ABOVE: Brian Anthony Wilson and Sandra Daley in August Wilson's King Hedley II at Philadelphia Theatre Company, directed by Seret Scott (2003).
BELOW: Brian meeting playwright August Wilson in Atlanta (photo courtesy Brian Anthony Wilson):
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November 13, 1990: Brian Anthony Wilson led the cast of Fraternity, which opened at the Bushfire Theater of Performing Arts in West Philadelphia, directed by Al Simpkins.
Jeff Stetson's play had originally been created at the O'Neill Center for New Plays. A drama about an exclusive social club of Black men in the post-Civil Rights Era South, it detailed how many of them have risen to power and wealth, but are all deeply scarred in some way by what it took to get there.
In the Philadelphia Daily News, reviewer Sara M. Lomax described Wilson's character Charles Lincoln as "an amoral senator prepared to do anything to preserve his calculated success."
Other cast members included Michael Brown, Cory Williams, Anthony Pressley, Richard H. Floyd and Vaughan Dwight Morrison. Lomax was struck by how the riveting final scene unearthed Stetson's view that "without knowledge of one's history, life is purposeless."
In the Philadelphia Tribune, staff writer Octavia McBride also reviewed the production, and was intrigued at how the play "exposes the fact that the issue of racism is not the singular cancer consuming the African-American community," but that class was also a "divisive force." She also noted that what was pointedly absent from this powerful fraternity was "the voice of Black women."
As he described during the podcast interview, in August of 2025, he once again undertook the role of Sen. Lincoln in West Philadelphia, this time accompanied by another impressive phalanx of Philadelphia actors - including Walter DeShields, Carlo Campbell, Steve Crum, Ozzie Jones, and Steve Wright.
ABOVE LEFT: Brian Anthony Wilson (as "Warren Dupree") with Michael Imperioli ("Christopher Malfitano"), in Episode 3, Season 3 ("Fortunate Son") of the HBO series The Sopranos. (2001) RIGHT: As Detective Vernon Holley in Season 3 of HBO's The Wire. (2004)
ABOVE: As White House Butler Alonzo Fields in Over the President's Shoulder at the Hedgerow Theatre in Rose Valley, PA. (2009)
BELOW: With actor Dwayne Thomas in Assassin, by David Robson, at Act II Playhouse in Ambler, PA. (2013)
ABOVE: Brian playing the Innkeeper/Governor in Man of La Mancha at Act II Playhouse, knighting Peter Schmitz as Don Quixote. Maria Konstandinidis, as Aldonza, is right. (2014)
BELOW: Brian with director Walter Dallas, during rehearsals for Thurgood at Olney Theatre Center in Maryland. (2017)
And finally, Brian Anthony Wilson in his Barrymore Award-winning performance as "Solly Two Kings" in August Wilson's play Gem of the Ocean at the Arden Theatre in Philadelphia in 2019, directed by James Ijames:
Newspaper feature stories about "Philadelphia's Favorite Playwright" - Episode 111
