Chisholm, Dutton, Lennix, Santiago-Hudson and More Set for Kennedy Center's August Wilson Celebration

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Chisholm, Dutton, Lennix, Santiago-Hudson and More Set for Kennedy Center's August Wilson Celebration#1

Posted: 1/2/08 at 3:59pm

Several actors have joined the roster of artists who will take part in the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts' upcoming celebration of the work of the late Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson, which is entitled August Wilson's 20th Century.

As previously reported, Wilson's ten-play cycle, which chronicles the African-American experience in the 20th century, will be offered in the Kennedy Center's Terrace Theatre. August Wilson's 20th Century will play the D.C. venue March 4-April 6.

Playbill.com has learned that the actors who will be part of the productions of the ten Wilson plays currently include Cherise Booth, Anthony Chisholm, Rosalyn Coleman, Keith David, Charles S. Dutton, Hassan El-Amin, Lynda Gravátt, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Russell Hornsby, John Earl Jelks, Ebony Jo-Ann, Ron Cephas Jones, Harry Lennix, Anthony Mackie, Bill Nunn, Afemo Omilami, Latanya Richardson, Roslyn Ruff, Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Raynor Scheine, Heather Simms, Jerry Whiddon, Michole Briana White and James Williams. Complete casting will be announced shortly; the company will feature a core group of 26 actors who will perform in at least three Wilson plays.

Tony Award winner Ruben Santiago-Hudson Hudson will direct Wilson's final play, RADIO GOLF. Israel Hicks, chairman of the theatre arts program at Rutgers University, will stage TWO TRAINS RUNNING. Kenny Leon will direct the staged readings of GEM OF THE OCEAN, FENCES and THE PIANO LESSON. Lou Bellamy, the artistic director of Minneapolis' Penumbra Theatre, will direct MA RAINEY'S BLACK BOTTOM, while Tony winner Gordon Davidson will direct JITNEY. Todd Kreidler, the associate artistic director of Atlanta's True Colors Theater Company, will helm JOE TURNER'S COME AND GONE, and Derrick Sanders — artistic director of Chicago's Congo Square Theatre — will direct SEVEN GUITARS and KING HEDLEY II.

The creative team for the mammoth undertaking includes David Gallo (sets), Reggie Ray (costumes) and Allen Lee Hughes (lighting).
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For more information visit www.kennedy-center.org.
Chisholm, Dutton, Lennix, Santiago-Hudson and More Set for Kennedy Center's Wilson Celebration

"Winning a Tony this year is like winning Best Attendance in third grade: no one will care but the winner and their mom."
-Kad

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re: Chisholm, Dutton, Lennix, Santiago-Hudson and More Set for Kennedy Center's August Wilson Celebration#2

Posted: 1/2/08 at 4:16pm

There had been talk of doing this at the DCTC but after Tantalus, it was thought to be too big an undertaking. We would have been the first company to have done the whole cycle but it seems the ball was dropped somewhere along the lines. A real shame as Israel Hicks directed all of the productions and not only would we have presented the whole cycle, it would have been done by one director.

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