August Wilson's "Radio Golf" will open the Huntington Theatre Company's 25th Anniversary Season with a run from Sept. 8-Oct. 15. "Radio Golf" is the late playwright's final work, finished just before his death in 2005. It also caps Wilson's ambitious 10-play cycle that recounts the African-American experience through each decade of the 20th century.

To celebrate its anniversary and reach a wider array of patrons, the Huntington has announced that all "Radio Golf" tickets sold on Thursday, August 17, will be priced at just $25 per seat, regardless of show date or seat location. Tickets will go on sale at the Huntington's B.U. Theatre Box Office (264 Huntington Ave.) at 9 a.m. Phone, internet, and Calderwood Pavilion Box Office (527 Tremont St.) sales begin at noon. Box office and phone sales end at 6 p.m. Online sales continue until midnight. For further details, call 617-266-0800.

Set in 1997, "Radio Golf" is the story of Pittsburgh real estate developer and aspiring mayoral candidate Harmond Wilks, whose ambitious redevelopment project to revitalize the city's blighted Hill District is complicated by the appearance of a man who claims ownership of an iconic house marked for demolition. As Wilks learns more about the man, the house, and his own connections to both, an obsession unravels his plans, and jeopardizes his business and personal relationships.

"Radio Golf" is directed by Kenny Leon, who helmed Wilson's "Gem of the Ocean" at the Huntington and on Broadway in 2004. He also directed the Seattle Repertory Company, CENTERSTAGE (Baltimore), and Mark Taper Forum (Los Angeles) productions of "Radio Golf."  Leon, who runs the Atlanta-based True Colors Theatre, directed "Blues for an Alabama Sky" at the Huntington in 1999, and is now directing the filmed adaptation of his 2004 hit stage version of Lorraine Hansberry's "A Raisin in the Sun" with Phylicia Rashad and Sean "Diddy" Combs.

"Radio Golf" premiered at the Yale Repertory Theatre in April 2005. Wilson worked on the play at Yale, continuing during a subsequent production in Los Angeles, and until his death from liver cancer in October 2005.

The Huntington cast features the following, in alphabetical order:

• Hassan El-Amin (who starred in the Huntington's 1995 production of "A Raisin in the Sun") plays businessman and aspiring politician Harmond Wilks;

• Anthony Chisholm (Solly Two Kings in the Huntington's 2004 production of August Wilson's "Gem of the Ocean") as Elder Joseph Barlow, the man who claims the deed to the house at 1839 Wylie Street;

• Suzzanne Douglas as Mame Wilks, Harmond's well-connected wife and publicist;

• John Earl Jelks (Citizen Barlow in "Gem of the Ocean") returns to the Huntington as Sterling Johnson, a Hill District community activist who threatens to derail Wilks' plans; and

• James A. Williams as Roosevelt Hicks, Wilks golf-and power-obsessed friend and business partner.

Including "Radio Golf," the Huntington has produced eight of August Wilson's ten plays documenting African-American life in the 20th century. In order of their production dates:

2006 - "Radio Golf" (which takes place in the 1990s)
2004 - "Gem of the Ocean" (the 1900s)
2000 - "King Hedley II" (the 1980s)
1998 - "Jitney" (the 1970s)
1995 - "Seven Guitars" (the 1940s)
1990 - "Two Trains Running" (the 1960s)
1988 - "The Piano Lesson" (the 1930s)
1986 - "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" (the 1910s)

For more information, visit www.huntingtontheatre.org.

-- OnStage Boston

08/08/06

 

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