Moline’s Playcrafters Presents ‘The Piano Lesson’ This Weekend
Playcrafters Barn Theatre, 4950 35th Ave., Moline, presents the Pulitzer-winning “The Piano Lesson” this weekend.
The play, by August Wilson (1945-2005) is set in the 1930s of The Great Depression. Its discordant, clashing notes resolve in peaceful harmony that carry forceful lessons for our fractious times today.
Directed by Kermit Thomas of Moline, part of Wilson’s epic “American Century Cycle,” in “The Piano Lesson,” it’s 1936, and Boy Willie 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 quick.
He wants to sell an old piano that has been in his family for generations, but he shares ownership with his sister 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
The cast of “Piano Lesson” includes Alisha Hanes, left, Renaud Haymon, Ashley Harris, Antonio Stone, and LuAnne Sisk.
slavery. Boy Willie tries to persuade his stubborn sister that the past is past, but she is more formidable than he anticipated.
“The Piano Lesson” (which won the 1990 Pulitzer Prize for Drama) follows the lives of the Charles family in the Doaker Charles household and the heirloom instrument is decorated with designs carved by an enslaved ancestor.
Performances dates are July 23 and 24 at 7:30 p.m. (plus July 23 and 24), and July 25 at 3 p.m. General admission is $15, and senior/military admission is $13. For details and tickets, visit Playcrafters.com.
