August 29

October 17 through October 19, 2003

August Wilson's

The Piano Lesson

Felipe Harris, Clarance Fletcher, and Lawrence Boyd

Clarance Fletcher and Charles Clyburn

Rhonda Carter

Jay Herring and Rhonda Carter

The Piano Lesson was forced to close after opening weekend due to medical emergency removing one of the principal actors from the show. Colonial Players regrets the necessity of taking this action. The show had an incredibly talented cast and maintained CP's high standard of excellence throughout. The Board of Directors appreciates the time and effort put forth by the cast and crew.

This riveting drama by America’s pre-eminent African American playwright is set in 1930's Pittsburgh. The Piano Lesson earned Wilson his second Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The play opens as Boy Willie arrives from his native Mississippi at the home of his sister, Berniece. Willie’s dream is to buy the land his ancestors worked as slaves, but in order to raise the needed cash, he must convince Berniece to part with an heirloom piano that is both a reminder of their ancestors slavery and a tribute to their survival. The Piano Lesson is one in a series of plays by August Wilson, each set in a different decade, chronicling the African-American experience through the 20th Century. In addition to the Pulitzer, The Piano Lesson was named Best Play of the Year by the New York Drama Critics' Circle and won a Drama Desk Award. It has earned Wilson acclaim as a profoundly important voice in African-American culture, but also as one of the leading playwrights, irrelevant of race, in the American theatre.