August Wilson (Playwright), has been described as “the theatre’s poet of Black America” for giving voice to those who had long gone unheard. He is widely regarded as the most important African American playwright of the twentieth century. A two-time Pulitzer Prize winner (in 1985 for Fences and in 1990 for The Piano Lesson), he stands as a towering figure in the landscape of American theatre. Passing away in 2005, Wilson left behind an extraordinary legacy, most notably through his American Century Cycle: a series of ten plays that offer a comprehensive, decadeby-decade portrait of the African American experience throughout the twentieth century, addressing themes such as exploitation, racial injustice, identity, migration, and discrimination. A cornerstone of Black cultural history, the Century Cycle continues to resonate today, with Wilson’s works being embraced by new generations of audiences.

Renzo Carbonera (Director), is an Italian and German citizen and native speaker. He has written and directed about twenty documentaries for cinema and television, all distributed in theaters or broadcast internationally on the main Italian and European networks. His short film La Penna di Hemingway premiered at the Giornate degli Autori at the Venice Film Festival. His first feature film, Resina, was presented at over thirty international festivals, including 3 in FIAPF Category A (Montreal, Tunis/JCC, Mannheim/ Heidelberg). It has been distributed in about twenty countries around the world including the USA, China, Korea, UK, France, Germany. It is one of the most popular Italian movies in 2018, getting sixth in the annual ranking and collecting a nomination for the Golden Globes and the Golden Ciaks 2019. His second film, Takeaway was released in Italian theaters with Fandango and Rai Cinema in 2022. It premiered at the Rome Film Festival and got nominated for the Golden Globes 2022. Renzo has been nominated four times and won one Italian Video Game Award as the writer of the game The Rude Awakening. For Jitney he collaborated with Italian theatre greats Fabrizio Arcuri as dramaturg and Tindaro Granata as actor coach.

Fabrizio Arcuri (Dramaturgy Consultant), is Artistic Director of the City of Verona’s theatre seasons, since 2025. He worked as assistant director to Luca Ronconi from 2005 to 2008 and he has held leading roles in major Italian theatre institutions, including Teatro della Tosse in Genoa and Teatro Stabile di Torino; he has curated large-scale cultural projects for the City of Rome. His work as a director focuses on contemporary European dramaturgy and has been presented by institutions such as Teatro di Roma, the Venice Biennale, Volksbühne Berlin, and the Residenztheater Munich. He has received numerous awards, including the Ubu Award, the Hystrio Prize for Directing, and the Radicondoli “Masters of Theatre” Award. He is a theatre director and curator, founder and artistic director of Accademia degli Artefatti. From 2006 to 2020, he was Artistic Director of the Short Theatre Festival in Rome and has been director of the International Festival of Literature at the Forum of Augustus since 2009.