Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1332040
6 4 P E R S P E C T I V E | J A N U A R Y / F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 1 "It's August Wilson. It's brilliant. But I can't really have that conversation with you right now—I'll need to read it again." I had received a call the previous evening regarding Ma Rainey's Black Bottom and was meeting the revered Broadway director George C. Wolfe to discuss designing it. A film adaptation of the seminal play by August Wilsonthe first of his canonical works documenting the 20th century African American experience—was seven and a half weeks away from the first day of shooting. I had read it so quickly that my focus was primarily on clocking what and how many sets there were— and I explained as much. He looked back at me. "Fair enough." Ma Rainey takes place over the course of a scorching hot summer afternoon in Chicago, 1927. It is the only one of Wilson's 10-part Pittsburgh Cycle not to take place in Pittsburgh, though the decision had already been made to shoot there. The Hill District was Wilson's home and it suffused everything he wrote. In his goal to film the entirety of Wilson's work, producer Denzel Washington, along with Todd Black, had made Fences there. That film's production design was by my friend and mentor, David Gropman, who had hired me to assist him for one week thirty years ago—essentially holding the other end of a tape measure—so I felt a certain pride in being passed the baton. As it happens, I'd also once had the project to sculpt the carved piano in an NYU production of The Piano Lesson and was enthusiastic to now make a larger contribution to the Cycle. I had to hit the ground runningresearch, finding crew and virtual location scouting would occupy the rest of my week before I flew to Pittsburgh. I met George once more and we discussed The Great Migration, looked at the photos of Richard Samuel Roberts and the woodcuts of Jacob Lawrence and Aaron Douglas. The day before, as is typical when starting a period film, I visited the Picture Collection at the NY Public Libraryflipping through their unique stock to find the images that inform and inspire. There I found an impressionist painting simply labeled Chicago, 1906. It was the perfect evocation of Chicago in the heat, steam and sweltering sun. George was captivated as soon as I showed him the image—the palette and sensibility so spoke to the filmand it became an anchor for the entire visual team moving forward. George asked me what I thought of the script… R e c o r d i n g B l a c k H i s t o r y M A R A I N E Y ' S B L A C K B O T T O M B Y M A R K R I C K E R , P R O D U C T I O N D E S I G N E R A. RECORDING STUDIO STREET WITH VFX ADDITIONS. PRODUCTION STILL. A