On March 23 and 24, Eleanor Roosevelt’s Theatre put on their incredible production of Seven Guitars by August Wilson. Seven Guitars first premiered in Chicago in 1996, and has won numerous awards since then, such as a New York Drama Critics’ Circle in 1996. This show is the seventh play in August Wilson’s American Century Cycle, more commonly known as his Pittsburgh Cycle. Wilson’s series consists of ten plays, each of which are set in a different decade of the 20th century and explore the lives of different African Americans during that particular time period. 

Seven Guitars takes place in the 1940’s and follows the story of Floyd “Schoolboy” Barton, a musician that got famous off his hit record in Chicago. Floyd returns back to Pittsburgh to try and right his wrongs and convince his friends and girlfriend to return back to Chicago with him so that he can hopefully make another hit record. Freshman Augosto Bernstein who played Canewell in the show tells us that his director, Ms. Angelique Sterling “pushes us a lot in a good way” and “knows how to get stuff done.” He explained that after being casted for the role, he “barely knew a single person”, but soon after, he “became attached to everyone”. Him, his director, and other students at ERHS got people excited about the show and urged people to come out and watch it, resulting in a great turn out. He closed out the interview by telling us that “everyone in this production is so talented and have worked so hard every week for this play to be amazing, and this is also the first play in the auditorium since Covid.”

Sophomore Jackson Fassler who saw the play on March 24 tells us that he “thought that the actors did a great job performing and selling the roles that they played”, and that “despite some of the audio problems, everyone did a great job” and he is “glad that they chose this play”.

Hearing this interview really put into perspective the amount of hard work and dedication that the cast, crew, and director have put into the show. From building on unique characters to conveying this story full of racial conflict through emotion, action, and set design, the cast, crew, and director were very excited to share this production. As the excitement of the play dies down, we start looking into the future and can’t wait to see what is next for Eleanor Roosevelt’s Theatre Program!