| Radio Golf | |
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| Written by | August Wilson |
| Date premiered | 8 May 2007 |
| Place premiered | Cort Theatre New Haven, Connecticut |
| Original language | English |
| Series | The Pittsburgh Cycle |
| Subject | a charming and powerful African American politician, running for the highest office of his career |
| Genre | Drama |
| Setting | the Hill District of Pittsburgh, 1997 |
| Official site | |
| IBDB profile | |
Radio Golf is a play by American playwright, August Wilson, the final installment in his ten-part series, The Pittsburgh Cycle. It was first performed in 2005 by the Yale Repertory Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut and staged its Broadway premiere on 8 May 2007 at the Cort Theatre in New York City. It is also Wilson's final work.
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Plot
Harmond Wilks, an Ivy League-educated lawyer with an educated and ambitious wife wants to redevelop the "blighted" area of the Hill District in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Having inherited a prosperous real estate firm from his father and grandfather, Wilks is about to declare his candidacy to be Pittsburgh's first black mayor. Meanwhile, he and his friend Roosevelt Hicks are engineering a development deal on Wylie Avenue to build a high-rise apartment building with a ground floor filled with high-end chain stores like Starbucks, Whole Foods, and Barnes & Noble.
The deal depends on federal money, which requires a finding that the area is blighted. There are offstage city politics and backroom deals. Harmond and Roosevelt, a newly-minted Mellon Bank vice president, think they are equal competitors in capitalism's public-private arena, but they may just be black front men for white money.
Suddenly another world intrudes when an old mansion at 1839 Wylie they have slated for demolition turns out to have a significant past. It was the home of Aunt Ester, the hereditary folk priestess whose tale goes back to 1619, when the first shipload of African slaves was brought to Virginia.
Productions
After the 2005 world premiere of Radio Golf at the Yale Repertory Theatre, it was presented on the West Coast by the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, California, the Huntington Theatre Company in Boston, Massachusetts in October 2006, and McCarter Theatre in 2007.
The staging at the Cort Theatre, was also the place where Wilson's first Broadway play, "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom," opened in 1984. Chicago's Goodman Theatre is the first to mount a production of the complete ten play The Pittsburgh Cycle with the closing of Radio Golf in early 2007. The Studio Theatre in Washington, DC will produce the play, opening May 20, 2009. The Denver Center Theatre Company also produced the play in April of 2009, and was the first theatre company to stage all ten plays of "The Pittsburgh Cycle" under one director, Israel Hicks.
Broadway Producers: Jujamcyn Theaters, Margo Lion, Jeffrey Richards/Jerry Frankel, Tamara Tunie/Wendell Pierce, Fran Kirmser, Bunting Management Group, George Frontiere and Open Pictures, Lauren Doll/Steven Greil & The August Wilson Group, Wondercity Inc., Townsend Teague, Jack Viertel, Gordon Davidson
Awards and nominations
- Awards
- 2007 New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play
- Nominations
- 2007 Drama Desk Award for Best Play
- 2007 Drama League Award for Distinguished Production of a Play
- 2007 Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Play
- 2007 Tony Award for Best Play
References
- Martin Denton (11 May 2007). "nytheatre.com/nytheatre/archshow.php?key=332 Radio Golf". nytheatre.com. The New York Theatre Experience, Inc.. http://www.nytheatre.com/nytheatre/archshow.php?key=332. Retrieved 2008-10-05.
Further reading
- Wilson, August (2007). Radio Golf: 1997 (First edition ed.). New York: Theatre Communications Group. ISBN 9781559363068.
External links
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
