August Wilson
Born	Frederick August Kittel Jr. (1945-04-27)April 27, 1945 Pittsburgh,Pennsylvania, U.S.
Died	October 2, 2005(2005-10-02) (aged 60) Seattle,Washington, U.S.
Resting place	Greenwood Cemetery
Occupation	Author, playwright
Notable works	Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (1984) Fences (1987) Joe Turner's Come and Gone (1988) The Piano Lesson (1990)
Notable awards	Pulitzer Prize for Drama (1987, 1990) Whiting Award (1986) Heinz Award in the Arts and Humanities (2004)
Spouse	Brenda Burton ​ ​ (m. 1969; div. 1972)​ Judy Oliver ​ ​ (m. 1981; div. 1990)​ Constanza Romero ​ (m. 1994)​
Children	2

August Wilson (néFrederick August Kittel Jr.; April 27, 1945 – October 2, 2005) was an American playwright. He has been referred to as the "theater's poet of Black America".^[1] He is best known for a series of 10 plays, collectively calledThe Pittsburgh Cycle (orThe Century Cycle), which chronicle the experiences and heritage of the African-American community in the 20th century. Plays in the series includeFences (1987) andThe Piano Lesson (1990), each of which won Wilson thePulitzer Prize for Drama, as well asMa Rainey's Black Bottom (1984) andJoe Turner's Come and Gone (1988). In 2006, Wilson was inducted into theAmerican Theater Hall of Fame.

Other themes range from the systemic and historical exploitation of African Americans,race relations, identity, migration, and racial discrimination.Viola Davis said that Wilson's writing "captures our humor, our vulnerabilities, our tragedies, our trauma. And he humanizes us. And he allows us to talk."^[2] Since Wilson's death, three of his plays have been adapted or re-adapted into films:Fences (2016),Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (2020) andThe Piano Lesson (2024).Denzel Washington has shepherded the films and has vowed to continue Wilson's legacy by adapting the rest of his plays into films for a wider audience.^[3] Washington said, "the greatest part of what's left of my career is making sure that August is taken care of".^[4]

Wilson was born Frederick August Kittel Jr. in theHill District ofPittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the fourth of six children. His father, Frederick August Kittel Sr., was aSudeten German immigrant, who was a baker/pastry cook. His mother, Daisy Wilson, was an African-American woman from North Carolina who cleaned homes for a living.^[5] Wilson's anecdotal history reports that his maternal grandmother walked from North Carolina to Pennsylvania in search of a better life. Wilson's mother raised the children alone until he was five in a two-room apartment behind a grocery store at 1727 Bedford Avenue; his father was mostly absent from his childhood. Wilson later wrote under his mother's surname.

The economically depressed neighborhood where he was raised was inhabited predominantly by Black Americans and Jewish and Italian immigrants. Life was tough for the Kittel siblings as they were biracial. August struggled with finding a sense of belonging to a particular culture and did not feel that he truly fit into African-American culture or White culture until later in life. Wilson's mother divorced his father and married David Bedford in the 1950s, and the family moved from the Hill District to the then predominantly White working-class neighborhood ofHazelwood, 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.^[6]

The Hill District went on to become the setting of numerous plays in thePittsburgh Cycle. His experiences growing up there with a strong matriarch shaped the way his plays would be written.^[7]

External videos
American Masters, August Wilson: The Ground on Which I Stand,PBS, 1:24:39[8]

In 1959, Wilson was one of 14 African-American students atCentral Catholic High School but dropped out after one year.^[5] 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 ofplagiarizing a 20-page paper he wrote onNapoleon 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, where he met a wide variety of people on whom some of his later characters were based, such as Sam inThe Janitor (1985).^[6]

Wilson's extensive use of theCarnegie Library of Pittsburgh resulted in its later awarding him an honorary high school diploma. Wilson, who said he had learned to read at the age of four, began reading Black writers at the library when he was 12 and spent the remainder of his teen years educating himself through the books ofRalph Ellison,Richard Wright,Langston Hughes,Arna Bontemps, and others.^[6]

