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THEATER BITS: Signature stages August Wilson’s ‘Seven Guitars’; Morrison’s ‘Bluest Eye’ to open in Chicago and Manhattan.
*A complete cast has been announced for the Signature Theatre Company’s mounting of August Wilson’s “Seven Guitars,” directed by Ruben Santiago-Hudson (“Lackawanna Blues”) and scheduled to run from July 31 through September 23.
The off-Broadway production will feature Kevin Carroll as Canewell, Cassandra Freeman as Ruby, Stephen McKinley Henderson as Red Carter, Brenda Pressley as Louise, Lance Reddick as Floyd Barton, Roslyn Ruff as Vera and Charles Weldon as Hedley.
The play, set in Pittsburgh's Hill District in 1948, follows seven people through journeys of frustration, joy and loss. Among them are Floyd "Schoolboy" Barton, an aspiring blues musician who returns home to seek his fortune and reclaim his woman; a sick old man who longs for an heir to carry on his name; and three single women who cope with betrayal and lost dreams.
Carroll is currently appearing off-Broadway in “Satellites,” while Freeman was most recently seen in Spike Lee’s “Inside Man” opposite Denzel Washington. Henderson has appeared on Broadway in Wilson's “King Hedley II” and “Ma Rainey's Black Bottom.” Reddick starred on HBO’s “The Wire” as Lt. Cedric Daniels, and Ruff's off-Broadway credits include “The Taming of the Shrew” and “Pudd'nhead Wilson.”
*Manhattan’s New Victory Theatre will feature Lydia Diamond's adaptation of Toni Morrison's “The Bluest Eye,” from Nov. 3-19.
The story centers on 11-year-old African American Pecola Breedlove, who believes her dark skin is at the root of vicious taunts by her classmates. She in turn prays for blonde hair and blue eyes.
The play, which will also run at Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Oct. 3-28, is directed by Hallie Gordon.
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