Thirty hours, spread over a minimum of eight days. Six-hundred and fifty dollars. And, a gluteus maximus in tip-top physical condition.
All three will be required of theatergoers who plan to take full advantage of the groundbreaking festival of August Wilson's plays being launched this week at the Kennedy Center.
The festival will be the first time that all 10 plays in Wilson's century cycle will be performed in the same place and can be seen within a month's time - crucial for a comprehensive understanding of the playwright's contribution to American letters.
But no one is pretending that a certain can-do spirit won't be needed for average theatergoers to experience this cultural treasure in its entirety.
You might think of it as the theatrical equivalent of a decathlon, with its own intensive training regimen.
"August Wilson's plays richly reward any effort that the audience makes," says Kenny Leon, the festival's artistic director.
"In terms of craftsmanship, of poetic language, of character development, August Wilson stands shoulder to shoulder with Arthur Miller, Chekhov and Shakespeare. In fifty years, people are going to look back and say: `A great writer lived among us.' "
Of course, there's no rule that theatergoers must see all 10 plays, which chronicle the African-American experience during each decade of the 20th century. Each drama (there are no comedies) stands on its own, and, as might be expected, the majority of attendees have purchased tickets to just one or two shows.
Unlike most plays, where tickets are sold in a range of prices, all seats for August Wilson's 20th Century cost $65, with no discounts offered for a series purchase.
Ticket sales nonetheless have been strong. By the middle of February, all available seats had been snapped up to two productions: the Pulitzer Prize-winning Fences, and Radio Golf, the last show in the cycle.
August Wilson's 20th Century is the current example of the new and ambitious approach taken by the Kennedy Center under the helm of its current president, Michael M. Kaiser. He's not content to merely stage intriguing productions; instead, Kaiser is using the Kennedy Center's deep pockets and high profile to further scholarly discourse about prominent American artists and the masterpieces they create.
"The Kennedy Center is our national theater, and we take our curatorial role very seriously," Kaiser says.
