"Gem of the Ocean," August Wilson play a great afternoon of theater...

My friend Joyce, in the photo, gave me a free ticket to this play which turned out to be a grand outing, of the sort I just love. The Black Theater Company is now housed in the lovely theater space in the Viad Building just up the street. The grounds are so beautiful. Joyce was considered for one of the roles in the play, written by the tremendous black playwright who has had so many hit plays on Broadway. A company that would take on the challenges of this play deserves a good review, because everyone possible should see it. I think Joyce would have been stupendous in the role. The younger woman who took on the part of a woman who says she is 375 years old, something like that, had all she could handle trying to capture the depth of an older woman. I couldn't help but wish that they had gone with Joyce because she deserved this part, but the guy who played the older man who was her love interest was a younger man, too. He performed an older man well, but that was just it, he had to perform the age as did the actress, neither were that age, as Joyce is, who has one of the most remarkable memories I have encountered in actresses. This was a big part and she might have done something absolutely stunning with it, she has now had so much experiences on the stage.
I have seen nearly everyone of her performances, and I kept thinking of how she would have said this magnificent speech and that one. Joyce has a wonderful voice for the stage, too, deep and resonant. I thought with the exception of one or two some of the performers were having trouble breaking up the sing song rhythms they fell into of this musical playwright's dialogue. They were having trouble at first especially getting into the lower registers of their voices where emotion can resonate much better than in the higher tones. But one expects flaws in a play production. Not everything can be perfect, but the performers you could tell loved what they were trying to portray, so altogether it was just a remarkable afternoon of theater. Thank you, Joyce, as always for thinking of me and giving a very valuable gift.