Seven Guitars

Jordi M. Carter (he/him/his) is a Caribbean-British director from Streatham, South London.

His work explores the tension between inheritance and self-authorship — how people move through worlds that have already assigned them meaning, and how they inhabit, negotiate, resist and remake systems of power, belonging and memory.

Through narrative architecture, rhythm, movement, musicality, image and spatial composition, his practice explores the human complexity and agency that exceeds inherited meanings and structures.

Jordi made his West End debut as the Associate Director of Marie & Rosetta, starring Beverley Knight (dir. Monique Touko) at @sohoplace. He recently directed the sold-out run of The Rise of Josephine Baker at Riverside Studios, the sold-out devised production …Before I Wake with Daniel Kaluuya’s Centre 59 Company at the Roundhouse, and new-writing commissions for the Almeida Theatre Young Company in response to Anya Reiss’ adaptation of A Doll’s House.

He currently sits on the Board of Trustees at Chichester Festival Theatre, and was formerly the 2024/25 Lambeth Baylis Trustee at The Old Vic and Co-Artistic Director & CEO of Boundless Theatre.

He holds a First Class BA (Joint Honours) in Drama & Film Studies from the University of Sussex.

August Wilson authored Gem of the Ocean, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, The Piano Lesson, Seven Guitars, Fences, Two Trains Running, Jitney, King Hedley II and Radio Golf. These works explore the heritage and experience of the descendants of Africans in North America, decade by decade, over the course of the twentieth century, forming the compilation entitled The American Century Cycle. His plays have been produced on Broadway, at regional theatres across the country and all over the world.

In 2003, Mr. Wilson made his professional stage debut in his one-man show, How I Learned What I Learned. Mr. Wilson’s works garnered many awards including: the Pulitzer Prize for Fences (1987) and for The Piano Lesson (1990); a Tony Award for Fences; Great Britain’s Olivier Award for Jitney; and seven New York Drama Critics Circle Awards for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Fences, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, The Piano Lesson, Two Trains Running, Seven Guitars and Jitney. Additionally, the cast recording of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom received a 1985 Grammy Award, and Mr. Wilson received a 1995 Emmy Award nomination for his screenplay adaptation of The Piano Lesson.

Mr. Wilson’s early works included the one-act plays The Janitor, Recycle, The Coldest Day of the Year, Malcolm X, The Homecoming and the musical satire Black Bart and the Sacred Hills.

Mr. Wilson received many fellowships and awards, including the Rockefeller and Guggenheim Fellowships in Playwriting, the Whiting Writers Award and the 2003 Heinz Award. He was awarded a 1999 National Humanities Medal by President Bill Clinton and received numerous honorary degrees from colleges and universities, as well as the only high school diploma ever issued by the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. He was an alumnus of New Dramatists, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a 1995 inductee into the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and on October 16, 2005, Broadway renamed the theatre located at 245 West 52nd Street “The August Wilson Theatre.”

Today, his plays continue to be produced and his place in the American Theatre continues to grow. New York Public Radio recorded all ten plays in the The American Century Cycle at the Greene Space, casting many of the actors that worked on the original productions. PBS aired a documentary on Mr. Wilson, entitled The Ground On Which I Stand, as part of the American Masters series.

Contains themes of racism and racial discrimination, discriminatory policing, economic exclusion, illness, death and grief. Includes references to murder and violent relationships, depictions and threats of physical violence, firearm and machete/bladed-weapon use, robbery, pregnancy, sexual/intimate language and strong/racist language. The play also contains material around tuberculosis, institutional medical intervention and the aftermath of violent death.

This amateur production of  AUGUST WILSON’S SEVEN GUITARS is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals Ltd. on behalf of Samuel French, Inc. www.concordtheatricals.co.uk 

“August Wilson’s Seven Guitars”

Originally Produced on Broadway by SAGEWORKS: 

Benjamin Mordecai, Executive Director 

Centre Theatre Group/Ahmanson Theatre, Gordon Davidson, Artistic Director 

Herb Alpert/Margot Lion  

Scott Rudin/Paramount Pictures 

and Jujamcyn Theatres 

in association with 

Goodman Theatre, Huntington Theatre Company, American Conservatory Theatre and Manhattan Theatre Club 

Originally presented at National Playwright’s Conference of The Eugene O’Neill  Theatre Center.