August Wilson
Encyclopedia
August Wilson was an American playwright whose work included a series of ten plays, The Pittsburgh Cycle, for which he received two Pulitzer Prizes for Drama
. Each is set in a different decade, depicting the comic and tragic aspects of the African-American experience in the twentieth century.
, the fourth of six children, to German immigrant baker, Frederick August Kittel, Sr. and Daisy Wilson, an African American cleaning woman, from North Carolina
.New York Times obituary "August Wilson, Theater's Poet of Black America, Is Dead at 60". October 3, 2005 Wilson's mother raised the children alone until he was five in a two-room apartment above a grocery store at 1727 Bedford Avenue; his father was mostly absent from his childhood. Wilson would go on to write under his mother's surname. The economically depressed neighborhood in which he was raised was inhabited predominantly by black Americans, and Jewish and Italian immigrants. Wilson's mother divorced and married David Bedford in the 1950s and the family moved from the Hill District to the then predominantly white working class neighborhood of Hazelwood
, where they encountered racial hostility; bricks were thrown through a window at their new home. They were soon forced out of their house and on to their next home.
Wilson was the only African-American student at the Central Catholic High School
in 1959 where he was soon driven away by threats and abuse.He then attended Connelley Vocational High School, but found the curriculum unchallenging. He dropped out of Gladstone High School in the 10th grade in 1960 after his teacher accused him of plagiarizing
a 20-page paper he wrote on Napoleon I of France
. Wilson hid his decision from his mother because he did not want to disappoint her. At the age of 16, he began working menial jobs and that allowed him to meet a wide variety of people, some of whom he later based his characters on, such as Sam in The Janitor (1985).
Wilson made such extensive use of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh
to educate himself that it later awarded him a degree, the only such one it has bestowed. Wilson, who had learned to read at age four, began reading black writers at the library at age 12 and spent the remainder of his teen years educating himself by reading Ralph Ellison
, Richard Wright
, Langston Hughes
, Arna Bontemps
, and others.
Frederick August Kittel, Jr. changed his name to August Wilson to honor his mother after his father's death in 1965. That same year he discovered the blues as sung by Bessie Smith
and bought a stolen typewriter for $10, which he would often pawn when money was tight. At 20 he decided he was a poet and submitted his poetry to such magazines as Harpers. He began to write in bars, the local cigar store and cafes, on table napkins and on longhand yellow note pads, absorbing the voices and characters around him. He liked to write on cafe napkins because, he said, it freed him up and made him less self-conscious as a writer. He would then gather the notes and type them up at home. Gifted with a talent for catching dialects and accents, Wilson had an "astonishing memory," which he put to full use during his career. He slowly learnt not to censor the language he heard when incorporating it into his work.
Malcolm X
's voice would influence his life and work (such as The Ground on Which I Stand, 1996). Both the Nation of Islam
and the Black Power
spoke to him regarding self-sufficiency, self-defense and self-determination, and he appreciated the origin myths that Elijah Muhammad
supported. In 1969 he married Brenda Burton, a Muslim, and Wilson converted to Islam in order to sustain the marriage. He and Brenda had one daughter, Sakina Ansari-Wilson, and divorced in 1972.
In 1968, Wilson co-founded the Black Horizon Theater
in the Hill District of Pittsburgh along with his friend Rob Penny
.His first play, Recycling, was performed for audiences in small theaters, schools and public housing community centers for 50 cents a ticket. Among these early efforts was Jitney
which he revised more than two decades later as part of his 10-play cycle on 20th century Pittsburgh. He had no directing experience. He recalled "Someone had looked around and said, 'Who’s going to be the director?' I said, 'I will.' I said that because I knew my way around the library. So I went to look for a book on how to direct a play. I found one called The Fundamentals of Play Directing and checked it out."
In 1976 Vernell Lillie, who had founded the Kuntu Repertory Theatre
at the University of Pittsburgh
two years earlier, directed Wilson's The Homecoming. That same year Wilson saw Sizwe Banzi is Dead
at the Pittsburgh Public Theater
, his first professional play. Wilson, Penny, and poet Maisha Baton also started the Kuntu Writers Workshop to bring African-American writers together and to assist them in publication and production. Both organizations are still active.
In 1978 Wilson moved to Saint Paul, Minnesota
at the suggestion of his friend director Claude Purdy, who helped him secure a job writing educational scripts for the Science Museum of Minnesota
. In 1980 he received a fellowship for The Playwrights' Center
in Minneapolis. He quit the Museum in 1981, but continued writing plays. For three years, he was a part time cook for the Little Brothers of the Poor. Wilson had a long association with the Penumbra Theatre Company
of St Paul, which gave the premieres of some Wilson plays. Fullerton Street which has been unproduced and unpublished, was written in 1980. It follows the Joe Louis
/Billy Conn
fight in 1940 and the loss of values attendant on the Great Migration
to the urban North.
In 1987, Saint Paul's mayor George Latimer named May 27 "August Wilson Day." He was honored because he was the only person to both come from Minnesota and win a Pulitzer Prize.
In 1990 Wilson left St Paul after getting divorced and moved to Seattle. There he would develop a relationship with Seattle Repertory Theatre
. Seattle Rep would ultimately be the only theater in the country to produce all of the works in his ten-play cycle and his one-man show How I Learned What I Learned.
