May 1, 2 & 3, 2026
St. Louis Black Repertory Company / Kirkwood Performing Arts Center
St. Louis (MO)
May 5 & 6, 2026
Powerful Long Ladder / Treelawn Hall
Cleveland (OH)
Jitney is a project dedicated to honoring August Wilson’s work, a multidisciplinary exploration of his theatrical text, directed by Italian theatre and cinema director Renzo Carbonera and produced by Sardegna Teatro, in collaboration with La Piccionaia – Centro di Produzione Teatrale.
For the first time ever a play by August Wilson, one of the most important American authors and certainly the most prolific and decisive African-American playwright of all time, is translated from the original language into another language, specifically Italian, and most importantly gets staged with an entirely Afro-Italian cast. This work is an opportunity to celebrate the contributions of peoples of the African diaspora across the globe and to promote and foster local and international art, cultural understanding and collaboration, and to acknowledge the universal importance of August Wilson’s work.
In his plays August Wilson made ample use of the language, rhythm and cadence he heard in his community, The Hill District of Pittsburgh, which was inhabited primarily by the Black descendants of people transplanted from various southern states during The Great Migration. He took their way of speaking, their logic, their sense of humor and their way of celebrating their survival through centuries of oppression and elevated this struggle to his style of poetry on the page.
PLOT
Pittsburgh, 1977, in the midst of the steel industry crisis, for which the city is known throughout the world. Five taxi drivers, Becker, Youngblood, Turnbo, Fielding and Doub, struggle to get by and cling nostalgically to the past. Becker is the owner of the taxi stand, his life changes when his son Booster gets released from prison. He had been locked up for the murder of his girlfriend, who had falsely accused him of rape. Youngblood, meanwhile, has saved enough money to buy a condo for himself, his girlfriend Rena and little Jesse, but even this gesture fails to redeem him in the eyes of his partner. Turnbo complains about today’s youth, and especially Youngblood, compared to the old-school drivers. Fielding was once a tailor, until his alcoholism ruined his business. Doub, a veteran of the Korean War, complains that White people now treat him no better than they did in the war. The five men ponder how to heal their wounds of the past and keep faith in an uncertain future, especially after Becker decides to close down the business, driven by the promise, or rather the threat, of the imminent neighborhood’s gentrification. A cathartic ending leads the language of the street and the syncopated rhythm of jazz closer to the classical language of tragedy.
Presented in Italian with English supertitles.
CAST
Renzo Carbonera – Director
Jared McNeill – Becker/Shealy
Alberto Boubakar Malanchino – Turnbo/Booster
Miguel Gobbo Diaz – Doub/Fielding
Rosanna Sparapano – Rena
Marcos Piacentini – Youngblood
Teatro di Sardegna is the only TRIC, Theatre of Relevant Cultural Interest, in Sardinia.
TDS, acknowledged by the Italian Ministry of Culture, as TRIC in 2015, supports artistic creation granting the artists a long-time rehearsal, to experiment with the cross-media fusions of new languages, socio-cultural contexts and manifold environments.
TDS is committed to conveying a cultural scene that is not only artistic, aiming to take shape as a plural subject, capable of embodying multiple languages, being a vehicle of educational opportunities, and taking part in the cultural regeneration of the territories it inhabits. The presence in the territories is plural as well: in the main cities of Cagliari and Nuoro, TDS runs spaces inhabited by performances and installations both produced or hosted. TDS is also present in Paulilatino where it manages Grazia Deledda’s Theatre, addressed to artistic residencies, and in Argentiera village, in the municipality of Sassari, in Sardinia and did several national tours in the major Italian theaters. Sardegna Teatro has not only become a true institution here in Italy, but these years confirms its international vocation and has led to international tours and even participation in some major European projects. Sardegna Teatro’s main productions include the theater play titled “Macbettu” by Alessandro Serra, who has toured the world’s most important theatres in different countries in the world, winner of Ubu Prize 2017 – Best Play of the Year and Theatre Critics Award conferred by the National Association of Theatre Critics in Italy and in Festival Mess Awards 2019 (Sarajevo); others: “Tragùdia – il canto di Edipo” also by Alessandro Serra, and “Cinema Cielo” by Danio Manfredini, “Vizita” by Davide Iodice and many others.