Where does August Wilson's the Blues take place?
August Wilson's birthplace, Pittsburgh. August Wilson's ten-play century cycle, which mostly takes place in Pittsburgh, gets to the heart of the African-American experience. “I think the blues is the best literature that we as blacks have created since we’ve been here,” Wilson said. “And it’s a lot of philosophical ideas. I call it our sacred book.
How many Pittsburgh Cycle plays did August Wilson write?
August Wilson's 'Pittsburgh Cycle' Plays. August Wilson wrote ten plays, collectively known as 'The Pittsburgh Cycle' or 'Century Cycle,' which explores 100 years of the African-American experience.
What is August Wilson most famous for?
August Wilson is most known for his Century Cycle (also called The Pittsburgh Cycle), a collection of ten plays that span across decades to document African American experiences in the 20th century. The plays chronicle the effect of social and historical situations of each decade on individual characters.
What is the setting of Wilson's 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 (the other being set in Chicago), an African-American neighborhood that takes on a mythic literary significance like Thomas Hardy's Wessex, William Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha County, or Irish playwright...
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Where did August Wilson wrote his plays?
In 1978 Wilson moved to St. Paul, Minnesota, and in the early 1980s he wrote several plays, including Jitney, which was first produced in 1982. Focused on cab drivers in the 1970s, it underwent subsequent revisions as part of his historical cycle; it was published in 2000.
Where does Fences by August Wilson take place?
Pittsburgh“FencesFencesFences is a 1985 play by American playwright August Wilson. Set in the 1950s, it is the sixth in Wilson's ten-part "Pittsburgh Cycle". Like all of the "Pittsburgh" plays, Fences explores the evolving African-American experience and examines race relations, among other themes.https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Fences_(play)Fences (play) - Wikipedia” is one of 10 plays that Wilson wrote chronicling African-American life. Nine of the plays are set in Pittsburgh and each play depicts a different decade. The city's Hill District, where Wilson grew up, offers a rich map of places connected to him.
What are the plays of August Wilson?
Fences1985The Piano Lesson1987Jitney1982How I Learned What I Lea...2003Seven Guitars1994Gem of the Ocean2003August Wilson/Plays
What are the Wilson Pittsburgh cycle of plays?
August Wilson's Century Cycle is a towering achievement of 10 plays documenting the hopes and struggles of African Americans. Also known as the Pittsburgh Cycle, Wilson's work covers 100 years of the African-American experience, with each of the 10 plays set in a different decade of the 20th century.
Why is the setting of the play Fences important?
The setting of Pittsburgh seems to be particularly important because of what it and other Northern industrial cities represented for many black people. In the decades following the Civil War, many African Americans migrated north to escape the poverty and racial discrimination of the South.
When did the play Fences take place?
Set mostly in 1957, a landmark year for the Civil Rights Movement and a time when much of the Black community felt caught between a violent and oppressive past and the possibility of a brighter future, Fences follows the story of Troy Maxson, an African American father and husband who feels a desperate need to provide ...
What is the longest running play in the world?
ListRankTitlePerformances1The Phantom of the Opera13,7572Chicago (1996 revival)10,1143The Lion King9,7314Cats7,48550 more rows
What was special about August Wilson's plays?
This “Century Cycle” of plays has recurring characters, though the plays were not written in chronological order. “My plays are ultimately about love, honor, duty, betrayal,” Wilson said in an interview in 1996. All nine of the plays on Broadway received Tony Award nominations for best play and two won Pulitzer Prizes.
What are the elements of theatrical play?
PLOT The arrangement of events or incidents on the stage. ... CHARACTER The agents of the plot. ... THEME The reason the playwright wrote the play. ... LANGUAGE “Vivid characters” (6) facing and overcoming. ... RHYTHM The heart of the play. ... SPECTACLE Everything that is seen or heard on stage.
What is the style of the play Fences?
Drama, Family Drama, Coming of Age, Tragedy This particular drama focuses on the trials and tribulations of the Maxson family, making it a family drama. You could also view the play as a coming-of-age story, because it ends with Troy's son Cory advancing into manhood.
What is The Pittsburgh Cycle Fences?
'FencesFencesFences is a 1985 play by American playwright August Wilson. Set in the 1950s, it is the sixth in Wilson's ten-part "Pittsburgh Cycle". Like all of the "Pittsburgh" plays, Fences explores the evolving African-American experience and examines race relations, among other themes.https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Fences_(play)Fences (play) - Wikipedia' (Set in 1957; Premiered in 1987) The best known of Wilson's plays, Fences presents the hardness a man develops after his athletic talents and opportunity for a better future are wasted because of racism; only years later, he's forced to confront his son who wants to pursue a similar path in a different time.
