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The Acting Company: August Wilson's Two Trains Running

Mar 28, 2025

07:30 PM

The Englert, Auditorium Seating

221 East Washington Street, Iowa City, IA 52240

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Two Trains Running: The Acting Company banner image with drawn poster

TICKETS
Tickets will go on sale to the general public on Monday, July 29 at 10 a.m.
Adults $25
Students & Youth $10

Part of Hancher's 52nd Season

In cooperation with Riverside Theatre & the Englert Theatre

Written by August Wilson and directed by Lili-Anne Brown.

The Acting Company is the only professional theater principally dedicated to the development of young classical actors. Founded in 1972 by John Houseman and Margot Harley from the first graduating class of the Drama Division of The Juilliard School, The Company has launched the careers of some 400 actors, while bringing high quality professional theater to hundreds of communities from coast to coast.

 This Pulitzer Prize finalist, set in a Pittsburgh coffee shop, is the 1960s chapter of August Wilson’s American Century Cycle, a decade-by-decade saga of African American life in the 20th century. Memphis Lee’s coffee shop lies in Pittsburgh’s Hill District, a neighborhood on the brink of economic development. The restaurant serves as a hangout for a host of regulars: a local intellectual, an elderly man who imparts the secrets of life as learned from a 322-year-old sage, an ex-con, a numbers runner, a laconic waitress who slashed her legs to keep men away, and a developmentally disabled man who was once cheated out of a ham. With Chekhovian obliqueness, the author reveals simple truths, hopes and dreams, creating a microcosm of an era and a community on the brink of change.

“The Acting Company has a long and storied history as a launch pad for successful actors such as Patti LuPone, Jesse L. Martin, Kevin Kline, and Rainn Wilson. Their formula is fairly simple: take professional actors on nationwide tours to develop their skills while exposing audiences ... to classical works of theater.” —DC Theater Arts

PLEASE NOTE: Two Trains Running contains adult content, language, and themes.

The Acting Company Website

HANCHER EVENT PARTNERS
John Harper
Michael W. O'Hara & Jane Engeldinger


See more from The Acting Company this season! 

The Acting Company
William Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors

Modern verse translation by Christina Anderson
Directed by Devin Brain
Saturday, March 29, 2025, 7:30 p.m.

Individuals with disabilities are encouraged to attend all University of Iowa–sponsored events. If you are a person with a disability who requires a reasonable accommodation in order to participate in this program, please contact in advance at