Suggestions: Meditation #4

Subject: Possible Meditations on Joe Turner's Come and Gone, by August Wilson

Wondering what to write about? Consider the following questions as possible starting places for your fourth meditation. (Choose one - don't try to answer all of them.)

How are stories and story-telling used in Joe Turner's Come and Gone? In what ways are storytellers within the play performing theatrically for the other characters? What are the effects of storytelling, as seen in the play?

Wilson draws on several artistic forms in his writing, including the blues, oral history, jazz, and the paintings and collages of Romare Bearden. How do you see these forms at work within the play, in terms of how the play is written (and how it might be staged)?

The textbook provides insight into what various productions have added to the play through the process of staging it. What does the playwright provide this process? What demands do Wilson's words place on theatre artists, and what gifts or opportunities do those words provide?