African American Repertory Theater to present Seven Guitars

by PegNews wire

The African American Repertory Theater presents Seven Guitars, the sixth installment of Pulitzer Prize winning author August Wilson’s exploration of the black experience in America, directed by William (Bill) Earl Ray. The play will open on Friday, August 7, 2009 and run through Sunday August 30, 2009 at the Desoto Corner Theatre in DeSoto. A preview performance will be presented on Thursday, August 6, 2009 at 7:30 p.m. Performances are Friday and Saturday evenings at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2:30 p.m.

Seven Guitars, a winner of the N.Y. Drama Critics Award for Best Play, is a full length, part bawdy comedy, part dark elegy and part mystery. Friends gather in the backyard of a Pittsburgh tenement in1948 to mourn Floyd “Schoolboy” Barton, a sweet talking blues guitarist and singer who died just as his career had begun to soar. The action that follows is a flashback to the busy week leading up to the character’s sudden and unnatural death. The seven cast members of this award winning play includes Vince McGill, Regina Washington, Alonzo Waller, Eleanor Threatt, Elliot Gilbert, Christopher Piper, and Shundra Grubb.

When the play opened on Broadway in 1996, The New Times said the play “displays a narrative sweep and almost biblical richness of language and character ... Mr. Wilson writes so vividly that the play seems to have the narrative scope and depth of a novel.”

For ticket information, please visit the AART website at www.aareptheater.com or call 972-572-0998. The African American Repertory Theater produces engaging, culturally diverse theater, while educating the community on African American History and the arts. The city of DeSoto has named AART as their resident theater company for the DeSoto Corner Theatre.

Source: African American Repertory Theater