Jan
5
1:15am
"Actors Talk August" presented by August Wilson House
By City of Asylum
(75 minute run-time) *please note 8:15 pm start time*
August Wilson House celebrates America’s greatest playwright with a new web series of substantial insider interviews called “Actors Talk August,” streaming on the first and third Monday of each month.
Featured are leading August Wilson actors and directors, national and regional, interviewed by Chris Rawson, veteran Pittsburgh Post-Gazette theater critic who chronicled Wilson’s career and came to know him well. The aim is to capture the memories, anecdotes and insights of those who know Wilson’s epic American Century Cycle from the inside and helped to bring it to life.
Next up in the series is Eileen J. Morris, a leading Wilsonian from several directions: she has produced all 10 Cycle plays at Houston’s Ensemble Theatre, directed eight plays there, directed five more at the Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre and acted in five in Houston. She has also directed at Pittsburgh’s Kuntu Rep and New Horizon theaters, giving her a solid grounding in August’s hometown. As artistic director of the Ensemble Theatre (1982-99 & 2006-now) she has won more awards than we can easily record, and the eight Wilson plays she has directed are the most by any female director.
The previous editions of Actors Talk August, still available online, have featured actors Eugene Lee and Wali Jamal, who share the rare distinction of having played August in his autobiographical How I Learned What I Learned ; actor Montae Russell, who was in the first Cycle play in 1982 and has now completed the full Cycle; and producer-director Mark Clayton Southers, a Hill District native who, under August’s personal influence, became a playwright and founder and artistic director of the Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre, producing the entire Cycle; and Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Wilsonian actor (Tony Award), director (Tony nomination) and screenwriter (Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom).
Each previous edition can be viewed via the links below:
1) Oct. 19 ATA Featuring Eugene Lee and Wali Jamal
2) Nov. 2 ATA Featuring Montae Russell
3) Nov. 16 ATA Featuring Mark Clayton Southers
4) Dec. 7 ATA Featuring Ruben Santiago-Hudson
August Wilson House (AWH) is Wilson’s Hill District childhood home at 1727 Bedford Ave. It is being restored as an arts center that will promote his artistic and cultural legacy while nurturing the artists of the future. Although the restoration won’t be finished until 2022, AWH is already sponsoring a wide range of programs including the annual Hill District Block Party/Community Festival, backyard productions in collaboration with Pittsburgh Playwrights Theater, AWH Fellowships in collaboration with Duquesne University and the University of Pittsburgh, August in the Schools (debuting this fall), several oral history projects and other programs centering community engagement.
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City of Asylum
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