Perceptions Play Club is a space where we come together virtually and in person to discuss plays we  have read by BIPOC playwrights. Join us every other month for a new play that you will read for the month then come to discuss it with us at the end of the month.

Zoom Link: 

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85750644781?pwd=M1djTFF3TmUzYmx2KzRHZmFGZzAvUT09

Meeting ID: 857 5064 4781

Passcode: 929719

April's Play Club is King Headley II

About King Headley II:

King Hedley II is the ninth play in August Wilson’s ten-play cycle that, decade by decade, examines African American life in the United States during the twentieth century. Set in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1985, it tells the story of an ex-con in Pittsburgh trying to rebuild his life. The play has been described as one of Wilson's darkest, telling the tale of a man trying to save $10,000 by selling stolen refrigerators so that he can buy a video store, as well as revisiting stories of other characters initially presented in Seven Guitars.

Hedley’s wish, now that he has returned to Pittsburgh from prison, is to support himself by selling refrigerators and to start a family. Set during the Reagan Administration, the play comments critically on the supply-side economics theories of the day, examining whether their stated aim of providing trickle-down benefits to all Americans truly improved the lot of urban African Americans.

About Playwright: 

August Wilson (Frederick August Kittel Jr.; April 27, 1945 – October 2, 2005) was an American playwright. He has been referred to as the "theater's poet of Black America". He is best known for a series of 10 plays, collectively called The Pittsburg Cycle  (or The Century Cycle), which chronicle the experiences and heritage of the African-American community in the 20th century. Plays in the series include Fences (1987) and The Piano Lesson (1990), both of which won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, as well as Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (1984) and Joe Turner's Come and Gone (1988). In 2006, Wilson was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame.