John Beasley News

The Independent Reviewers of New England (IRNE), a panel of critics from media outlets around the state of Massachusetts, have announced the nominees for the IRNE Awards honoring the best of the 2009 Theatre Season.

The Huntington Theatre Company opens its 28th season - a season of American stories - with August Wilson's Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning Fences, the sixth chapter of his groundbreaking ten-play cycle about the 20th century African-American experience. Kenny Leon (Radio Golf, Gem of the Ocean, A Raisin in the Sun), acclaimed director and Wilson's final collaborator before his death, returns to the Huntington to helm the production, which stars John Beasley (Two Trains Running, Jitney, 'Everwood').

In conjunction with the Huntington Theatre Company?s production of August Wilson?s Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning play about a former Negro Baseball Leagues star whose rise from the Leagues hit the ceiling of racial prejudice, New York Times best-selling author of Satchel: The Life and Times of an American Legend Larry Tye will speak at the post-show Humanities Forum on Sunday, September 20.

In conjunction with the Huntington Theatre Company?s production of August Wilson?s Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning play about a former Negro Baseball Leagues star whose rise from the Leagues hit the ceiling of racial prejudice, New York Times best-selling author of Satchel: The Life and Times of an American Legend Larry Tye will speak at the post-show Humanities Forum on Sunday, September 20.

The Huntington Theatre Company opens its 28th season - a season of American stories - with August Wilson's Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning Fences, the sixth chapter of his groundbreaking ten-play cycle about the 20th century African-American experience. Kenny Leon (Radio Golf, Gem of the Ocean, A Raisin in the Sun), acclaimed director and Wilson's final collaborator before his death, returns to the Huntington to helm the production, which stars John Beasley (Two Trains Running, Jitney, 'Everwood').

Fences by August Wilson , Directed by Kenny Leon 9/11/2009 - 10/11/2009 BU Theatre - Mainstage

The Huntington Theatre Company opens its 28th season - a season of American stories - with August Wilson's Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning Fences, the sixth chapter of his groundbreaking ten-play cycle about the 20th century African-American experience. Kenny Leon (Radio Golf, Gem of the Ocean, A Raisin in the Sun), acclaimed director and Wilson's final collaborator before his death, returns to the Huntington to helm the production, which stars John Beasley (Two Trains Running, Jitney, 'Everwood').

The Huntington Theatre Company opens its 28th season - a season of American stories - with August Wilson's Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning Fences, the sixth chapter of his groundbreaking ten-play cycle about the 20th century African-American experience. Kenny Leon (Radio Golf, Gem of the Ocean, A Raisin in the Sun), acclaimed director and Wilson's final collaborator before his death, returns to the Huntington to helm the production, which stars John Beasley (Two Trains Running, Jitney, 'Everwood').

University of Nebraska-Lincoln broadcasting lecturer Trina Creighton is giving African American men a voice that is helping others understand social stigmas attached to higher education. Inspired by her graduate thesis, Creighton has created a documentary that features 10 African American men from north Omaha talking about their education paths. Four of the individuals are enrolled at UNL, another graduated in August, and the other five remain in Omaha, with two in prison.

The most awarded African-American playwright in history, August Wilson's crowning achievement was his ten-play cycle, August Wilson's 20th Century in which each work is set in a different decade in the 1900's. The cycle, often titled the Pittsburgh Cycle because nine of the ten plays are set in Pittsburgh, chronicles the African-American experience in the 20th century. August Wilson's 20th Century will be presented in a series of staged readings at the Kennedy Center.