August Wilson’s Radio Golf 2019–20 SEASON • Your Home for Dramatic Discoveries • TrinityRep.com Right surgeons. Right robots. Right in South County. L to R: Joseph F. Renzulli II, MD, FACS; Robert C. Marchand, MD; Ian A. Madom, MD Looking for Rhode Island’s leader in robotic surgery? Come to South County. At the Institute for Robotic Surgery at South County Health, surgical procedures with smaller incisions, fewer complications, and faster recoveries happen every day. Our surgeons use the latest robotic technology for hip and knee replacements, minimally invasive spine surgery, urologic, and general surgery. Discover how the Institute for Robotic Surgery can get you back to living your life – faster. www.roboticsurgeryRI.com 2 2019–20 Season at the Lederer Theater Center under the direction of Curt Columbus Tom Parrish The Arthur P. Solomon and Executive Director Sally E. Lapides Artistic Director August Wilson’s Radio Golf THE ARTISTIC TEAM THE CAST Directed by Jude Sandy Harmond Wilks Joe Wilson, Jr.*‡ Set Design by Michael McGarty & Baron E. Pugh Mame Wilks Tonia Jackson* Costume Design by Yao Chen Roosevelt Hicks Omar Robinson* Lighting Design by Amith Chandrashaker Sterling Johnson Dereks Thomas* Sound Design by Larry D. Fowler, Jr. Elder Joseph Barlow Ricardo Pitts-Wiley* Production Stage Managed by Meg Tracy Leddy* Understudy for Mame Wilks Jackie Davis* January 30 – March 1, 2020 Time and Place: 1997, The Hill District, Pittsburgh, PA in the Sarah and Joseph Dowling, Jr. Theater Radio Golf is performed with one intermission. Supported by a grant from Production Director Laura E. Smith Trinity Rep’s 56th Season is sponsored by * Member of Actors’ Equity Association, the union of professional actors & stage managers ‡ Trinity Rep Resident Acting Company member Understudies never substitute for a listed player unless a specific announcement is made at the time of performance. Originally produced on Broadway by Jujamcyn Theaters, Margo Lion, Jeffrey Richards/Jerry Frankel, Tamara Tunie/Wendell Pierce, Fran Kirmser, Bunting Management Group, Georgia Supporting Season Sponsor Frontiere/Open Pictures, Lauren Doll/Steven Greil & The AW Group, Wonder City, Inc./ Townsend Teague in association with Jack Viertel and Gordon Davidson First produced in New Haven, CT in April 2005 by Yale Repertory Theatre (James Bundy, Trinity Rep gratefully acknowledges the past support of the B.B. Lederer Artistic Director; Victoria Nolan, Managing Director) Sons Foundation, the State of Rhode Island, and the City of Providence. Southwest is the official airline of Trinity Rep. PLEASE TURN OFF cell phones and alarms during the performance. Texting and cell phone use are limited to intermission, outside the theater. Photography, videotaping, and/or other PICTURED ON THE COVER: JOE WILSON, JR. video or audio recording of the performance by any means are COSTUME BY AMANDA DOWNING CARNEY • IMAGE BY MICHAEL GUY strictly prohibited. TRINITY REPERTORY COMPANY • 201 WASHINGTON STREET • PROVIDENCE • RHODE ISLAND • (401) 351-4242 • WWW.TRINITYREP.COM 3 Have you heard Well, after 150 years I the news?! guess it was time for Providence Picture them to buy their Frame is moving! own building. Vintage Providence Picture Frame ad, circa 1900 27 Dryden Lane, Providence, RI 02904 M-Sat. 8:30–6:30 401.421.6196 www.ProvidencePictureFrame.com 4 FROM THE ARTHUR P. SOLOMON FROM THE AND SALLY E. LAPIDES EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR ARTISTIC DIRECTOR WELCOME TO TRINITY REP YOUR 2020 AT TRINITY REP and August Wilson’s Radio begins with the culmination Golf. I am beyond excited to see of August Wilson’s ten-play this production on our Dowling stage, because it American Century Cycle, which chronicled each brings the powerful, haunting, and beautiful voice decade of African-American life in the twentieth of Mr. Wilson back to our theater after many years’ century. Living on the verge of a new millennium, absence. He is one of most important American these characters are navigating the struggle playwrights of the last 50 years, someone who between history and progress. Now, as we enter writes exquisitely crafted plays, yet someone who the third decade of that “new” millennium, I simultaneously challenges how we see the world wonder what Mr. Wilson might have written to and the American experience through the medium of theater. depict life in the 2000s and 2010s. Sadly, we lost this giant of the American Radio Golf is the last play Mr. Wilson ever wrote. It premiered at Yale theater far too early and will never know. Rep six months before he succumbed to cancer at the age of 60. It is also It has been a blockbuster season at Trinity Rep so far. The Prince of the final play in his “American Century Cycle,” a ten-play series that is set Providence became our highest