Multi-Ethnic Theatre Extends TWO TRAINS RUNNING Through 9/12

Thanks to packed houses and enthusiastic audience response, Multi Ethnic Theater is extending the run of August Wilson's Two Trains Running for two additional weekends, through September 12. Two Trains Running is directed by Lewis Campbell, founder and artistic director of Multi Ethnic Theater. The play concerns the regulars at Memphis Lee's restaurant trying to fight against the urban renewal that would tear the place down and bulldoze the local African-American community. The production is staged at the Gough Street Playhouse, 1620 Gough Street in San Francisco.

Read the article by the San Francisco Chronicle's Robert Hurwitt on Multi Ethnic Theatre, with photos from Two Trains Running by Chronicle photographer Amy Osborne online at SFGate.

Show Times and Tickets

Thurs-Sat 8:00 pm; Sundays, 7:00 pm through Sept. 12
Sunday Matinees Aug. 23 and Sept. 6 at 2:00 pm. NOTE: there is also an 8:00 pm performance on Sunday, August 23.

General Admission $30-$35
Students/Seniors/TBA members $25-$30

Tickets and Info at www.wehavemet.org.

Additional performances:

• 8pm Thu/Fri/Sat September 3, 4 and 5
• 2pm Sunday, September 6
• 8pm Thu/Fri/Sat September 10,11 and 12

Two Trains Running will be the fifth August Wilson play Campbell has directed. It is Pittsburgh, 1969, and the neighborhood is fighting a system of unfairness and gentrification that is sweeping away buildings, but not the neighborhood spirit

Award-winning playwright August Wilson is best known for the ten plays of his "Pittsburgh Cycle," all but one set in the "The Hill District," the African-American neighborhood adjacent to downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Culturally, "The Hill" rivaled other Black enclaves like Harlem in the 1920s and San Francisco's Fillmore in the 1940s. Each of the ten plays is set in a different decade of the 20th Century and reflects the temper of that particular time as it affected African-Americans.

Cast of the Multi Ethnic Theater Production of Jitney

Bennie Lewis (Memphis)
Vernon Medaris (West)

Fabian Herd (Wolf)

Beverly McGriff (Risa)

Stuart Elwyn Hall (Holloway)

Anthony Pride (Hambone)

Keita Jones (Sterling)

Artistic Director Lewis Campbell is proud of MET's ability to successfully reach out to the community. He says that "some of the most talented Bay Area actors are people with day jobs who work in theater for sheer passion and true meaning. Two Trains Running is the fifth MET production of August Wilson's ten-play cycle chronicling the 20th Century African-American experience, one play for each decade. Stuart Elwyn Hall returns to MET for his third, Bennie Lewis for his fourth, and Fabian Herd for his fifth Wilson play directed by Campbell.

Photo by Steven Wilson.