August Wilson's Seven Guitars

August Wilson's Seven Guitars

Guest Directed by Terrence Spivey

The performance runs two and a half hours plus one intermission.

Cast

Floyd
Jalen Carr

Ruby
Bráleena Pickens

Canewell
Aly Diallo

Louise
Maylon Johnson

Vera
Ona Garrett

Hedley
Othman Shuri

Red Carter
Amir Stokes

Boxing Radio Announcer Voice Over
Noah Bennett

Understudies

Ruby & Vera
Meron Aschalew

August Wilson's Seven Guitars is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals on behalf of Samuel French, Inc. www.concordtheatricals.com

Originally produced on Broadway by SAGEWORKS: Benjamin Mordecai, Executive Director; Centre Theatre Group/Ahmanson Theatre, Gordon Davidson, Artistic Director; Herb Alpert/Margot Lion Scott Rudin/Paramount Pictures and Jujamcyn Theatres in association with Goodman Theatre, Huntington Theatre Company, American Conservatory Theatre and Manhattan Theatre Club. Originally presented at National Playwright's Conference of The Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center.

THE VIDEOTAPING OR MAKING OF ELECTRONIC OR OTHER AUDIO AND/OR VISUAL RECORDINGS OF THIS PRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTING RECORDINGS OR STREAMS IN ANY MEDIUM, INCLUDING THE INTERNET, IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED, A VIOLATION OF THE AUTHOR(S)'S RIGHTS AND ACTIONABLE UNDER UNITED STATES COPYRIGHT LAW. FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE VISIT: https://concordtheatricals.com/resources/protecting-artists.

The use of any recording device, either audio or video, and the taking of photographs, either with or without flash, is strictly prohibited. Please silence your cell phones and pagers prior to the beginning of the performance. In consideration of those seated around you, please refrain from texting during the performance.

Kami Bumpers (stage manager), senior
Hometown: Miami, FL
Major(s): theatre
Minor(s): screenwriting
Department Productions: She Kills Monsters

A.J. Calderon (asst. director), junior
Pronouns: he/him
Hometown: San Jose, CA
Major(s): English
Minor(s): screenwriting; video arts
Department Productions: Blood Wedding

Kevin Campbell II (asst. lighting designer), senior
Hometown: Canton, OH
Major(s): theatre
Department Productions: 1st department production

Jalen Carr (Floyd), graduate student
Pronouns: he/him
Hometown: Houston, TX
Major(s): theatre
Department Productions: Wilderness; Blood Wedding

Aly Diallo (Canewell), junior
Pronouns: he/him
Hometown: Brooklyn, NY
Major(s): theatre
Department Productions: debut

Onaniah Garrett (Vera), graduate student
Pronouns: she/her
Hometown: Akron, OH
Major(s): Social Work
Department Productions: debut

Maylon Johnson (Louise), sophomore
Pronouns: she/her
Hometown: Cleveland, OH
Major(s): theatre
Department Productions: debut

Bráleena Pickens (Ruby), sophomore
Pronouns: she/they
Hometown: Worthington, OH
Major(s): dance; theatre
Minor(s): musical theatre; voice acting
Department Productions: debut

Othman Shuri (Hedley), junior
Hometown: Makkah, Saudi Arabia
Major(s): theatre
Department Productions: Blood Wedding; The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

Amir Stokes (Red Carter), junior
Pronouns: he/him
Hometown: Canton, OH
Major(s): engineering
Department Productions: debut

Zach Sudal (asst. stage manager), senior
Hometown: Dublin, OH
Major(s): theatre
Minor(s): psychology
Department Productions: 1st department production

Sunny Walton (asst. properties designer), senior
Pronouns: they/them
Hometown: Clarksburg, MD
Major(s): theatre
Minor(s): studio art
Department Productions: She Kills Monsters

Sydney Webb (dramaturg), senior
Pronouns: she/her
Hometown: Galena, OH
Major(s): business administration; theatre
Minor(s): musical theatre
Department Productions: 1st department production

Megan Wells (scenic designer and properties designer), graduate student
Pronouns: she/her
Hometown: Milwaukee, WI
Major(s): theatre
Department Productions: The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

Robbie Wilt (asst. lighting designer), graduate student
Pronouns: he/him
Hometown: Tyler, TX
Major(s): theatre
Department Productions: 1st department production

