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100-469: August Wilson (né Frederick 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". He is best known for a series of 10 plays, collectively called The Pittsburgh Cycle (or The Century Cycle ) , which chronicle the experiences and heritage of the African-American community in the 20th century. Plays in

200-519: A Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor for Washington and a Best Supporting Actress win for Davis. Ralph Ellison Ralph Waldo Ellison (March 1, 1913 – April 16, 1994) was an American writer, literary critic , and scholar best known for his novel Invisible Man , which won the National Book Award in 1953. Ellison wrote Shadow and Act (1964), a collection of political, social, and critical essays, and Going to

300-444: 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 mother raised the children alone until he was five in a two-room apartment behind a grocery store at 1727 Bedford Avenue; his father

400-521: A YMCA on 135th Street in Harlem , then "the culture capital of black America". He met Langston Hughes , "Harlem's unofficial diplomat" of the Depression era, and one—as one of the country's celebrity black authors—who could live from his writing. Hughes introduced him to the black literary establishment with Communist sympathies. He met several artists who would influence his later life, including

500-411: 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, when Denzel Washington directed the film Fences , starring Washington and Viola Davis . It earned Wilson

600-515: A December 1955 essay, "Living With Music", in High Fidelity magazine. Ellison scholar John S. Wright contends that this deftness with the ins-and-outs of electronic devices went on to inform Ellison's approach to writing and the novel form. Ellison remained at Tuskegee until 1936, and decided to leave before completing the requirements for a degree. Desiring to study sculpture, he moved to New York City on July 5, 1936, and found lodging at

700-511: A Leading Actor in a Play (James Earl Jones), Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play (Mary Alice), and Best Direction of a Play (Lloyd Richards), as well as the Drama Desk Awards for Outstanding New Play , Outstanding Actor in a Play (Jones), and Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play (Alice). It also received Tony Award nominations for Best Featured Actor in a Play (Faison and Vance). The first Broadway revival of

800-495: A Play (Viola Davis). In August, 1990, the play received its premiere production in the UK by Liverpool Playhouse in association with West End producer, Bill Kenwright, in a production by Temba Theatre Company's artistic director, Alby James , starring Hollywood movie star Yaphet Kotto as the protagonist Troy Maxson, and coming star, Adrian Lester, as his son, Cory. Financial Times critic Alastair Macaulay wrote: "Congratulations to

900-470: A college football scholarship. Troy tells Cory he will not let his son play football for fear of racial discrimination, as Troy believes he experienced when he wanted a career in the major leagues. However, it is suggested later on that Troy told Cory's coach that his son is no longer able to play football. When Cory discovers this, he and Troy get into a fight, resulting in Troy sending Cory to his room. Later, it

1000-485: A consultant to the Hudson Institute in an attempt to broaden its scope beyond defense-related research. In 1964, Ellison published Shadow and Act , a collection of essays, and began to teach at Bard College , Rutgers University and Yale University , while continuing to work on his novel. The following year, a Book Week poll of 200 critics, authors, and editors was released that proclaimed Invisible Man

1100-413: 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

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1200-572: 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 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

1300-544: A home for his family, including a room for Gabe. A short time before the play's opening, Gabriel has rented a room elsewhere, but still in the neighborhood. Lyons is Troy's older son from a previous marriage, and lives outside the home. Bono is Troy's best friend and co-worker. The play begins on payday, with Troy and Bono drinking and talking. Troy's character is revealed through his speech about how he went up to their boss, Mr. Rand, and asked why African-American men are not allowed to drive garbage trucks; Rose and Lyons join in

1400-436: A letter to Wright, dated August 18, 1945, Ellison poured out his anger with party leaders: "If they want to play ball with the bourgeoisie they needn't think they can get away with it. ... Maybe we can't smash the atom, but we can, with a few well chosen, well written words, smash all that crummy filth to hell." In the wake of this disillusion, Ellison began writing Invisible Man, a novel that was, in part, his response to

