August Wilson's Seven Guitars

AUGUST WILSON

Playwright

AUGUST WILSON (Playwright)’s plays include Gem of the Ocean, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, The Piano Lesson (Pulitzer Prize winner), Seven Guitars, Fences (Pulitzer Prize winner, Tony Award winner), Two Trains Running, Jitney (Oliver Award winner), King Hedley II and Radio Golf. In 2003, he made his stage debut in his one-man show, How I Learned What I Learned. He received an Emmy Award nomination for his screenplay The Piano Lesson. Other works include The Janitor, Recycle, The Coldest Day of the Year, Malcolm X, The Homecoming and the musical satire Black Bart and the Sacred Hills. Other awards include eight New York Drama Critics Circle Awards, Rockefeller and Guggenheim Fellowships in Playwriting, a Whiting Writers Award, 2003 Heinz Award, 1999 National Humanities Medal and induction into the Theater Hall of Fame.

TAZEWELL THOMPSON

Director

TAZEWELL THOMPSON (Director) is an internationally acclaimed theater and opera director, award-winning playwright, librettist, teacher and actor. He has more than 150 directing credits, many world and American premieres, in major opera houses and theaters: France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Africa, Japan, Canada and the USA. His opera Blue, with composer Jeanine Tesori, won the 2020 MCANA Award for Best New Opera in North America. The New York Times and The Washington Post cited Blue as Best in Classical Music 2019. At Arena Stage he served as associate artistic director under Zelda Fichandler and has directed and/or written more than 20 productions at Arena Stage, the most recent, his a cappella musical, Jubilee. His award-winning play, Constant Star, has had 16 productions in major theaters across the country, winning nine Barrymore Awards, six Audelco Awards, five NAACP Awards and three Carbonell Awards. His play Mary T. & Lizzy K., commissioned by and produced at Arena Stage, is the recipient of The Edgerton Foundation New American Play Award. His production of Porgy and Bess, broadcast live from Lincoln Center, received Emmy Award nominations for Best Director and Best Classical Production. He holds the record of directing three productions — Appomattox/ Philip Glass, Lost in the Stars/ Kurt Weill and Cato in Utica/ Vivaldi — all in the same season in three different theaters at The Kennedy Center. Blue has upcoming productions in Toledo; Seattle; Pittsburgh; London; Amsterdam; Chicago; Washington, D.C.; and New York City. 

DONALD EASTMAN

Set Designer

DONALD EASTMAN (Set Designer) is thrilled to return to Arena Stage with Seven Guitars with his constant collaborator, Tazewell Thompson. For Arena he designed the premieres of Thompson’s Constant Star, Mary T. & Lizzie K. and Jubilee, as well as M Butterfly, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Black No More, Yellowman, and The Heidi Chronicles at Arena Stage as well as Molly Smith’s productions of The Book Club Play and My Fair Lady. Recent productions include Intimate Apparel and Dinner With Friends for Baltimore’s Everyman Theatre, Possessing Harriet at Syracuse Stage, Chasing the New White Whale at La MaMa ETC and Blue a new American opera by composer Jeanine Tesori with libretto and direction by Tazewell Thompson. Donald has received numerous awards including a Village Voice OBIE for Sustained Excellence of Design and is a NEA/National Opera Institute grantee.

HARRY NADAL

Costume Designer

HARRY NADAL (Costume Designer) Originally from San Juan, PR. A Raisin in the Sun, Arena Stage. New York credits include Lincoln Center Institute, Atlantic Theater Co., Brooklyn Academy of Music, LAByrinth Theater Company, Juilliard, INTAR, HOME for Contemporary Theater and Art, Pregones/PRTT, HERE Arts Center and Theater for the New City, among many others. Regional credits include the 2020 world premiere of Freedom Ride at Chicago Opera Theater, TheaterWorks (Hartford, CT), UrbanArias (Arlington, VA), Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble, Baltimore Center Stage, Boise Contemporary Theater and People’s Light (Malvern, PA), among others. Upcoming, The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity at ZACH Theatre (Austin, TX), Baipas at George Street Playhouse (New Brunswick, NJ) and Folks at Home (Baltimore Center Stage). MFA from New York University, Tisch School of the Arts. Faculty member at Pratt Institute Film School. www.harrynadal.com.

ROBERT WIERZEL

Lighting Designer

ROBERT WIERZEL (Lighting Designer) has designed the lighting for Arena’s productions of Sovereignty, The Pajama Game, A Raisin In The Sun, Mary T. & Lizzy K., The Heidi Chronicles, On The Verge, M Butterfly, Yellowman, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and Black No More. Broadway productions include Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill, the musical FELA! (Tony Award nomination) and David Copperfield’s Broadway debut Dreams and Nightmares.  Robert has designed productions with opera companies throughout the country and abroad, as well as numerous productions (32 seasons) with Glimmerglass Festival. Robert’s dance work includes 36 years with the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company. Furthermore, Robert has worked at most regional theaters across the country, including the Shakespeare Theatre Company. Currently, Robert is a creative partner at Spark Design Collaborative and is on the faculty of NYU Tisch School of the Arts. 

