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American Masters
Phylicia Rashad Performs "Gem of the Ocean" Aunt Ester Scene
In August Wilson's "Gem of the Ocean," Aunt Ester is a matriarch and former slave. Phylicia Rashad performed the role on Broadway and in a dramatic reading created for August Wilson: The Ground on Which I Stand, she enacts when Ester reveals the existence of the spiritual and symbolic City of Bones, made from African ancestors who died while crossing the Atlantic Ocean during the Middle Passage.
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