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And he’s a good friend of the people he deals with-and I sense he deals with both Blacks and white people.

He’s respectful, especially to Aunt Ester. She doesn’t accuse him of cheating her, but she does stand up if she feels she’s been charged too much. He deals often with Black Mary who buys goods from him and is not afraid to tell him when she thinks he is charging too much. He is the only white character in the play. Rutherford Selig is a travelling salesman of pots and pans. Aunt Ester is a mentor on life for Black Mary. Aunt Ester has taken in a young woman named Black Mary to help her in the house, cleaning, cooking and taking care of things. There are a lot of aspects to Gem of the Ocean that we take on faith and Aunt Ester and her long life and fraught history are a few of them.

And each character has a deep story.Īunt Ester is 285 years old. She is the conduit for all the characters in the play to find their lost souls, their connection to their roots and their connection to their collected history, as once enslaved African-Americans. She is also the emotional, spiritual and historical center of the play and the production. She is the revered matriarch of the neighbourhood. We are in Pittsburgh’s Hill District-August Wilson’s home town and neighbourhood-1839 Wylie Ave. Gem of the Oceanis the first play in the series. The 10 plays collectively are called, The American Century Cycle. American playwright, August Wilson set himself a herculean task: to dramatize the African-American experience over the twentieth century in 10 plays, one play for every decade. Original music and sound by Miquelon Rodriguez Masks must be worn unless actively eating or drinking.Live and in person at the Jackie Maxwell Studio Theatre, Shaw Festival, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont. Vaccination & Booster cards will be required before entrance into the space. Virtual and in person shows run from April 14-24. It was nominated for Tony Awards for Best Play, Best Actress, Best Scenic Design, Best Costume Design and Best Lighting Design.

Gem of the Ocean premiered in 2003 at the Goodman theater, before moving to Broadway in 2004. It is the second play which has the recurrence of the only staple white character of Rutherford Selig. Chronologically this is the first in the Century Cycle, and the only play in which Aunt Ester appears. Set in the Hill District of Pittsburgh in 1904, Gem of the Ocean follows the story of Aunt Ester, the local conjure woman of the neighborhood, and the assistance given to Citizen Barlow, a man who has stolen a bucket of nails from the mill which ends in the death of a man accused of the crime. Gem of the Ocean by August Wilson, the first show for the Black Indigeneity Season, is the origin story for the matriarch within Wilson’s American Century Cycle.