Feb 20, 2015 2 min read

March 5-April 5

‘How I Learned What I Learned’

Pittsburgh Public Theater’s 40th anniversary Season of Legends continues with the Pittsburgh premiere of “How I Learned What I Learned,” the final play written by August Wilson.

Wilson’s one-man play about coming of age in Pittsburgh begins in the Hill District in 1965, when August Wilson was 20 years old. He tells of dropping out of school at age 15 to write poetry, and how he supported himself by cutting grass and working at Klein’s and Kroger’s. He talks about the neighborhood and its people, and how he was inspired by what they saw in him. He dishes about his girlfriend, Snookie, and how he almost fought a duel in her honor at Downtown’s Oyster House. From the Christmas pageant in Sister Mary Eldephonse’s seventh-grade class to hearing John Coltrane at the Crawford Grill in 1966, Wilson, played by actor Eugene Lee, reveals his outrage and passion. Sometimes shockingly provocative and often hilariously funny, “How I Learned What I Learned” is an amazingly generous portrait of this uncompromising artist as a young man.

The play runs March 5-April 5 at the O’Reilly Theater in the Cultural District. Tickets are $23-$62; students age 26 and younger are $15.75.

A special panel discussion, The Making of a Playwright: August Wilson and Black Horizon Theatre, will take place at 7 p.m. March 16 at the O’Reilly Theater. This free event will cover the early years of the Black Horizon Theatre, which operated in the Hill District from 1968-1972, and was a training ground for Wilson and others. There will also be the first-ever reunion of Black Horizon company members.

For tickets to “How I Learned What I learned,” call 412-316-1600 or visit ppt.org.