long dresses and silhouettes that characterized the vintage attire for women at that time. The men can dress up in pinstriped suits, which were common among the African American men who fancied on the pride of fashion at that time. The music can be based on the African American culture. At that time, the major songs sang by the African American people were the Blues, which up to date remain to be a fundamental indicator of the African American culture. The music could be coupled with African American dances, which required enormous amounts of energy to perform unlike the dances of the white people.
Comparison between Seven Guitars and Piano Lesson
The comparison between the plays, Seven Guitars and Piano Lesson, both by August Wilson, will be based on the similarities or connections that influence the directing or design choices of the play. The Piano Lesson revolves around the struggle of a pair of siblings regarding a valuable heirloom, a piano engraved with pictures of Black ancestors and their enslaved grandfather. The play focuses on the Great Depression in the 1930s as well as the creation of novel African American communities, which were economically devastated throughout the recession period. Due to the similar background of the playwright’s plays, the directing will not be entirely different between the two plays. For instance, Seven Guitars and Piano Lessons are all based on musical instruments that portrayed the culture of the African Americans in the 1930s. This is indicated by the metaphorical use of the guitars and the piano in both compositions. Moreover, the design for the play will not be affected since both plays reflect the African American culture throughout the 1930s onwards. Additionally, the directing of the plays will not be too different between the two plays since both plays revolve around the same themes. For instance, Seven Guitars revolves around the struggle for humanity of the African American race. However, the theme that correlates perfectly with the story line of the play Piano Lessons is the struggle among African Americans themselves. In Piano Lessons, two siblings of the same ancestral blood struggle over a piece of item that represents part of an epitome of the Black society. In Seven Guitars, two of the major characters, Floyd and Hedley struggle to be independent of White supremacy by possessing grandiose dreams but in the ends, Hedley murders Floyd, his fellow African American, thereby indicating the dispute and conflict among individuals of the same race and blood.
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