Although he was a writer dedicated to writing for theater, a studio from Hollywood proposed filming Wilson's play Fences. He insisted that a black director be hired for the film saying "I declined a white director not on the basis of race but on the basis of culture. White directors are not qualified for the job. The job requires someone who shares the specifics of the culture of black Americans." The film was never made.
Wilson received many honorary degrees, including an honorary Doctor of Humanities from the University of Pittsburgh
, where he served as a member of the University's Board of Trustees from 1992 until 1995.
and a Tony Award
), The Piano Lesson
(1990) (a Pulitzer Prize
and the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award), Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
, and Joe Turner's Come and Gone
.
Wilson stated that he was most influenced by "the four Bs": blues music, the Argentine novelist and poet Jorge Luis Borges
, the playwright Amiri Baraka
and the painter Romare Bearden
. He went on to add writers Ed Bullins
and James Baldwin
to the list. He noted "From Borges, those wonderful gaucho stories from which I learned that you can be specific as to a time and place and culture and still have the work resonate with the universal themes of love, honor, duty, betrayal, etc. From Amiri Baraka, I learned that all art is political, although I don't write political plays. From Romare Bearden I learned that the fullness and richness of everyday life can be rendered without compromise or sentimentality." He valued Bullins and Baldwin for their honest representations of everyday life.
Like Bearden, Wilson worked in with collage techniques in writing: " I try to make my plays the equal of his canvases. In creating plays I often use the image of a stewing pot in which I toss various things that I’m going to make use of—a black cat, a garden, a bicycle, a man with a scar on his face, a pregnant woman, a man with a gun." On the meaning of his work Wilson stated "I once wrote this short story called 'The Best Blues Singer in the World,' and it went like this— “The streets that Balboa walked were his own private ocean, and Balboa was drowning.” End of story. That says it all. Nothing else to say. I’ve been rewriting that same story over and over again. All my plays are rewriting that same story."
, William Faulkner
's Yoknapatawpha County
, or Irish playwright Brian Friel
's Ballybeg
. The plays are each set in a different decade and aim to sketch the Black experience in the 20th century and "raise consciousness through theater” and echo "the poetry in the everyday language of black America". He was fascinated by the power of theater as a medium where a community at large could come together to bear witness to events and currents unfolding.
Wilson noted:
Although the plays of the cycle are not strictly connected to the degree of a serial story, some characters appear (at various ages) in more than one of the cycle's plays. Children of characters in earlier plays may appear in later plays. The character most frequently mentioned in the cycle is Aunt Ester, a "washer of souls". She is reported to be 285 years old in Gem of the Ocean
, which takes place in her home at 1839 Wylie Avenue, and 322 in Two Trains Running
. She dies in 1985, during the events of King Hedley II
. Much of the action of Radio Golf
revolves around the plan to demolish and redevelop that house, some years after her death. The plays often include an apparently mentally-impaired oracular character (different in each play)—for example, Hedley [Sr.] in Seven Guitars
, Gabriel in Fences or Hambone in Two Trains Running
.
Israel Hicks
produced the entire 10-play cycle from 1990 to 2009 at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts
.
Geva Theatre Center produced all 10 plays in decade order from 2007 to 2011 as "August Wilson's American Century."
, whom he met on the set of "The Piano Lesson". Together they had a daughter, Azula Carmen Wilson. Wilson was also survived by siblings Freda Ellis, Linda Jean Kittel, Richard Kittel, Donna Conley and Edwin Kittel.
Wilson reported that he had been diagnosed with liver cancer
in June 2005 and been given three to five months to live. He died on October 2, 2005 at Swedish Medical Center
in Seattle, and was interred at Greenwood Cemetery, Pittsburgh
on October 8, 2005.
The childhood home of Wilson and his five siblings, at 1727 Bedford Avenue in Pittsburgh was declared a historic landmark by the State of Pennsylvania on May 30, 2007.
In Pittsburgh, there is an August Wilson Center for African American Culture
.
On October 16, 2005, fourteen days after Wilson's death, the Virginia Theatre in New York City's Broadway theatre
district was renamed the August Wilson Theatre
. It is the first Broadway theatre to bear the name of an African-American.
The vacated Republican Street between Warren Avenue N. and 2nd Avenue N. on the Seattle Center
grounds has been renamed August Wilson Way.
Pulitzer Prize for Drama
The Pulitzer Prize for Drama was first awarded in 1918.From 1918 to 2006, the Drama Prize was unlike the majority of the other Pulitzer Prizes: during these years, the eligibility period for the drama prize ran from March 2 to March 1, to reflect the Broadway 'season' rather than the calendar year...
. Each is set in a different decade, depicting the comic and tragic aspects of the African-American experience in the twentieth century.
Childhood
Wilson's maternal grandmother walked from North Carolina to Pennsylvania in search of a better life. Wilson was born Frederick August Kittel, Jr. in the Hill District of Pittsburgh, PennsylvaniaPittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh is the second-largest city in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it is the 22nd-largest urban area in the United States...
