BIOGRAPHY: AUGUST WILSON

BORN 1945

DIED 2005

WHO WAS HE?

• ONE OF ONLY SEVEN AMERICAN DRAMATISTS TO WIN TWO PULITZER PRIZES (ONE FOR FENCES AND ONE FOR A PIANO LESSON)

• FIRST AFRICAN-AMERICAN TO HAVE TWO PLAYS RUN SIMULTANEOUSLY ON BROADWAY

• MAJOR INFLUENCES ON HIS WORK: THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE OF THE 20S AND THE BLACK ARTS MOVEMENT OF THE 1960S

• KNOWN FOR HIS CYCLE OF 10 PLAYS

• EACH EXPLORES A CENTRAL ISSUE FACING AFRICAN AMERICAN IN A DIFFERENT DECADE OF THE 20TH CENTURY

• HIS EXPLORATION OF AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY, ACCORDING TO WILSON HIMSELF, BEGAN IN 1965, WHEN LISTENING TO JAZZ SINGER BESSIE SMITH’S “NOBODY IN TOWN CAN BAKE A SWEET JELLYROLL LIKE MINE.”

• WILSON BECAME AWARE THAT HE WAS REPRESENTATIVE OF A CULTURE AND THE CARRIER OF SOME VALUABLE ANTECEDENTS

• CYCLE OF PLAYS BEGAN WITH MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM, SET IN THE 1920S

• JOE TURNER’S COME AND GONE, 1910S

• FENCES, 1950S

• THE PIANO LESSON, 1930S

• TWO TRAINS RUNNING, 1960S

• SEVEN GUITARS, 1940S

• HE WAS BORN IN PITTSBURGH, PA

• SON OF GERMAN AMERICAN FREDERICK AUGUST KITTEL AND AFRICAN AMERICAN DAISY WILSON

• GREW UP IN A POOR, RACIALLY MIXED SECTION OF PITTSBURGH CALLED “THE HILL”

• FENCES IS SET IN A FICTIONALIZED PITTSBURGH

• HE WAS ACTIVELY RAISED BY HIS AFRICAN AMERICAN STEPFATHER, DAVID BELFORD

• REMEMBERS HIS BIOLOGICAL FATHER ONLY AS A “SPORADIC PRESENCE”

• IN THE 1950S, THE FAMILY RELOCATED TO A PREDOMINANTLY WHITE SUBURB, WHERE WILSON FOR THE FIRST TIME EXPERIENCED RACIAL PREJUDICE PERSONALLY

• BRICKS THROWN AT HOUSE, THREATENING NOTES AND RACIAL SLURS AT SCHOOL, SLIGHTING BY WHITE CLASS MATES

• HE QUITS SCHOOL AT 15 AND EDUCATES HIMSELF AT THE PUBLIC LIBRARY

• BESIDES HIS READING, LOCAL ORAL TRADITIONS BECOME INFLUENTIAL FOR HIS WORK:

• “ABOUT 21 LIVING IN PITTSBURGH, IT WAS VERY DIFFICULT . . . AND I WASN’T QUITE SURE I WAS GOING TO BE 22. AND I LOOKED UP AND SAW THIS OLD MAN WALKING DOWN THE STREET AND I SAID I DIDN’T KNOW HOW HE LIVED TO BE 65. . . . I FOLLOWED HIM AND WENT INTO THIS PLACE CALLED PAT’S PLACE, WHICH WAS A CIGAR STORE. AND THERE THESE GUYS WOULD STAND AROUND EVERY DAY AND I WOULD STAND AROUND IN THE BACKGROUND AND LISTEN TO THEM. . . . LITTLE DID I KNOW THAT MANY YEARS LATER . . . I WOULD MAKE USE OF THEM IN MY PLAYS.”

• HIS PLAY MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM OPENED ON BROADWAY IN 1984 AND WAS A COMMERCIAL AND CRITICAL SUCCESS

• WILSON’S ABILITY TO PRODUCE THIS PLAY ON BROADWAY WAS GREATLY SUPPORTED BY LLOYD RICHARDS, DEAN OF YALE SCHOOL OF DRAMA, WHO SUPPORTED HIS WORK THROUGHOUT HIS LIFE

• FENCES STARTED ON BROADWAY IN 1987, STARRING JAMES EARL JONES AS TROY MAXSON

• THE PLAY WAS A TREMENDOUS CRITICAL SUCCESS, WINNING HIM THE NEW YORK DRAMA CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD, FOUR TONY AWARDS (INCLUDING BEST PLAY), AND THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR DRAMA

• CRITICS ESPECIALLY PRAISED THE WAY HE PLACED A FATHER-SON CONFLICT INTO THE SPECIFIC SOCIAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXT OF LOWER-CLASS AFRICAN-AMERICANS IN THE 1950S RUST BELT

• ALSO, PRAISE FOR HIS ABILITY TO CREATE MYTHS; DESCRIBED BY MICHAEL FEINGOLD OF THE VILLAGE VOICE AS “A MYTHMAKER WHO SEES HIS BASICALLY NATURALISTIC PANORAMA PLAYS AS SAGES IN AN ALLEGORICAL HISTORY OF BLACK AMERICA.”

• FOLLOWED BY OTHER SUCCESSFUL PLAYS SUCH AS JOE TURNER’S COME AND GONE, SET IN 1910S PITTSBURGH

• EXPLORES THE LIVES OF CHARACTERS IN DANGER OF BEING CUT OFF FROM THEIR AFRICAN AND SOUTHERN ROOTS BY THEIR MIGRATION TO THE NORTH

• LAUDED BY FRAN RICH OF THE NYTIMES AS “SPIRITUAL ALLEGORY”

• OVERALL: WILSON’S PLAYS HELP TO REMEDY THE UNDERREPRESENTATION OF AFRICAN AMERICANS IN AMERICAN THEATER

• USES POETIC DIALOGUE COMBINED WITH MATERIAL FROM HIS OWN PAST; FOUND A WAY TO INCORPORATE POLITICS AND HISTORY, AS WELL AS ASPECTS OF A DISTINCTIVE AFRICAN AMERICAN CULTURE

• BUT HIS PLAYS ALSO APPEAL TO A MASS AUDIENCE