August Wilson Drama Focuses On Black Experience Of The ‘60s

Last year, the Spokane Civic’s Studio Theatre introduced Spokane to the works of August Wilson.

Now, the Studio Theatre, in conjunction with the Onyx Theater Troupe, opens another critically acclaimed Wilson play, “Two Trains Running.”

The show was originally scheduled to open tonight, but an attack of the flu bug has forced the postponement of the opening until Thursday.

As in all of Wilson’s plays, it is about the black experience in America. In last year’s “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone,” the setting was Pittsburgh in 1911. In “Two Trains Running,” the setting is Pittsburgh in 1969, a time of great turbulence in American society.

Most of the action takes place in Memphis Lee’s Homestyle Restaurant. The denizens include an undertaker, a numbers runner, an excon, a waitress, and some people who just like to hang around over a cup of coffee.

“They are the people of this play,” wrote Wilson in his original program notes. “People who have loud voices and big hearts.”

The original Yale Repertory production starred Samuel L. Jackson (“Pulp Fiction”). The Broadway production in 1992 starred Roscoe Lee Browne and Larry Fishburne.

As for the play’s title and theme, Wilson puts it like this: “There are always and only two trains running. There is life and there is death. Each of us rides them both. To live life with dignity, to celebrate and accept responsibility for your presence in the world is all that can be asked of anyone.”

This is a collaborative production with the Onyx Theatre Troupe, the black theater troupe based at the East Central Community Center. The show is directed by the Civic’s executive director, John G. Phillips.

The cast includes H.W. Tony Anthony, Frank Graham, Yolanda Everette-Marshall, Percy Happy Watkins, Bobby “D”, Peter A. Urio and Bryan R. Jackson.

The show opens Thursday and continues Oct. 27-28, Nov. 2-5 and Nov. 9-11. Showtimes are 8 p.m. except a 2 p.m. matinee on Nov. 5.

Tickets are $8 and are available by calling 325-2507. The Firth Chew Studio Theatre is located in the basement of the Spokane Civic Theater, 1020 N. Howard.

“Into the Woods”

The Lake City Playhouse, Coeur d’Alene’s community theater, tackles one of the most ambitious and rewarding of Stephen Sondheim musicals, “Into the Woods,” beginning tonight.

This 1987 show tells some familiar fairy tales - Jack and Beanstalk, Little Red Riding Hood - in the first act, but then in the second act it goes on to show what really happens instead of “happily ever after.” In contains some of the most beautiful songs Sondheim ever wrote, including “Children Will Listen.”

The show is directed by Michael Fietsam, with musical direction by Ann Paul and Mary Lou Dion.

The cast includes Roger Welch, Julie Powell, Laura Seable, Jeff Waggoner and Bob Brannan.

The show opens tonight and continues Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 27-29, Nov. 2-5 and Nov. 9-11. Showtimes are 8 p.m., Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. on Sundays.

Tickets are $10, $8 for students and seniors, $6 for children 12 and under. Call (208) 667-1323 for reservations and information. The Lake City Playhouse is at 14th and Garden in Coeur d’Alene.

‘Veronica’s Room’

Tonight is opening night for the Rogue Players’ first play of the season, “Veronica’s Room,” a thriller by Ira Levin (“Deathtrap,” “Rosemary’s Baby”).

“Veronica’s Room” is about a sweet old couple who convince a young girl that she is the living image of Veronica, the deceased sister of their employer. They persuade the girl to pretend to be Veronica, in order to soothe their mistress.

But in Levin’s plays, nothing is as it seems.

The director is Bob Gariepy. The show opens tonight and continues Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 27-29 and Nov. 2-4. Showtimes are 8 p.m. except Sunday matinees are 2 p.m.

General admission tickets are $8, $6 for seniors and students, and are available by calling 327-9907. The Rogue Players performances are at the Mason Auditorium of the West Central Community Center, 1603 N. Belt.

‘The Love Course’

The Cast Adrift Players, Spokane’s traveling theater troupe, heads for the Cutter Theater in Metaline Falls for three performances of A.R. Gurney’s “The Love Course” this weekend.

“The Love Course” is about a woman professor who teaches a class about “the literature of love” with a male colleague. She falls in love with him, and now faces the last class of the year.

The shows are timed to complement the Lions Club Train Rides taking place this weekend. The shows are at 3:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. on Saturday, and 3:30 p.m. on Sunday.

Tickets are $5. Call (509) 446-4108 for reservations.

The Cutter Theater is in the old school building in Metaline Falls, and is on the National Register of Historic Places.

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