, the fourth of six children, to German immigrant baker, Frederick August Kittel, Sr. and Daisy Wilson, an African American cleaning woman, from North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
.New York Times obituary "August Wilson, Theater's Poet of Black America, Is Dead at 60". October 3, 2005 Wilson's mother raised the children alone until he was five in a two-room apartment above a grocery store at 1727 Bedford Avenue; his father was mostly absent from his childhood. Wilson would go on to write under his mother's surname. The economically depressed neighborhood in which he was raised was inhabited predominantly by black Americans, and Jewish and Italian immigrants. Wilson's mother divorced and married David Bedford in the 1950s and the family moved from the Hill District to the then predominantly white working class neighborhood of Hazelwood
Hazelwood (Pittsburgh)
Hazelwood is a neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the United States. It is represented on by Douglas Shields. It is bordered by Greenfield and Oakland on the north, Squirrel Hill and Glen Hazel on the east, and the Monongahela River on the south and west...
, where they encountered racial hostility; bricks were thrown through a window at their new home. They were soon forced out of their house and on to their next home.
Wilson was the only African-American student at the Central Catholic High School
Central Catholic High School (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania)
Central Catholic High School is a Roman Catholic college preparatory school for boys in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. It is a part of the Diocese of Pittsburgh and is administrated and partially staffed by the Brothers of the Christian Schools....
in 1959 where he was soon driven away by threats and abuse.He then attended Connelley Vocational High School, but found the curriculum unchallenging. He dropped out of Gladstone High School in the 10th grade in 1960 after his teacher accused him of plagiarizing
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is defined in dictionaries as the "wrongful appropriation," "close imitation," or "purloining and publication" of another author's "language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions," and the representation of them as one's own original work, but the notion remains problematic with nebulous...
a 20-page paper he wrote on Napoleon I of France
Napoleon I of France
Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution.As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815...
. Wilson hid his decision from his mother because he did not want to disappoint her. At the age of 16, he began working menial jobs and that allowed him to meet a wide variety of people, some of whom he later based his characters on, such as Sam in The Janitor (1985).
Wilson made such extensive use of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh
Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh
The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh is the public library system in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Its main branch is located in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, and it has 19 branch locations throughout the city...
to educate himself that it later awarded him a degree, the only such one it has bestowed. Wilson, who had learned to read at age four, began reading black writers at the library at age 12 and spent the remainder of his teen years educating himself by reading Ralph Ellison
Ralph Ellison
Ralph Waldo Ellison was an American novelist, literary critic, scholar and writer. He was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Ellison is best known for his novel Invisible Man, which won the National Book Award in 1953...
, Richard Wright
Richard Wright (author)
Richard Nathaniel Wright was an African-American author of sometimes controversial novels, short stories, poems, and non-fiction. Much of his literature concerns racial themes, especially those involving the plight of African-Americans during the late 19th to mid 20th centuries...
, Langston Hughes
Langston Hughes
James Mercer Langston Hughes was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist. He was one of the earliest innovators of the then-new literary art form jazz poetry. Hughes is best known for his work during the Harlem Renaissance...
, Arna Bontemps
Arna Bontemps
Arnaud "Arna" Wendell Bontemps was an American poet and a noted member of the Harlem Renaissance.- Life and career :...
, and others.
Career
By this time, Wilson knew that he wanted to be a writer, but this created tension with his mother, who wanted him to become a lawyer. She forced him to leave the family home and he enlisted in the United States Army for a three-year stint in 1962, but left after one year and went back to working various odd jobs as a porter, short-order cook, gardener, and dishwasher.Frederick August Kittel, Jr. changed his name to August Wilson to honor his mother after his father's death in 1965. That same year he discovered the blues as sung by Bessie Smith
Bessie Smith
Bessie Smith was an American blues singer.Sometimes referred to as The Empress of the Blues, Smith was the most popular female blues singer of the 1920s and 1930s...
and bought a stolen typewriter for $10, which he would often pawn when money was tight. At 20 he decided he was a poet and submitted his poetry to such magazines as Harpers. He began to write in bars, the local cigar store and cafes, on table napkins and on longhand yellow note pads, absorbing the voices and characters around him. He liked to write on cafe napkins because, he said, it freed him up and made him less self-conscious as a writer. He would then gather the notes and type them up at home. Gifted with a talent for catching dialects and accents, Wilson had an "astonishing memory," which he put to full use during his career. He slowly learnt not to censor the language he heard when incorporating it into his work.
Malcolm X
Malcolm X , born Malcolm Little and also known as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz , was an African American Muslim minister and human rights activist. To his admirers he was a courageous advocate for the rights of African Americans, a man who indicted white America in the harshest terms for its...
's voice would influence his life and work (such as The Ground on Which I Stand, 1996). Both the Nation of Islam
Nation of Islam
The Nation of Islam is a mainly African-American new religious movement founded in Detroit, Michigan by Wallace D. Fard Muhammad in July 1930 to improve the spiritual, mental, social, and economic condition of African-Americans in the United States of America. The movement teaches black pride and...
and the Black Power
Black Power
Black Power is a political slogan and a name for various associated ideologies. It is used in the movement among people of Black African descent throughout the world, though primarily by African Americans in the United States...
spoke to him regarding self-sufficiency, self-defense and self-determination, and he appreciated the origin myths that Elijah Muhammad
Elijah Muhammad
Elijah Muhammad was an African American religious leader, and led the Nation of Islam from 1934 until his death in 1975...
supported. In 1969 he married Brenda Burton, a Muslim, and Wilson converted to Islam in order to sustain the marriage. He and Brenda had one daughter, Sakina Ansari-Wilson, and divorced in 1972.
