"Everybody got stones in their passway. You got to step over them or walk around them. You picking them up and carrying them with you. All you got to do is set them down by the side of the road. You ain't got to carry them with you."
August Wilson’s
The Piano Lesson
January 9 - March 15, 2026
Directed by Janai Lashon
It is 1936, and Boy Willie arrives in Pittsburgh from the South in a battered truck loaded with watermelons to sell. He has an opportunity to buy some land down home, but he has to come up with the money right quick. He wants to sell a piano that has great importance to his family, but he shares ownership with his sister Berniece, and the piano sits in her living room. Berniece has already rejected several offers, because the antique piano is covered with beautiful carvings detailing the family’s rise from slavery. Boy Willie argues that the past is past, but Berniece proves to be more formidable than he anticipated.
The Piano Lesson is the fourth installment of the American Century Cycle, following African American life experiences, decade by decade.
Winner of the 1990 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
“Like other Wilson plays, it seems to sing even when it is talking.” –The New York Times
This play has one fifteen minute intermission.
Playwright
AUGUST WILSON (April 27, 1945- October 2, 2005) authored Gem of the Ocean, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, The Piano Lesson, Seven Guitars, Fences, Two Trains Running, Jitney, King Hedley II, and Radio Golf. These works explore the heritage and experience of African-Americans, decade-by-decade, over the course of the twentieth century. His plays have been produced at regional theaters across the country and all over the world, as well as on Broadway.
In 2003, Mr. Wilson made his professional stage debut in his one-man show, How I Learned What I Learned. Mr. Wilson’s works garnered many awards including Pulitzer Prizes for Fences (1987); and for The Piano Lesson (1990); a Tony Award for Fences; Great Britain’s Olivier Award for Jitney; as well as eight New York Drama Critics Circle Awards for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Fences, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, The Piano Lesson, Two Trains Running, Seven Guitars, Jitney, and Radio Golf. Additionally, the cast recording of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom received a 1985 Grammy Award, and Mr. Wilson received a 1995 Emmy Award nomination for his screenplay adaptation of The Piano Lesson.
Mr. Wilson’s early works included the one-act plays The Janitor, Recycle, The Coldest Day of the Year, Malcolm X, The Homecoming and the musical satire Black Bart and the Sacred Hills. Mr. Wilson received many fellowships and awards, including Rockefeller and Guggenheim Fellowships in Playwriting, the Whiting Writers Award, 2003 Heinz Award, was awarded a 1999 National Humanities Medal by the President of the United States, and received numerous honorary degrees from colleges and universities, as well as the only high school diploma ever issued by the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. He was an alumnus of New Dramatists, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a 1995 inductee into the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and on October 16, 2005, Broadway renamed the theater located at 245 West 52nd Street -The August Wilson Theatre. Additionally, Mr. Wilson was posthumously inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame in 2007.
Mr. Wilson was born and raised in the Hill District of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and lived in Seattle, Washington at the time of his death. He is immediately survived by his two daughters, Sakina Ansari and Azula Carmen Wilson, and his wife, costume designer Constanza Romero.
Director
Janai Lashon is making her professional directorial debut with The Piano Lesson. Ms. Lashon is a friend of the stage, last appearing at the Rep as Molly Cunningham in Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, and before that as Jasmine in Fairview. Other area credits include Rabby in Fat Ham (Detroit Public Theatre), Sarah Ryan in Halftime with Don (Tipping Point Theatre), and Aisha in Mrs. Harrison (Williamston Theatre) which earned her a 22' Wilde Award for Best Lead Actress. She received her MFA in Acting from Ohio University in 2021, soon after adding directorial credits like Blood at the Root at Doudna Fine Arts Center with Eastern Illinois University, Blacks + Phats at Festival Playhouse at Kalamazoo College. She is also a proud alumni of Western Michigan University earning a BA in Theatre Performance in 2010. Additional artistic contributions that have shaped Janai's interdisciplinary work include Co-Founding Face Off Theater Company (2015) and Vibrancy Theatre (2021). She served as teaching artist/ mentor/ facilitator with organizations like Mosaic, the S.O.N.G project, Shakespeare In Prison with DPT and Hip Hop Theatre Festival.
Janai is thankful to be a part of the Rep’s vision to uplift the relevance of August Wilson’s American Century Cycle. To support and follow my artistic journey, follow on Instagram @jlashon or visit www.janailashon.com
