Powerful Long Ladder

10/13/2026

📢SCREENING📢

AUGUST IN MOBILE!

August Wilson: The Ground on Which I Stand

📆
When: Tuesday, October 13, 2026 @ 7 PM
Where: The Historic Avenue Cultural Center
564 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Ave.,
Mobile, AL 36603
Admission: FREE
Contact: (251) 434-9935
https://www.mobilecountyal.gov/historic-avenue-cultural-center/

Directed by Sam Pollard and narration by Emmy winner Keith David, this 2015 PBS Emmy nominated documentary, "August Wilson: The Ground on Which I Stand" takes us through the life and career of one of 20th century's literary giants, two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, August Wilson who passed away in 2005. The film follows his childhood in Pittsburgh and his magnificent achievement, the American Century Cycle, a chronicling of ten plays including Fences and Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, that reflected African American life decade by decade.
[Run Time 1hr 26min]

COMING UP!
Don't miss August Wilson's Jitney, in Italian October 15-17!
Arlene Mitchell Theater
Spring Hill College
Mobile, Alabama 36608
For Tickets Please go to https://powerfullongladder.thundertix.com/events/272057?only_one=true

AL.com Article
A distinctively American drama goes to Italy--and comes back to Alabama
https://www.al.com/life/2026/10/a-distinctively-american-drama-goes-to-italy-and-comes-back-to-alabama.html?outputType=amp

10/13/2026

Mobile is one of a handful of U.S. cities to see the production.

10/13/2026

And if one was determined to translate August Wilson, why not start with one of his Pulitzer winners, “Fences” or “The Piano Lesson?”

Even before those, there’s “Why Mobile?” That one, at least, is easy. After the wreckage of the slave ship Clotilda was confirmed found near Mobile in 2019, one of the many people drawn to the story of the Africatown community was Terrence Spivey.

📢Purchase Tickets Here🎟🇺🇲🇮🇹🎭
https://powerfullongladder.thundertix.com/events/272057?only_one=true&

Mobile is one of a handful of U.S. cities to see the production.

10/11/2026

📢 Here's a hot off the press announcement from Italian director Renzo Carbonera and Italian stage and film star Miguel Gobbo Diaz about their sizzling production of August Wilson's Jitney, coming to Mobile, Alabama this week!

If you missed the show in St. Louis. Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Auburn University and True Colors Theatre Theatre, you missed a treat. It was cooking! It's not too late to see it before they head back to Italy.

📢Cleveland's Powerful Long Ladder in association with Spring Hill College collaborates with two of Italy's 🇮🇹 Premier theatre company' s Sardegna Teatro and La Piccionaia's astounding production of August Wilson's JITNEY, in Italian! 🎭

🗓When: October 15-17, 2026
📌Where: Arlene Mitchell Theater
Spring Hill College
1495 Rimes Rd.
Mobile, Alabama 36608
Contact: [email protected]

Projected English Supertitles during the Jitney performances.


gobbo diaz
of marcos




Go to 🎟www.powerfullongladder.com for tickets, showtimes, and about the play!

Sponsor: Mobile County Commission
Special Acknowledgment: Spring Hill College and Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company.

10/07/2026

Cleveland's Powerful Long Ladder brings two of Italy's 🇮🇹 Premier theatre company' s Sardegna Teatro and La Piccionaia's astounding production of August Wilson's JITNEY, in Italian,🎭 directed by Renzo Carbonera, with an all Black-Italian cast to Mobile, Alabama, home of the original Mardi Gras, during its Gulf Coast tour.

🗓When: October 15-17, 2026
📌Where: Arlene Mitchell Theater
Spring Hill College
1495 Rimes Rd.
Mobile, Alabama 36608
Contact: [email protected]

Projected English Supertitles during the Jitney performances along with the soulful sound of Marvin Gaye.


gobbo diaz
of marcos




Go to 🎟www.powerfullongladder.com for tickets, showtimes, and about the play!

Sponsor: Mobile County Commission
Special Acknowledgment: Spring Hill College and Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company.

1st Photo Credit: Sardegna Teatro
2nd Photo Credit: Vince Robinson

10/03/2026

Trailer to August Wilson's JITNEY, in Italian

Powerful Long Ladder presents Italy's Sardegna Teatro production of August Wilson's JITNEY, in Italian with an all Black-Italian cast at Spring Hill College Arlene Mitchell Theater in Mobile, Alabama.