1500-614: A living art" and to "the glamour he would always associate with the literary life." Through Sprague, Ellison became familiar with Fyodor Dostoevsky 's Crime and Punishment and Thomas Hardy 's Jude the Obscure , identifying with the "brilliant, tortured anti-heroes" of those works. As a child, Ellison evidenced what would become a lifelong interest in audio technology, starting by taking apart and rebuilding radios, and later moving on to constructing and customizing elaborate hi-fi stereo systems as an adult. He discussed this passion in

1600-443: A major awakening moment. In 1934, he began to work as a desk clerk at the university library, where he read James Joyce and Gertrude Stein . Librarian Walter Bowie Williams enthusiastically let Ellison share in his knowledge. A major influence upon Ellison was English teacher Morteza Drexel Sprague, to whom Ellison later dedicated his essay collection Shadow and Act . He opened Ellison's eyes to "the possibilities of literature as

1700-438: 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. In Seattle, Washington, along

1800-528: A mythic literary significance like Thomas Hardy's Wessex , 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". His writing of the Black experience always featured strong female characters and sometimes included elements of

1900-426: A poet. In 1921, Ellison's mother and her children moved to Gary, Indiana , where she had a brother. According to Ellison, his mother felt that "my brother and I would have a better chance of reaching manhood if we grew up in the north." When she did not find a job and her brother lost his, the family returned to Oklahoma, where Ellison worked as a busboy, a shoeshine boy, hotel waiter, and a dentist's assistant. From

2000-458: A posthumous Oscar nomination. 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. 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

2100-619: A run that lasted between June and September 2013. Henry's performance attracted wide acclaim. Giles Broadbent from the Wharf said, “Lenny Henry is immense.” Charles Spencer from The Telegraph said of Henry: "He is, and I don’t use the word lightly, magnificent." Jane Shilling, also from the Telegraph said: "What you don’t expect is to find Henry entirely unrecognisable in the physically and morally immense character he embodies." Best of Theatre said: "You may love or loathe his comedy but it

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2200-528: A strong matriarch shaped the way his plays would be written. In 1959, Wilson was one of 14 African-American students at Central Catholic High School but dropped out after one year. 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

2300-591: 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. Malcolm X 's voice influenced Wilson's life and work (such as The Ground on Which I Stand, 1996). Both the Nation of Islam (NOI) and the Black Power movement spoke to him regarding self-sufficiency, self-defense, and self-determination , and he appreciated

2400-557: A writer for The Chicago Defender . While he wrote Invisible Man , she helped support Ellison financially by working for American Medical Center for Burma Frontiers (the charity supporting Gordon S. Seagrave 's medical missionary work ). In 1946, Ellison composed and wrote the lyrics for at least two songs, "Flirty" and "It Would Only Hurt Me If I Knew". From 1947 to 1951, he earned some money writing book reviews but spent most of his time working on Invisible Man . Fanny also helped type Ellison's longhand text and assisted him in editing

2500-457: A year, and found the money to make a down payment on a trumpet, using it to play with local musicians, and to take further music lessons. At Douglass, he was influenced by principal Inman E. Page and his daughter, music teacher Zelia N. Breaux . Ellison applied twice for admission to Tuskegee Institute , the prestigious all-black university in Alabama founded by Booker T. Washington . He

2600-457: Is a corporal in the Marines . He initially refuses to go to his father's funeral due to long-standing resentment, but he is convinced by his mother to pay his respects to his father — the man who, though hard-headed and often poor at demonstrating affection, nevertheless loved his son. The family say their farewells to Troy and offer forgiveness that may not be fully deserved. The brother Gabriel

2700-593: Is impossible to deny Lenny Henry's determination to become a serious actor of some note." Paul Taylor from The Independent said, “the performance cements Henry's status as a serious actor.” Henry Hitchings from the London Evening Standard said, "He's on superb form". Simon Edge from the Express said, "Henry gives a perfectly controlled performance, combining physical poise with an armoury of carefully judged vocal ticks and facial mannerisms." Of

2800-451: Is potentially an allegory to salvation. Other than being actually named Gabriel, like the angel, Gabe wears a trumpet, constantly chases away unseen "hellhounds", and regularly believes himself to be speaking with Saint Peter. At the end, just before Troy's funeral, the family gathers around Gabe in the yard. He blows three times into his trumpet, but no sound comes out. In a moment of trance, Gabe begins to dance and sing. The sun breaks through