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 he was discharged after a year^[9] and went back to working various odd jobs as a porter, short-order cook, gardener, and dishwasher.^{[citation needed]}

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 byBessie Smith, and he bought a stolen typewriter for $10, which he often pawned when money was tight.^[10] At 20, he decided he was a poet and submitted work to such magazines asHarper's.^[5] He began to write in bars, the local cigar store, and cafes—longhand on table napkins and on yellow notepads, 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.^[5] Gifted with a talent for catching dialect and accents, Wilson had an "astonishing memory", which he put to full use during his career. He slowly learned not to censor the language he heard when incorporating it into his work.^[10]

Malcolm X's voice influenced Wilson's life and work (such asThe Ground on Which I Stand, 1996). Both theNation of Islam (NOI) and theBlack Power movement spoke to him regarding self-sufficiency, self-defense, andself-determination, and he appreciated the origin myths thatElijah Muhammad supported. In 1969 Wilson married Brenda Burton, a Muslim, and became associated with the NOI, though he reportedly did not convert.^[11] He and Brenda had one daughter, Sakina Ansari-Wilson. The couple divorced in 1972.^[6]

In 1968, along with his friendRob Penny, Wilson co-founded theBlack Horizon Theater in theHill District of Pittsburgh.^[5] Wilson's 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 wasJitney, which he revised more than two decades later as part of his 10-play cycle on 20th-century Pittsburgh.^[6] He had no directing experience.^[5] 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 calledThe Fundamentals of Play Directing^[12] and checked it out."^[10]

In 1976, Vernell Lillie, who had founded theKuntu Repertory Theatre at theUniversity of Pittsburgh two years earlier, directed Wilson'sThe Homecoming. That same year Wilson sawAthol Fugard'sSizwe Banzi is Dead, staged at thePittsburgh Public Theater, the first time he attended professionally produced drama. Wilson, Penny, and poet Maisha Baton then founded the Kuntu Writers Workshop to bring African-American writers together and to assist them in publication and production. Both organizations remain active.

In 1978, Wilson moved toSaint Paul, Minnesota, at the suggestion of his friend, directorClaude Purdy, who helped him secure a job writing educational scripts for theScience Museum of Minnesota.^[5] In 1980 he received a fellowship forThe Playwrights' Center in Minneapolis. He quit the museum in 1981, but continued writing plays. For three years, he was a part-time cook for theLittle Brothers of the Poor. Wilson had a long association with thePenumbra Theatre Company of St. Paul, which was initially funded by a federalComprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA) grant and which premiered some of his plays. He wroteFullerton Street, which has been unproduced and unpublished, in 1980. It follows theJoe Louis/Billy Conn fight in 1941 and the loss of values attendant on theGreat Migration to the urban North.^[6]

Throughout the 1980s, Wilson wrote the majority of his work includingJitney (1982),Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (1984),Fences (1985),Joe Turner's Come and Gone (1986), andThe Piano Lesson (1987).

In 1987, St. Paul's mayorGeorge Latimer named May 27 "August Wilson Day". He was honored because he is the only person from Minnesota to win aPulitzer Prize for Drama.^[6]

In 1990, Wilson left St. Paul after getting divorced and moved toSeattle. There he developed a relationship withSeattle Repertory Theatre, which produced his entire 10-play cycle and his one-man showHow I Learned What I Learned.^[6]

Though he was a writer dedicated to writing for theater, a Hollywood studio proposed filming Wilson's playFences. 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 remained unmade until 2016, whenDenzel Washington directed the filmFences, starring Washington andViola Davis. It earned Wilson a posthumous Oscar nomination.^[13]

Wilson received many honorary degrees, including an honorary Doctor of Humanities from the University of Pittsburgh, of which he was a trustee from 1992 until 1995.^[14]

Wilson maintained a strong voice in the progress and development of the (then) contemporary Black theater, undoubtedly taking influences from the examples of his youth, such as those displayed during theBlack Arts Movement. One of the most notable examples of Wilson's strong opinions and critiques of what was Black theater's state in the 1990s, was the "On Cultural Power: The August Wilson/Robert Brustein Discussion" where Wilson argued for a completely Black theater with all positions filled by Blacks. Conversely, he argued that Black actors should not play roles not specifically Black (e.g., no Black Hamlet). Brustein heatedly took an opposing view.

