Current print subscribers can create a free account by clicking here
Otherwise, follow the link below to join.
To Our Valued Readers –
Visitors to our website will be limited to five stories per month unless they opt to subscribe. The five stories do not include our exclusive content written by our journalists.
For $6.99, less than 20 cents a day, digital subscribers will receive unlimited access to YourValley.net, including exclusive content from our newsroom and access to our Daily Independent e-edition.
Our commitment to balanced, fair reporting and local coverage provides insight and perspective not found anywhere else.
Your financial commitment will help to preserve the kind of honest journalism produced by our reporters and editors. We trust you agree that independent journalism is an essential component of our democracy. Please click here to subscribe.
Need to set up your free e-Newspaper all-access account? click here.
Non-subscribers
Click here to see your options for becoming a subscriber.
Register to comment
Click here create a free account for posting comments.
Note that free accounts do not include access to premium content on this site.
I am anchor
ON STAGE
Black Theatre Troupe will stage August Wilson classic in Phoenix
‘The Piano Lesson’ explores African American history and heritage
(Poster provided by Black Theatre Troupe)
“The Piano Lesson” runs Feb. 2-18 in Phoenix.
Posted
IF YOU GO
What: “The Piano Lesson”
When: Feb. 2-18
Where: Helen K. Mason Performing Arts Center, 1333 E. Washington St., Phoenix
Tickets: $50, available at blacktheatretroupe.org/pianolesson
Black Theatre Troupe
Founded by Helen K. Mason in 1970 as a space for underserved artists to share the Black experience, Black Theatre Troupe began performing small plays, poetry readings, and musical performances in a community center in Phoenix’s historic multi-cultural Eastlake Park.
Special to Independent Newsmedia
Black Theatre Troupe will stage August Wilson's critically acclaimed play “The Piano Lesson” in Phoenix.
The powerful drama, set against the backdrop of 1930s Pittsburgh, is an exploration of African American history and heritage. The production runs from Friday, Feb. 2 through Sunday, Feb. 18 at the Helen K. Mason Performing Arts Center, 1333 E. Washington St.
“The Piano Lesson” is the fourth play in Wilson's remarkable Pittsburgh Cycle, also known as the Century Cycle, which consists of 10 plays exploring the African American experience in each decade of the 20th century. Last performed by Black Theatre Troupe in 1996, the company is bringing Wilson's iconic work back to the stage, continuing its commitment to showcasing the diverse and powerful voices within the African American theatrical tradition.
The play, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1990, revolves around the Charles family and an heirloom piano that holds the ghosts of the family's past, a press release explains. As the family grapples with their history and the legacy of slavery, they confront questions of identity, heritage, and the price of the American Dream.
Phoenix's Black Theatre Troupe is one of the few companies in the U.S. to have produced all 10 plays of Wilson's Pittsburgh Cycle, an accomplishment which was acknowledged last year with an award from August Wilson House/The August Wilson Estate and the Pittsburgh/Post Gazette.