megapanalo The Lessons Pianos Teach in ‘The Piano Lesson’

Few props have played as pivotal a role in a theatrical production as the humble upright in August Wilson’s “The Piano Lesson.”

The family heirloom is at the heart of the conflict between Boy Willie, who wants to sell the piano to buy land to grow cotton on, and Berniece, his sister, who doesn’t, not for any reason or price. In one scene, their uncle Doaker describes how the piano was traded for “one and a half” of his relatives — his father, a boy of 9, and his grandmother — and how his grandfather, Papa Boy Willie, came to carve scenes from their family history on its wooden sides.

Wilson makes it clear in his production notes that this is to be some piano. “The carvings are rendered with a grace and power of invention,” he writes, “that lifts them out of the realm of craftsmanship and into the realm of art.”

Since the Pulitzer Prize-winning play’s premiere in 1987, a series of incredibly skilled artists, prop makers and set designers have done just that. Their handiwork has shared the stage with actors including Charles S. Dutton and Danielle Brooks, and Alfre Woodard and Samuel L. Jackson. The pianos have been displayed in various venues, including the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington and the August Wilson African American Cultural Center in Pittsburgh, and featured in “making of” shorts and articles.

Fans of the play can see the latest incarnation in the Malcolm Washington-directed feature “The Piano Lesson,” streaming on Netflix. The film stars John David Washington (he and Malcolm are brothers) as Boy Willie, Danielle Deadwyler as Berniece, Samuel L. Jackson as Doaker — and, as with all of the productions before it, one lovingly-crafted piano.

For the play’s world premiere at the Yale Rep, the set designer E. David Cosier Jr. modified an old upright player piano that his crew found in a nearby bar. Later, intricate portraits were carved on basswood, poplar and oak panels and applied to the side and front panel of a Yamaha Disklavier. Cosier’s piano was there for the show’s Broadway premiere at the Walter Kerr — as well as in productions of the play staged from the West Coast to the Kennedy Center in Washington.

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The accountability office said many of those systems “have critical operational impacts” on air traffic safety and efficiency. Many of them are also facing “challenges that are historically problematic for aging systems,” according to the report.

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