![]() ![]() She lives with Eli, a protector, and her maid, Black Mary, whom she views as her protégé. Ester’s power is said to be the cleansing of souls. ![]() ![]() Gem of the Ocean takes place in the home of former slave and renowned healer Aunt Ester. The show examines the role of sharecropping and other economic limitations in the lives of both young and old Black Americans. Gem of the Ocean correlates to the first decade of the 20 th century (1900–10) about fifty years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation and is thematically based on the inability of former slaves and their kin to truly be “free” of social constraints in the United States. The Pittsburgh Cycle is a collection of works in which every play, each set in a different decade of the 20th century, describes the lives of Black Americans in the United States, specifically in Pittsburgh. Gem of the Ocean is the first work (that was ironically written last) of ten plays written by August Wilson known as The Pittsburgh Cycle. In that way, I appreciated the inventive initiatives that director Chuck Smith took to put on the show-it was astonishing. Gem of the Ocean is one of the few underperformed August Wilson plays and for that reason, I feel that, from the perspective of young directors and producers, the show can take on many forms. I have recently been on a journey to read and view each of August Wilson’s plays, and this was one of the final steps. When I first heard that Gem of the Ocean was playing nearby, I was jumping with joy. ![]()
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