FABIAN OBISPO

Sound Designer

FABIAN OBISPO (Sound Designer) returns to Arena Stage where his credits are Raisin in the Sun, Mary T & Lizzy K, Caucasian Chalk Circle, M Butterfly, Agamemnon And His Daughters (Helen Hayes Nomination), Heidi’s Chronicle, Constant Star, Yerma, Yellowman, On the Verge and Black No More. Recent off-Broadway credits include Public Theater’s Sea Wall/A Life, Oedipus El Rey, Teenage Dick, The Flea’s Emma and Max and MaYi’s The Chinese Lady. DC-area credits include Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Comedy of Errors, Henry V, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Folger Theatre’s Romeo and Juliet and Everyman Theatre’s Intimate Apparel. He has composed and sound designed extensively for regional theaters including the Goodman Theatre, Guthrie Theater, OSF and ACT just to name a few. He is a recipient of the Berkshires Theatre Critics Award and the Barrymore.  

ANNE NESMITH

Wig Designer

ANNE NESMITH (Wig Designer) is pleased to return to Arena Stage following last season’s Mother Road. Her designs have been seen locally at Kennedy Center, Ford’s Theatre, Signature Theatre, Wolftrap Opera, Shakespeare Theatre and Washington Ballet. Regional work includes designs with Opera Philadelphia, Opera Boston, Annapolis Opera and Kansas CIty Rep and internationally at Saito Kinen Festival and Hyogo Performing Arts Center in Japan. Anne was the resident wig/makeup designer for the Baltimore Opera and has constructed wigs for Scooby Doo! Live and 42nd Street (Asian tour). You can see her work at the National Museum of African American History and Culture, in Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery programs, Ice Cold Killers for Investigation Discovery, the Military Channel’s Great Planes, MD Public Television and the U.S. Army’s tour Spirit of America. 

RON PIRETTI

Fight Director

RON PIRETTI (Fight Director) directed the fights for Arena Stage’s production of Jubilee. On Broadway: The Last Ship, West Side Story, In the Heights, The Miracle Worker, Bengal Tiger at the Bagdad Zoo (add’l Fight Direction) and The Performers. Off-Broadway, his work has been seen at Cherry Lane Theatre among many others. Ron has worked at Goodspeed Opera, Dallas Theatre Center and Hartford Theatreworks. Ron appeared as Officer Krupke in the Broadway production of West Side Story and regionally, as one of the Clowns in 39 Steps. Ron has acted in film and TV. He has taught at the Actors Studio Drama School, Wagner College and Marymount Manhattan College. He currently teaches acting at The Barrow Group (NYC). He attended Trinity University (San Antonio) and received his MFA from the Goodman School of Drama. 

VICTOR VAZQUEZ, C.S.A.

Casting

VICTOR VAZQUEZ, CSA (Casting) is a casting director in New York City. He is the founder of XCasting (xcastingnyc.com) and sits on the national board of the Casting Society of America.

JZ CASTING/GEOFF JOSSELSON, C.S.A. and KATJA ZAROLINSKI, C.S.A.

New York Casting

JZ CASTING (New York Casting) Geoff Josselson, CSA and Katja Zarolinski, CSA are New York-based casting directors, handling productions for theater, film and television. Recent work includes productions for Arena Stage, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Baltimore Center Stage, Cape Playhouse, Denver Center, The Irish Repertory Theatre, Merrimack Rep, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Pittsburgh CLO, Pittsburgh Public Theatre, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Round House Theatre, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Studio Theatre, Theaterworks Hartford and Weston Playhouse. For more information, please visit www.jz-casting.com.

MARNE ANDERSON

Stage Manager

MARNE ANDERSON (Stage Manager) is thrilled to return to Arena Stage. Some highlights include The Heiress, Indecent, Dave, Two Trains Running, The Great Society, Nina Simone: Four Women, A Raisin in the Sun, Moby Dick, All the Way, Erma Bombeck: At Wit’s End, King Hedley II, Five Guys Named Moe, Mother Courage and Her Children, The Mountaintop, Metamorphoses, Long Day’s Journey into Night, Arabian Nights and Duke Ellington’s Sophisticated Ladies. She is a graduate of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and a proud member of Actors’ Equity Association. 

EMILY ANN MELLON

Assistant Stage Manager

EMILY ANN MELLON (Assistant Stage Manager) returns for an eighteenth mainstage production at Arena Stage. Other selected D.M.V. credits include Souvenir (Rep Stage), A Doll's House, Part 2 (Round House Theatre), Girlfriend (Signature Theatre), Wig Out! (Studio Theatre) and The School for Lies (Shakespeare Theatre Company). Additional regional credits include: The Niceties (Geva Theatre Center) and The Upstairs Concierge (Goodman Theatre). Television credits include: Inside Edition and Good Day New York.