2900-417: Is pregnant. Later, Alberta dies in childbirth. Troy brings his baby daughter Raynell home, and Rose agrees to raise the girl as her own, saying: "From right now . . . this child got a mother. But you a womanless man." She remains in the family home but the couple are estranged; she refuses to accept Troy back into her life. Seven years later, Troy has died. Cory comes home for a visit from the military where he

3000-403: Is revealed that Troy's age after serving a prison sentence, not his race, may have been the primary factor. Father and son argue about Troy's actions, but Troy stubbornly does not back down from his argument and kicks Cory out of the house. Later it is revealed that Cory enlisted in the military after this event. Troy admits to Rose that he has been having an affair and that his mistress, Alberta,

3100-700: The Albert Schweitzer Professor of Humanities, serving from 1970 to 1980. In 1975, Ellison was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters , and his hometown of Oklahoma City honored him with the dedication of the Ralph Waldo Ellison Library. Continuing to teach, Ellison published mostly essays, and in 1984, he received the New York City College 's Langston Hughes Medal . In 1985, he

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3200-620: The Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards ; his artistic achievements included work as a sculptor, musician, photographer, and college professor as well as his writing output. He taught at Bard College, Rutgers University, the University of Chicago , and New York University. Ellison was also a charter member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers . After Ellison's death, more manuscripts were discovered in his home, resulting in

3300-705: The Black 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 series The Century Cycle , titled Radio Golf , opened. It

3400-679: The Civil Rights Movement for his book Who Speaks for the Negro? In 1958, Ellison returned to the United States to take a position teaching American and Russian literature at Bard College and to begin a second novel, Juneteenth . During the 1950s, he corresponded with his lifelong friend, the writer Albert Murray . In their letters they commented on the development of their careers, the Civil Rights Movement , and other common interests including jazz. Much of this material

3500-477: The Grim Reaper away. The fence is also symbolic of the emotional barrier that Troy erected between himself and his sons, one from each of his adult relationships. Rose also wanted Troy to build the fence as a symbolic means of securing what was her own, keeping what belonged inside in (her family), and making what should stay outside, stay out. It also refers to hitting a home run in baseball, ie "swinging for

3600-541: The Joe Louis / Billy Conn fight in 1941 and the loss of values attendant on the Great Migration to the urban North. Throughout the 1980s, Wilson wrote the majority of his work including Jitney (1982), Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (1984), Fences (1985), Joe Turner's Come and Gone (1986), and The Piano Lesson (1987). In 1987, St. Paul's mayor George Latimer named May 27 "August Wilson Day". He

3700-871: 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 was initially funded by a federal Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA) grant and which premiered some of his plays. He wrote Fullerton Street , which has been unproduced and unpublished, in 1980. It follows

3800-772: The Virginia Theatre in New York City's Broadway Theater District was renamed the August Wilson Theatre . It is the first Broadway theatre to bear the name of an African-American. The theatre has run many shows, including Jersey Boys , Groundhog Day , and Mean Girls . In 2007, the August Wilson Monologue Competition was founded by Kenny Leon and Todd Kreidler. High school students, supported by professional actors, mentors, local drama teachers and others learn

3900-555: 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. The Hill District went on to become the setting of numerous plays in the Pittsburgh Cycle . His experiences growing up there with

4000-614: The 2010 Broadway revival, completed production in 2016. The film was released nationally on December 25, 2016, in the U.S. and was released on February 3, 2017, in the UK. The film was chosen by the American Film Institute as one of the top ten films of 2016, and has been nominated for numerous awards, including four Oscar nominations at the 89th Academy Awards : Best Picture , Best Actor (Washington), Best Supporting Actress (Davis), and Best Adapted Screenplay , with Davis winning for her performance. It also received

4100-537: 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. Wilson's best-known plays are Fences (1985) (which won a Pulitzer Prize 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

