Photos: First Look at RADIO GOLF at Arden Theatre Company

Arden Theatre Company is bringing audiences back into the world of August Wilson's ten-part series, The American Century Cycle. Audiences are currently journeying to Pittsburgh in the late 1990s for the final play of the cycle, August Wilson's Radio Golf. This bittersweet drama of assimilation and alienation in nineties America traces the forces of change on a neighborhood and its people caught between history and the twenty-first century. This is the fifth play in the cycle that the Arden has produced. Kash Goins, who was an actor in the Arden's production of Two Trains Running, returns to direct. August Wilson's Radio Golf runs through April 16.

Check out a first look at the production below!

August Wilson's seminal cycle of 10 plays covers African-American history in the 20th century, with all but one set in Pittsburgh's Hill District, where Wilson grew up. This "Century Cycle" of plays has recurring characters, though the plays were not written in chronological order. "My plays are ultimately about love, honor, duty, betrayal," Wilson said in an interview in 1996. All nine of the plays that performed on Broadway received Tony Award nominations for Best Play and two won Pulitzer Prizes.

The Arden is excited to return to this expansive work of theatre. The most contemporary of Wilson's work, August Wilson's Radio Golf is set in Pittsburgh in the late 1990s. It's the story of a successful entrepreneur who aspires to become the city's first Black mayor. But when the past begins to catch up with him, secrets get revealed that could be his undoing. This work was completed months before Wilson's death in 2005. Audiences will see connections with August Wilson's Radio Golf and the Arden's Barrymore winning production of Gem of the Ocean. August Wilson's Radio Golf was a 2007 Tony Award and Drama Desk Award nominee for Best Play. It was the 2007 winner of the New York Drama Critic Circle Award for Best Play.

The cast includes a line-up of Arden and Philadelphia favorites. Harmond Wilks is played by Kes Khemnu. His wife Mame Wilks is played by Zuhairah. Roosevelt Hicks is played by Phillip Brown. Sterling Johnson is played by Brian Anthony Wilson. Elder Joseph Barlow is played by Damien J. Wallace. Phillip Brown makes his Arden debut. The rest of the cast returns to the Arden. All of the cast has performed in Wilson's work before. For Brian Anthony Wilson, this is the 9th play in the cycle he has performed.

All performances will be on the F. Otto Haas Stage, which was just refurbished with brand new seats. Tickets start at $28 and are available online at www.ardentheatre.org, by phone at 215.922.1122, or in person at the box office at The Arden Theatre Company at 40 N. 2nd Street.

To post a comment, you must register and login.