Drama Queen

August Wilson, times two

If not for North Miami's M Ensemble Company, the work of the late August Wilson would scarcely have been seen in South Florida.  One of the region's oldest theater companies, also one of the nation's most enduring black theater companies, M Ensemble has commited to working its way through Wilson's entire 10-play cycle about black life in each decade of the 20th century.  This season, the company will tackle Wilson's 1986 play Joe Turner's Come and Gone, set in a Pittsburgh boarding house in 1911, from Nov. 13-Dec. 21.

Even sooner, though, another company is taking on Wilson's penetrating, theatrically dazzling work. Plantation's Mosaic Theatre will kick off its 2008-2009 season with a production of Wilson's final play, Radio Golf.  Also set in Pittsburgh, this time in the late 1990s, the play follows the fortunes of an entrepreneur who is angling to become the city's first black mayor. Artistic director Richard Jay Simon has signed up some of South Florida's best actors -- John Archie (pictured), Lela Elam, W. Paul Bodie, Summer Hill Seven and Robert Strain -- so expect fireworks.  Radio Golf runs Sept. 11-Oct. 5 at Mosaic's space in the American Heritage Center for the Arts, 12200 W. Broward Blvd.  Call 954-577-8243 or visit Mosaic's web site.

A footnote: If you're a fan of Wilson's rich, distinctive writing, you may want to own the beautiful box set of all 10 plays.  Called The August Wilson Century Cycle, the collection features not only special editions of the scripts but forwards by an eclectic group of artists (and critics) -- Laurence Fishburne, Tony Kushner, Toni Morrison, Suzan-Lori Parks, Phylicia Rashad and Frank Rich among them. The price ($200) isn't cheap, but this is the definitive Wilson collection, available through its publisher, the Theatre Communications Group.

A hot season at Mosaic

Richard Jay Simon, artistic director of Plantation's Mosaic Theatre, has just revealed his choices for the 2008-2009 season, and it's full of work from great, provocative playwrights.

The lineup begins with the final work of Pulitzer Prize winner August Wilson.  Radio Golf, the last in Wilson's 10-play cycle about black Americans in each decade of the 20th Century, runs Sept. 11-Oct. 5.  Next is Conor McPherson's The Seafarer, nominated for best play at this year's Tony Awards on June 15.  Both funny and chilling, this play by a masterful Irish writer runs Nov. 20-Dec. 14.

David Mamet's A Life in the Theater, about an older actor, a younger one and the difference between reality and artful illusion, will run Feb. 26-March 22.  Winter Miller's new play In Darfur, about an aid worker, a journalist and a refugee whose lives intersect at a camp in Darfur, gets its southeastern premiere at Mosaic April 16-May 3.  The season winds up May 28-June 21, 2009, with In a Dark, Dark House, a Neil LaBute play about brothers in conflict over a claim of sexual abuse.

Flexible subscriptions to the season are $149 -- $128 for seniors, just $64 for students. For info, call 954-577-8243 or visit the Mosaic website.

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Get-well wishes go out to Katherine "Katie" Amadeo, who was in a scary car accident Sunday morning and is aching but, happily, going to be OK.  One of the founders of The Naked Stage (with hubby Antonio Amadeo and actor John Manzelli), Katie most recently starred in the company's bold production of 4.48 Psychosis and was in the front row Saturday night to watch her husband in City Theatre's Signature Shorts at the Arsht Center.  Feel better soon!