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4200-1013: The August Wilson Archive. In 2021, the United States Postal Service honored Wilson with a Forever stamp featuring him as part of the Black Heritage series of stamps. It was designed by Ethel Kessler with art from Tim O'Brien. Other awards and honors by year: Fences (play) The focus of Wilson's attention in Fences is Troy, a 53 year-old, African American working-class head of household who struggles with providing for his family. The play takes place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania ; although never officially named, it makes mention of several key locations in Pittsburgh. In his younger days, Troy

4300-573: The Communist Party, he used his new fame to speak out for literature as a moral instrument. In 1955 he traveled to Europe, visiting and lecturing, settling for a time in Rome, where he wrote an essay that appeared in a 1957 Bantam anthology called A New Southern Harvest . Robert Penn Warren was in Rome during the same period, and the two writers became close friends. Later, Warren would interview Ellison about his thoughts on race, history, and

4400-631: The Liverpool Playhouse for presenting this, its British premiere, and for doing it proud...' and 'The director Alby James has done wonders in making his largely English cast absolutely persuasive as these Americans." In 2013, the play was revived again in the UK by Theatre Royal Bath , starring Lenny Henry as Troy Maxson and directed by Paulette Randall . This production transferred to the Duchess Theatre in London's West End for

4500-778: The State of Pennsylvania on May 30, 2007. On February 26, 2008, Pittsburgh City Council placed the house on the List of City of Pittsburgh historic designations . On April 30, 2013, the August Wilson House was added to the National Register of Historic Places . In Pittsburgh, there is an August 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." On October 16, 2005, fourteen days after Wilson's death,

4600-519: The Territory (1986). The New York Times dubbed him "among the gods of America's literary Parnassus ". A posthumous novel, Juneteenth , was published after being assembled from voluminous notes Ellison left upon his death. Ralph Waldo Ellison, named after Ralph Waldo Emerson , was born in Oklahoma City , Oklahoma, to Lewis Alfred Ellison and Ida Millsap, on March 1, 1913. He was

4700-536: 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 in The Janitor (1985). Wilson's extensive use of the Carnegie 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

4800-435: 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. Wilson told The Paris Review : I think my plays offer (White Americans) a different way to look at Black Americans. For instance, in Fences they see

4900-526: The artist Romare Bearden and the author Richard Wright (with whom he would have a long and complicated relationship). After Ellison wrote a book review for Wright, Wright encouraged him to write fiction as a career. Ellison's first published story was "Hymie's Bull", inspired by his 1933 hoboing on a train with his uncle to get to Tuskegee. From 1937 to 1944, Ellison had more than 20 book reviews, as well as short stories and articles, published in magazines such as New Challenge and The New Masses . Wright

5000-479: The award, he was unsatisfied with the book. Ellison ultimately wrote more than 2,000 pages of this second novel but never finished it. Ellison died on April 16, 1994, of pancreatic cancer and was interred in a crypt at Trinity Church Cemetery and Mausoleum in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Upper Manhattan . Invisible Man won the 1953 US National Book Award for Fiction . The award

5100-692: 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 as The August Wilson Century Cycle and as The American Century Cycle . Two years before his death in 2005, Wilson wrote and performed an unpublished one-man play entitled How I Learned What I Learned about

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5200-450: The clouds while the family looks on. Troy is at last delivered and the rest of the family is too; each seeming to find peace in their relationship with Troy. The fence referred to by the play's title is built over many years and is revealed to be finished only in the final act of the play. It is not obvious as to why Troy wants to build it, but a dramatic monologue in the second act shows how he conceptualizes it as an allegory — to keep

5300-422: The conversation. Lyons, a musician, has come to borrow money from Troy, confident that he will receive it, and promises to pay him back because his girlfriend Bonnie just got a job. Troy, who is a rigid believer in hard work and responsibility, belittles his son because he refuses to find a real job, as Troy did, rather than pursuing his dream of becoming a musician. Cory tells Troy and Rose about an opportunity for

5400-511: 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

5500-907: 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. 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". The plays often include an apparently mentally impaired oracular character (different in each play)—for example, Hedley Sr. in Seven Guitars , Gabriel in Fences , Stool Pigeon in King Hedley II , or Hambone in Two Trains Running . Chicago's Goodman Theatre