In 1968, Wilson co-founded the Black Horizon Theater
Black Horizon Theater
Black Horizon Theater was a community-based, Black Nationalist theater company co-founded in 1968 by August Wilson and Rob Penny in the Hill District of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States....
in the Hill District of Pittsburgh along with his friend Rob Penny
Rob Penny
Robert Lee "Rob" Penny was an African American playwright, poet, social activist, and professor.-Early life:Penny was born in Opelika, Alabama on August 6, 1941. He moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania's Hill District as a toddler, where he was raised...
.His first play, Recycling, was performed for audiences in small theaters, schools and public housing community centers for 50 cents a ticket. Among these early efforts was Jitney
Jitney (play)
Jitney is a play in two acts by August Wilson. The eighth in The Pittsburgh Cycle, this play is set in a worn-down gypsy cab station in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in early autumn 1977.-Productions:...
which he revised more than two decades later as part of his 10-play cycle on 20th century Pittsburgh. He had no directing experience. He recalled "Someone had looked around and said, 'Who’s going to be the director?' I said, 'I will.' I said that because I knew my way around the library. So I went to look for a book on how to direct a play. I found one called The Fundamentals of Play Directing and checked it out."
In 1976 Vernell Lillie, who had founded the Kuntu Repertory Theatre
Kuntu Repertory Theatre
Kuntu Repertory Theatre is an African-American repertory theatre based at the University of Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States.Dr. Vernell A. Lillie founded it in 1975 as a way of showcasing the playwright Rob Penny...
at the University of Pittsburgh
University of Pittsburgh
The University of Pittsburgh, commonly referred to as Pitt, is a state-related research university located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded as Pittsburgh Academy in 1787 on what was then the American frontier, Pitt is one of the oldest continuously chartered institutions of...
two years earlier, directed Wilson's The Homecoming. That same year Wilson saw Sizwe Banzi is Dead
Sizwe Banzi is Dead
Sizwe Banzi Is Dead is a play by Athol Fugard, written collaboratively with two South African actors, John Kani, and Winston Ntshona, both of whom appeared in the original production. Its world première occurred on October 8, 1972 at the Space Theatre, Cape Town, South Africa...
at the Pittsburgh Public Theater
Pittsburgh Public Theater
Pittsburgh Public Theater is a professional theater company based in downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania's Cultural District.Established in 1974, it was housed in the Hazlett Theatre at the Carnegie Free Library and Music Hall on Pittsburgh’s North Side...
, his first professional play. Wilson, Penny, and poet Maisha Baton also started the Kuntu Writers Workshop to bring African-American writers together and to assist them in publication and production. Both organizations are still active.
In 1978 Wilson moved to Saint Paul, Minnesota
Saint Paul, Minnesota
Saint Paul is the capital and second-most populous city of the U.S. state of Minnesota. The city lies mostly on the east bank of the Mississippi River in the area surrounding its point of confluence with the Minnesota River, and adjoins Minneapolis, the state's largest city...
at the suggestion of his friend director Claude Purdy, who helped him secure a job writing educational scripts for the Science Museum of Minnesota
Science Museum of Minnesota
The Science Museum of Minnesota is an American museum focused on topics in technology, natural history, physical science and mathematics education. Founded in 1907 and located in Saint Paul, Minnesota, the 501 nonprofit institution is staffed by over 500 employees and over 1,600 volunteers...
. In 1980 he received a fellowship for The Playwrights' Center
The Playwrights' Center
The Playwrights' Center is a theater organization established in 1971 in Minneapolis, Minnesota with the aim of furthering the careers of both new and established individuals in the field. Five playwrights formed the organization in the hopes of providing/obtaining support for new play development...
in Minneapolis. He quit the Museum in 1981, but continued writing plays. For three years, he was a part time cook for the Little Brothers of the Poor. Wilson had a long association with the Penumbra Theatre Company
Penumbra Theatre Company
The Penumbra Theatre Company, an African-American theatre in Saint Paul, Minnesota, was founded by Lou Bellamy in 1976. The theater has been recognized for its artistic quality and its role in launching the careers of playwrights including two-time Pulitzer Prize winner August Wilson...
of St Paul, which gave the premieres of some Wilson plays. Fullerton Street which has been unproduced and unpublished, was written in 1980. It follows the Joe Louis
Joe Louis
Joseph Louis Barrow , better known as Joe Louis, was the world heavyweight boxing champion from 1937 to 1949. He is considered to be one of the greatest heavyweights of all time...
/Billy Conn
Billy Conn
William David Conn , better known as Billy Conn, was an American Light-Heavyweight boxing champion famed for his fights with Joe Louis. He had a professional boxing record of 63 wins, 11 losses and 1 draw, with 14 wins by knockout...
fight in 1940 and the loss of values attendant on the Great Migration
Great Migration (African American)
The Great Migration was the movement of 6 million blacks out of the Southern United States to the Northeast, Midwest, and West from 1910 to 1970. Some historians differentiate between a Great Migration , numbering about 1.6 million migrants, and a Second Great Migration , in which 5 million or more...
to the urban North.
In 1987, Saint Paul's mayor George Latimer named May 27 "August Wilson Day." He was honored because he was the only person to both come from Minnesota and win a Pulitzer Prize.
In 1990 Wilson left St Paul after getting divorced and moved to Seattle. There he would develop a relationship with Seattle Repertory Theatre
Seattle Repertory Theatre
Seattle Repertory Theatre is a major regional theatre located in Seattle, Washington, at the Seattle Center. It is a member of Theatre Puget Sound and Theatre Communications Group. Founded in 1963, it is led by Artistic Director Jerry Manning and Managing Director Benjamin Moore...
