Radio Golf, opening Jan. 23 after previews, is the centerpiece of Goodman Theatre's August Wilson Celebration, a tribute to the late Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning American playwright.
The launch of the play made Goodman the only resident theatre to have produced every play in the late Wilson's ten-play cycle about the 20th century African-American experience.
Radio Golf was completed only months before Wilson's death in 2005, and is the final play in his decade-by-decade series. It's also the cycle's only play about the African-American middle class.
This Broadway-aimed production of Radio Golf was seen in fall 2006 at Huntington Theatre Company in Boston, and will play McCarter Theatre in New Jersey in the spring. A Broadway berth is expected to be announced by commercial producers.
Radio Golf was originally announced to run to Feb. 18 in the Goodman's Albert Theatre. The Goodman production is produced in association with Yale Repertory Theatre, Center Theatre Group/Mark Taper Forum, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Center Stage, Huntington Theatre Company and McCarter Theatre. *
According to Goodman, "At the center of Radio Golf is the ambitious Harmond Wilks, a man with big plans. He is about to break ground on Bedford Hills, a slick new real estate venture designed to revive Pittsburgh's depressed Hill District — and propel him to becoming the city's first black mayor. But first, the government must declare the historic neighborhood blighted, unleashing federal money for the development. All goes according to plan until a mysterious stranger, claiming ownership of Aunt Ester's house at 1839 Wylie Avenue, forces Wilks to reconsider his path to success. Radio Golf completes the playwright's argument that richness of a shared past must not be lost amid the temptations of a glittery present."
The cast includes Anthony Chisholm as Elder Joseph Barlow; Hassan El-Amin as Harmond Wilks; John Earl Jelks as Sterling Johnson; Michole Briana White as Mame Wilks; James A. Williams as Roosevelt Hicks.
The Broadway-aimed production For more information, visit www.GoodmanTheatre.org.