Who won the Pulitzer Prize twice for the plays ruined and sweat?
Nottage has been living the dream since the mid-1990s, when her plays began getting produced by major theaters. Along the way, her dramas Ruined and Sweat each received the Pulitzer Prize, making her the first woman to win the category twice.
What is the background of Fences?
FencesFencesFences is a 1985 play by American playwright August Wilson. Set in the 1950s, it is the sixth in Wilson's ten-part "Pittsburgh Cycle". Like all of the "Pittsburgh" plays, Fences explores the evolving African-American experience and examines race relations, among other themes.https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Fences_(play)Fences (play) - Wikipedia is his play about blacks in the 1950's. Beginning in 1957, between the Korean and Vietnam wars, Fences ends in 1965, but the themes of the play directly place its consciousness in a pre-civil-rights-movement, pre-Vietnam-war-era psyche. Fences takes place in a still latent time.
Is Fences based on a true story?
Fences tells a story that many American families can relate to, but that doesn't mean that Fences is a true story. In fact, Fences is based on a play by the same name from renowned playwright August Wilson.
Did August Wilson live in Seattle?
Wilson moved to Seattle in 1990 and formed a relationship with Seattle Rep, which is one of the few theaters in the country that has produced all of the works in The American Century Cycle as well as Wilson's autobiographical one-man show, How I Learned What I Learned.
Where did August Wilson live in St Paul?
August Wilson lived in St. Paul's Selby-Dale neighborhood from 1978 to 1990.
Who was August Wilson's mentor?
August Wilson (right) met mentor-director Lloyd Richards (left) met in 1982 and forged a friendship that resulted in Richards’ directing Wilson’s first six Broadway plays. Photo: The Yale Repertory Theatre.
What is the century cycle of plays?
August Wilson’s seminal cycle of 10 plays covers African-American history in the 20th century, with all but one set in Pittsburgh’s Hill District, where Wilson grew up. This “Century Cycle” of plays has recurring characters, though the plays were not written in chronological order. “My plays are ultimately about love, honor, duty, betrayal,” Wilson said in an interview in 1996. All nine of the plays on Broadway received Tony Award nominations for best play and two won Pulitzer Prizes. Learn more about each in the order they were written, below.
What year was Come and Gone by Joe Turner?
4. Joe Turner’s Come and Gone (1984) Premiere: 1986, Yale Repertory Theatre; 1988, Broadway opening at Ethel Barrymore Theater. Synopsis: Set in a Pittsburgh boardinghouse in 1911, the ensemble play includes characters who were former slaves and examines the residents’ experiences with racism and discrimination.
What is the setting of Jitney?
Synopsis: Set in an unofficial taxi station threatened with demolition in 1977, Jitney explores the lives and relationships of drivers, highlighting conflicts between generations and different concepts of legacy and identity.
What year is the setting of the play Gem of the Ocean?
Synopsis: Set in 1990 Pittsburgh, this play concluded Wilson’s Century Cycle and is the last play he completed before his death. The home of Aunt Ester (the setting of the cycle’s first play Gem of the Ocean) is threatened with demolition that will make way for real estate development in the depressed area.
Where is the play Seven Guitars set?
Synopsis: Set in Pittsburgh in 1985, an ex-con tries wants to support a family and aims to get the money to open a video store by selling stolen refrigerators. The play features some characters from Seven Guitars.
Who won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play?
Awards: L. Scott Caldwell won a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play
Where does August Wilson's ten play century take place?
August Wilson's ten-play century cycle, which mostly takes place in Pittsburgh, gets to the heart of the African-American experience. “I think the blues is the best literature that we as blacks have created since we’ve been here,” Wilson said. “And it’s a lot of philosophical ideas. I call it our sacred book.
What does Wilson mean when he says the blues are literature?
When Wilson says the blues are literature, he is not exaggerating its importance but underscoring the blues’ sublime literary qualities. The blues are brief bursts of sonic fiction that vibrate with signifying lyrics, double entendres, and the effortless interplay between personal and social forces.
What is the effect of Wilson's blues poetry?
Wilson’s blues poetry has the same effect. If Wilson grappled with epistemology in Ma Rainey, he also confronted theodicy, or the philosophical and theological question of evil, of how one could claim God to be good, all-powerful, or all-knowing, while black pain persisted.
What does Rainey say about the blues?
