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About the Play By August Wilson SYNOPSIS As urban planning threatens the demise of a popular lunch counter in Pittsburgh’s close-knit Hill District, owner Memphis struggles with whether or not to sell, and at what cost. Wilson’s intimate portrait of a time of extraordinary challenge and change in our country is Weston’s 4th annual American Masters production. Directed by Reginald L. Douglas, Artistic Producer of City Theatre in Pittsburgh, this production will bring audiences into the middle of the action of this timely American masterpiece. From left to right: Bernard Gilbert, Beethovan Oden, Eboni Flowers, Cary Hite, Guiesseppe Jones, Raphael Peacock. Not pictured: Lawrence Evans. (Photo by Hubert Schriebl) ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT AUGUST WILSON (née: Frederick August Kittel, Jr.) was one of America’s most prolific twentieth-century playwrights. He was born in Pittsburgh in 1945 and grew up in the Hill District, where he would later set nine of his ten Century Cycle (or Pittsburgh Cycle) plays. The Century Cycle traced the daily experiences of African Americans, decade by decade, throughout the twentieth century. Wilson left school at sixteen after falsely being accused of plagiarism by a teacher. He focused on developing his writing while working various odd jobs, frequenting the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh so often that he later received an honorary high school diploma from the institution. At 20, he began writing poetry, often working in bars and diners to capture the voices of the people around him. His work was also influenced by Malcolm X, the Black Power movement of the 1960s, blues music, and writers August Wilson such as James Bob Child (Associated Press) Baldwin and Ed Bullins. Wilson co-founded the Black Horizon Theater in Pittsburgh in 1968. There, his first stage plays were performed, including early versions of Jitney. In 1969, Wilson married his first wife, Brenda Burton. They had one daughter, Sakina, but the two divorced in 1972. After spending the bulk of the 1970s writing plays and poetry in Pittsburgh, Wilson moved to Saint Paul, Minnesota and secured a job adapting Native American folk tales into educational scripts for the Science Museum of Minnesota. In 1980, he received a fellowship at The Playwrights’ Center, one of the nation’s leading play development organizations. Through this fellowship, Wilson continued to develop his voice, leading to the premiere of Jitney and launch of the Century Cycle just two years later. It would be the only of Wilson’s plays in the Century Cycle not produced on Broadway within three years of its world premiere (eventually there would be a Broadway production in 2017). Later that year, Wilson workshopped another play, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s National Playwrights Conference. It was there that Wilson began working with Artistic Director Lloyd Richards, who was also the Artistic Director of Yale Repertory Theater from 1979-1991. The two quickly formed an artistic partnership that spanned nearly two decades and would prove to be one of the most fruitful and influential in American theatre history. Two years after the workshop at the O’Neill, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom premiered at Yale Rep under Richards’ expert direction. Wilson returned to the O’Neill the next summer to workshop Fences, one of his most famous works. It premiered at Yale Rep in 1985 and earned Wilson his first Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Wilson’s next two plays, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone and The Piano Lesson, were likewise workshopped in at the O’Neill and premiered at Yale Rep. Wilson was once again awarded the Pulitzer August Wilson with Lloyd Richards Prize for his work on The (Yale Repertory Theater) Piano Lesson. He spent the next decade working on his plays Two Trains Running, Seven Guitars, King Hedley II, and Gem of the Ocean. In 1994, Wilson married Constanza Romero, a costume designer he met while working on The Piano Lesson. They had one daughter, Azula Wilson. While working on the final Century Cycle play in 2005, Wilson was diagnosed with liver cancer. Radio Golf premiered at Yale Rep soon after his diagnosis, but Wilson passed away before its 2007 premiere on Broadway. August Wilson’s impact can be traced throughout every facet of the American Theatre. He was a visionary storyteller who transformed both the form and content of contemporary playwriting in America. He was also a fierce advocate for equity and fair representation both onstage and off. Shortly after his death, the Virginia Theater on Broadway was renamed the August Wilson Theater, becoming the first Broadway theatre to bear the name of an African American artist. Throughout his life, he was nominated for ten Tony Awards and won one for Fences. More than