Progress?

Saw "Radio Golf" tonight at the Mark Taper Forum at the Music Center in downtown Los Angeles tonight.

It marks the final show in a 10-play cycle by August Wilson about the African-American experience in the Hill District of Pittsburgh.

Wilson has written a play set in each decade of the 20th Century, with this one set in the 1990s.

Wilson's writing is always rich -- both poetic and realistic dialogue at the same time.

His plays brilliantly bring to life the changes in the Hill District over the course of 100 years -- while illustrating the challenges (both changing and constant) facing the African American community.

In the 1900s the Hill District was populated with people who could remember slavery in their lifetime. In "Radio Golf," Wilson's characters have found a love for golf (equating Martin Luther King with Tiger Woods) and are seeking to redevelop property (including Aunt Ester's house which shows up in a number of the plays). At one point the lead characters actually celebrate when land in the Hill District is designated as "blighted" because it clears the way for them to make a profit.

Of course, nothing ever turns out to be as simple as first imagined.