August Wilson was born in 1945 in the Hill District of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The community where he spent the early part of his life notably served as the geographic location for nine of the ten plays in his American Century Cycle. This chapter provides historical background and cultural context for the Hill District and spotlights the ways Wilson dramatizes the specificity of the community in his plays.

Within August Wilson’s century-long odyssey, the survival of the past is symbolized through its most significant character, Aunt Ester Tyler. The mistress of 1839 Wylie Avenue, Aunt Ester represents the ingenuity and will of the African spirit to survive the horrors and the degradation of the conditions of slavery and dehumanization. This chapter teases out some of these elements of memory, illuminating how the American Century Cycle structurally signifies Passover themes, while arguing that Wilson dramaturgically deploys such cues as a strategy towards a cultural rehearsal of remembering.

August Wilson’s plays show his ability to draw upon and transcend the turbulent years he spent at his now-famous Hill District address at 1827 Bedford Avenue. With the benefit of time and distance, Wilson wrote a series of compelling dramas that speak not just to the tensions within a single Black family but also to conditions faced by the Black masses still impacted by the trauma of slavery and the effects of cultural fragmentation. We thus see in Wilson’s series of symbolic and sometimes clearly allegorical characters evidence of an overarching narrative about the counterbalances between forces that set Black families asunder and the resilience that reunites and bonds them together. This chapter explores the ways Wilson’s plays demand that we regard “family” in both literal and figurative terms through an analysis of the Black family portraits on display in them.

This chapter convenes seven notable directors – Denise Chapman, TammyRa’ Jackson, Ron O.J. Parson, Mark Clayton Southers, Timothy Douglas, Seret Scott, and Bartlett Sher – who have collectively directed nearly eighty productions of Wilson’s works. The conversation features these artists reflecting on their directing approach, Wilson’s grounding in American theatre, and the challenges of exploring the worlds Wilson creates.

August Wilson once suggested that African Americans leaving the US South during the Great Migration was one of the worst things that happened to the community. Because the Great Migration and the chronicle of African and African American migrants’ histories/herstories are intertwined discussions, this chapter suggests that the American Century Cycle enables Wilson to design a culturally specific study of the affects and effects of the migration on the characters and geographic spaces he plots. It considers how Wilson uses the plays in the cycle to demonstrate his point while also providing hope that, even within the urban North, the realities of the South and transformation of Southern mores will not be forgotten or ignored.

The October 1990 issue of Spin Magazine featured an essay by Wilson, “I Want a Black Director,” in which he described the challenges he encountered while attempting to sell the film rights for Fences in Hollywood. Wilson noted that studio executives were especially hostile to his request to have a Black director helm the project, dismissing it as a sign of the playwright’s naiveté. For Wilson, the disregard he experienced only served to reinforce his view that his work should be directed by artists who, as he put it, shared the sensibilities of Black Americans. This chapter explores the importance of Wilson’s declaration in the essay, contemplating how it proved an important clarion call for the entertainment industry to reevaluate its racist beliefs and hiring practices.

August Wilson’s 1996 “The Ground on Which I Stand” speech was not without its detractors. Perhaps most striking to some about the speech was its lack of acknowledgment of the existence of the theatrical “Chitlin Circuit,” which has been producing performances by, about, for, and near Black people and communities since the early decades of the twentieth century. This chapter contemplates the relationship between Wilson and the “Chitlin Circuit,” highlighting resonances and divergences between their aims and ambitions.

This chapter explores the complex representations of the Black middle class in August Wilson’s American Century Cycle, with particular attention given to Radio Golf. After providing contextual material on the Black middle class in culture and literature, it examines the importance of Harmond Wilks, the real estate developer and aspiring politician at the center of the play who eventually rejects conventional notions of Black aspiration and uplift for African values of community, family, and cultural origins. The chapter demonstrates how Wilks’s trajectory from being a son of privilege to becoming a community rebel highlights Wilson’s evolving views about the potential of the Black elite and the need for their participation to change the world for Black Americans.

This chapter features a conversation between two set designers, Jack Magaw and Regina García, who have designed for Wilson productions at several regional theatres in the Chicago metropolitan area. In doing so, it sheds light on a vitally important area within Wilsonian production history, thereby adding to the ever-expanding field of Wilson studies. Both artists reflect on how they see their roles as set designers, what serves as inspiration when designing for a Wilson production, and how Black cultural spaces of Chicago shapes their work.

