Wilson, August, 1945–2005, American playwright and poet, b. Pittsburgh as Frederick August Kittel. Largely self-educated, Wilson first attracted wide critical attention with his Broadway debut, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (1984), a play set in 1927 that dramatizes the clash between the blues diva and a member of her band and the larger conflicts brought about by racist American society. Wilson's plays center on the struggles and identity of African Americans and the deleterious effect of white American institutions on black American life. His works draw heavily on Wilson's own experience growing up in the Hill district of Pittsburgh, a black ghetto where nearly all of his plays are set. His characters are ordinary people whose histories, frustrations, and aspirations Wilson astutely portrays. His cycle of ten dramas written over a period of more than 20 years include various overlapping characters and themes. In addition to Ma Rainey, it includes Jitney (1982), Fences (1987; Pulitzer Prize, Tony Award), Joe Turner's Come and Gone (1988), The Piano Lesson (1990; Pulitzer Prize), Two Trains Running (1992), Seven Guitars (1995), King Hedley II (2001), Gem of the Ocean (2003), and Radio Golf (2005). Acclaimed as landmarks in the history of black American culture, these works focus on the major issues confronting African Americans during each of the decades of the 20th cent. In 2003, Wilson starred in a production of his autobiographical one-man play How I Learned What I Learned.

Bibliography

See studies by M. Elkins, ed. (1994), A. Nadel, ed. (1994), K. Pereira (1995), S. G. Shannon (1995), J. Herrington (1998), Y. Shafer (1998), M. L. Bogumil (1999), Q. Wang (1999), P. Wolfe (1999), H. Bloom, ed. (2002), H. J. Elam, Jr. (2004), and M. E. Snodgrass (2004).

Wilson, August

(born April 27, 1945, Pittsburgh, Pa., U.S.—died Oct. 2, 2005, Seattle, Wash.) U.S. playwright. He was largely self-educated. A participant in the black aesthetic movement, he cofounded and directed Pittsburgh's Black Horizons Theatre (1968), published poetry in African American journals, and produced several plays, including Jitney (1982), before his Ma Rainey's Black Bottom opened on Broadway in 1984. Inspired by the colloquial language, music, folklore, and storytelling tradition of African Americans, he continued his cycle of plays, each set in a different decade of the 20th century, with Fences (1986, Pulitzer Prize), Joe Turner's Come and Gone (1988), The Piano Lesson (1990, Pulitzer Prize), Two Trains Running (1992), Seven Guitars (1996), Gem of the Ocean (first produced 2003), King Hedley II (2005), and Radio Golf (first produced 2005).

Wilson, August (1945– ) playwright; born in Pittsburgh, Pa. A writer who never finished high school, he won two Pulitzer Prizes for his plays, which depict the black experience in America: Fences (1987) and The Piano Lesson (1990). His goal was to write a cycle of plays, one set in each decade of the 20th century. He founded Minnesota's Black Horizons Theatre Company. His Ma Rainey's Black Bottom won a New York Drama Critics Circle Award (1984–85).