Glouriously rendered!.
— SF Chronicle
A winner! Speaks to us all.
—Bay City News
The Oregon Shakespeare Festival Production of
August Wilson’s
How I Learned What I Learned
FEB 2024
Co-Conceived by TODD KREIDLER
Directed by TIM BOND
RUNTIME: 1 hour, 45 minutes with no intermission.
One of the greatest playwrights of our time returns to the stage in this open-hearted memoir charting one man’s journey of self-discovery through adversity, and what it means to be a Black artist in America. Originally performed by August Wilson himself, How I Learned What I Learned recounts his early days as a young poet, his first few jobs, encounters with racism, a stint in jail, divine connection with music, and the luminosity of love. Helmed by former Artistic Director and acclaimed Wilson interpreter Tim Bond, and brought to life by award-winning actor Steven Anthony Jones, this captivating production provides unique insights about the man behind some of the most celebrated plays of the 20th century.
Photos: Steven Anthony Jones by Jenny Graham courtesy of Oregon Shakespeare Festival.
Special Events and Accessible Performances
With Jeffrey Lo & Artistic Director Tim Bond
- Thursday, January 18, 2024 @ 6:30 – 7:10 (Balcony)
- Wednesday, January 24, 2024 @ 7:30pm
- Wednesday, January 31, 2024 @ 7:30pm
- Saturday, February 3, 2024 @ 2pm
- Saturday, February 3, 2024 @ 8pm
- Wednesday, January 31, 2024 @ 2pm
- Wednesday, January 31, 2024 @ 7:30pm
- Tuesday, January 30, 2024 @ 7:30pm
- Friday, January 26, 2024 @ 8pm
- Saturday, January 27, 2024 @ 2pm
Cast
STEVEN ANTHONY JONES*
STEVEN ANTHONY JONES was the artistic director of the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre from 2011 to 2017. He has worked professionally on stage, television, and in film for 42 years. He has performed in the works of Wilson, (Charles) Fuller, Fugard, Stoppard, Gotanda, Beckett, Pinter, Molière, Shakespeare, Chekhov, and others. Most recently, he played Becker in the Broadway tour of August Wilson’s Jitney.
CREATIVE TEAM
AUGUST WILSON, Playwright
AUGUST WILSON (Apr 27, 1945-Oct 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 theatres 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 work 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 Writer’s 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 theatre 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 wife, costume designer Constanza Romero.
TODD KREIDLER, Co-Conceiver
TODD's bio to come.
TIM BOND, Director
TIM BOND was recently appointed as Artistic Director of Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Bond served as Artistic Director of TheatreWorks Silicon Valley from 2020-2023 and has also served as Producing Artistic Director at Syracuse Stage, Associate Artistic Director at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and Artistic Director at Seattle Group Theatre. Tim has directed at more than 20 theatre companies nationally and internationally. This production originated at Oregon Shakespeare Festival in 2022 and was subsequently produced at Seattle Repertory Theatre in 2023 as the 20thAnniversary of when HOW I LEARNED WHAT I LEARNED first premiered there. He is the recipient of two Backstage West Garland Awards, two Syracuse Area Live Theatre (SALT) Awards, an Atlanta Theatre Suzi Bass Award, and Dallas-Fort Worth Critics Forum Award.
NINA BALL, Scenic Designer
NINA's bio to come.
CONSTANZA ROMERO, Costume Design, Dramaturg, Creative Consultant
CONSTANZA's bio to come.
XAVIER PIERCE, Lighting Designer
XAVIER's bio to come.
RASEAN DAVONTÉ JOHNSON, Projection Design / Sound Design
RASEAN DAVONTÉ JOHNSON returns to TheatreWorks where he previously designed In Every Generation. A Chicago-based video artist and theatrical designer, he has had the opportunity to work regionally with institutions such as The NY Philharmonic, The Public Theatre, Studio Theatre, Woolly Mammoth Theatre, The Olney Theatre Center, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Goodman Theatre, Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, Yale Repertory Theatre, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Seattle Rep, Portland Playhouse, Portland Opera, Yale Opera, Toledo Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Folks Operetta, Manual Cinema, and internationally with the The Edinburgh Fridge Festival (Scotland), Ningbo Song and Dance Theatre (China) and B-Floor Theatre (Thailand). He has degrees from the Ohio State University and the Yale School of Drama and is a Senior Instructional Professor and Director of Design for TAPS at the University of Chicago. raseandavontejohnson.com
JONAH BOBILIN, Associate Lighting Designer
JONAH BOBLIN is a theatrical designer originally from Oʻahu, HI where he received two Po`okela Awards for Excellence in Lighting Design from the Hawaiʻi State Theatre Council. Jonah was the Associate Lighting Designer on Stereophonic at Playwrights Horizons and How I Learned What I Learned at Seattle Repertory Theatre. Other recent credits include working as the Lighting Director of New York Stage and Film’s 2023 Summer Season and designing Hoʻoilina (the Kennedy Theatre), The Monkey King (Queens Theatre), Florence & Mojo(Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey), and The Mystery of Edwin Drood (Mānoa Valley Theatre). Since 2021, they have served on the Executive Board of Design Action, an intergenerational coalition of BIPOC and white designers working to end racial inequities in the North American Theater. www.jonahbobilinlighting.com (He/They)
RANDALL K. LUM*, Resident Stage Manager
RANDALL K. LUM was the stage manager for Center Rep’s The Legend Of Georgia McBride, South Coast Repertory’s Nina Simone: Four Women, associate director of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Stanford University, and production stage manager for the Old Vic’s production of A Christmas Carol at the Golden Gate Theatre. Selected TheatreWorks credits include Steel Magnolias, In Every Generation, Nan and the Lower Body, Sense and Sensibility, They Promised Her The Moon, Pride and Prejudice, The 39 Steps, Archduke, Fun Home, Hold These Truths, Finks, Skeleton Crew, Around the World in 80 Days, The Prince of Egypt, Constellations, Rags, Outside Mullingar, Confederates, The Velocity of Autumn, Jane Austen’s Emma, The Country House, Fallen Angels, The Lake Effect, Peter and the Starcatcher, Time Stands Still, Other Desert Cities, and Once on This Island. Other companies: Oregon and San Francisco Shakespeare Festivals, Denver Center Theatre Company, La Jolla Playhouse, Center Theatre Group, The Old Globe, American Conservatory Theater, California Shakespeare Theater, Berkeley and Seattle Repertory Theatres, Laguna and Pasadena Playhouses, and South Coast Repertory.
MEGAN Hall*, Assistant Stage Manager
MEGAN HALL has been with TheatreWorks for many years.
JUDITH NIHEI, Artist Counselor
JUDITH NIHEI is a San Francisco-based licensed psychotherapist in private practice. She has been a theatre director, dramaturg, writer, actor, and administrator. A founding member of Seattle’s Northwest Asian American Theatre, she returned home to work with San Francisco’s Asian American Theatre Company and began a long career in improv with The Committee. She consults for schools, nonprofits and community-based organizations, facilitating the incorporation of stress-reduction and cultural humility as an integral part of trauma-informed services. Clients have included Edgewood Center for Children and Families, Japanese Community Youth Council, and Theatre Communications Group, Inc. She continues her improv career as one of The Bad Aunties.