This chapter examines director Paulette Randall’s casting and rehearsal choices for productions of The Piano Lesson (1993) and Fences (2013). Assessing Randall’s rehearsal techniques and productions provides insights into how British practitioners connect with the specificity of Wilson’s plays and how they are received by audiences, which has repercussions for larger questions about staging African American plays in the UK. The chapter argues that one way that British practitioners tune into Wilson’s plays is by recognizing their themes as universal and by making parallels between African American and Black British experiences.

This chapter introduces the volume and provides an overview of Wilson’s life and work, as well as the book’s four thematically organized sections.

This chapter considers the influence of fellow writers James Baldwin and Ed Bullins on August Wilson’s dramaturgy. It argues that Bullins and Baldwin’s simultaneous inclusion on Wilson’s list of “Bs” represents both an expansion of his original influences and a specific articulation of his artistic pursuit or philosophy.

Acknowledging that August Wilson has often claimed Eugene O’Neill as one of the primary influences for his dramatic art, this chapter consider how his King Hedley II might be read to deconstruct O’Neill’s The Emperor Jones and reconstruct, in contrast, a world in which Wilson’s protagonist develops a functional spiritual center lacking in O’Neill’s, thereby redeeming, through an African American lens, the problematic racial work of the ostensibly progressive O’Neill.

August Wilson forged a formidable legacy as an advocate for Black art and aesthetic practices on and off the stage. In 1996, he delivered a speech at the Theatre Communications Group national conference entitled, “The Ground on Which I Stand,” in which he made a case for the importance of creating, supporting, and sustaining Black art and cultural institutions. The speech continues to serve as an important manifesto for those interested in dismantling the harmful systems and structures that persist in the theatre. This chapter revisits Wilson’s speech and places it in conversation with more recent demands to upend and dismantle white supremacy in the arts, including those articulated by the collective of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color theatremakers organizing under “We See You, White American Theatre.”

While many scholars have explored the ways in which “Africa” functions as a potent, living memory that animates August Wilson’s characters and audiences, this chapter suggests it is time to raise new questions about Wilson’s representation of Africa in his dramaturgy. In particular, it argues that Wilson’s American Century Cycle has projected an “Africa” not contemporaneous with African America. Indeed, this “Africa” stands outside of historical time. Accordingly, it is time for us to raise a new line of critical inquiry: What are the implications of such an ahistorical representation?

August Wilson famously and often stated that his influences primarily consisted of the “four B’s:” the blues, Romare Bearden, Amiri Baraka, and Jorge Luis Borges. While the blues, Bearden, and Baraka tend to get the most attention, Wilson’s debt to Borges remains abstract and elusive – something that made perfect sense in his mind, but is difficult for readers and theatergoers to bring into sharp focus. This chapter provides an overview of Wilson’s comments on Borges and offer two stories by Borges, “Shakespeare’s Memory” (1983) and “Pierre Menard, Author of the Quijote” (1941), as texts through which aspects of Wilson’s Gem of the Ocean (2003) might be understood.

August Wilson unlocked new dramaturgical terrain for contemporary playwrights. This chapter explores in greater depth the work of Dominique Morisseau, Ike Holter, and Lynn Nottage, three Black playwrights whose dramas offer unique expressions of Wilson’s influence on the contemporary stage. Musicality and concern for community history lie at the core of each of these playwrights’ dramaturgy, which comes to life in the repetition and revision of series of plays. For each of these writers, as for others on the contemporary stage, this chapter argues that Wilson unearthed fruitful aesthetic terrain.

Between 1984 and 2017, ten plays authored by Wilson would be staged on Broadway. Collectively known as the American Century Cycle, these dramas are recognized as perhaps the greatest singular triumph of any playwright in the American theatre. Wilson came to be celebrated for his distinctive authorial voice, mesmerizing audiences with his facilitation of Black American speech. The dramatist also helped launch the careers of many actors who would become household names, including Charles Dutton, Angela Bassett, and Viola Davis. This chapter offers a brief overview of the productions of Wilson’s plays on Broadway, giving particular attention to his collaborations with such directors as Lloyd Richards, Marion McClinton, and Kenny Leon.

August Wilson accomplished something singular with the American Century Cycle, a project that provides a sustained look at the particularities of a community over a consequential period. This chapter situates and explores Wilson’s artistic achievements in the context of US theatre history. It gives particular attention to the “place” Wilson occupies within the American theatrical landscape.

This chapter explores themes of black masculinity and homosocial bonding in August Wilson’s plays by offering careful analysis of several of the characters and plotlines from the American Century Cycle.