Tony Award-nominees Charles S. Dutton and S. Epatha Merkerson will travel to Waterford, CT for the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center's tribute to the late Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson. It will take place on Sunday, July 23rd.
The two stars will perform scenes from Wilson plays, and there will also be a barbecue celebration featuring participants in the National Playwrights Conference, National Critics Institute and Musical Theatre Conference, among others.
This year serves to introduce the
August Wilson Endowed Fellowship, as well; the Fellowship will guarantee that each year's National Playwrights Conference includes at least one dramatist of color.
Wilson, who died of liver cancer on October 2nd, 2005, is considered to have been one of the major modern playwrights. His groundbreaking 10-play chronicle of the African-American experience in the 20th century encompassed
Gem of the Ocean, Joe Turner's Come and Gone, Ma Rainey's Black
Bottom, The Piano Lesson, Seven Guitars, the Pulitzer Prize-winning
Fences, Two Trains Running,
Jitney, King Hedley II and
Radio Golf. Six were developed at the National Playwrights Conference.
Dutton received Tony Award nominations for his work in Ma Rainey's Black Bottom and in The Piano Lesson. The actor was seen on the TV series "Roc" and "Equal Justice," and his many film credits include Secret Window, Against the Ropes, Gothika, Cookie's Fortune, A Time to Kill, Alien 3 and No Mercy. He also had a recurring role on Showtime's "The L Word" last season.
Merkerson, who has been seen on "Law and Order" for the past 13 years, received a Tony Award for her performance in Wilson's The Piano Lesson. She has also appeared on Broadway in Tintypes, and Off-Broadway in Birdie Blue, F***ing A, Three Ways Home, Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill, The Harvesting and more. She is an Emmy Award-winner for her performance in the HBO adaptation of Ruben Santiago-Hudson's Lackawanna Blues.Tickets, which are $75, include the performance and the barbecue celebration. For reservations, call 860-443-5378 ext. 217. Visit
www.oneilltheatrecenter.org for more information.
