Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-6bb9c88b65-bcq64 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-07-21T14:15:38.501Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 2 - Walking the Streets of the City

August Wilson’s Place in American Theatre

from Part I - Influences and Inspirations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 June 2025

By
Heather S. Nathans
Edited by
Khalid Y. Long  and
Isaiah Matthew Wooden
Khalid Y. Long
Affiliation:
Howard University, Washington DC
Isaiah Matthew Wooden
Affiliation:
Swarthmore College, Pennsylvania
Get access

Summary

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.

Keywords

August WilsonAugust Wilson TheatreAfrican American TheatreAfrican American DramaBroadwayBlack Theatre History

Information

Type
Chapter
Information
August Wilson in Context , pp. 26 - 41
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2025

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Book purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Further Reading

Bigsby, C. W. E., ed., The Cambridge Companion to August Wilson (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008).Google Scholar
Braconi, Adrienne Macki, Harlem’s Theaters: A Staging Ground for Community, Class, and Contradiction, 1923–1939 (Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 2015).Google Scholar
Diggs Colbert, Soyica, Black Movements: Performance and Cultural Politics (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2017).Google Scholar
Harry, J. Elam, , Jr., The Past as Present in the Drama of August Wilson (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2006).Google Scholar
Jones, Douglas A. Jr., The Captive Stage: Performance and the Proslavery Imagination of the Antebellum North (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2014).Google Scholar
Krasner, David, A Beautiful Pageant: African American Theatre, Drama, and Performance in the Harlem Renaissance, 1910–1927 (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nadel, Alan, ed., May All Your Fences Have Gates: Essays on the Drama of August Wilson (Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1994).Google Scholar
Nadel, Alan, The Theatre of August Wilson (London: Bloomsbury Methuen, 2018)Google Scholar
Shannon, Sandra G., The Dramatic Vision of August Wilson (Washington, DC: Howard University Press, 1995).Google Scholar

Accessibility standard: Unknown

Accessibility compliance for the PDF of this book is currently unknown and may be updated in the future.

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×