Review: Pittsburgh Playwrights Theater Company’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
August Wilson's Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, the third play in his American Century Cycle, is set in a 1927 Chicago recording studio where the "Mother of the Blues" battles for control of her art while her band wrestles with ambition, regret, and survival. Ashley Renee Southers, in her directorial debut, captures Wilson's layered examination of exploitation, race, and creative power. The Quartet of musicians—Charles…