SOURCE: "Two Notes on August Wilson: The Songs of A Marked Man," in Theatre, Vol. 19, No. 3, Summer-Fall, 1988, pp. 69-70.

In the essay below, Glover examines the role of blues music in Wilson's plays.

A black man walks into a bar. The words "for whites only" do not hang over the neon sign in the window, but as he enters he senses that the bartender and his patrons wish he were not there. He is thirsty and does not know the city well enough to look for another bar where he would be welcome. He takes a seat at the bar and orders a drink. The bartender serves him; the next song begins to play on the juke box. He recognizes the music as the same music he would hear coming out of a juke box on the other side of town. He begins to breathe more deeply; he...