The remarkable version of Jitney in Italian finished up three days of captivating sold-out Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre audiences on Sunday, ending a quick American tour that celebrated the years-long journey that carried the production from Vicenza, Italy, to August Wilson’s hometown.
Carl Kurlander led a University of Pittsburgh crew to Vincenza, Italy, in 2024, to document the first production of August Wilson’s “Jitney” in Italian. With that production arriving in Pittsburgh this coming Friday, May 8, presented by Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre and the August Wilson House, Kurlander shares his experiences chronicling the production with onStage Pittsburgh.
Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company has revealed a four-play 2026 season, including a premiere by award-winning playwright a.k. payne, while also co-hosting a unique international take on August Wilson’s Jitney. The four-play season of premieres — Ty Greenwood’s “The Paradox of Education,” “10,000 Rides” by Cynthia Dallas, “Fishy Woo Woo, Part 2” by Monteze Freeland, and “BURNBABYBURN: an american dream by a.k. payne — plus two add-on productions was curated by Monteze Freeland. Next year, the two add-ons to the season are the Italian translation of “Jitney” and the return of “A Dinah Washington Christmas.”
Mark Clayton Southers kicked off opening night of Two Trains Running by announcing that everyone present was now a part of history: Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company was about complete a second round of all 10 plays in the August Wilson American Century Cycle. As history-making goes, Saturday was a night of two plays running in the Hill District, where Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson spent his formative years, and where he set nine of his plays, one in each decade of the 20th century, about the Black American experience. Two Trains Running, representing the late 1960s, a time when the Civil Rights Movements and Black Power were in full swing, is at Madison Arts Center in the Upper Hill, through August 30, 2025. Fences, set in 1957, can be seen outdoors in the Lower Hill, at the August Wilson House, through September 6, 2025.
The annual Pittsburgh Regional August Wilson New Voices Monologue Competition, presented by the Bill Nunn Theatre Outreach Project, takes place Monday, March 31, 2025, at the Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild. Co-sponsored by August Wilson House, the event celebrates the legacy of… Read More ›
By SHARON EBERSON Brothers Malcolm Washington and John David Washington were in the spotlight in Pittsburgh on Monday, as they asserted how meaningful it was from them to be in the childhood hometown of August Wilson, and in the presence… Read More ›
I have come here today… to talk about the ground on which I stand and all the many grounds on which I and my ancestors have toiled, and the ground of theater on which my fellow artists and I have… Read More ›
By SHARON EBERSON Mark Clayton Southers pauses periodically to instruct son Marcus and nephew Matthew as they work behind the scenes: “Lemme see what you got. Oh, perfect. Get the big ladder. OK. Marcus, call your mom right now though…. Read More ›
By BOB HOOVER Defeated, angry Black men are at the center of numerous August Wilson plays. Still, none is angrier and more dangerous than Herald Loomis in Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, now playing at the August Wilson House, 1727 Bedford Ave.,… Read More ›
Pittsburgh Playwright Theatre Company’s Annual Dive Into Wilson’s Work Was Playwright’s Favorite By SHARON EBERSON “When I first met August Willson, I said I liked Joe Turner the best of his plays. He nodded and said he did, too.” Playwright… Read More ›
