August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson

In Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning epic,
the haunting melodies of the past will ignite a family conflict.

by August Wilson
Directed by Christopher V. Edwards

In Partnership with Hibernian Hall
January 23 – February 16, 2025

 Actors’ Shakespeare Project is thrilled to continue and deepen our dedication to August Wilson’s American Century Cycle with one of his most celebrated titles: The Piano Lesson. 

Tensions are crackling under the floorboards of Doaker Charles’ household when his fast-talking nephew Boy Willie blows in from Mississippi with a scheme to set their descendants up for generations. The plan: sell the family’s ornate antique piano carved by an enslaved ancestor and use it to buy the land where his ancestors were enslaved. But half of the piano also belongs to Berniece, who refuses to let her brother pawn off the heirloom. As the siblings dig in their heels, they will search deeper into their lineage and uncover shocking revelations that will change them both forever. 

Winner of the 1990 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and a 1990 Tony Award Nominee for Best Play, August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson is an explosive and incisive inquiry into the struggle between what we owe to our past and how we build our future. 

RUN TIME: Two hours and forty-five minutes, including one intermission.