Rainey says the blues give black folk a reason to keep going, to keep living, and offer them a consoling companion in a lonely universe. The blues artist fills the empty spaces of existence with meaningful music. Wilson’s blues poetry has the same effect.
Why don't white folk understand the blues?
To be sure, white folk can have their version of the blues, but they don’t have the blues the way black folk have them. The circumstances of black life compose the blues; the conditions of black life create its artists; the constraints of black life shape its forms; and the content of black life supplies its themes and vision. When Rainey says white folk don’t understand the blues, it’s really another way of saying they don’t understand the scope and sweep of black life; they don’t understand its goals and methods, its aspirations and inspirations alike.
What is the significance of Rainey's statement?
Rainey’s statement is as much about creativity as it is about procedure—as much about the mystery of beginnings, and origin myths, as about the means of artistic production. Rainey claims that epistemology and cosmology are connected since life itself speaks through the blues.
What is Wilson's medium of expression?
By choosing the philosophically suggestive blues as a medium of expression, Wilson grasped the simple yet surpassing humanity of black life and gathered its component agonies and aspirations in the majestic sweep of his gritty and graceful poetry.
Where did Wilson write his plays?
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 premiered some of his plays. He wrote Fullerton Street, which has been unproduced and unpublished, 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.
Which theatre company produced August Wilson's American Century?
Geva Theatre Center produced all 10 plays in decade order from 2007 to 2011 as August Wilson's American Century. The Huntington Theatre Company of Boston has produced all 10 plays, finishing in 2012. During Wilson's life he worked closely with The Huntington to produce the later plays.
Why did Frederick August Kittel Jr. change his name to August Wilson?
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 he bought a stolen typewriter for $10, which he often pawned when money was tight.
How many times was Wilson married?
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 designer Constanza Romero, whom he met on the set of The Piano Lesson. They had a daughter, Azula Carmen Wilson. Wilson was also survived by siblings Freda Ellis, Linda Jean Kittel, Donna Conley, Barbara Jean Wilson, Edwin Kittel and Richard Kittel.
What are the themes of Wilson's plays?
Other themes range from the systemic and historical exploitation of African Americans, as well as race relations, identity, migration, and racial discrimination. His work has drawn several iconic performances onstage from James Earl Jones, Denzel Washington, Viola Davis, Angela Bassett, Phylicia Rashad, Laurence Fishburne, L. Scott Caldwell and Samuel L. Jackson. Davis said of Wilson's writing, "He captures our humor, our vulnerabilities, our tragedies, our trauma. And he humanizes us. And he allows us to talk." Since Wilson's death two of his plays have been adapted into films: Fences (2016) and Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (2020). Denzel Washington has shepherded the films and has vowed to continue his legacy by adapting the rest of his plays into films for a wider audience by saying, "The greatest part of what’s left of my career is making sure that August is taken care of".
How long did Wilson live?
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, aged 60.
What degree did Wilson have?
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.
What is the setting of the play "The Diner"?
First performed in 1990, the play is set in a diner in 1969, a period that features the civil rights movement and the rise of the Black Power movement, as mentioned within the text. The work examines the effect of such times on individuals still stuck in place and downtrodden, confronted by continued injustice. Hill District residents gather to talk about their realities, from recent demonstrations to looking for work. Memphis is faced with a decision to sell the diner, as the entire city is subjected to growing gentrification.
Where does the piano lesson take place?
Wilson, Ronald L. Conner, A.C. Smith, and Brian Weddington in THE PIANO LESSON by Michael Brosilow. Written in 1987, the play takes place in Pittsburgh in 1936, during the aftermath of the Great Depression.
Who is Harmond Wilks?
Harmond Wilks is a real estate developer dedicated to becoming the first black mayor of Pittsburgh as he envisions reviving the Hill District. However, he begins to question his mission when learning of the risk such change poses to the neighborhood’s vital history.
Was Troy Maxson a black man?
Troy Maxson was a talented baseball player but never had the opportunity to make into a professional career as major baseball leagues do not accept black players. After some time in prison, Troy works as a garbage collector, the first black man to drive the garbage truck in the city.
What is the best known play of Wilson's plays?
The best known of Wilson's plays, Fences presents the hardness a man develops after his athletic talents and opportunity for a better future are wasted because of racism; only years later, he's forced to confront his son who wants to pursue a similar path in a different time. The original Broadway production in 1987 won Tonys for James Earl Jones, Mary Alice and Best Play. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama that year. In 2010, it won Tonys for Best Revival and Denzel Washington and Viola Davis for Best Actor and Actress in a Play. A 2016 film directed by Washington was nominated for several Oscars, winning one for Davis.
