August Wilson never formally studied theater. He often explained that he got his education from the four B’s: the blues, the art of painter Romare Bearden and the writing of poet Amiri Baraka and writer/poet Jorge Luis Borges. "The foundation of my playwriting is poetry," Wilson once said.
1. Wilson 101
August Wilson is an American playwright best known for his unprecedented cycle of 10 plays that chronicle the 20th century African-American experience. Each play is set in a different decade and collectively became known as the Century Cycle. “Put them all together,” Wilson once said, “and you have a history.” (Photo: Sarah Krulwich)
3. The Hill District
All, but one, of Wilson’s plays— Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom — are set in Pittsburgh’s Hill District, the economically depressed neighborhood where Wilson was born in 1945 and spent his early years. “Like most people, I have this sort of love-hate relationship with Pittsburgh,” he once said. “This is my home and at times I miss it and find it tremendously exciting, and other times I want to catch the first thing out that has wheels.” (Photo: August Wilson's childhood home)
4. Pulitzer Prizes
Two of Wilson’s plays won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama— Fences (1987) and The Piano Lesson (1990). (Photo: James Earl Jones and Mary Alice in Fences. Paul J. Penders, 1985. Courtesy of Yale Repertory Theatre)
Biographical Sketch of August Wilson
Interview with Bonnie Lyons
Properties on both sides of the Wilson home -- an adjacent building that needs to be stabilized and a vacant lot owned by the Housing Authority of Pittsburgh -- are part of the plan for the artist community, said Kevin Acklin, a member of the board.
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