This experience validates why the Arts are so important. When I was sixteen I was asked to be in our school play by the late great Roger Babusci at Schenley High School. I declined and chose sports over theatre. Besides in my mind at the time baseball was much cooler than being in a play.
It wasn't until age thirty that the stage came calling once again. This time with Dr. Vernell A. Lillie's Kuntu Repertory Theatre on the campus of the University of Pittsburgh. With bad knees and my dreams of being a professional ball player far behind me, this time I dove in head first. It's theatre that saved me as a thirty-year old. It's theatre that has taken me to seven different countries around the world and has offered me joy and a lifetime of intrigue and happiness. And it was theatre that offered me a mental destination of hope and healing after my 2015 horrific automobile accident.
This experience here working with these talented and fabulous CAPA students leaves me to wonder just how much more rich my life could have been had I took the dive into the arts much earlier in life.
In a time when dark clouds appear to be on the horizon for the Arts, it's the feeling of association with it that I have in my heart and soul that helps me stay calm during these uncertain times.
It was my early musical directing work with CAPA instructor Mr. Gerald Savage at Frick International Studies Academy that laid the groundwork for my growth as a director and has lead to many directing opportunities around the country.
So now it feels somewhat full circle by being invited to this prestigious institution to work with these talented youths.
August Wilson once told me "Always write your best play and to write what you know". I apply those words to everything I do arts related. It's been indeed a pleasure to work on Mr. Wilson's work here at Pittsburgh CAPA. I like to thank Mrs. Pickett and Principal Pearlman for this wonderful opportunity. And my right hand person and CAPA Alumnus Meleana Felton for her support as well as this gracious staff. And a special thanks to my wonderful cast and crew for their creativity and dedication to their chosen craft.
Mr. Wilson has written an epic play in Ma Rainey's Black Bottom and it's our honor to bring it to you here today. Thank you for supporting the arts!
Mark Clayton Southers
Director
