Cook, Mackie, Rashad, White, et al. Set for Kennedy Center Season

Staged readings of all 10 plays of August Wilson’s Pittsburgh Hill cycle will be among the highlights of the Kennedy Center’s 2007-2008 season.

August Wilson’s Twentieth Century, to be held March 4-29 at the Terrace Theater, will be organized by Kenny Leon, the director of the upcoming Broadway production of Wilson’s last play Radio Golf. It will utilize a cast of approximately 25 actors to read the 10 works, including John Amos, Keith David, Viola Davis, Lynda Gravatt, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Anthony Mackie, and Phylicia Rashad. Directors for the series will include Lou Bellamy, Gordon Davidson, Todd Kreidler, and Derrick Sanders.

The Terrace Theater will host a new cabaret series called Barbara Cook’s Spotlight, which kicks off with the legendary star on October 19. Other performers in the series will be Judy Kuhn (October 26), Lillias White (November 16), Brent Barrett (December 28) and Alice Ripley and Emily Skinner (April 11).

The Terrace will also be home to Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter, a new play by Julie Marie Myatt presented by the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. The show’s title character is a wounded Marine sergeant who finds herself adrift in the California desert.

With the Eisenhower Theater closed for renovations, the Center’s two musical offerings will take place in the Opera House: the recent West End production of Lerner & Loewe’s My Fair Lady, directed by Trevor Nunn and featuring choreography by Matthew Bourne (December 27-January 20), and the national tour of Disney’s The Lion King (previews begin June 26, 2008).

In addition, the Kennedy Center will present JAPAN! culture + hyperculture, February 5-17, which will bring together 467 artists from 17 different performing companies of music, dance, and theater, along with a variety of free events including five exhibits featuring visual arts, design, fashion, film, and literature.

For more information, visit www.kennedycenter.org.