Wilson on Wilson. Meet the actor who has acted in 9 of August Wilson’s 10 “Pittsburgh Cycle” plays.

When it comes to performing in playwright August Wilson’s “Pittsburgh Cycle,” actor Brian Anthony Wilson would like to score a perfect 10.

He’s almost there. Wilson grew up in Mount Airy and lives in Cherry Hill, and is no relation to the Pittsburgh-based playwright. However, the actor has appeared in nine out of 10 of August Wilson’s 10 “Pittsburgh Cycle” plays, including Radio Golf at the Arden Theatre Co. through April 16.

The only one left? Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.

“I’d like to appear in Ma Rainey before I leave this earth. Then I’ll have done all 10, Lord willing,” said Wilson. The series of plays, also known as the “Century Cycle,” are mostly set in Pittsburgh and amplify Black experiences across the 1900s.

Actor Wilson describes playwright Wilson as the “Black Shakespeare,” whose mastery of the rhythms and music of Black speech rivals the bard’s ability to convey the language of his time in a way that’s both specific and everlasting.

August Wilson’s plays “are stories of the black diaspora,” said Wilson. “They are teaching folks who are not of our ilk that we’re different, but we’re also the same. We are human. We have flaws and we have greatness in us. We have our shared humanity, even though there are so many differences among us.”

Radio Golf, set in the 1990s, premiered six months before the playwright passed away in 2005. Wilson plays Sterling Johnson, “a Black construction worker and ex-con” who badly needs work. A real estate developer, about to declare his candidacy to be Pittsburgh’s first Black mayor, is involved in a project that will gentrify a traditionally Black neighborhood. A house that belonged to Aunt Ester, a pillar in the community, is slated to be demolished.

Wilson describes his character as “the soul of this piece. He comes up against these realtors who are trying to tear the place down.” A repeat character who first showed up in Two Trains Running, set in 1968, Johnson is caught in a larger conflict between legacy and gentrification.

“It’s gentrification — tearing down houses and putting poor people out, while building apartments and supermarkets, which the community needs,” Wilson said. “But at what cost?”

Wilson began appearing in August Wilson plays in 1995 — first in Fences, then The Piano Lesson, and Joe Turner’s Come and Gone at the Bushfire Theatre in West Philadelphia, then in the title role of King Hedley II at Philadelphia Theatre Co, and again in Fences at People’s Light. Plus other plays elsewhere for a total of 14 plays, including some repeats.

Radio Golf will be Wilson’s fourth time acting in an August Wilson play at the Arden. When he appeared in Fences during the 2004-05 season, he played Lyons Maxson. He was Avery in The Piano Lesson in Arden’s 2007-08 season, and he won a Barrymore Award for his portrayal of Solly Two Kings in Arden’s highly acclaimed production of Gem of the Ocean in 2019.

(March 23 through April 16, “Radio Golf,” Arden Theatre Co., 40 N. 2d St., Phila. 215-922-1122 or ardentheatre.org)

Philly Theatre Week opens March 23 with pay-what-you-can pricing for dozens of performances at many locations through April 2. The catch is that you must buy your tickets through the Theatre Philadelphia Theatre Week website and the number of tickets priced as pay-what-you-can are limited. A word to the wise: Purchase early. bit.ly/3lwqn4q

Family tensions arising from refugee resettlement form the basis of A View from the Bridge from New Light Theatre Co. Proceeds from the show will support RISE, a refugee resettlement program with Jewish Family Services of Delaware. New Light typically partners with a service nonprofit related to the show. Premiered in 1955, Arthur Miller’s play remains relevant today, as it touches on issues in families as they help relatives settle in a new land.

(Through March 26, “A View from the Bridge,” New Light Theatre Co., OperaDelaware Studios, 4 S. Poplar St., Wilmington. Newlighttheatre.com)

Head off to see Six, the rollicking musical about the six wives of Henry VIII at the Academy of Music at the Kimmel Cultural Campus. Just to review: Wife One, Catherine of Aragon, divorced. Two, Anne Boleyn, beheaded. Three, Jane Seymour, died. Four, Anne of Cleves, divorced. Five, Catherine Howard, beheaded. Six, Catherine Parr, widowed when Henry died. Anne Boleyn’s daughter was Queen Elizabeth I and Jane Seymour was the mother of King Edward VI.

(Through April 9, “Six,” Academy of Music, 240 S. Broad St., Phila., 215-893-1999 or kimmelculturalcampus.org)

Bristol Riverside Theatre presents Cabaret, a musical favorite that co-mingles love and the Nazis, and reminds the audience not to be complacent when confronted with hatred and bigotry.

(Through April 16, “Cabaret,” Bristol Riverside Theatre, 120 Radcliffe St., Bristol, 215-785-0100, brtstage.org)

Tony Braithwaite directs himself in Mistakes Were Made, starring Braithwaite as Felix, a maniac theatrical producer who needs to cast an airheaded Hollywood star for a leading role in a play also titled Mistakes Were Made. Renee McFillin plays Felix’s assistant in the Act II Playhouse production.

(March 21-April 16, “Mistakes Were Made,” Act II Playhouse, 56 E. Butler Ave., Ambler, 215-654-0200 or act2.org)

You may think you know the story, but there are a lot of twists in this production of The American Revolution. The twists come courtesy of the actors, all seven of them, who twist around themselves as they perform simultaneously on a 3-foot-by-7-foot stage. It’s history in 50 minutes brought to you by the Chicago-based Theater Unstoppable and Let’s Make History Productions.

(March 28 through April 1, “The American Revolution,” Christ Church Neighborhood House, 20 N. American St., Phila. americanrevolutiontheshow.com)

Check with individual venues for COVID-19 protocols.