anything, Wilson believed in the power of theatre to transform lives. In a 2000 New York Times article, he wrote: “Theater, as a powerful conveyer of human values, has often led us through the impossible landscape of American class, regional and racial conflicts, providing fresh insights and fragile but enduring bridges of fruitful dialogue. It has provided us with a mirror that forces us to face personal truths and enables us to discover within ourselves an indomitable spirit that recognizes, sometimes across wide social barriers, those common concerns that make possible genuine cultural fusion.” Wilson’s entire Century Cycle is as follows: Gem of the Ocean (1900s, written in 2003) Joe Turner’s Come and Gone (1910s, written in 1988) Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (1920s, written in 1984) The Piano Lesson (1930s, written in 1990) Seven Guitars (1940s, written in 1995) Fences (1950s, written in 1987) Two Trains Running (1960s, written in 1991) Jitney (1970s, written in 1982) King Hedley II (1980s, written in 1999) Radio Golf (1990s, written in 2005) The plays are not a series, but do feature reoccurring characters as well as the children of previous characters. Wilson also wrote the plays Recycle, Black Bart and the Sacred Hills, Fullerton Street, The Homecoming, The Coldest Day of the Year, and a one-man show, How I Learned What I Learned. Several theatres around the country have produced the complete Century Cycle, including the Goodman Theatre, The Denver Center, The Huntington Theatre Company, the Pittsburgh Public Theater, and Seattle Repertory Theatre. PITTSBURGH’S HILL DISTRICT Memphis’ restaurant, the setting of Two Trains Running, sits on 1621 Wylie Avenue in Pittsburgh’s Hill District. This is neighborhood where August Wilson spent most of his formative years and set nine of his ten plays in the Century Cycle (Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom is set in Chicago). During the 1930s, 40s, and 50s, the Hill District was a thriving center of black culture, entertainment, and business. Following World War II, the federal government committed to upgrade housing across the nation, and 95 acres of the Hill District were selected for redevelopment in August Wilson mural in the Hill District, painted by Kyle Holbrook and the Pittsburgh. City planners, MLK Community Mural Project however, disregarded the effects such wholesale redevelopment would have on residents and the neighborhood social fabric. In the summer of 1956, some 1,300 homes were demolished, displacing about 1,500 families (more than 8000 residents), the great majority of whom were black. This cleared the way for the construction of the Civic Arena to host downtown events and attract major entertainment (now replaced by the PPG Paints Arena). The redevelopment severed the Hill District from surrounding neighborhoods, resulting in a dramatic economic decline. Between the 1970s and 1990s, over 70 percent of the Hill District’s residents and hundreds of businesses moved out of the neighborhood. 40 percent of its current residents now live below the poverty line. In recent years, various individuals and civic groups have invested in the re-development of the Hill District. A pharmacy was opened in the neighborhood in 2010 and in 2013 the Hill House Economic Development Corporation opened the first grocery store in the neighborhood in 30 years. After August Wilson’s death, Paul Ellis, Wilson’s nephew, formed the Daisy Wilson Artist Community. Named after Wilson’s mother, the Artist Community aimed to restore Wilson’s childhood home and create a center for artists and scholars inspired by his work. In 2018, Denzel Washington led a $5 million fundraising campaign to support the renovations. Once completed, the building will house artist studios, galleries, performance venues, and gathering spaces. To learn more about the August Wilson House, visit: http://augustwilsonhouse.org/. Wilson’s birthplace, 1727 Bedford Avenue THE GROUND ON WHICH WE STAND On June 26, 1996, August Wilson delivered the keynote address at the 11th biennial Theatre Communications Group national conference. His speech, entitled “The Ground on Which I Stand,” confronted the American theatre community on issues of race and representation. He critiqued institutions for their lack of support for African-American playwrights and disregard of black narratives and cultures. Wilson sparked conversation among the entire industry, and the impact of his words can still be felt today. Below are key quotes from this speech, which can be accessed in full at https://www.americantheatre.org/2016/06/20/the-ground-on-which-i-stand/ “In one guise, the ground I stand on has been pioneered by the Greek dramatists—by Euripides, Aeschylus, and Sophocles—by William Shakespeare, by Shaw, Ibsen, and Chekhov, Eugene O’Neill, Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams.

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