. Seattle Rep would ultimately be the only theater in the country to produce all of the works in his ten-play cycle and his one-man show How I Learned What I Learned.
Although he was a writer dedicated to writing for theater, a studio from Hollywood proposed filming Wilson's play Fences. He insisted that a black director be hired for the film saying "I declined a white director not on the basis of race but on the basis of culture. White directors are not qualified for the job. The job requires someone who shares the specifics of the culture of black Americans." The film was never made.
Wilson received many honorary degrees, including an honorary Doctor of Humanities from the University of Pittsburgh
University of Pittsburgh
The University of Pittsburgh, commonly referred to as Pitt, is a state-related research university located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded as Pittsburgh Academy in 1787 on what was then the American frontier, Pitt is one of the oldest continuously chartered institutions of...
, where he served as a member of the University's Board of Trustees from 1992 until 1995.
Work
Wilson's best known plays are Fences (1985) (which won a Pulitzer PrizePulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
and a Tony Award
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
), The Piano Lesson
The Piano Lesson
The Piano Lesson is a 1990 play by American playwright August Wilson. The Piano Lesson is the fifth play in Wilson's The Pittsburgh Cycle. Wilson began writing this play by playing with the various answers regarding the possibility of "acquir[ing] a sense of self-worth by denying ones past"...
(1990) (a Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
and the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award), Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
Ma Rainey's Black Bottom is a 1982 play - one of the ten-play Pittsburgh Cycle by August Wilson, a Pulitzer Prize-winning American playwright - that chronicles the twentieth century African American experience...
, and Joe Turner's Come and Gone
Joe Turner's Come and Gone
Joe Turner's Come and Gone is a play by American playwright, August Wilson, the second installment of his decade-by-decade chronicle of the African-American experience, The Pittsburgh Cycle...
.
Wilson stated that he was most influenced by "the four Bs": blues music, the Argentine novelist and poet Jorge Luis Borges
Jorge Luis Borges
Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo , known as Jorge Luis Borges , was an Argentine writer, essayist, poet and translator born in Buenos Aires. In 1914 his family moved to Switzerland where he attended school, receiving his baccalauréat from the Collège de Genève in 1918. The family...
, the playwright Amiri Baraka
Amiri Baraka
Amiri Baraka , formerly known as LeRoi Jones, is an American writer of poetry, drama, fiction, essays, and music criticism...
and the painter Romare Bearden
Romare Bearden
Romare Bearden was an African American artist and writer. He worked in several media including cartoons, oils, and collage.-Education:...
. He went on to add writers Ed Bullins
Ed Bullins
Ed Bullins is an African American playwright. He was also the Minister of Culture for the Black Panthers. In addition, he has won numerous awards, including the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award and several Obies. He is one of the best known playwrights to come from the Black Arts Movement...
and James Baldwin
James Baldwin
James Baldwin was an American novelist, essayist and civil rights activist.James Baldwin may also refer to:-Writers:*James Baldwin , American educator, writer and administrator...
to the list. He noted "From Borges, those wonderful gaucho stories from which I learned that you can be specific as to a time and place and culture and still have the work resonate with the universal themes of love, honor, duty, betrayal, etc. From Amiri Baraka, I learned that all art is political, although I don't write political plays. From Romare Bearden I learned that the fullness and richness of everyday life can be rendered without compromise or sentimentality." He valued Bullins and Baldwin for their honest representations of everyday life.
Like Bearden, Wilson worked in with collage techniques in writing: " I try to make my plays the equal of his canvases. In creating plays I often use the image of a stewing pot in which I toss various things that I’m going to make use of—a black cat, a garden, a bicycle, a man with a scar on his face, a pregnant woman, a man with a gun." On the meaning of his work Wilson stated "I once wrote this short story called 'The Best Blues Singer in the World,' and it went like this— “The streets that Balboa walked were his own private ocean, and Balboa was drowning.” End of story. That says it all. Nothing else to say. I’ve been rewriting that same story over and over again. All my plays are rewriting that same story."
The Pittsburgh Cycle
Wilson's "Pittsburgh Cycle," also often referred to as his "Century Cycle," consists of ten plays—nine of which are set in Pittsburgh's Hill District, an African-American neighborhood that takes on a mythic literary significance like Thomas Hardy's WessexThomas Hardy's Wessex
The English author Thomas Hardy set all of his major novels in the south and southwest of England. He named the area "Wessex" after the medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom that existed in this part of that country prior to the Norman Conquest. Although the places that appear in his novels actually exist,...
, William Faulkner
William Faulkner
William Cuthbert Faulkner was an American writer from Oxford, Mississippi. Faulkner worked in a variety of media; he wrote novels, short stories, a play, poetry, essays and screenplays during his career...
's Yoknapatawpha County
Yoknapatawpha County
Yoknapatawpha County is a fictional county created by the American author William Faulkner, based upon and inspired by Lafayette County, Mississippi and its county seat of Oxford, Mississippi...
, or Irish playwright Brian Friel
Brian Friel
Brian Friel is an Irish dramatist, author and director of the Field Day Theatre Company. He is considered to be the greatest living English-language dramatist, hailed by the English-speaking world as an "Irish Chekhov" and "the universally accented voice of Ireland"...
