Key players: When relaunching the Charlottesville Players Guild at the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center, Executive Director Andrea Douglas told C-VILLE: “If you’re going to announce yourself as an institution that addresses the 20th-century African American experience in the most interdisciplinary way, there is no other artist that does it as completely and thoroughly as August Wilson does.” Set in the 1930s, The Piano Lesson is part of Wilson’s Pittsburgh Cycle, and his second play to win a Pulitzer Prize. Directed by David Vaughn Straughn and produced by Edwina Herring, it centers around a piano that’s entangled in a family’s history of slavery. As relatives quarrel over whether to keep the piano, they reflect on their own cultural heritage, and are challenged to embrace where they’ve come from in order to truly move forward.
Related stories
The Elixir of Love
Inspired by Le Philtre, premiered at the Paris Opera in 1831, The Elixir of Love uncorks a romantic drama in the Italian countryside. The contemporary libretto is written by Felice Romani and stars a cheap bottle of red wine as the agent to activate affection. Nemorino, roused by the wine and blinded by love, boldly […]
Shakespeare at the Ruins
Experience the magic of Shakespeare at the Ruins, set among the historic remains of Governor James Barbour’s mansion, designed by Thomas Jefferson and destroyed by fire in 1884. Following a short hiatus due to wear and tear, the summer tradition (launched in 1990) returns with a performance of The Comedy of Errors, a collaboration between […]
Lust for Lana dance party
Get your dreamy, vintage groove on in tribute to pop queen Lana Del Rey at the Lust for Lana Dance Party, a rave-inspired evening for the coquette set. The soiree revolves around Del Rey’s Lust For Life album, released in 2017, and the promotional tour that followed. Baltimore sound and visual artist Amy Reid provides […]