🎟 For Tickets and Showtimes
www.powerfullongladder.com

This is "Jitney_Trailer_short" by Teatro di Sardegna Soc. Coop. on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.

10/03/2026

→ Thursday, October 15 to Saturday, October 17 | Arlene Mitchell Theatre / Spring Hill College / Clotilda Descendants and Powerful Long Ladder — Mobile, Alabama (USA)

"August Wilson: Like You’ve Never Heard Him Before" -Erik Piepenburg, The New York Times, April 2026

🇺🇲 Cleveland, Ohio's Powerful Long Ladder is proud of this Gulf Coast international collaboration with 🇮🇹Italy's Sardegna Teatro to present the company's foreign production of August Wilson's JITNEY 🎭 in Italian with an all Black-Italian cast in Mobile, Alabama, the original home of Mardi Gras.

Italy's prestigious theatre companies, Sardegna Teatro and La Piccionaia was featured in The New York Times for its first U.S. international collaboration tour of August Wilson's 'Jitney' in Italian to St. Louis Black Rep in St Louis, Powerful Long Ladder in Cleveland and Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company/August Wilson House in Pittsburgh in May 2026. STANDING OVATIONS!

Now is your chance, Mobile and the surrounding Gulf Coast.

📆 October 15-17, 2026
📍 Arlene Mitchell Theater
Spring Hill College
1495 Rimes. Rd.
Mobile, Alabama 36608

A huge thank you to the sponsor, Mobile County Commission. We also thank Spring Hill College and Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company for their support

🎟For Tickets and Showtimes
www.powerfullongladder.com

Black Theatre United American Theatre magazine Mobile Arts Council Gulf Coast News Gulf Coast Arts Alliance Color Of Change

In the midst of the steel industry crisis, for which the city is known worldwide, five drivers, Becker, Youngblood, Turnbo, Fielding, and Doub, struggle to get by, clinging nostalgically to the past, while seeing only the dark outlines of an uncertain future on the horizon.

09/30/2026

Cleveland based theatre company, Powerful Long Ladder in association with Spring Hill College presents Italy's Sardegna Teatro and La Piccionaia's production of Pulitzer Prize-winner August Wilson's, Jitney in Mobile, Alabama.

Powerful Long Ladder's founder, Terrence Spivey, is no stranger to the Gulf Coast. In 2022, he was commissioned by the Clotilda Descendants Association to write and direct the play, "An Ocean in My Bones, for Africatown descendants in Mobile, Alabama.

The critically acclaimed "Jitney" directed by Italian film/theatre director Renzo Carbonera, with an all Black-Italian cast, made its U.S. debut in May 2026 at The Black Rep in St. Louis, MO, Powerful Long Ladder in Cleveland, OH and Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company/August Wilson House in Pittsburgh, PA., the childhood home of the great August Wilson.

Sponsors: Mobile County Commission, Poarch Creek Foundation and a few Clotilda Descendants. We thank you.

Special thank you to Spring Hill College and Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company for their support.

When: October 15-17, 2026
Where: Arlene Mitchell Theater
1495 Rimes Rd.
Mobile, Alabama 36608

There will be projected English supertitles during the Jitney performances.

Go to PLL link www.powerfullongladder.com for tickets and more information.


Kpvutv Pvamu American Theatre magazine
Gulf Coast News Gulf Coast Arts Alliance Black Theatre United

09/21/2026

after you have all the lines memorized
you must do one thing
fall into darkness backward

-The late, great Lloyd Richards advice to a young Bill Duke

08/22/2026

"August Wilson Like You’ve Never Heard Him Before: In Italian"

-Eric Piepenburg, The New York Times 📰

In May 2026, three Midwest theatre companies (The Black Rep in St. Louis, Powerful Long Ladder in Cleveland, Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company in Pittsburgh) made history with an international collaboration to bring Italy's Sardegna Teatro production of August Wilson's JITNEY, in Italian, with an all Black-Italian cast, to the U.S..

Shout out to The George Gund Foundation, Cuyahoga Arts and Culture, Treelawn, and individual contributions for supporting PLL.

SAVE THE DATE
🗓October 15-17, 2026
Cleveland's Powerful Long Ladder has joined forces to bring Italy's acclaimed theatre company's production of Wilson's classic to the community in Mobile, Alabama, during its Gulf Coast tour.

MORE INFORMATION COMING SOON

Powerful Long Ladder Site
www.powerfullongladder.com