1727 Bedford Avenue (Hill District)
August 5—28
8 p.m.

This month, audiences can experience an August Wilson drama like never before when Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company stages a first-of-its-kind production of Seven Guitars right in the backyard of the playwright’s historic childhood home.

Courtesy Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company.
Courtesy Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company. Artwork by James “Pee Wee” White.
Courtesy Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company. Artwork by James “Pee Wee” White.

Amidst the evocative, late-summer setting of Wilson’s boyhood home in the Hill District, theater-goers will be transported to the year 1948. A poignant portrayal of seven African-American characters, Seven Guitars uniquely begins and ends with the funeral of the play’s main character—blues singer Floyd “Schoolboy” Barton—who has been released from jail.

Directed by Mark Clayton Southers—founder and producing artistic director of Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company—the work endures as a powerful and timeless examination of the “African-American male’s fight for his own humanity in the face of personal and societal ills.” Employing flashback scenes, powerful language and explosive action, Seven Guitars explores themes of humanity, self-awareness, social injustice, and more.

Starring in the play are Ty Barrow, Jonathan Berry, Teri Bridgett, Kevin Brown, Jamilah Chanie, Wali Jamal, and Leslie Ezra Smith. One of just seven American playwrights to win two Pulitzer Prizes, Wilson penned the tragicomedy—which received Tony and Pulitzer nominations on Broadway—in 1995.

Seven Guitars runs every weekend in August, with shows on Friday, Saturday and Sunday at 8 p.m. Don’t miss the opening night fundraiser event on Friday, August 5, which costs $100 and includes a party with food and drink starting at 7 p.m.

Buy tickets.

Looking for more events? Read our 10 Pittsburgh events not to miss in August, Everything you need to know about Pittsburgh concerts in August and Top 10 things for families to do in August in Pittsburgh feature stories.

Jennifer has worked at the Mattress Factory, Brooklyn Museum of Art and Dahesh Museum of Art and is co-author of Pittsburgh Signs Project: 250 Signs of Western Pennsylvania. She also is co-coordinator of Handmade Arcade. Musically, she is in a band called The Garment District and is a founding member of Brooklyn's The Ladybug Transistor.