Seven Guitars—the seventh play in August Wilson’s decade-by-decade exploration of the black experience in America, two of which have won Pulitzer Prizes—is part bawdy comedy, part dark elegy, and part mystery. In the backyard of a Pittsburgh tenement in 1948, friends gather to mourn for a blues guitarist and singer who died just as his career was on the verge of taking off. The action that follows is a flashback to the busy week leading up to Floyd “Schoolboy” Barton’s sudden and unnatural death.

Directed by Denise O’Neal, Seven Guitars features a variety of local actors, including VonFrederick Gipson as Floyd “Schoolboy” Barton, Justin Cofield as Canewell, Ray Walker
as Red Carter, James West III as Hedley, Caprice Carter as Vera Dotson, Renee van Nifterik as Louise, and Iyonna Brown as Ruby.

“August Wilson has once again written a piece set in the past that remains strikingly relevant to the future and has created sophisticated art from simple material,” says O’Neal. “Seven Guitars walks us through the cautionary tale of human desperation, struggle, survival of the fittest, and redemption.”

Tickets for Seven Guitars are available now at the Pearl Theater box office and online at pearl-theater.com. The show runs for three weekends, from February 7 through 23. Friday and Saturday night performances start at 8 p.m., and Sunday matinees start at 3 p.m.. There is also a special buy-one-get-one-free night on Thursday, February 13, at 7:30 p.m.

This project is supported by a City of Pearland Cultural Arts Grant program from the City of Pearland Convention & Visitors Bureau.