The 'Equalizer' actor will produce a series of plays collectively called 'Pittsburgh Cycle' and direct one of them as well as star in it.
- Sep 20, 2015
AceShowbiz - Denzel Washington helps bring August Wilson's plays to the small screen. "The Equalizer" actor announces that he has signed a deal with HBO to adapt Wilson's ten plays collectively called "Pittsburgh Cycle" or "Century Cycle" about the African American experience in the 20th century.
"He did 10 plays. I've been given the opportunity by the August Wilson estate. I'm directing and producing and acting in one ("Fences") and I'm executive producing the other nine. I made a deal with HBO," he said at a Q&A event at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts.
"We're going to do one a year for the next nine years. I'm really excited about that. That that they put it in my hands, the estate, and trust me. That's good enough for me. It doesn't get any better than that," Washington elaborated their plan for the project as quoted by The Hollywood Reporter.
"His stories are specifically African American stories, but the themes are universal," he said. "Families, love, betrayal whatever the theme is. People relate and enjoy listening to or seeing his work. He was just a bright, brilliant shining light who was here and then he was gone, but his work will live forever to be interpreted by actors and directors for as long as we're here."
The other nine plays by the Pulitzer-winning playwright Wilson are titled "Gem of the Ocean", "Joe Turner's Come and Gone", "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom", "The Piano Lesson", "Seven Guitars", "Two Trains Running", "Jitney", "King Hedley II", and "Radio Golf".
