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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
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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

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

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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

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