James Craven (l.), Austene Van, Kevin D. West, Terry Bellamy and Abdul Salaam El Rezzac in Penumbra Theatre's "Radio Golf."
Photo by Tom Sweeney
By Rohan Preston
Penumbra Theatre is taking "Radio Golf," August Wilson's last play, to the playwright's hometown, Pittsburgh. The show, which received a lyrical production at the St Paul playhouse by Lou Bellamy, will run in the 486-seat theater of the August Wilson Center for African American Culture Nov. 14-15 with the original cast. Terry Bellamy, James Craven, Abdul Salaam El Razzac, Austene Van and Kevin D. West will all make the trip from St Paul to the Steel City to retell this story about a clash of heritage and values in the late 20th-century. The Penumbra production is one of four that will run in alternating performances in Pittsburgh from Nov. 10-22. All the shows have the mythical Aunt Ester as a physical or spiritual presence. The other works are "Gem of the Ocean," produced by the St. Louis Black Repertory theater company; "Two Trains Running" by Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company and "The Women of the Hill," an original work by theater innovator Ping Chong. "We are honored to participate in the first theatrical endeavor of the new August Wilson Center," said Bellamy, Penumbra's founding artistic director. "What excites me most, is to be able to share our work with other black theater companies and to do his very last play in Pittsburgh for that community—the community where he set the majority of his plays." Penumbra has now staged all 10 plays in Wilson's epic cycle about black life in 20th-century America.
