African-American Shakespeare Company Tackles an Authentic American Classic in August Wilson's JITNEY

The African American Shakespeare Company will present August Wilson's Jitney for the first time ever. Directed by AASC Artistic Director L Peter Callender, it reflects his long-simmering and personal vision of the play. As to why a company dedicated to Shakespeare would perform a play by a two-time Pulitzer winning contemporary playwright, African-American Shakespeare Company Artistic Director L. Peter Callender-who directed an award-winning version in 2016 at The American Stage Theater in Florida says-"I think of August Wilson as the Shakespeare of our time. I love Wilson's honesty, the 'anthropological aspect' of listening to real people and capturing the rhythms of their speech."

August Wilson is a titan of American Theater. And Jitney is one of 10 plays that make up his legendary Pittsburgh Cycle, in which each play takes place in a different decade as a means of illuminating the breadth of the black American experience in the 20th century. It is a story of fathers, sons, brotherhood, love, loss and hope. This new production comes at a time when Wilson's work is experiencing a resurgence of sorts. In addition to Denzel Washington recently starring in the film version of another Wilson play, Fences (for which he was nominated for an Oscar ), there was the first ever Broadway production of Jitney. A recent review in The Wall Street Journal made the shrewd observation that the characters in both plays wrestle with "ruthlessness and rebellion," and who despite the scars the outside world has left them with, make decisions that determine their own fates.

If all that sounds a bit Shakespearean, you would not be wrong.

"Shakespeare wrote 10 history plays and August Wilson wrote 10 history plays," says Callender. "His plays belong in the canon of the greatest plays ever written and should be played in the same seasons as Shakespeare, Miller, Williams, Shaw, O'Neil, Albee, Chekov and the all-time greats! Like these American and European writers, Wilson's plays are rich in humor, painful struggle, expressive characters and brilliant storytelling. AASC is committed to the classics. Wilson's plays are that and more."

What: The African American Shakespeare Company Presents Jitney
When: April 1-16, 2017
Where: Marines' Memorial Theatre, 609 Sutter Street
Admission: $32.50
Tickets: african-americanshakes.org or www.brownpapertickets.com/event/2628244
Show Information: african-americanshakes.org/productions/jitney

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