selling non-holiday show, selling at 100% primarily in the Hill District neighborhood of Pittsburgh which captures a capacity for its extended run; A Christmas Carol had another banner year, story from the African American experience in each decade of the 20th as the second highest grossing Trinity Rep production of all time; and Fade century. Therefore, while Radio Golf is set during the last decade of said offered an intimate duet about culture, class, and the price of ambition. century, it brings the accumulation of the history of this cycle and the many And we are just getting started with many more memorable nights in the stories that have gone before to its present-tense situation. theater still to come — a creative retelling of “the best of times and the And accumulation of history is central to the works of August Wilson. In worst of times” in A Tale of Two Cities; the award-winning hit Sweat by telling the story of the African-American experience, he pulls from histories Lynn Nottage; and the musical masterpiece Sweeney Todd by America’s that stretch back hundreds of years and across the oceans and the nation. greatest living Broadway composer and lyricist. Subscription packages are He leads us, as an audience, to recall the many stories of the past that live still available for the remainder of this season, and we invite you to join us, in the moments we see in the present before us. He brings, thrillingly, the if you don’t already have your tickets. poetic music of everyday speech to his theatrical events, challenging us to With these three productions still ahead, Trinity Rep staff and listen to the many melodies that live in the quotidian experience. leadership are already deep in planning for your 2020-21 Season, which we This is a central element of the genius of Mr. Wilson’s work — his ability plan to announce in mid-March. This time of year is a creative outpouring to layer experiences, realities, and musicalities into seemingly naturalistic, in regional theaters, as we and our counterparts around the country plant theatrically traditional works. He once said about his playwriting, “My early the seeds for the projects of next season. The next few months are a busy attempts writing plays, which were very poetic, did not use the language period of planning and budgeting, as we work to balance artistic ambition, that I work in now. I didn’t recognize the poetry in the everyday language community impact, and financial resources. Every artistic decision is a of black America. I thought I had to change it to create art.” The greatness financial decision, and every financial decision is an artistic decision. It is of his plays lies in their detailed, exquisitely wrought depictions of ordinary a complex puzzle, which forms the foundation for your experience next people, places, and times, all of which also rise to the level of great spiritual season. While we can’t yet share the titles we are considering, I can tell consideration and beauty. you that it will be a season not to be missed, continuing our tradition of Radio Golf is a timely and important play for the very reason that, on first-class productions made right here in Providence just for you by your one level, it asks overt, political questions. How does a person deal with the tremendous resident company of artists. demands of capitalistic success while remaining true to their past and their Before March 8, you have the opportunity to take advantage of our family? Why does success for some mean displacement, loss, and failure for low Early Bird subscription prices — the equivalent of two plays free — and others? But in addition to these more obvious questions, the play also asks guarantee your seats and the best prices for next season. Plus, you will us to consider large philosophical puzzles like, how do our ancestors live in have first access to the best seats for the much-anticipated revival of The our daily motions and interactions? Why does the past matter, so urgently, Prince of Providence in June 2021. Before spring 2021, only subscribers will in a face-paced, modern world? And what does success really look like, if be able to secure tickets to see Buddy’s return by adding the show to their we take away the provocation and prodding of capitalism? subscription package. There are subscription options for every lifestyle This production features the exciting, artistic reunion of director Jude and budget, with full season packages beginning at less than the cost of Sandy and actor Joe Wilson Jr., the perfect Trinity Rep artists to bring this a single Broadway ticket. play and this playwright back to our stage. And we are also delighted to I hope you and yours had a wonderful holiday season. All of us at welcome Ricardo Pitts-Wiley back to Trinity Rep after a long absence.