August Wilson's HOW I LEARNED WHAT I LEARNED Comes to Prime Stage Theatre

Prime Stage Theatre will present Wali Jamal performing August Wilson's How I Learned What I Learned.

The acclaimed one-man show takes place Monday, Jan. 20, 2025 at 7:00 p.m. at New Hazlett Theater, 6 Allegheny Square East, on Pittsburgh's Northside. Admission is pay-what-you-can; tickets are available by calling (412) 320-4610 ext. 10 or reserving online.

First performed by Wilson himself two years before his death at age 60, How I Learned What I Learned is a riveting and poignant memoir of his early days as a developing writer in Pittsburgh. A precocious youth with an outsider's keen social perspective, Wilson dropped out of high school to become a full-time student of the human condition. He worked odd jobs while reading books from the library, taking notes on colorful characters he met and integrating their experiences into the epic sweep of African American history.

In 2018 Wali Jamal was named Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Performer of the Year and is the only actor in the world to have appeared in all 11 of August Wilson's plays - the 10-play Pittsburgh cycle and the autobiographical solo show How I Learned What I Learned.

Jamal performs throughout the year at theatres and universities across the U.S. He is also a playwright and heads up History's Flipside Productions, focusing on important achievements by Pittsburgh African Americans such as 19th-century abolitionist, physician, author and Civil War officer Dr. Martin Delany.

"How I Learned What I Learned is a rare introspective glimpse into the creative process of one of America's greatest playwrights," says Prime Stage Theatre artistic director Dr. Wayne Brinda. "Wali Jamal first performed for Prime Stage in 2000 as Tom Robinson in To Kill A Mockingbird, and we are thrilled to be hosting him again as August Wilson looking back on an extraordinary career in American theatre."

A one-night-only performance, How I Learned What I Learned is presented during Prime Stage Theatre's Jan. 17-26 mainstage production of Natalia Temesgen's Look Forward: The Ruby Bridges Story directed by Linda Haston and featuring Saniya Lavelle as civil rights trailblazer Ruby Bridges, the first African American student to attend an all-white grade school in New Orleans.

How I Learned What I Learned is part of Prime Stage Theatre's Monday Specials Series that continues with Freedom House: Giving Life a Second Chance (Mar. 3), a staged reading of a new play by L.E. McCullough on the birth of America's first EMS units in 1960s Pittsburgh, and Speak (May 5), a staged reading of a new Prime Stage Theatre adaptation by Tammy Ryan of Laurie Halse Anderson's powerful young adult novel presented in partnership with Pittsburgh Action Against Rape.

Since its founding in 1996, Prime Stage Theatre has presented over 100 plays that introduce student and family audiences to classic and contemporary works of world literature.

The theatre's current 2024-25 Season of Strength, Voices and Hope includes Great Expectations; Look Forward: The Ruby Bridges Story; I Never Saw Another Butterfly and The Terezin Promise; Twelve Angry Men.

Prime Stage Theatre has also made a special commitment to promoting accessibility for special needs audiences. In 2022, Prime Stage Theatre audio describer Nathan Ruggles won a national Achievement Award in Audio Description from the American Council of the Blind.

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