5600-479: The father of a neighborhood friend, he received free lessons for playing trumpet and alto saxophone, and would go on to become the school bandmaster. Ida remarried three times after Lewis died. However, the family life was precarious, and Ralph worked various jobs during his youth and teens to assist with family support. While attending Douglass High School , he also found time to play on the school's football team. He graduated from high school in 1931. He worked for

5700-691: The fences," attempting the supreme achievement in baseball. Fences was first developed at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center 's 1983 National Playwrights Conference. It premiered at the Yale Repertory Theatre in 1985, under the direction of Lloyd Richards (who was then Artistic Director of the Yale Rep), with a cast of James Earl Jones (Troy Maxson), Mary Alice (Rose), Ray Aranha (Jim Bono), Russell Costen (Gabriel), and Courtney B. Vance (Cory). The play's first Broadway production

5800-463: The films and has vowed to continue Wilson's legacy by adapting the rest of his plays into films for a wider audience. Washington said, "the greatest part of what's left of my career is making sure that August is taken care of". 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

5900-506: 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 to Saint Paul, Minnesota , at the suggestion of his friend, director Claude Purdy , who helped him secure a job writing educational scripts for

6000-608: The later plays. Pittsburgh Public Theater was the first theater company in Pittsburgh to produce the entire Century Cycle, including the world premiere of King Hedley II to open the O'Reilly Theater in Downtown Pittsburgh . TAG – The Actors' Group, in Honolulu, Hawaii, produced all 10 plays in the cycle starting in 2004 with Two Trains Running and culminating in 2015 with Ma Rainey's Black Bottom . All shows were Hawaii premieres, all were extremely successful at

6100-570: 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 Athol Fugard 's Sizwe Banzi is Dead , staged at the Pittsburgh Public Theater ,

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6200-476: The most important novel since World War II. In 1967, Ellison experienced a major house fire at his summer home in Plainfield, Massachusetts , in which he claimed more than 300 pages of his second novel manuscript were lost. A perfectionist regarding the art of the novel, Ellison had said in accepting his National Book Award for Invisible Man that he felt he had made "an attempt at a major novel" and, despite

6300-540: The origin myths that Elijah Muhammad supported. In 1969 Wilson married Brenda Burton, a Muslim, and became associated with the NOI, though he reportedly did not convert. He and Brenda had one daughter, Sakina Ansari-Wilson. The couple divorced in 1972. In 1968, along with his friend Rob Penny , Wilson co-founded the Black Horizon Theater in the Hill District of Pittsburgh . Wilson's first play, Recycling ,

6400-400: The party's betrayal. In 1938, Ellison met Rose Araminta Poindexter, a woman two years his senior. Rose Araminta Poindexter was an actress, starring in films such as The Upright Sinner (1931). Poindexter and Ellison were married in late 1938. Rose was a stage actress, and continued her career after their marriage. In biographer Arnold Rampersad 's assessment of Ellison's taste in women, he

6500-483: The play opened at the Cort Theatre on April 26, 2010, with a limited 13-week engagement. Directed by Kenny Leon , the production starred Denzel Washington (Troy Maxson) and Viola Davis (Rose) as the married couple struggling with changing U.S. race relations. The revival was nominated for 10 Tony Awards, winning three for Best Revival of a Play , Best Actor in a Play (Denzel Washington), and Best Actress in

6600-427: The play, he remarkably crosses the race barrier and becomes the first black truck driver in Pittsburgh instead of just a barrel lifter. Troy lives with his wife, Rose, and their teenage son, Cory. He has a younger brother, Gabe, a World War II veteran whose war injury to his head has caused him noticeable psychological damage. Gabe had received $ 5,000 from the government, and Troy took control of this money to purchase

6700-657: 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 349 in Two Trains Running . She dies in 1985, during

6800-409: 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. Wilson was married three times. His first marriage

6900-471: The production as a whole, Hitchings commented that " Fences is dense and unsettling. It's brave to programme such a meaty, daunting piece during the summer months". Camilla Gurlter from A Younger Theatre described it as “very heavy and with its nearly three hours of lost hope and broken dreams it can feel long and depressing". A film adaptation of Fences , directed by Denzel Washington , and starring Washington and Viola Davis reprising their roles from

