The New York Production Alliance (NYPA) added four seats to its board, bringing the total to 25. Starting as 07-’08 members are: John Held, former executive director of the AICE; Benji Whitehouse of Axium International; Elias Scoropanos of HSBC Bank USA, N.A.; and Terry Lawler of New York Women In Film and Television. Starting additional two-year terms are: John Amman of Local 600, Tom Liebau of Televest Daytime Programming, Burke Moody of the AICE, Lynne Twentyman of Local 161, Eileen Newman of Renew Media, Jae Je Simmons of the Screen Actors Guild and Carl Zucker of Media Services, and Anne K. Johnson. They join Jack Turney of the AICP, Roberta Reardon of the American Federation of TV and Radio Actors, Dennis Reiff of DR Reiff & Associates, Stuart Suna of Silvercup Studios, Lydia Deal Pilcher of the Producers Guild of America, John Ford of Local 52, Russ Hollander of the Directors Guild of America, Mitchell Kreigman of Wainscott Studios and Doug Steiner of Steiner Studios who start the second half of their NYPA terms along with chairman emeritus Morton Dubin.
Review: Malcolm Washington Makes His Feature Directing Debut With “The Piano Lesson”
An heirloom piano takes on immense significance for one family in 1936 Pittsburgh in August Wilson's "The Piano Lesson." Generational ties also permeate the film adaptation, in which Malcolm Washington follows in his father Denzel Washington's footsteps in helping to bring the entirety of The Pittsburgh Cycle — a series of 10 plays — to the screen.
Malcolm Washington did not start from scratch in his accomplished feature filmmaking debut. He enlisted much of the cast from the recent Broadway revival with Samuel L. Jackson (Doaker Charles), his brother, John David Washington (Boy Willie), Ray Fisher (Lymon) and Michael Potts (Whining Boy). Berniece, played by Danielle Brooks in the play, is now beautifully portrayed by Danielle Deadwyler. With such rich material and a cast for whom it's second nature, it would be hard, one imagines, to go wrong. Jackson's own history with the play goes back to its original run in 1987 when he was Boy Willie.
It's not the simplest thing to make a play feel cinematic, but Malcolm Washington was up to the task. His film opens up the world of the Charles family beyond the living room. In fact, this adaptation, which Washington co-wrote with "Mudbound" screenwriter Virgil Williams, goes beyond Wilson's text and shows us the past and the origins of the intricately engraved piano that's central to all the fuss. It even opens on a big, action-filled set piece in 1911, during which the piano is stolen from a white family's home. Another fleshes out Doaker's monologue in which he explains to the uninitiated, Fisher's Lymon, and the audience, the tortured history of the thing. While it might have been nice to keep the camera on Jackson, such a great, grounding presence throughout, the good news is that he really makes... Read More