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Get the most interesting and important stories from the University of Pittsburgh.Inspired by August Wilson, he’s teaching the next generation of performers.
In August Wilson’s works, Brenden Peifer found his family’s voices — and his own.
As a Pitt junior, he already held an affinity for Langston Hughes, Lorraine Hansberry and Toni Morrison. But he found himself engaging with Wilson for the first time in a Black Consciousness course, through “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone.”
Now, the August Wilson Archive outreach and engagement coordinator, Peifer (A&S ’19) described his introduction to the playwright as “bittersweet.”
“Sweet because I was reading and hearing voices I was so familiar with, like my Auntie’s and grandparents on my dad’s side,” he recalled. “The language was coming through the page. I heard it in my head, I didn’t have to translate or code switch. I knew exactly who these people were and what their story was.
“Bitter because I was only just discovering it. I wondered where it had been all my life.”
[How August Wilson’s archive came home to Pitt.]
Peifer’s path to the theater took a winding road. In high school, he recalled doing “a full Troy Bolton.” While at Pitt, he transitioned from sports medicine to sports communication. The communications and English nonfiction writing double major had opted to minor in theater since he was doing Pitt Stages productions as a hobby and regularly “performing” as a WPTS student radio staffer calling football, basketball, and soccer games. Despite being happy with these decisions, Peifer said he still felt unsettled in his journey.
On his 21st birthday, everything changed.
“My mom got tickets to see ‘Hamilton’ at the Kennedy Center. By this time, I’d told myself: This is the summer you get a feel for where your heart is, where you want to continue working professionally.”
The award-winning tale of Alexander Hamilton’s saga brought Peifer tears (thrice before intermission) and clarity.
“I put forth a concerted effort to professionally act in Pittsburgh,” the Alexandria, Virginia, native said.
The following semester, having previously attended a citywide casting call, he took the stage for his first professional role in Maya Angelou’s autobiography, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.”
Immediately after graduating in 2019, he auditioned for and was cast in the City Theatre Company’s production of Kemp Powers’ “One Night in Miami” as Jamal, a character he said epitomized the era’s younger generation that fully embraced Black culture and reflected his own reverence for Wilson’s writings.
But even Peifer, with his undeniable momentum, was stalled by COVID-19. With theaters closing, he began work at Grandview Elementary, first as a virtual substitute teacher for English literacy and math, then as a project specialist focused on community engagement and event programming.
In January 2022, Peifer was called to pivot again for the Pittsburgh Public Theater production of Wilson’s “Two Trains Running,” which led him to step down from teaching.
“I was heartbroken to tell the kids, but they were super cool and encouraged me to go ‘live your dream,’” he said.
It wasn’t until months later, when he was cast in “A Raisin in the Sun and “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” that Peifer thought, “OK, I’m an actor.”
Though grateful for every role, it was his work in “Two Trains Running” and “One Night in Miami” that stood out. These moments, paired with his desire to combine his past experiences in community engagement and theater, led him to change his path again and immediately apply for the open role at the August Wilson Archive when he came across it.
“It is special to go from reading Wilson’s work at Pitt to being close to it,” said Peifer, whose goals as coordinator are deeply rooted in ensuring Pittsburgh youths know Wilson early on. “I respect his legacy and the impact he’s had not only on Black culture but on America when it comes to storytelling.”
His responsibilities include planning and executing outreach programs and exhibitions that encourage Pittsburgh students, educators, researchers and community artists to engage with the archive for research and projects. He works to ensure the community has access to grant-funded archive opportunities, which can include having one’s work displayed in the August Wilson House.
It is all a means of paying it forward to the “city that embraced me, taught me how to be a young professional, polished, driven and courteous actor, and helped me become the man I am today,” he said.
Peifer is also a hired teaching artist for the Pittsburgh Public Theater Shakespeare Monologue and Scene Contest and the City Theatre Company’s Young Playwrights Festival program, which helps middle and high school students — including some from Grandview Elementary — write and submit plays to be professionally produced by the company.
“It’s been a blast to combine all my past experiences into one and still scratch that performance itch now and again when I speak at an event,” he said, marveling at his full-circle experience.
“My mom instilled in me the desire to find something I love so I’d never work a day. That’s how I feel about this position.”
Top photo by Tom Altany