7000-477: The protagonist, Ellison explores the contrasts between the Northern and Southern varieties of racism and their alienating effect. The narrator is "invisible" in a figurative sense, in that "people refuse to see" him, and also experiences a kind of dissociation. The novel also contains taboo issues such as incest and the controversial subject of communism . In 1962, the futurist Herman Kahn recruited Ellison as

7100-462: The publication of Flying Home and Other Stories in 1996. In 1999, his second novel, Juneteenth , was published under the editorship of John F. Callahan , a professor at Lewis & Clark College and Ellison's literary executor . It was a 368-page condensation of more than 2,000 pages written by Ellison over a period of 40 years. All the manuscripts of this incomplete novel were published collectively on January 26, 2010, by Modern Library , under

7200-415: The second of three sons; firstborn Alfred died in infancy, and younger brother Herbert Maurice (or Millsap) was born in 1916. Lewis Alfred Ellison, a small-business owner and a construction foreman, died in 1916, after work-related injury and a failed operation. The elder Ellison loved literature, and doted on his children. Ralph later discovered, as an adult, that his father had hoped he would grow up to be

7300-943: The series include Fences (1987) and The Piano Lesson (1990), both of which won Wilson the Pulitzer Prize for Drama , as well as Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (1984) and Joe Turner's Come and Gone (1988). In 2006, Wilson was inducted into the American 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." Since Wilson's death, three of his plays have been adapted or re-adapted into films: Fences (2016), Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (2020) and The Piano Lesson (2024). Denzel Washington has shepherded

7400-420: The snivelling ethos that ruled at Tuskegee." Tuskegee's music department was perhaps the most renowned department at the school, headed by composer William L. Dawson . Ellison also was guided by the department's piano instructor, Hazel Harrison . While he studied music primarily in his classes, he spent his free time in the library with modernist classics. He cited reading T. S. Eliot 's The Waste Land as

7500-665: The south side of the Seattle Repertory Theatre, the vacated Republican Street between Warren Avenue N. and 2nd Avenue N. on the Seattle Center grounds has been renamed August Wilson Way. In September 2016, an existing community park near his childhood home was renovated and renamed August Wilson Park. In 2020, the University Library System at the University of Pittsburgh acquired Wilson's literary papers and materials to establish

7600-628: The start of World War II, Ellison was classed 1A by the local Selective Service System , and thus eligible for the draft. However, he was not drafted. Toward the end of the war, he enlisted in the United States Merchant Marine . In 1946, he married Fanny McConnell, an accomplished person in her own right: a scholarship graduate of the University of Iowa who was a founder of the Negro People's Theater in Chicago and

7700-430: 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." 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. One of his plays well known for featuring this is The Piano Lesson . In the play, the piano is used and releases spirits of

7800-559: The title Three Days Before the Shooting... On February 18, 2014, the USPS issued a 91¢ stamp honoring Ralph Ellison in its Literary Arts series. A park on 150th Street and Riverside Drive in Harlem (near 730 Riverside Drive, Ellison's principal residence from the early 1950s until his death) was dedicated to Ellison on May 1, 2003. In the park stands a 15 by 8-foot bronze slab with

7900-547: The typescript as it progressed. Published in 1952, Invisible Man explores the theme of a person's search for their identity and place in society, as seen from the perspective of the first-person narrator, an unnamed African American man, first in the Deep South and then in the New York City of the 1930s. In contrast to his contemporaries such as Richard Wright and James Baldwin , Ellison created characters that are dispassionate, educated, articulate, and self-aware. Through

8000-457: 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 with collage techniques in writing: "I try to make my plays

8100-482: Was 12 and spent the remainder of his teen years educating himself through the books of Ralph Ellison , Richard Wright , Langston Hughes , Arna Bontemps , and others. 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

8200-405: Was a poet and submitted work to such magazines as Harper's . 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. Gifted with

8300-585: Was an excellent player in Negro league baseball and continued practicing baseball while serving time in prison for a murder he had committed during a robbery. Because the color barrier had not yet been broken in Major League Baseball , Troy was unable to get into the MLB to make good money or to save for the future. He now lives a menial, though respectable, blue-collar life of trash collecting; later in

