Previews will begin at a theatre to be announced March 19, 2009, with an official opening scheduled for April 16. Casting and a design team will be announced at a later date.
The Wilson play, according to press notes, is set in 1911 and "tells the story of Herald Loomis who, after serving seven years hard labor, has journeyed North with his young daughter and arrives at a Pittsburgh boarding house filled with memorable characters who aid Herald Loomis in his search for his inner freedom."
Joe Turner's Come and Gone originally opened on Broadway in 1988 and received a Tony nomination for Best Play and won that year's New York Drama Critics Circle Award.
Sher, who was recently named Resident Director of Lincoln Center Theater, also earned Tony nominations for his work on the LCT productions of The Light in the Piazza and Awake and Sing!
August Wilson (1945–2005) wrote a ten-play cycle exploring the heritage and experience of African-Americans, decade-by-decade, through the 20th century: Fences, Gem of the Ocean, Jitney, Joe Turner's Come and Gone, King Hedley II, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, The Piano Lesson, Radio Golf, Seven Guitars and Two Trains Running. His plays have garnered numerous awards including two Pulitzer Prizes, the Tony Award for Best Play, two Drama Desk Awards, an Olivier Award, and eight prizes for Best Play from the New York Drama Critics Circle — including one for Joe Turner. They have been produced on Broadway, at theatres across the country, and around the world. Wilson himself earned many honors, including Guggenheim and Rockefeller Fellowships, the Heinz Award and the Whiting Writers Award. He was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and New Dramatists. In 1999 he was awarded a National Humanities Medal by the President of the United States, and he was posthumously inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame. On Oct. 16, 2005, the Broadway theatre located at 245 West 52nd Street was renamed the August Wilson Theatre in honor of his deep legacy to American drama.
