Marin Theatre Company's SEVEN GUITARS Closes 9/11

Marin Theatre Company's production of August Wilson's award-winning Seven Guitars will close on Sunday, September 11.

"The lyrical cadences of Wilson's blues-driven words soar and thrill as delivered by - yes, seven pitch-perfect actors, masterfully orchestrated by director Kent Gash," wrote San Francisco Chronicle theater critic Robert Hurwitt. Like Hurwitt, many reviewers highlighted the strong cast, including Theater Dogs blog author Chad Jones: "Gash's ensemble is fantastic... Each actor has at least one moment of transcendence, and that fact alone makes this show worth seeing." Marin IJ theater critic Sam Hurwitt raved, "A knockout."

L. Peter Callender, artistic director of San Francisco's African-American Shakespeare Company, returns to MTC in his first role since starring in the critically acclaimed audience-favorite My Children! My Africa! (January 2009). He is joined by two other Bay area veterans making their debuts on MTC's stage: Margo Hall, the Glickman Award-winning playwright and founding member of Campo Santo, and Charles Branklyn, who has performed in nine different productions of Wilson's ten-play Pittsburgh Cycle. Also making their debuts at MTC are New York actor Marc Damon Johnson, who has appeared in the Bay Area at Berkeley Rep, and three recent A.C.T. MFA graduates: Omoze Idehenre, who is now a core company member at A.C.T., Tobie Windham and Shinelle Azoroh.

MTC's production of Wilson's 1940's entry into his Pittsburgh or Century Cycle, a decade-by-decade exploration of the African-American experience in the 20th century, carries the distinct vision of guest director Kent Gash. A former A.C.T. company member, Gash is currently the director of the New Studio on Broadway, a professional theater-training program specializing in musical theater and acting at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. He brought on Linda Tillery, "the Queen of San Francisco Rock" and artistic director of the Cultural Heritage Choir, an African-American roots music group, to help with music direction.