Photo Flash: JITNEY At Deep Dish Theater

Set in 1977 in Pittsburgh's African American Hill District, Jitney is a gritty and compassionate comedy that explores the struggles of the drivers at a gypsy cab company. The varied cast of characters who move in and out of the station between calls - a young Vietnam veteran (Prince T. Bowie) and his frustrated wife (Connie McCoy), the station's owner (Lester Hill) whose son (Mike Wiley) is returning from 20 years in prison, the neighborhood busybody (Charles Delton Streeter), the local numbers runner (Thomasi McDonald), a philosopher (John Rogers Harris), a former tailor (Gil Faison) and a hotel doorman (Mike Goolsby) - are all trying to scrape out a living while their station is threatened with demolition to make way for urban development.

"It's a forgotten time - after the civil rights movement, after Martin Luther King - there were all the promises of the Civil Rights Act but not many had come to fruition," said director Kathryn Hunter-Williams. "The old world was gone, but the new one really hadn't arrived yet."

Winner of the New York Critics' Circle Best Play award in 2000, Jitney is the 1970s chapter in Wilson's 10-play cycle reflecting the African American experience in each decade of the 20th Century. Other plays in the cycle include Pulitzer Prize-winners Fences and The Piano Lesson, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom and Two Trains Running. Wilson died in 2005, shortly after completing the final play in the cycle, Radio Golf.

"Jitney has a really gutsy shape to it - it's rawer, not as polished as the other plays in the cycle - but it has an earthiness to it," said Hunter-Williams. "The characters are people we recognize, and listening to their dialogue is like listening to a jazz score."

Jitney marks Hunter-Williams first production with Deep Dish. Other directing credits include Because We're Still Here (and Moving) for the Department of Dramatic Art Mainstage at UNC, Speaking Without Tongues for Hidden Voices, and Witness to an Execution for PRC2 at PlayMakers Repertory Company. She is the performance director for the Independent's Indy Award-Winning theater Hidden Voices and a company member with PlayMakers. She's also directed works at the ArtsCenter, St. Mary's, the 10x10 Play Festival, and the Women's Prison Writing and Performance Project.

The design team for Jitney includes Rob Hamilton (sets), JeMarl (costumes), Doug Wood (lights), David Klionsky (sound), Devra Thomas (props), Heather Hackford (fight direction) and Rachel S. Zielinski (stage manager).

A special preview of Jitney will be held Friday, April 17 at 7 pm at the Sonia Haynes Stone Center on the UNC campus. The evening will feature scenes from the play and a discussion moderated by Dr. Renee Alexander Craft of the UNC Communications Department.

Deep Dish is located in Chapel Hill's University Mall, on Estes Drive and US 15-501. Ticket prices and showtimes are: Wednesday and Thursday (7:30 p.m. curtain) - $16 adults, $14 seniors, $12 students; and Friday-Sunday (8:00 p.m. curtain on Friday and Saturday, 2:00 p.m. Sunday matinee) - $18 adults, $16 seniors, $14 students.

The Deep Dish box office in University Mall is open Wednesday-Saturday from 3 to 6 p.m. Tickets can also be ordered through the website or by calling 919/968-1515.

All photos by Jason Fagg

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