Overview

This poetic, bittersweet play is part of August Wilson’s Century Cycle, which illuminates the African-American experience through each decade of the 20th century. Set in 1948 in the backyard of a Pittsburgh apartment house, Seven Guitars follows blues guitarist Floyd “Schoolboy” Barton as he desperately tries to rebound from serving jail time on a trumped-up vagrancy charge and find his way to Chicago, hoping to make a new hit record. Through Floyd’s friends and neighbors—the seven voices of the play—a rich, melodic tale of passion and pain plays out to reveal the desires and dreams of those sharing life in this urban backyard community. (Adult themes and content)