What did August Wilson write about?
Playwright August Wilson wrote about the complexity of the African American experience, of undocumented lives, and of the people he grew up with in the Hill District of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
What is the theme of Come and Gone?
Inspired by Romare Bearden's Mill Hand's Lunch Bucket painting, which was set in a boarding house and showed an abject man sitting in defeat, Wilson reimagined him in Joe Turner's Come and Gone. His main character, Herald Loomis, after enduring seven years of illegal servitude, travels from boarding house to boarding house with his 11-year old daughter in search of the wife and mother who deserted them.
What is the Black Bottom play about?
It explores racism, the often-fraught history of Black musicians and white producers and what it means to really sing the blues. Ma Rainey says in the play, “White folks don't understand about the blues. They hear it come out, but they don't know how it got there. They don't understand that's life's way of talking. You don't sing to feel better. You sing 'cause that's a way of understanding life.”
What is the piano lesson about?
The Piano Lesson is about a brother and sister who fight over whether to sell a family heirloom to purchase land that their enslaved ancestors once worked on or to keep it as part of their familial history.
How many plays did Wilson write?
Wilson wrote 10 plays, collectively known as "The Pittsburgh Cycle" or "Amerian Century Cycle," which explores 100 years of the African American experience. Wilson wrote 10 plays, collectively known as "The Pittsburgh Cycle" or "Amerian Century Cycle," which explores 100 years of the African American experience.
Where is Seven Guitars set?
Seven Guitars is set in the backyard of a Pittsburgh tenement where a womanizing blues singer, recently released from prison, tries to right what he has wronged. Keith David, Davis and Santiago-Hudson (Tony winner for the role) starred in the production.
What is August Wilson's play?
August Wilson's plays provide audiences with a thorough and unflinching look at the African American experience in the twentieth century. Get to know this beloved playwright with an introduction to Fences, Wilson's Pulitzer Prize-winning work set in the 1950s.
How many plays did August Wilson write?
Most playwrights are lucky if they have just one hit. August Wilson had 10. Wilson, the author of an impressive “cycle” of 10 plays exploring a decade of African American history, was born in 1945 in the ethnically-diverse Hill District neighborhood of Pittsburgh. Originally named Frederick August Kittel after his white immigrant father, ...
What is the most famous play in the century cycle?
Fences stands as one of the greatest achievements in Wilson’s “Century Cycle” and one of the most beloved plays in American theater, in part because of its unique use of theatrical elements such as:
What is Wilson's dialogue like?
Like many blues lyrics, Wilson’s dialogue can be funny, desperate, or poetic. In addition, Wilson tends to assign his characters a special speed or tempo depending on their personality, as if they were each soloists in their own blues song. For example, Levee, the frustrated musician in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom who lives life on the edge, usually speaks in short, choppy sentences. Actress Phylicia Rashad once observed while acting in a Wilson play that the different lines sounded as if every character had “its own rhythm.”
What genre of music did August Wilson play?
Much of August Wilson’s work has been compared to music and to singing. Wilson himself would probably say this is thanks to his love of the blues, a genre that was born in the rural South but has roots in African music.
How did Wilson begin his plays?
Language Wilson once said that he began his plays by writing a “line of dialogue [to] get… the characters talking.” “The more they talk,” he noted, “the more I find out about them.”.
What was Wilson's mother's last name?
Originally named Frederick August Kittel after his white immigrant father, Wilson officially adopted his African American mother’s last name and culture. “I grew up in my mother’s household in a [n environment] which was black,” he said.
Overview
Post–Black Arts Movement
While the work of August Wilson is not formally recognized within the literary canon of the Black 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. As a playwright of what is considered the Post–Black Arts M…
Early life
Wilson was born Frederick August Kittel Jr. in the Hill District of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the fourth of six children. His father, Frederick August Kittel Sr., was a Sudeten 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. Wilson's anecdotal history reports that his maternal grandmother walked from North Carolina to Pennsylvania in search of a better life. Wilson's moth…
Career
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 married Judy Oliver, a social worker; they divorced in 1990. He married again in 1994 and was survived by his third wife, costume designer Constanza Romero, whom he met on the set of The Piano Lesson. They had a daughter, Azula Carmen Wilson. Wilson also was survived by siblings Freda Ellis, Linda Jean Kittel, Donna Conley…
Death
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, aged 60.
Legacy and honors
External links
• August Wilson Archives, University of Pittsburgh
• August Wilson Theatre Broadway
• August Wilson Center for African American Culture
• Berkeley Rep profile of Wilson and works