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.
Nominations for the 79th TONY AWARDS showcase the Pittsburgh theater community’s contributions to Broadway, including 11 nominations for the revival of Ragtime. Composer Stephen Flaherty, a Dormont native, won the 1998 Tony for Ragtime’s musical score, and will receive the Richard Rodgers Award on June 12, five days after the 2026 Tonys ceremony, at Pittsburgh CLO’s 80th Anniversary Gala.
For his performance in the current revival of Joe Turner’s Come and Gone by August Wilson, Ruben Santiago-Hudson earned a nomination as Best Featured Actor. He previously won a Tony in that category, in 1996, for Wilson’s Seven Guitars. The play’s five nominations also included Best Costume Design, for Paul Tazewell.
For more local ties and full list of Tony Award nominees, read👇
onStage Pittsburgh presents the top 15 local theater stories that captured readers’ imaginations in 2025. Festivals and activities roundups were big draws, along with exits and entrances, legacy prospects, and bold, new experiences. A few late-in-the-year stories continue to have… Read More ›
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.
VIDEO: onStage Pittsburgh’s Sharon Eberson chats with the directors of the 3-play August Wilson American Century Cycle Experience – Terrence Spivey, Ashley Southers and Mark Clayton Southers – on the set of ‘Two Trains Running,’ at Madison Art Center, which will also present ‘Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom’ in a new cabaret space. Pittsburgh Playwrights’ annual outdoor production at the August Wilson House is the Pulitzer Prize-winning ‘Fences.’
Ripped from the headlines: The Living News Festival returns amid a flurry of festivals in “The Summer of Theater” in Pittsburgh.
Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company and the August Wilson House have made it official, setting the schedule for a 2025 three-play summer festival, titled August Wilson’s American Century Cycle Experience. with Stephen McKinley Henderson scheduled to direct “Fences.”
NEW 3-PLAY SUMMER FESTIVAL WILL HONOR AUGUST WILSON A newly minted three-play festival, titled the August Wilson American Century Cycle Experience, will run for six weeks this summer, said Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company’s Mark Clayton Southers, offering a sneak peek… Read More ›
By SHARON EBERSON Playwright August Wilson will be honored posthumously with the 2,799th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Tuesday, January 7, 2025 at 2:30 p.m. EST. Denzel Washington and the cast and filmmakers of The Piano Lesson movie will attend the… Read More ›