's Ballybeg
Ballybeg
Ballybeg is a generic name given to small Irish towns. The name comes from the Gaelic words Baile Beag which literally means Little Town...
. The plays are each set in a different decade and aim to sketch the Black experience in the 20th century and "raise consciousness through theater” and echo "the poetry in the everyday language of black America". He was fascinated by the power of theater as a medium where a community at large could come together to bear witness to events and currents unfolding.
Wilson noted:
"I think my plays offer (white Americans) a different way to look at black Americans," he told The Paris Review. "For instance, in 'Fences' they see a garbageman, a person they don't really look at, although they see a garbageman every day. By looking at Troy's life, white people find out that the content of this black garbageman's life is affected by the same things - love, honor, beauty, betrayal, duty. Recognizing that these things are as much part of his life as theirs can affect how they think about and deal with black people in their lives."
Although the plays of the cycle are not strictly connected to the degree of a serial story, some characters appear (at various ages) in more than one of the cycle's plays. Children of characters in earlier plays may appear in later plays. The character most frequently mentioned in the cycle is Aunt Ester, a "washer of souls". She is reported to be 285 years old in Gem of the Ocean
Gem of the Ocean
Gem of the Ocean is a play by American playwright August Wilson. It is the first installment of his decade-by-decade, ten-play chronicle, The Pittsburgh Cycle, dramatizing the African-American experience in the twentieth century.-Plot :...
, which takes place in her home at 1839 Wylie Avenue, and 322 in Two Trains Running
Two Trains Running
Two Trains Running is a play by American playwright August Wilson, the seventh in his ten-part series The Pittsburgh Cycle. It was first performed by the Yale Repertory Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut, while its Broadway première was on 13 April 1992 at the Walter Kerr Theatre in New York...
. She dies in 1985, during the events of King Hedley II
King Hedley II
King Hedley II is a play by American playwright August Wilson, the ninth in his ten-part series, The Pittsburgh Cycle. This is the ninth of the plays in Wilson's ten-play cycle, each from a different era...
. Much of the action of Radio Golf
Radio Golf
Radio Golf is a play by American playwright, August Wilson, the final installment in his ten-part series, The Pittsburgh Cycle. It was first performed in 2005 by the Yale Repertory Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut and had its Broadway premiere in 2007 at the Cort Theatre...
revolves around the plan to demolish and redevelop that house, some years after her death. The plays often include an apparently mentally-impaired oracular character (different in each play)—for example, Hedley [Sr.] in Seven Guitars
Seven Guitars
Seven Guitars is a 1995 play by American playwright, August Wilson. It focuses on seven African American characters in the year 1948. The play begins and ends after the funeral of one of the main characters, showing events leading to the funeral in flashbacks...
, Gabriel in Fences or Hambone in Two Trains Running
Two Trains Running
Two Trains Running is a play by American playwright August Wilson, the seventh in his ten-part series The Pittsburgh Cycle. It was first performed by the Yale Repertory Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut, while its Broadway première was on 13 April 1992 at the Walter Kerr Theatre in New York...
.
- 1900s - Gem of the OceanGem of the OceanGem of the Ocean is a play by American playwright August Wilson. It is the first installment of his decade-by-decade, ten-play chronicle, The Pittsburgh Cycle, dramatizing the African-American experience in the twentieth century.-Plot :...
(2003) - 1910s - Joe Turner's Come and GoneJoe Turner's Come and GoneJoe Turner's Come and Gone is a play by American playwright, August Wilson, the second installment of his decade-by-decade chronicle of the African-American experience, The Pittsburgh Cycle...
(1988) - 1920s - Ma Rainey's Black BottomMa Rainey's Black BottomMa Rainey's Black Bottom is a 1982 play - one of the ten-play Pittsburgh Cycle by August Wilson, a Pulitzer Prize-winning American playwright - that chronicles the twentieth century African American experience...
(1984) - set in Chicago - 1930s - The Piano LessonThe Piano LessonThe Piano Lesson is a 1990 play by American playwright August Wilson. The Piano Lesson is the fifth play in Wilson's The Pittsburgh Cycle. Wilson began writing this play by playing with the various answers regarding the possibility of "acquir[ing] a sense of self-worth by denying ones past"...
(1990) - Pulitzer PrizePulitzer PrizeThe Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City... - 1940s - Seven GuitarsSeven GuitarsSeven Guitars is a 1995 play by American playwright, August Wilson. It focuses on seven African American characters in the year 1948. The play begins and ends after the funeral of one of the main characters, showing events leading to the funeral in flashbacks...
(1995) - 1950s - Fences (1987) - Pulitzer PrizePulitzer PrizeThe Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
- 1960s - Two Trains RunningTwo Trains RunningTwo Trains Running is a play by American playwright August Wilson, the seventh in his ten-part series The Pittsburgh Cycle. It was first performed by the Yale Repertory Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut, while its Broadway première was on 13 April 1992 at the Walter Kerr Theatre in New York...
(1991) - 1970s - JitneyJitney (play)Jitney is a play in two acts by August Wilson. The eighth in The Pittsburgh Cycle, this play is set in a worn-down gypsy cab station in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in early autumn 1977.-Productions:...
(1982) - 1980s - King Hedley IIKing Hedley IIKing Hedley II is a play by American playwright August Wilson, the ninth in his ten-part series, The Pittsburgh Cycle. This is the ninth of the plays in Wilson's ten-play cycle, each from a different era...