In 2005, Wilson's final installment in his ten-part seriesThe Century Cycle, titledRadio Golf, opened. It was first performed in 2005 by theYale Repertory Theatre inNew Haven, Connecticut and had itsBroadway premiere in 2007 at theCort Theatre. It would become known as Wilson's final work.^[15]

Although Wilson's work is not formally recognized within the literary canon of theBlack Arts Movement, he was certainly a product of its mission, helping to co-found the Black Horizon Theatre in his hometown of Pittsburgh in 1968. Situated in Pittsburgh's Hill District, a historically and predominantly Black neighborhood, the Black Horizon Theatre became a cultural hub of Black creativity and community building.^[16] As a playwright of what is considered the Post–Black Arts Movement, Wilson inherited the spirit of BAM, producing plays that celebrated the history and poetic sensibilities of Black people. His iconic Century Cycle successfully tracked and synthesized the experiences of Black America in the 20th century, using each historical decade, from 1904 to 1997, to document the physical, emotional, mental, and political strivings of Black life in the wake of emancipation.^[17]

Wilson's best-known plays areFences (1985) (which won aPulitzer Prize and aTony Award),The Piano Lesson (1990) (a Pulitzer Prize and the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award),Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, andJoe Turner's Come and Gone.

Wilson stated that he was most influenced by "the four Bs": blues music, theArgentine writer and poetJorge Luis Borges, the playwrightAmiri Baraka and the painterRomare Bearden.^[5] He went on to add writersEd Bullins andJames 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.^[5]

He valued Bullins and Baldwin for their honest representations of everyday life.^[10]

Like Bearden, Wilson worked 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.^[10]

Wilson'sPittsburgh Cycle,^[18] also often referred to as hisCentury Cycle,^[19] consists of ten plays—nine of which are set in Pittsburgh's Hill District (the other being set in Chicago), anAfrican-American neighborhood that takes on a mythic literary significance likeThomas Hardy's Wessex,William Faulkner'sYoknapatawpha County, or Irish playwrightBrian Friel'sBallybeg. 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".^[10] His writing of the Black experience always featured strong female characters and sometimes included elements of the supernatural. In his book, he wrote "My mother's a very strong, principled woman. My female characters . . . come in a large part from my mother."^[20]

As for the elements of the supernatural, Wilson often featured some form of superstition or old tradition in plays that came down to supernatural roots.^[21] One of his plays well known for featuring this isThe Piano Lesson. In the play, the piano is used and releases spirits of the ancestors. Wilson wanted to create such an event in the play that the audience was left to decide what was real or not. 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.^[10]

Wilson toldThe Paris Review:

I think my plays offer (White Americans) a different way to look at Black Americans. For instance, inFences 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.^[5]

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 inGem of the Ocean, which takes place in her home at 1839 Wylie Avenue, and 349 inTwo Trains Running. She dies in 1985, during the events ofKing Hedley II. Much of the action ofRadio Golf revolves around the plan to demolish and redevelop that house, some years after her death. Aunt Ester is a symbolic and recurring figure that represents the African-American struggle. She is "not literally three centuries old but a succession of folk priestesses... [s]he embodies a weighty history of tragedy and triumph".^[22] The plays often include anapparently mentally impaired oracular character (different in each play)—for example, Hedley Sr. inSeven Guitars, Gabriel inFences, Stool Pigeon inKing Hedley II, or Hambone inTwo Trains Running.^{[citation needed]}