8400-482: Was awarded the National Medal of Arts . In 1986, his Going to the Territory was published; this is a collection of seventeen essays that included insight into southern novelist William Faulkner and Ellison's friend Richard Wright, as well as the music of Duke Ellington and the contributions of African Americans to America's national identity. In 1992, Ellison was awarded a special achievement award from

8500-419: Was discharged after a 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 , and he bought a stolen typewriter for $ 10, which he often pawned when money was tight. At 20, he decided he

8600-457: 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. 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

8700-518: Was finally admitted in 1933 for lack of a trumpet player in its orchestra. Ellison hopped freight trains to get to Alabama, and was soon to find out that the institution was no less class-conscious than white institutions generally were. Ellison's outsider position at Tuskegee "sharpened his satirical lens," critic Hilton Als believes: "Standing apart from the university's air of sanctimonious Negritude enabled him to write about it." In passages of Invisible Man , "he looks back with scorn and despair on

8800-528: 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 . It would become known as Wilson's final work. Although Wilson's work 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,

8900-538: Was his ticket into the American literary establishment. He eventually was admitted to the American Academy of Arts and Letters , received two President's Medals (from Lyndon Johnson and Ronald Reagan ) and a State Medal from France. He was the first African-American admitted to the Century Association and was awarded an honorary Doctorate from Harvard University . Disillusioned by his experience with

9000-469: Was honored because he is the only person from Minnesota to win a Pulitzer Prize for Drama . In 1990, Wilson left St. Paul after getting divorced and moved to Seattle . There he developed a relationship with Seattle Repertory Theatre , which produced his entire 10-play cycle and his one-man show How I Learned What I Learned. Though he was a writer dedicated to writing for theater, a Hollywood studio proposed filming Wilson's play Fences . He insisted that

9100-404: Was interred at Greenwood Cemetery, Pittsburgh , on October 8. He reportedly requested a "Black funeral" at Saint Paul Cathedral , but permission for a non-Catholic funeral was not granted by the diocese. A memorial service was instead held at the University of Pittsburgh . The childhood home of Wilson and his six siblings, at 1727 Bedford Avenue in Pittsburgh, was declared a historic landmark by

9200-470: Was most influenced by "the four Bs": blues music, the Argentine writer 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

9300-586: 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

9400-433: 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

9500-536: Was published in the collection Trading Twelves (2000). Writing essays about both the black experience and his love for jazz music, Ellison continued to receive major awards for his work. In 1969, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom ; the following year, he was made a Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by France and became a permanent member of the faculty at New York University as

9600-487: Was searching for one "physically attractive and smart who would love, honor, and obey him—but not challenge his intellect." At first they lived at 312 West 122nd Street, Rose's apartment, but moved to 453 West 140th Street after her income shrank. In 1941 he briefly had an affair with Sanora Babb , which he confessed to his wife afterward, and in 1943 the marriage was over. The couple officially divorced in 1945. As of April 2023, Poindexter remains alive at 111 years old. At

9700-561: Was staged at the 46th Street Theatre on March 26, 1987, and closed on June 26, 1988, after 525 performances and 11 previews. Directed by Lloyd Richards, the first Broadway cast remained largely the same as that of the Yale Rep premiere: James Earl Jones (Troy Maxson), Mary Alice (Rose), Ray Aranha (Jim Bono), Frankie Faison (Gabriel), and Courtney B. Vance (Cory). The production won the Tony Awards for Best Play , Best Performance by

9800-737: 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 and Gem of the Ocean —were world premieres. Israel Hicks produced the entire 10-play cycle from 1990 to 2009 for the Denver Center Theatre Company . 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

9900-552: Was then openly associated with the Communist Party , and Ellison was publishing and editing for communist publications, although his "affiliation was quieter", according to historian Carol Polsgrove in Divided Minds . Both Wright and Ellison lost their faith in the Communist Party during World War II, when they felt the party had betrayed African Americans and replaced Marxist class politics with social reformism. In

10000-782: 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, 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 at age 60 on October 2 of that year at Swedish Medical Center in Seattle, and

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