Fri 4/5-Sun 5/5
Pittsburgh playwright August Wilson, who died in 2005 at the age of 60, was one of the towering geniuses of 20th century Black theater Z‑ or theater in general, actually. And he wrote what he knew in his ten-play Pittsburgh cycle, each play set in a different decade to explore the challenges ordinary Black people faced. All but one were set in Pittsburgh but they could be addressing the lives of Black people anywhere in the country.
Jitney, set in 1977, was the first play written and the last to be produced on Broadway, in 2017. It revolves around a car service – so-called “jitney” cabs, which services a Black neighborhood which regular cab companies consider “too dangerous.” It revolves around the lives, personalities and the difficulties they face, some brought on themselves, others brought on by a society that pushes them down.
Noted local actor/director/educator Jimmie Wood will be helming the upcoming production of Jitney, taking place at the Beck Center’s Studio Theater. It’s his Beck debut as a director.
He says, “I love August Wilson because he has an innate ability to capture the soul, the pain, the love, the struggle, the culture, the resilience, and the poetry of the African-American spirit. I am grateful to direct a legend within African-American Culture & American Literature.”
The show runs through May 5 and is recommended only for those 14 and older, due its intense subject matter.
Get tickets here.
Lakewood, OH 44107