(1999) - 1990s - Radio GolfRadio GolfRadio Golf is a play by American playwright, August Wilson, the final installment in his ten-part series, The Pittsburgh Cycle. It was first performed in 2005 by the Yale Repertory Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut and had its Broadway premiere in 2007 at the Cort Theatre...
(2005)
Israel Hicks
Israel Hicks
Israel Theo Hicks was an American theatre director who produced works at regional theaters around the country and Off Broadway, and was best known for his stagings of the entire series of plays by August Wilson about the African American experience in the U.S...
produced the entire 10-play cycle from 1990 to 2009 at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts
Denver Center for the Performing Arts
The Denver Center for the Performing Arts ' is an organization in Denver, Colorado which provides a showcase for live theatre, a nurturing ground for new plays, a preferred stop on the Broadway touring circuit, a graduate-level training school for actors, acting classes for the community and rental...
.
Geva Theatre Center produced all 10 plays in decade order from 2007 to 2011 as "August Wilson's American Century."
Personal life
Wilson was married three times. His first marriage was to Brenda Burton from 1969 to 1972. They had one daughter, Sakina Ansari, born 1970. In 1981 he was married to Judy Oliver, a social worker, and divorced in 1990. He married again in 1994 and was survived by his third wife, costume designer, Constanza RomeroConstanza Romero
Constanza Romero is an American artist and theater designer who lives in Seattle, Washington.Romero's parents divorced in 1969, when she was 11. Her mother found a teaching job in Fresno, California, and moved there with Romero and her younger sister and two younger brothers...
, whom he met on the set of "The Piano Lesson". Together they had a daughter, Azula Carmen Wilson. Wilson was also survived by siblings Freda Ellis, Linda Jean Kittel, Richard Kittel, Donna Conley and Edwin Kittel.
Wilson reported that he had been diagnosed with liver cancer
Hepatocellular carcinoma
Hepatocellular carcinoma is the most common type of liver cancer. Most cases of HCC are secondary to either a viral hepatitide infection or cirrhosis .Compared to other cancers, HCC is quite a rare tumor in the United States...
in June 2005 and been given three to five months to live. He died on October 2, 2005 at Swedish Medical Center
Swedish Medical Center
Swedish Medical Center is a large nonprofit health care provider located in Seattle, Washington. It has three main hospital locations in Seattle and is also affiliated with many other suburban hospitals and clinics. As of 2009 it has 7000 employees and 2,300 credentialed physicians.-History:Swedish...
in Seattle, and was interred at Greenwood Cemetery, Pittsburgh
Greenwood Cemetery, Pittsburgh
Greenwood Cemetery is a cemetery in the Pittsburgh suburb of O'Hara Township, Pennsylvania, United States.The cemetery was opened in 1874 and is located approximately six miles northeast of Downtown Pittsburgh at 321 Kittanning Pike321 ....
on October 8, 2005.
Legacy
In Pittsburgh, there is an August Wilson Center for African American Culture
August Wilson Center for African American Culture
August Wilson Center for African American Culture is a U.S. nonprofit arts organization that presents performing and visual arts programs that celebrate the contributions of African Americans in Western Pennsylvania....
.
On October 16, 2005, fourteen days after Wilson's death, the Virginia Theatre in New York City's Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
district was renamed the August Wilson Theatre
August Wilson Theatre
The August Wilson Theatre, located at 245 West 52nd Street in New York City, is a Broadway theatre.Designed by architects C. Howard Crane and Kenneth Franzheim and constructed by the Theatre Guild, it opened as the Guild Theatre in 1925 with a revival of George Bernard Shaw's Caesar and...
. It is the first Broadway theatre to bear the name of an African-American.
The vacated Republican Street between Warren Avenue N. and 2nd Avenue N. on the Seattle Center
Seattle Center
Seattle Center is a park and arts and entertainment center in Seattle, Washington. The campus is the site used in 1962 by the Century 21 Exposition. It is located just north of Belltown in the Lower Queen Anne neighborhood.-Attractions:...
grounds has been renamed August Wilson Way.
Honors and awards
- 1985: New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play – Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
- 1986: Whiting Writers' AwardWhiting Writers' AwardThe Whiting Writers' Award is an American award presented annually to ten emerging writers in fiction, nonfiction, poetry and plays. The award is sponsored by the Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation and has been presented since 1985. As of 2007, winners receive US $50,000.-External links:**...
- Ma Rainey's Black Bottom - 1986: American Theatre Critics' Association Award - Fences
- 1987: Drama Desk Award for Outstanding New Play – Fences
- 1987: New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play – Fences
- 1987: Pulitzer Prize for DramaPulitzer Prize for DramaThe Pulitzer Prize for Drama was first awarded in 1918.From 1918 to 2006, the Drama Prize was unlike the majority of the other Pulitzer Prizes: during these years, the eligibility period for the drama prize ran from March 2 to March 1, to reflect the Broadway 'season' rather than the calendar year...
– Fences - 1987: Tony Award for Best PlayTony Award for Best PlayThe Tony Award for Best Play is an annual award celebrating achievements in live American theatre, including musical theatre, honoring productions on Broadway in New York. It currently takes place in mid-June each year.There was no award in the Tony's first year...
