The Piano Lesson
American Stage The Raymond James Theatre St. Petersburg, FL
Lighting design for the 2013 production of The Piano Lesson at American Stage, directed by Mark Clayton Southers.
- Playwright
- August Wilson
- Director
- Mark Clayton Southers
- Scenic Designer
- Frank Chavez5 shows together
- Lighting Designer
- Mike Wood
- Technical Director
- Timon Brown12 shows together
About the Show
Set in 1936 Pittsburgh, Berniece and her brother Boy Willie clash over the fate of the family piano; she treasures it as a precious connection to their ancestors, and he sees it as the means to a more prosperous future. Boy Willie arrives in Pittsburgh from the South in a battered truck loaded with watermelons to sell, hoping to earn money to purchase land in Mississippi that belonged to a white man named Sutter, who has recently died. The piano symbolizes much more than mere property; it carries the weight of the family's ancestral legacy, having been acquired through a traumatic history involving slavery and sacrifice.
Source: Concord
Production Photos
Press
Costumes by Saidah Ben Judah and Lighting Design by Mike Wood are more effective, especially the lightning storm that proceeds the exorcism.