Chicago'sGoodman Theatre was the first theater in the world to produce the entire 10-play cycle, in productions which spanned from 1986 to 2007. Two of the Goodman's productions—Seven Guitars andGem of the Ocean—were world premieres.^[24]Israel Hicks produced the entire 10-play cycle from 1990 to 2009 for theDenver Center Theatre Company.^[25]Geva Theatre Center produced all 10 plays in decade order from 2007 to 2011 asAugust Wilson's American Century. TheHuntington Theatre Company ofBoston has produced all 10 plays, finishing in 2012. During Wilson's life he worked closely with The Huntington to produce the later plays.Pittsburgh Public Theater was the first theater company in Pittsburgh to produce the entire Century Cycle, including the world premiere ofKing Hedley II to open theO'Reilly Theater inDowntown Pittsburgh.^[26]

TAG – The Actors' Group, in Honolulu, Hawaii, produced all 10 plays in the cycle starting in 2004 withTwo Trains Running and culminating in 2015 withMa Rainey's Black Bottom. All shows were Hawaii premieres, all were extremely successful at the box office and garnered many local theatre awards for the actors and the organization. The Black Rep in St. Louis and the Anthony Bean Community Theater in New Orleans have also presented the complete cycle.

In the years after Wilson's death the 10-play cycle has been referred to asThe August Wilson Century Cycle^[27] and asThe American Century Cycle.^[28]

Two years before his death in 2005, Wilson wrote and performed an unpublished one-man play entitledHow I Learned What I Learned about the power of art and the power of possibility. This was produced at New York's Signature Theatre and directed by Todd Kreidler, Wilson's friend and protégé.How I Learned explores his days as a struggling young writer in Pittsburgh's Hill District and how the neighborhood and its people inspired his cycle of plays about the African-American experience.^[29]

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 married Judy Oliver, a social worker; they divorced in 1990. He married again in 1994 and was survived by his third wife, costume designerConstanza Romero, whom he met on the set ofThe Piano Lesson. They had a daughter, Azula Carmen Wilson.^[5] Wilson also was survived by siblings Freda Ellis, Linda Jean Kittel, Richard Kittel, Donna Conley and Edwin Kittel.^[1]

Wilson reported that he had been diagnosed withliver cancer in June 2005 and been given three to five months to live. He died at age 60 on October 2 of that year atSwedish Medical Center in Seattle, and was interred atGreenwood Cemetery, Pittsburgh, on October 8.^[30] He reportedly requested a "Black funeral" atSaint Paul Cathedral, but permission for a non-Catholic funeral was not granted by the diocese. A memorial service was instead held at theUniversity of Pittsburgh.^[11]

The childhood home of Wilson and his six siblings, at 1727 Bedford Avenue in Pittsburgh, was declared a historic landmark by the State of Pennsylvania on May 30, 2007.^[37] On February 26, 2008,Pittsburgh City Council placed the house on theList of City of Pittsburgh historic designations. On April 30, 2013, theAugust Wilson House was added to theNational Register of Historic Places.^[38]

In Pittsburgh, there is anAugust Wilson Center for African American Culture. The center includes a permanent exhibition on Wilson's life in Pittsburgh's Hill District, "August Wilson: A Writer's Landscape."^[39]

On October 16, 2005, fourteen days after Wilson's death, theVirginia Theatre in New York City'sBroadwayTheater District was renamed theAugust Wilson Theatre. It is the first Broadway theatre to bear the name of an African-American.^[40] The theatre has run many shows, includingJersey Boys,Groundhog Day, andMean Girls.^[41]

In 2007, the August Wilson Monologue Competition was founded byKenny Leon and Todd Kreidler. High school students, supported by professional actors, mentors, local drama teachers and others learn a monologue from one of Wilson's plays, and perform it in front of a professional jury. This tribute to Wilson's work is an official contest in many American cities including, as of 2020, Atlanta, Boston, Buffalo, Chicago, Dallas, Greensboro, Los Angeles, New Haven, New York, Norfolk, Pittsburgh, Portland, San Diego, and Seattle. The national winner of the contest gets the chance to perform on Broadway.^[42]

