Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

August Wilson’s drama set in a rundown Chicago recording studio in 1927 tells the story of Rainey’s music, her relationship to her band and her white producer during the epoch of Jim Crow. Schechner staged the drama for the Grahamstown Art Festival in South Africa — the first African American play ever performed in South Africa. The production was in “environmental theatre” style, with three stages amidst the audience in a large gym. Even though South Africa was not yet an independent black-governed nation, Schechner insisted on an integrated audience.