   Seven Guitars October 9, 2012 -
November 11, 2012Directed By Kevin Jones
ADDED PERFORMANCE! Is where you are ever where you hoped you’d be?
The rhythm of 1948 Pittsburgh comes to life with August Wilson’s seven African American characters whose backyard chords and Chicago dreams play out a yearning whisper and an indignant refrain. Buried romance, resentments and aspirations are unearthed in these everyday lives much like epic lyrics to a moving song. The rooster crows for justice, the musicians weave like boxers as hope, pride and desperation partner to waltz away the American Dream. Seven Guitars is the fifth play in August Wilson’s set of 10 plays exploring the African American experience in the 20th Century. Part of the Red Door Project’s August Wilson Festival. Cast
Production
*Member of Actors' Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States THIS PLAY RUNS APPROXIMATELY 2 HOURS AND 50 MINUTES WITH ONE INTERMISSION. This production contains herbal cigarette smoke, violence and blood.
AUGUST WILSON FESTIVAL:
BEHIND THE SCENES: Happy Hours, Surprise Nights and Book Clubs! Click here to see a full schedule of Audience Enrichment Events. Click here to read a detailed synopsis of our productions. Spoiler Alert! STUDY GUIDE - Click here to read the extensive study guide for Seven Guitars - a great resource! Click here to see the latest production photos by Owen Carey. PRODUCTION HISTORY:Seven Guitars premiered at the Walter Kerr Theatre on March 28, 1996. Directed by Lloyd Richards, it ran for a total of 188 performances, and featured a strong cast that included Viola Davis in the role of “Vera.” Wilson’s play won the 1996 New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best Play, and was nominated for the 1995 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the 1996 Drama Desk Award for Best Play, and the 1996 Tony Award for Best Play. Seven Guitars was revived in 2006 at the Signature Theater Company in New York, and was directed by Ruben Santiago-Hudson, who appeared as an actor in the original production. The revival included an adaptation of the original score, with new music written by Bill Sims Jr. Seven Guitars represents the 1940s entry in Wilson’s Pittsburgh Cycle, a decade-by-decade anthology of African-American life in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania during the 20th Century. Although the plays of the cycle are not strictly connected to the degree of a serial story, some characters appear (at various ages) in more than one of the cycle's plays. The plays often include an apparently mentall -impaired oracular character; for example, Hedley [Sr.] in Seven Guitars, Gabriel in Fences or Hambone in Two Trains Running. Other famous Wilson plays written for this cycle are Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and The Piano Lesson. ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT: August Wilson (April 27, 1945 – October 2, 2005) was an incredibly influential American playwright from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Born Frederick August Kittel, Jr., he was named after his largely absent, white immigrant father. When Kittel died in 1965, Wilson officially changed his name to honor his mother, Daisy Wilson. Due to racial tension and threats at school, he dropped out at age 15 and educated himself at the Carnegie Library. He bought his first typewriter, and turned to the theatre. The rest is history. Wilson stated that he was most influenced by "the four Bs": blues music, the Argentine novelist and poet Jorge Luis Borges, the playwright Amiri Baraka and the painter Romare Bearden. Two of his plays from the Pittsburgh Cycle, Fences and The Piano Lesson, won him Pulitzer Prizes for Drama. Wilson received many honorary degrees, including an honorary Doctor of Humanities from the University of Pittsburgh, where he served as a member of the University's Board of Trustees from 1992 until 1995. On October 16, 2005, 14 days after Wilson's death, the Virginia Theatre in New York City's Broadway theatre district was renamed the August Wilson Theatre. It is the first Broadway theatre to bear the name of an African-American.
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The Reviews...
Marty Hughley of The Oregonian says Seven Guitars is "powerfully realized," calls out performances by Victor Mack and Gayle Samuels, says Jeff Seat's set design is "magnificent" and says Kevin Jones' direction "gives it the pace and shape to bring out the colorful humor as well as the anguish at the core of these characters." Read the whole review here. Bob Hicks, writing for ArtsWatch, composed a beautiful review of Seven Guitars, riffing on the deep musicality of the play and including quotes from when Bob sat down with playwright August Wilson years ago. Read it here! "(August) Wilson's Seven Guitars, written in 1995, teems with rich vernacular dialogue as its slow-simmering plot builds toward tragedy in what Newsweek described as "a kind of jazz cantata for actors," wrote Marty Hughley in a preview for The Oregonian. Read the rest here.
"A play whose epic proportions and abundant spirit remind us of what the American theater once was. . ."
"The seven guitars of the title are the seven characters whose straightforward story lines Wilson turns into beautiful, complex music—a funky wailing, irresistible Chicago blues." |
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