Photo of Erynn Mackenzie, Kelvin Roston Jr., Jerod Haynes, Felicia P. Fields, Ebony Wimbs, and Allen Gilmore by Michael Brosilow.
Get to know the characters of Seven Guitars and read a detailed synopsis of the play.
Characters
Red Carter: A dapper drummer and a player (played by Ronald L. Conner)
Louise: Ruby’s aunt and Hedley’s landlord (played by Felicia P. Fields)
Hedley: Known to be a bit of an oddball; steeped in religious figures and stories; sells chicken sandwiches and eggs (played by Allen Gilmore)
Canewell: A musician and somewhat of a drifter (played by Jerod Haynes)
Ruby: Louise’s niece, characterized by her aunt as “fast”; she in town after a dispute between two of her lovers ended in a death (played by Erynn Mackenzie)
Floyd “Schoolboy” Barton: A musician determined to make it big recording in Chicago; was recently locked up in the workhouse (played by Kelvin Roston Jr.)
Vera Dotson: aAself-possessed woman in her late 40s; she is consistently pursued by Floyd (played by Ebony Wimbs)
Fight Announcer: The voice on the radio announcing the fight between Joe Louis and Don Dunphy (played by John Hoogenakker)
The play opens with Canewell, Vera, Louise, Red Carter, and Hedley gathered after having buried Floyd Barton. They discuss whether Floyd is in heaven or hell, and Vera claims she saw angels at the cemetery. There were some unfamiliar men at the funeral asking Canewell and Red Carter about Floyd.
The play moves back in time. Floyd is planning to go to Chicago to record some music, and he wants Vera to come with him. In no uncertain terms, she declines, recalling that the last time he went to Chicago, he took a woman named Pearl Brown. Floyd was recently released after serving 90 days in a workhouse for a vagrancy charge and an alleged threat to burn down the jailhouse. Louise comes home and is chilly towards Floyd.
Louise and Hedley talk; he is very behind on his rent and is sick, maybe with tuberculosis. Louise wants him to go to a doctor, but he says he does not need to. Canewell comes by with a plant for Louise. He chastises Floyd for not taking his advice about his record deal; Floyd accepted a flat rate, and his record is a hit now. Floyd wants Canewell to come to Chicago with him to record, but Canewell was arrested last time for busking and does not wish to return. Floyd makes fun of Hedley for saying he wants to make a plantation. He maintains that he is going to make it to Chicago and plans to pawn his guitar.
Later the same day, Vera and Louise discuss Louise’s niece Ruby, who has had some man trouble. Louise shares how her ex, Henry, left her out of the blue after 12 years together. Floyd is denied his payment for his 90 days in the workhouse because he lost the official letter. Red Carter enters the yard, dressed well. Floyd convinces him to go up to Chicago to record again. He just had a baby. Floyd, Canewell, and Red Carter discuss their interactions with the law, their guns, their instruments—many of which are in the pawnshop. Floyd reassures the group that he will manage the business part of the recording.
The characters listen to the radio broadcast of the fight between Joe Louis and Don Dunphy; Louis wins. Red Carter dances with Vera, which infuriates Floyd. He and Red Carter nearly come to blows, but then Ruby arrives. A few of the men are immediately enamored with her. Hedley, fed up with the others’ complaints about a nearby rooster, kills it and says, “You be glad to see the sun cause there come a time sure enough when you see your last day and this rooster you don’t hear no more… Your black ass be dead like the rooster now. You mark what Hedley say.” Floyd is stunned.
Hedley and Ruby talk about how her husband killed her lover and how Hedley killed a man once. Hedley expresses interest in a relationship with Ruby. Floyd has missed the window to get his guitar from the pawn shop and must now buy it back. He’s going out with Ruby. Hedley talks again about the plantation he wants, how he wants to be free from the white man’s big plans, and how he dreamt that the singer Buddy Bolden was to bring him money.
Ruby tells the story of how her husband killed her lover. She is pregnant but is not sure which man is the father. Floyd and Canewell rush in, excited about their official appointment to record in Chicago. Hedley gets a letter from the public health department that he needs to report for tuberculosis testing at the sanitarium; Louise is the one who called the health department. Hedley storms out.
Floyd has been stood up by his manager, Mr. T.L. Hall, who was supposed to buy his instruments from the pawn shop—for him to perform a show at a local club in Pittsburgh, the Blue Goose, and for his recording in Chicago. He learns that Mr. Hall has been arrested for selling fake insurance. Floyd delineates how his opportunities have been snatched away from him, but he remains determined to make it to Chicago.
Everyone is worried about Floyd, who is nowhere to be found. Hedley has acquired a machete and wants to cut down the white men who may come to take him away. He talks about his relationship to his father, his Blackness, and the Haitian revolutionary Toussaint L’Ouverture. Later, Hedley is in a feverish state, ranting and raving and wanting to have sex with Ruby. She relents.
Floyd appears in the yard with a brand-new guitar, a dress for Vera, and bus tickets to Chicago, saying he “took a chance.” He paid for his mother’s gravestone and reserved a hotel room in Chicago. He asks Vera to marry him. She reveals that she has bought a return ticket, Chicago to Pittsburgh, that is good for one year, saying she hopes never to use it.
Everyone is getting ready for the big show at the Blue Goose. Ruby says she wants to tell Hedley her baby is his; she plans to name the baby after him. She also convinced him to go get tested for tuberculosis. Canewell comes with a report that their acquaintance Poochie was shot in a robbery from the loan office and that the police are looking for two other men.
The show was a roaring success. Canewell tells Vera he will replant the plant he got her, as the roots are exposed. As he digs, he finds $1200 in cash under the plant. Canewell says it must be Hedley’s stash, but Floyd says it’s his. Canewell says it’s a case of finders keepers, and Floyd pulls his gun out. Canewell relents. Hedley arrives home, drunk, and sees Floyd with the money. He thinks it’s his dream come true: Buddy Bolden has arrived to give him cash. Hedley kills Floyd.
The next day, the characters discuss the police’s involvement. They debate over the lyrics to the Buddy Bolden song.