– Fences - 1987: Outer Critics Circle AwardOuter Critics Circle AwardThe Outer Critics Circle Awards are presented annually for theatrical achievements both on and Off-Broadway and were begun during the 1949-1950 theater season. The awards are decided upon by theater critics who review for out-of-town newspapers, national publications, and other media outlets...
- Fences - 1987: Artist of the Year by Chicago TribuneChicago TribuneThe Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
- 1988: Literary Lion Award from the New York Public Library
- 1988: New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play – Joe Turner's Come and Gone
- 1990: Governor's Awards for Excellence in the Arts and Distinguished Pennsylvania Artists
- 1990: Drama Desk Award for Outstanding New Play – The Piano Lesson
- 1990: New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play – The Piano Lesson
- 1990: Pulitzer Prize for Drama – The Piano Lesson
- 1991: Black Filmmakers Hall of FameBlack Filmmakers Hall of FameThe Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame, Inc. , was founded in 1973, Oakland, California. It supports and promotes black filmmaking, and preserves the contributions by African American artists both before and behind the camera...
award - 1992: American Theatre Critics' Association Award – Two Trains Running
- 1992: New York Drama Critics Circle Citation for Best American Play – Two Trains Running
- 1992: Clarence Muse Award
- 1996: New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play – Seven Guitars
- 1999: National Humanities Medal
- 2000: New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play – Jitney
- 2000: Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Off-Broadway Play – Jitney
- 2002: Olivier Award for Best new Play – Jitney
- 2004: The 10th Annual Heinz AwardHeinz AwardThe Heinz Award is an award currently given annually to ten honorees by the Heinz Family Foundation. The Heinz Awards recognize outstanding individuals for their contributions in the five areas of: Arts and Humanities, the Environment, the Human Condition, Public Policy, and Technology, the Economy...
in Arts and Humanities - 2004: The U.S. Comedy Arts Festival Freedom of Speech Award
- 2005: Make Shift Award at the U.S. Confederation of Play Writers
Plays
- Recycle, 1973 (produced in Pittsburgh, PA)
- Fullerton Street, 1980
- Black Bart and the Sacred Hills, 1977 (produced St. Paul, 1981)
- JitneyJitney (play)Jitney is a play in two acts by August Wilson. The eighth in The Pittsburgh Cycle, this play is set in a worn-down gypsy cab station in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in early autumn 1977.-Productions:...
(1982) - Ma Rainey's Black BottomMa Rainey's Black BottomMa Rainey's Black Bottom is a 1982 play - one of the ten-play Pittsburgh Cycle by August Wilson, a Pulitzer Prize-winning American playwright - that chronicles the twentieth century African American experience...
(1984) - The Homecoming, 1989
- Fences (1987) - Pulitzer PrizePulitzer PrizeThe Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
- Joe Turner's Come and GoneJoe Turner's Come and GoneJoe Turner's Come and Gone is a play by American playwright, August Wilson, the second installment of his decade-by-decade chronicle of the African-American experience, The Pittsburgh Cycle...
(1988) - The Coldest Day of the Year, 1989
- The Piano LessonThe Piano LessonThe Piano Lesson is a 1990 play by American playwright August Wilson. The Piano Lesson is the fifth play in Wilson's The Pittsburgh Cycle. Wilson began writing this play by playing with the various answers regarding the possibility of "acquir[ing] a sense of self-worth by denying ones past"...
(1990) - Pulitzer PrizePulitzer PrizeThe Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City... - Two Trains RunningTwo Trains RunningTwo Trains Running is a play by American playwright August Wilson, the seventh in his ten-part series The Pittsburgh Cycle. It was first performed by the Yale Repertory Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut, while its Broadway première was on 13 April 1992 at the Walter Kerr Theatre in New York...
(1991) - Seven GuitarsSeven GuitarsSeven Guitars is a 1995 play by American playwright, August Wilson. It focuses on seven African American characters in the year 1948. The play begins and ends after the funeral of one of the main characters, showing events leading to the funeral in flashbacks...
(1995) - King Hedley IIKing Hedley IIKing Hedley II is a play by American playwright August Wilson, the ninth in his ten-part series, The Pittsburgh Cycle. This is the ninth of the plays in Wilson's ten-play cycle, each from a different era...
(1999) - How I Learned What I Learned (2002–03, Seattle)
- Gem of the OceanGem of the OceanGem of the Ocean is a play by American playwright August Wilson. It is the first installment of his decade-by-decade, ten-play chronicle, The Pittsburgh Cycle, dramatizing the African-American experience in the twentieth century.-Plot :...
(2003) - Radio GolfRadio GolfRadio Golf is a play by American playwright, August Wilson, the final installment in his ten-part series, The Pittsburgh Cycle. It was first performed in 2005 by the Yale Repertory Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut and had its Broadway premiere in 2007 at the Cort Theatre...
(2005)
External links
- August Wilson Theatre Broadway
- NPR Intersections: August Wilson, Writing to the Blues audio interview (6 mins)
- "Theater Is to Be Renamed for a Dying Playwright". September 2, 2005. New York Times.
- Pittsburgh Post-Gazette obituary. October 3, 2005
- August Wilson Center for African American Culture
- New York Times obituary "August Wilson, Theater's Poet of Black America, Is Dead at 60". October 3, 2005
- Believer Journal. Interview with Wilson. November 2004
- Putting Up Fences, article with video, Sept 17, 2009. BU Today.
- Berkeley Rep profile of Wilson and works