August Wilson Celebration staged readings copy

Gem of the Ocean SHORT COPY Citizen Barlow comes to Aunt Ester’s house for help: he needs his soul cleansed. Ester sends him on a journey that changes him and ’s Hill District at the dawn of the 20th century.

LONG COPY ’s epic “20th Century Cycle” begins with his drama Gem of the Ocean. Set in 1904, the play introduces audiences to Aunt Ester, a much sought-out mystic and faith healer whose home in Pittsburgh’s Hill District serves as a center for the community. When Citizen Barlow seeks out her help, she sends him on a spiritual voyage that connects him with his history while cleansing his soul. With renewed vigor, Citizen Barlow returns to help his friend, Solly, find justice in an unfair world.

Joe Turner’s Come and Gone SHORT COPY Searching for his lost wife brings Herald Loomis to the Holly’s Pittsburgh boarding house, but his encounters with the Hollys lead him off on a whole new journey of discovery.

LONG COPY Wilson dramatizes the plight of African Americans during the Great Migration in Joe Turner’s Come and Gone. Seth and Bertha Holly’s Pittsburgh boarding house hosts a variety of travelers as they journey from the South to find opportunities in the North. When Herald Loomis arrives with his young daughter in search of his wife, the Holly’s tenants help him realize that he has actually been searching for himself.

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom SHORT COPY The Roaring Twenties made “Mother of Blues” Ma Rainey famous, but loyalties shift when her upstart trumpeter, Levee, pursues his own ambitions – wreaking havoc inside a Chicago recording studio.

LONG COPY The Roaring Twenties have made “Mother of the Blues” Ma Rainey a star, attracting the young and ambitious trumpeter Levee to her band. But a routine recording session in Chicago turns ugly when Levee’s ambitions collide with the larger-than-life personalities of Ma, her entourage and the white producers looking to make money off their talents. Wilson’s searing drama features music that defined a decade and looks at the messy intersection of art and industry.

The Piano Lesson SHORT COPY Berniece fights to save her family’s generations-old piano from her brother Boy Willie’s financial scheming; she seeks to preserve history while Boy Willie hopes to build a better future during the Great Depression.

LONG COPY Wilson’s Depression-era drama pits Boy Willie against his sister, Berniece, when he appears at her Hill District home with plans for their family heirloom piano. Berniece hopes to pass its legacy on to her young daughter, while Boy Willie hopes to sell it and use the money to build a new life. Ghosts from the family’s troubled past emerge as brother and sister clash over the piano’s future.

Seven Guitars SHORT COPY The meteoric success of Floyd Barton’s first hit song makes the pain of his tragically short life even deeper for his friends. Memories and mysticism mingle in Wilson’s post-World War II drama.

LONG COPY Friends and family recall the hopeful future that lay in store for rising blues star Floyd “Schoolboy” Barton. Flawed plans and an unexpected clash with Hedley, a mystical old man from New Orleans, seal Floyd’s fate and devastate his attempts at reinvention and a better life.

Fences SHORT COPY The optimism of the 1950s collides with social reality in Wilson’s best-known work. Troy, a disillusioned trash collector, fights for career opportunities while trying to dissuade his son from pursuing his dreams.

LONG COPY The optimism of the 1950s collides with social reality in Wilson’s complicated exploration of family. As disillusioned trash collector Troy Maxson fights for new career opportunities for himself and other African Americans, his actions push his wife and children further and further away. Painful memories from his career as a Negro League slugger overshadow his son’s dreams of a football scholarship, while his wife comes to terms with the limits of their relationship.

Jitney SHORT COPY Forgiveness and fidelity take center stage as the Hill District’s cab drivers struggle to keep family life in order while hustling the neighborhood’s streets.

LONG COPY August Wilson’s first play, demonstrating his gift for capturing the rhythms and power of language, Jitney provides a window into the world of Pittsburgh’s jitney cab drivers. Becker manages the cab station where Turnbo, Youngblood, Fielding and Doub struggle to make ends meet and work their way out of hustling Pittsburgh’s streets. But the unexpected twists and turns of life work against the men, complicating their escape from the jitney station.

King Hedley II SHORT COPY The ex-con son of Hedley – the outsider featured in Wilson’s – comes home, where his father’s memory brings humiliation and his own plans for getting ahead bring trouble.

LONG COPY The eighth play in Wilson’s “20th Century Cycle,” King Hedley II paints a vivid, almost operatic portrait of a neighborhood struggling to come to terms with the harsh realities of life in the mid-1980s. After his release from prison, King Hedley II, son to the troubled Hedley of Wilson’s Seven Guitars, returns home to find himself humiliated by his father’s memory. Adrift in the face-paced era of Reaganomics, his attempts to lift himself out of the poverty-stricken Hill District do more harm than good.

Radio Golf SHORT COPY Harmond Wilks could win the Pittsburgh mayoral race – if he tears down the historic heart of the Hill District. Wilson’s final play brings the 20th Century Cycle full-circle, questioning a century of American identity.

LONG COPY Steeped in the spirits and dreams of the past, tells the story of Harmond Wilks, an ambitious real estate developer whose plans for a slick new venture will likely make him the city’s first black mayor. Everything proceeds smoothly until the arrival of a mysterious stranger forces Wilks to reconsider his path to (and definition of) success. Wilson’s final work for the stage, Radio Golf marks a triumphant conclusion to his extraordinary “20th Century Cycle.”