Complete casting has been announced for the Signature Theatre Company mounting of August Wilson's Seven Guitars. The production will feature Kevin Carroll as Canewell, Cassandra Freeman as Ruby, Stephen McKinley Henderson as Red Carter, Brenda Pressley as Louise, Lance Reddick as Floyd Barton, Roslyn Ruff as Vera and Charles Weldon as Hedley.
Set in Pittsburgh's Hill District in 1948, Seven Guitars centers on seven people as they share frustration, joy and loss. In the play, Floyd "Schoolboy" Barton, an aspiring blues musician, returns home to seek his fortune and reclaim his woman, a sick old man longs for an heir to carry on his name and three single women cope with betrayal and lost dreams.
Carroll is currently appearing off-Broadway in Satellites. Freeman was featured in the Spike Lee film Inside Man. Henderson has appeared on Broadway in Wilson's King Hedley II and Ma Rainey's Black Bottom and off-Broadway in the playwright's Jitney. Pressley's Broadway credits include The Moony Shapiro Songbook, Dreamgirls and Cats. Reddick, who has appeared off-Broadway before, is probably best known for playing Lt. Cedric Daniels on the HBO series The Wire. Ruff's off-Broadway credits include The Taming of the Shrew and Pudd'nhead Wilson. A co-founder of the Negro Ensemble Company, Weldon's Broadway credits include Buck White and The River Niger.
Seven Guitars, directed by Ruben Santiago-Hudson, is scheduled to run at Signature from July 31 through September 23.