How Pitt helped August Wilson’s ‘Jitney’ make its debut in Italy

August Wilson’s national renown and profile have reached new heights in recent years, as celebrities like Denzel Washington have brough the Century Cycle to the big screen. However, his legacy achieved a new milestone last year when “Jitney” made its debut in Vicenza, Italy.

The effort was the first-ever Italian translation and stage performance of Wilson’s 1982 work and spearheaded by award-winning Italian director Renzo Carbonera. On Oct. 30, the filmmaker visited the University Library System (ULS) to discuss what it took to bring the project to life.

The event featured recorded excerpts from the Italian production, which illuminated contemporary social and cultural commentary on challenges like increased immigration and subsequent racism in Italy. Carbonera also participated in a Q&A with Chris Rawson, a retired Pitt English professor, theater critic and early champion of Wilson’s work.

Lina Insana, Pitt’s director of Italian graduate studies and lead organizer of Pittsburgh’s Italian Film Festival USA, has long been familiar with Rawson and his efforts to amplify Wilson’s work. She also first introduced Carbonera to the famed Pittsburgh playwright in 2019 when she invited Carbonera to be the film festival’s closing night director. Upon returning to Italy, Carbonera was committed to honoring Wilson and worked with the Teatro Astra in Vicenza to make “Jitney” his first play production.

The next step was translation. That’s where Insana — and her translation students — came in. The students spent part of the semester reviewing Carbonera’s translation and offering input during Zoom calls with the director.

“My American students know Italian, about August Wilson and the cultural context of Pittsburgh,” said Insana. “They did a great job giving input on many translation choices the translator in Italy made as she tried to evoke August Wilson’s ‘Jitney,’ set in Pittsburgh in the ’70s, for an Italian audience.”

The production was significant for Wilson’s legacy and Pitt, as much as it was for Italian theater, given the cast was composed entirely of Italian actors of African origin. Film and media studies professor Carl Kurlander, students and team members from University Communications and Marketing, traveled to Italy to document the experience and Pitt's involvement.

“As far as anyone in Vicenza could tell, and I know they did a lot of digging to figure this out, it’s the first all-Black cast in contemporary Italian theater,” she said.

And it won’t be the last. The Wilson Project — launched by Pitt, Italian theater company La Piccionaia Centro Produzione, the August Wilson Legacy LLC and the University of Padua’s Department of Linguistic and Literary Studies — was created after the Vicenza production to promote knowledge and understanding of Wilson and his work and present “Jitney” on more Italian stages.

Insana described the progress that has already occurred as incredible and essential.

“Something I teach in my classes at Pitt is the very complicated legacy of Italian colonialism,” she said. “Many Black Italians do not have citizenship. There is racism. … Renzo knew that when he became interested in Wilson. He understood that if he could put excellent Black actors on stage telling a story about everyday lives, that this could be an important pivot point for the Italian arts and the way Black Italians are seen in Italian society.”

Photography by Aimee Obidzinski