DATE/TIME:
Friday, October 27, 2023 at 7 PM
Saturday, October 28, 2023 at 2:30 PM
PRESENTED BY:
Athens Area Paine College Club in collaboration with Etheridge Arts Ensemble, New African Grove Theatre Company of Atlanta, Athens Area Paine College Alumni Club, Athens Downtown Development Authority, Economic Justice Coalition and other community partners
ADMISSION:
$30 (Advance)
$35 (At door)
For special group rate call 706-247-6777.
DESCRIPTION:
“Two Trains Running,” by two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning African American playwright August Wilson, is the sixth in an acclaimed 10-part series collectively called The Pittsburgh Cycle (or The Century Cycle). This local production is being produced by the Etheridge Arts Ensemble and New African Grove Theatre Company of Atlanta, in collaboration with the Athens Area Paine College Alumni Club, Athens Downtown Development Authority, Economic Justice Coalition and other community partners. It’s directed by N.L. Starr.
A finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama,”Two Trains” premiered on Broadway in 1993. First performed by the Yale Repertory Theatre in New Haven, Conn., in March 1990, the play takes place in 1968 in the Hill District, a grouping of several African American neighborhoods in Pittsburgh. The play examines the varied socio-psychological embodiments of changing attitudes toward race from the perspective of its Black characters.
Wilson has been referred to as the "theater's poet of Black America.” He is best known for The Pittsburgh Cycle (or The Century Cycle), which chronicles the experiences and heritage of the African American community in the 20th century. Plays in the series include “Fences” (1987) and “The Piano Lesson” (1990), both of which won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, as well as “Ma Rainey's Black Bottom” (1984) and “Joe Turner's Come and Gone” (1988). In 2006, Wilson was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame.
Starr has acted in and directed a number of plays at the Morton Theatre over three decades, including Wilson’s “Fences,” “The Piano Lesson” and “Jitney,”as well as Lorraine Hansberry‘s “A Raisin in the Sun” and Pearl Cleage's “Flyin‘ West.”
Net proceeds from the event will benefit Paine College, a Historically Black College (HBCU) in Augusta, Ga. The college’s principal founder in 1882 was Lucius Henry Holsey who spent much of his youth in Athens—the enslaved “property” of a University of Georgia professor.
After facing challenging times like many HBCUs, Paine College is on a forward trajectory, receiving more than half a million dollars in contributions recently through a new partnership with Bank of America, Augusta National Golf Club (ANGC), the United Negro College Fund (UNCF) and education consulting firm EAB. The collaborating partners are instituting a 10-year transformation plan to elevate Paine “into a premier liberal arts institution.” The partnership is committed to raising $30 million over the next three years.
Athens native Michael Thurmond, a 1975 graduate of Paine College, chairs the colleges’s Board of Trustees. According to attorney Thurmond, who is CEO of DeKalb County, Ga., the investment makes education more accessible. “It will support operations and provide scholarships for students in need,” he said. “Many are first generation college students and low income and moderate-income students. The scholarship money will make college achievable for them.”
CONNECT:
Facebook: Athens’ Area Paine College Club
CONTACT:
Fred Smith
EMAIL:
fsmithathens@gmail.com.
