Louisville, KY – Artistic Director Les Waters and Managing Director Jennifer Bielstein are thrilled to kick off Actors Theatre of Louisville’s 2015-2016 Season with August Wilson’s Seven Guitars directed by Colman Domingo (author of the 2015 Humana Festival premiere Dot and Tony Award nominee for his role in The Scottsboro Boys). The cast will feature; Joniece
Abbott-Pratt (The Good Negro at the Public Theater), Joaquina Kalukango (Holler If Ya Hear Me and Godspell on Broadway), Forrest McClendon (The Scottsboro Boys on Broadway), J. Alphonse Nicholson (Dominique Morisseau’s Aumtun’s Harvest at Lincoln Center Theater), Harold Surratt (Susan-Lori Parks’ Father Comes Home from the Wars at the American Repertory Theater), Sharon Washington (Dot at Actors Theatre, Humana
Festival 2015 and The Scottsboro Boys on Broadway), and Bowman Wright (King Hedley II at Arena Stage).
Actors Seven Guitars
Seven Guitars will preview September 1 and 2, open on September 3 and run through September 20 in the Pamela Brown Auditorium as part of the Brown-Forman Series.
Tickets are available online at 502.584.1205, online at ActorsTheatre.org, or in-person by visiting the Actors Theatre box office (316 West Main Street, Louisville, Ky., 40202).
After serving jail time on a trumped-up vagrancy charge, blues musician Floyd Barton sets out to win back his girl and reclaim his pawned guitar, hoping to make a new hit record. Set in 1948 in the backyard of a Pittsburgh apartment house, Seven Guitars follows Floyd’s circle of friends and neighbors—the play’s seven voices—as they spin a rich tale of the deck that’s stacked against them, what they’ve lost and all they dream. This lyrical play is part of August Wilson’s Century Cycle, which charts the African-American experience through each decade of the 20th century. Actors Theatre’s production of August Wilson’s Seven Guitars will be directed by celebrated actor, director and playwright Colman Domingo. He returns to Actors Theatre following the premiere of his play Dot in the 2015 Humana Festival. Dot is subsequently headed to the Vineyard Theatre where it will make its New York debut under the direction of Susan Stroman.
Domingo’s directing credits include; the musical A Band of Angels for New York City Children’s Theater (Off Broadway Alliance Award: Best Family Show), Exit Cuckoo at The Working Theater, Single Black Female at New Professional Theater, and No Parole at Cherry Lane. Domingo has also directed for Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Geva Theatre Center and Lincoln Center Director’s Lab among others. As a playwright his work includes Wild With Happy, which has garnered productions at The Public Theater, Center Stage and TheatreWorks, and A Boy and His Soul, which played at The Tricycle Theatre (London), Brisbane Powerhouse (Australia), Vineyard Theatre (New York) and Thick Description (San Francisco), among others. Additionally, Domingo is a noted film and television actor. He was recently cast in a recurring role in AMC’s upcoming The Walking Dead companion series, Fear the Walking Dead, and has appeared on Broadway in The Scottsboro Boys, Passing Strange, Well and Chicago. Film credits include roles in Academy nominated films The Butler and Selma.
Seven Guitars will reunite Domingo with his The Scottsboro Boys co-stars actors Forrest McClendon and Sharon Washington, who have been cast as Canewell and Louise respectively. They will be joined by Joniece Abbott-Pratt (Vera Dotson), Joaquina Kalukango (Ruby), J. Alphonse Nicholson (Floyd “Schoolboy” Barton), Harold Surratt (Hedley), and Bowman Wright (Red Carter). Full cast bios are included below.
The creative team for Seven Guitars includes William Boles (Scenic Design), Kara Harmon (Costume Design), Kathy Perkins (Lighting Design), Christian Frederickson (Sound Design), and Jon Spurney (Original Music and Composition, and Music Director).
Seven Guitars is made possible in part by Brown-Forman, Kentucky Arts Council, Fund for the Arts, and production sponsors D.D. Williamson & Co. Additional support for Actors Theatre’s educational outreach is provided by Yum! Brands Foundation through their sponsorship of Actors Theatre’s Student Matinee Series.
If you go:
September 1 – 20, 2015
August Wilson’s Seven Guitars
Part of the Brown Forman Series
Actors Theatre of Louisville
316 W. Main St, Louisville KY (Pamela Brown Auditorium)
Tickets are on sale priced from $25.
Discount rates for groups of 10 or more are available by calling 502.585.1210.
Box Office: 502.584.1205
The Community Conversation
Thursday, September 11, 2015 at 8 p.m.
Immediately following the 8 p.m. performance. A dynamic dialogue on cultural issues inspired by the stories on our stages.
Open Captioned Performance
Saturday, September 12, 2015 at 3 p.m.
Audio Described Performance
Sunday, September 13, 2015 at 2:30 p.m.
Conversation with the Artists
September 13, 2015
Immediately following the 2.30 p.m. performance.
Enjoy an engaging post-show chat led by a member of our artistic staff.
