PITTSBURGH (PTTP)– A classic and acclaimed show from one of Pittsburgh’s most famous playwrights made its return to the Pitt stage.
August Wilson’s Seven Guitars was put on by Pitt Stages in celebration of Pitt receiving 450 boxes of the late playwright’s work and archives.
The play, which is set in the backyard of a tenement in Pittsburgh’s Hill District in the late 1940s, follows a group of friends in mourning after the mysterious death of their one friend, an up-and-coming blues musician who died just as his career was about to explode. However, everything is not as it seems, as the main action of the play involves the busy week that led up to their friend’s sudden, unnatural, and mysterious death.
Seven Guitars, which bills itself as part bawdy comedy, part dark elegy, and part mystery, is making history not only for its connection to the large arrival of Wilson’s archives at Pitt, but for its casting decisions. This production was the first production to feature an all-Black cast since the Department of Theatre Art’s founding in 1982. According to assistant director Ty’Mariya Moss in an interview with Pittwire, the casting decision was made to reflect the racial dynamics of the Pittsburgh community. In addition to the performance of the play, a Seven Guitars display is underway in Hillman Library.
The show ran through Feb. 26, with a final performance happening at 2 p.m. at the Charity Randall Theatre.