Terrence Spivey is a native of Kountze, Texas, and a graduate of Prairie View A&M University under the guidance of late legends, playwright/professor Dr. Ted Shine and director/professor, Clarance Lee Turner. After college, Spivey relocated to New York City and studied at William Esper Studio. Appeared in plays such as Elmo Terry- Morgan’s AUDELCO award-winning The Fruits of Miss Mourning, the late Monteria Ivey’s Only For a Moment at The National Black Theatre, Waiting for Lefty at Michael Chekhov Studio, Lisa Jones Combination Skin: The $100,000 Tragic Mulatto Show at New Voices/New Vision Festival, Ethnic Cleansing for NPR. Films; indie West New York with Frank Vincent, Norman Loftis Messenger, indie slasher cult-classic Slime City. Soaps includes One Life to Live, music videos with Anita Baker and The Fat Boys. His NYC directing included Ntozake Shange's For Colored Girls Who Considered Suicide When The Rainbow Is Enuff in Harlem, A Solo Song: For Doc for Blackgirl Ensemble. His first script, Smokestack Lightnin' was a finalist for Theodore Ward Prize for African American Playwriting, in Chicago.

After New York, he was the artistic director of Karamu House, the oldest black theatre in the country, in Cleveland Ohio, for twelve years. During his position at Karamu House, he directed award-winning productions included bee- luther-hatchee, Dream of Monkey Mountain, The Blacks: A Clown Show, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, Bourbon at the Border, Permanent Collection, The Wiz, God’s Trombones and more. He and the historical institution garnered multiple accolades; 2005 National Black Theatre Festival Longevity Award, 2005 BTN Pathfinder Award, AUDELCO 2013 Repertory Company of the Year. Spivey was awarded a Proclamation from the City of Cleveland in 2010, 2017 Best Director by Cleveland Scene and 2017 Alan Schneider Award Nominee.

He is currently the founder of Powerful Long Ladder and The Ultimate Reach (TUR), its outreach program. He inaugurated his company with James Baldwin's The Amen Corner and produced the Ohio premiere of Resistance by Golden Globe winner Regina Taylor in collaboration with Cleveland's Borderlight Theatre Festival. His freelance work included; Fences, Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill (Weathervane Playhouse), Radio Golf (Cleveland Ensemble Theatre), Bootycandy, Neighbors (convergence-continuum), Objectively/Reasonable: A Community Response to Tamir Rice, 11/22/14, The Phoenix Society, Live Bodies for Sale, (Playwrights Local), Breath, Boom (John Carroll University), Bourbon at the Border (Alleghany College), Master Harold and the Boys (Cleveland State University), No Niggers, No Jews, No Dogs (Kent State University Pan African Studies.

In 2022, he was commissioned to write and direct An Ocean in My Bones, about the last illegal slaves by Joycelyn Davis for the Clotilda Descendants Association in Mobile Alabama. It premiered February 2022 in Africatown, the only black community in the country founded by enslaved Africans. Accolades followed such as Who’s Who in Black Cleveland 2023, 2023 Resolution from Cleveland City Council. He was also bestowed the Preserving Truth in Education Award in 2023 by Color of Change, one of the nation’s largest organizations on racial justice. His original short play. Outta da Horse's Mouth was presented at Africatown Heritage House last summer.

Spivey has worked with legends Ruby Dee, Bill Cobbs, Leslie Uggams, Ntozake Shange, Je Franklin, Regina Taylor, Spike Lee Richard Brooks, Mississippi Charles Bevels, Arthur French, Frank Vincent, Clebert Ford, Javon Johnson, Kim Sullivan. He has appeared in prestigious magazines and newspapers; New York Times American Theatre, Artist and Influence, Back Stage, Black Theatre, Ebony, Macelle Mahala’s Black Theatre, City Life, featured in PBS /Ideastream Karamu: 100 Years in the House. He was Keynote Speaker at the 2015 USITT Conference at the Duke Energy Center in Cincinnati, Ohio. He is a member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, Dramatist Guild, board member for AUDELCO in New York City.

He has been selected as a 2024 Visiting Voices Ambassador by the Dramatist Guild Foundation in New York City.

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August Wilson's Seven Guitars

August Wilson's Seven Guitars