FRINGE THEATER KEY WEST / AUGUST WILSON’S HOW I LEARNED WHAT I LEARNED

FRINGE THEATER KEY WEST / AUGUST WILSON’S HOW I LEARNED WHAT I LEARNED

Fringe Theater, in partnership with the Florida Keys Council of the Arts, presents August Wilson’s autobiographical one-man play How I Learned What I Learned February 8-12 at 7pm in the Key West Armory located at 600 White Street.  

August Wilson (1945-2005) is a Pulitzer Prize winning playwright who is best known for his series of ten plays that chronicles the experiences of African American families in the neighborhood of Pittsburgh known as the Hill District. 

August Wilson was born and raised in the Pittsburgh Hill District so writing about it came naturally to him. He sat on stoops and in barbershops, listening to the stories and vocal cadences of the people around him. Then he wrote those stories into ten plays – one play for each decade. His plays captured the changes that occurred in Pittsburgh over 93 years and won two Pulitzer Prizes for Drama in the process. 

Fringe Theater presented August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson at the Frederick Douglass Gym in February 2019. The play was directed by Wilhelmina Lopez Martin and featured eight local readers and the great Coffee Butler on piano. The following year, Wilhelmina starred as the lead reader in Fringe’s production of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom at the American Legion Post 168. 

“We’ve loved working with locals to present August Wilson’s riveting plays. The time just seemed right to tell the story of the man behind those plays,” says Rebecca Tomlinson, Fringe Theater’s Managing Artistic Director. “And we knew we had the perfect person for the role, Richard Quint.”  

Richard Quint was born in Manhattan, raised in Indiana, and has been living in Key West for over a decade. “I went from apples to corn to coconuts,” he likes to joke. Audiences will recognize him from Fringe’s readings of The Piano Lesson and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (the latter of which he Co-Directed). Richard is active in Fringe’s education and outreach programs and serves as Fringe’s go-to dramaturg.

Murphy Davis is directing How I Learned What I Learned. Murphy moved to Key West almost ten years ago. In his past life he was the Artistic Director of the Stonehill Theatre Project in New York City and the Artistic Director of Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor, NY. Murphy’s previous Fringe productions include Cock at the Key West Armory and The Price at the Mel Fisher Museum.

Fringe’s Production Crew for How I Learned What I Learned includes Light Designer Kendall Cameron, Sound Designer Su Nubia, Light Board Op Aramis Ikatu, and Sound Board Op Amber Nolan. This production is presented in conjunction with Black History Month and is part of Fringe’s Field Trip to Fringe educational and outreach programming. 

August Wilson’s How I Learned What I Learned runs February 8-12 at 7pm at the Key West Armory. Tickets are $35 and $50 and can be purchased by phone at 305-731-0581 or online at www.fringetheater.org. For more information on this show or on our Black History Month Field Trip to Fringe program, email [email protected]. 

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