When “The Piano Lesson” premiered this month at the Detroit Repertory Theatre, Janai Lashon was already facing a big problem in her professional directorial debut–the leading actress was injured and unable to perform.
Luckily, Lashon and assistant stage manager Kelli Williams were able to fill in. Now, show lead Jacquese Steele is back, and the production has many more shows to go.
The next chance to catch the show is 8 p.m. Friday and additional performances run through March 15. Tickets are $30 in advance and $35 on the day of the show.
Written by the late, acclaimed playwright August Wilson, The Piano Lesson follows Boy Willie as he arrives in Pittsburgh from the south during the 1930s. He has an opportunity to buy some land back home, but he has to come up with the money. He wants to sell a piano of great importance to his family, but shares ownership with his sister Berniece. Berniece refuses because the piano is covered with carvings detailing the family’s rise from slavery. A conflict ensues between the siblings as they fight to preserve their past and build a future.
The play won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1990 and is the fourth installment of Wilson’s “American Century Cycle,” a 10-part series showcasing the Black experience in every decade of the 20th century.
Lashon, a Kalamazoo native, last performed at the Repertory Theatre in 2024 for a production of another August Wilson play, “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone.” Other recent credits include Rabby in “Fat Ham” at the Detroit Public Theatre and Sarah Ryan in “Halftime with Don” at Tipping Point Theatre in Northville.
Lashon received a Master of Fine Arts in acting from Ohio University in 2021, soon after adding directorial credits like “Blood at the Root” at Doudna Fine Arts Center with Eastern Illinois University and “Blacks + Phats” at Festival Playhouse at Kalamazoo College. She is an alumnus of Western Michigan University, earning a bachelor’s degree in theatre performance in 2010. In addition, Lashon is the co-founder of Face Off Theatre Company in Kalamazoo and Vibrancy Theatre at Ohio University in Athens.
BridgeDetroit spoke with Lashon about directing, working with her cast and how The Piano Lesson is relevant today.
BridgeDetroit: How did you get the opportunity to direct The Piano Lesson?
Lashon: (Detroit Repertory Theatre Executive Artistic Director) Leah (Smith) approached me in the summer about the opportunity, so it was more of an offering, but I did express interest in wanting to direct. I’ve directed before collegiately and in my community. I’m also a co-founder of two different theaters, so I have some experience on the other side of the table and was really just craving it. And I’m very passionate about Black theater, and August Wilson is very instrumental in American theater. I was very excited, honored, humbled and privileged to take on such a massive work of theater.
BridgeDetroit: Did you feel some pressure taking on an August Wilson play?
Lashon: Are you kidding me? Not some, all the pressure. And it’s not a small cast, either. It’s like eight people. So yeah, there was a bit of nervousness, but I think that it also carried just how much I really care about this work, the quality, the excellence in which I have poured into this production. This is probably one of the weightiest blessings that I’ve been offered in a while as an artist and yet, I’m standing proud of the work that we’ve done.
BridgeDetroit: Do you remember the first time you saw “The Piano Lesson” on stage?
Lashon: I had to have been like 11 or 12. I saw it in Kalamazoo at the Carver Center (Studio). I was already acting at that time. I started acting when I was about eight years old. I’ve had the opportunity to see “The Piano Lesson” in that same community two more times. In one of the performances, I saw our (Detroit Repertory Theatre) star actor and the character of Boy Willie, Delanti Hall. He was phenomenal, and so, when he came into the audition room, I was really excited to see him still interested in the show and particularly that character.
BridgeDetroit: How has it been working with the cast?
Lashon: I often tell them I feel like a coach and I got a starting lineup. They are all giants in their own right, and I feel like I have a connection and relationship with all of them. So, it was just the perfect people coming together.
Jacquese (Steele) and I were in the NAACP ACT-SO Program together in Kalamazoo growing up. I hadn’t seen her in eons. I know Jacquese to be a vocalist, but I was not surprised to see her acting. It was the same thing with Sharmaine (Jones). Sharmaine is … an alumni of Western Michigan University’s musical theater program, and directed me in “A Raisin in the Sun” scene of my freshman year at Western. We have Nate (Nathan Alford-Tate) and Delanti, who are a Batman and Robin dynamic duo. You are excited for them to be on the stage and can’t wait for them to come back when they exit. These two are playing their hearts out, and they are young actors; they are trained actors. They’re from Detroit, they have education in this, and it shows. And then Will (Bryson) and T. Pharaoh (Muhammad) bring the tenured energy that we need in the play, but also in the rehearsal space. They’ve been great to work with, and I know that they are Detroit Rep legends and favorites. Izaya Spencer is making his debut here. His character, Avery, is not like any other Avery we have ever seen, and it’s really intentional. It was intentional casting him and he’s been easy and fun to work with, just a beautiful actor.
And then, I have my young actress Jocelyn Letts. She and I have shared the stage together in “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone,” so we’re now visiting Wilson in another capacity. It feels like a full circle. She’s (Letts) playing an 11-year-old girl and she is 15 and these were all the times in my life that Wilson surrounded me. I love my cast. They play well together.
BridgeDetroit: The play is set in 1936. How is it relevant for today’s audiences?
Lashon: Black people are migrating around this time, but we also are dealing with lynching laws being in place, we are talking about women that are moving on their own merit. The character of Berniece is widowed. She’s a single mother and not looking to be underneath someone. The play is talking about family, it’s talking about spirituality, it’s talking about the non-monolith of progression, and I don’t think that those things will ever become irrelevant in America until we live in a very just society. Even the definition of justice has taken on a new definition and shape within this country. I think about the energy and the metaphors more so and how I’m experiencing myself in America right now, which is, ‘Keep playing that piano, keep dreaming. Stay connected to your roots. Know what you’re fighting for, and fight for it. It is OK. We are going to be OK.’
When we talk about the relevance of theater and the relevance of Black theater in these stories, they’re always going to be relevant, fortunately and unfortunately. The unfortunate part is that there’s still a very palpable experience of the lived lives. The fortunate part is that we captured them in these stories so that we don’t forget and so that we can find new answers and solutions.
BridgeDetroit: You’ve been acting since you were a child. What drew you to the theater?
Lashon: Like most people, the church. I probably took the stage for the first time at eight years old at a church. However, around that same time, what really drew me into theater was…I was a struggling reader. I needed a reading tutor and the tutor brought in a script one day, and it totally transformed the way that I saw literacy, my proficiency and my ability to be in love with reading and stories. From that point, I moved into the advanced reading group and then I was into the gifted English and reading group. And so I felt like it (reading) loved me and I loved it back and we haven’t really let go of each other since.
In high school, there is a national competition called the NAACP ACT-SO, the Afro-Academic, Cultural, Technological and Scientific Olympics. I won gold locally, which allowed me to go and compete nationally. When I went and competed nationally and saw so many other young, Black people doing what I do and hearing some of their dreams, but also being in the room amongst successful actors, it felt tangible. I didn’t necessarily want to be famous, but I wanted to do this forever.
BridgeDetroit: What do you hope audiences will take away from the play?
Lashon: I hope that they have an experience that makes them laugh. I hope that they feel like they’re on a roller coaster of sorts, and I want them to walk away reflective of what they’re holding on to like, ‘What do you need to hold on to and what do you need to let go of? What is my piano?’