[FAC] August Wilson's THE PIANO LESSON Opens Friday

[Pamela Dyer]

University Theatre Celebrates African American Peoples Month with 
The Piano Lesson

	August Wilson won his second Pulitzer Prize for this haunting drama. It is 1936 and Boy 
Willie (Edward Anderson) arrives in Pittsburgh from the South in a battered truck loaded with 
watermelons to sell. He has an opportunity to buy some land down home, but he has to come 
up with the money right quick. He wants to sell an old piano that has been in his family for 
generations, but he shares ownership with his sister Bernice (Bryttani McGhee)  and it sits in 
her living room. She has already rejected several offers because the antique piano is covered 
with incredible carvings detailing the family's rise from slavery. Boy Willie tries to persuade 
his stubborn sister that the past is past, but she is more formidable than he anticipated.
Director Thomas-Whit Ellis has brought in professional actor Tucker Smallwood to play the 
role of Doaker.    Other roles are Lymon played by Steen Littles, Maretha played by Maya 
Barnes, James Taylor as Wining Boy and Arlysha Blake as Grace.  

"Like other Wilson plays, it seems to sing even when it is talking."—The New York Times
"A lovely tragi comedy.... Haunting as well as haunted."—New York Newsday
"Wonderful.... A play of magnificent confrontations."—New York Post

John Wright Theatre 
February 27-March 7, 2009
All Performances begin at 8:00 p.m. except on Sunday when it begins at 2:00 p.m. Closed on 
Monday


Pamela Dyer
Business & Promotions Manager
Theatre Arts Department
California State University, Fresno
559-278-7512
559-278-7215 - FAX
www.csufresno.edu/theatrearts