In Seattle, Washington, along the south side of the Seattle Repertory Theatre, the vacated Republican Street between Warren Avenue N. and 2nd Avenue N. on theSeattle Center grounds has been renamed August Wilson Way.^[43]

In September 2016, an existing community park near his childhood home was renovated and renamed August Wilson Park.^[44]

In 2020, theUniversity Library System at theUniversity of Pittsburgh acquired Wilson's literary papers and materials to establish the August Wilson Archive.^[45][46][47]

In 2021, theUnited States Postal Service honored Wilson with aForever stamp featuring him as part of the Black Heritage series of stamps. It was designed by Ethel Kessler with art from Tim O'Brien.^[48]

On January 7, 2025, Wilson received a star on theHollywood Walk of Fame.^[49]

Other awards and honors by year:

• 1985: New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best American PlayMa Rainey's Black Bottom
• 1986:Whiting Award for Drama
• 1986: Guggenheim Fellowship for Drama & Performance Art^[50]
• 1987: Artist of the Year byChicago Tribune
• 1988: Literary Lion Award from the New York Public Library
• 1988: Golden Plate Award of theAmerican Academy of Achievement^[51]
• 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: New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play –The Piano Lesson
• 1991:Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame award
• 1991:St. Louis Literary Award from theSaint Louis University Library Associates^[52][53]
• 1992: American Theatre Critics' Association Award –Two Trains Running
• 1992,2007: 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
• 2001: Outer Critics Circle Award for John Gassner Playwriting Award –Fences
• 2002: Olivier Award for Best new Play –Jitney
• 2004: The 10th AnnualHeinz Award in Arts and Humanities^[54]
• 2004: The U.S. Comedy Arts Festival Freedom of Speech Award
• 2005: Make Shift Award at the U.S. Confederation of Play Writers
• 2006:American Theatre Hall of Fame.^[55]
• 2013: Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Revival –The Piano Lesson

• Hartigan, Patti (2023).August Wilson: A Life. New York: Simon & Schuster.ISBN 9781501180668.OCLC 1347429411.

Wikimedia Commons has media related toAugust Wilson.

• August Wilson Archives, University of Pittsburgh
• August Wilson Theatre Broadway
• August Wilson Center for African American Culture
• Berkeley Rep profile of Wilson and worksArchived February 23, 2012, at theWayback Machine
• The Whiting Foundation Profile
• Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article
• August Wilson atIMDb
• August Wilson Journal

• August Wilson onCharlie Rose
• August Wilson on Blackness,Bill Moyers,A World of Ideas, October 20, 1988.
• Bonnie Lyons, George Plimpton (Winter 1999)."August Wilson, The Art of Theater No. 14".The Paris Review. Winter 1999 (153).
• NPR Intersections: August Wilson, Writing to the Blues, March 1, 2004, audio interview (6 mins).
• Interview with Wilson,The Believer, November 2004.
• Putting UpFences, article with video,BU Today, September 17, 2009.

• "Theater Is to Be Renamed for a Dying Playwright",The New York Times, September 2, 2005.
• Pittsburgh Post-Gazette obituary, October 3, 2005
• "August Wilson, Theater's Poet of Black America, Is Dead at 60",The New York Times, October 3, 2005.
• Margaret Busby,"August Wilson – Distinguished black American playwright who reclaimed the stories of his people",The Guardian, October 4, 2005.

• 1945 births
• 2005 deaths
• 20th-century African-American writers
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• Converts to Islam
• Culture of Pittsburgh
• Deaths from cancer in Washington (state)
• Deaths from liver cancer in the United States
• Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters
• National Humanities Medal recipients
• Pulitzer Prize for Drama winners
• Tony Award winners
• Writers from Pittsburgh
• Writers from Saint Paul, Minnesota
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