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August Wilson is born
August Wilson was born the middle child of five siblings to his mother, Daisy Wilson, an African American, who was a cleaner, and his father, Fredrick Kittle, a German immigrant who was a baker on April 27th, 1945 in the Hills District, Pittsburgh, PA. -
August Wilsons influence
August Wilson 1945-2005 sometimes referred to as "Theaters poet of black America". poet, co-founder, director, husband, and father. he wrote 10 plays known as either "The Century Cycle" or "The Pittsburgh Cycle". -
August Wilsons family life
August Wilson was born Fredrick August Kittle but later changed his name to August Wilson to honor his mother. He grew up with 5 siblings in the Hills District of Pittsburgh which later became the setting for 9 out 10 of his plays. He was raised by his mother Daisy after his father Fredrick left her and their children. His mother remarried and in 1958 they moved to a suburb of Pittsburgh that was predominately white so of course there was a lot of discrimination towards him and his family. -
Wilsons school life
Wilson grew up in a predominantly white neighborhood, where he and his family were targets of racial discrimination. At the age of fifteen, August left school after being accused of plagiarizing a paper. Despite this setback, he pursued self-education by spending time studying at the library. In the late '60s, he became involved in the Black Arts Movement, a Black nationalism movement focused on music, literature, drama, and the visual arts, comprised of Black artists. -
August Joins the army
August dropped out of High School at 15 and he didn't tell his mom. Eventually, his mother found out and was very disappointed but August didn't care he wanted to become a writer that's when he decided to join the army at 17 to get out of his house he signed on for three years but was discharged after 1 because he could not become an officer until he was 19. After he left he took on many jobs but ended up going home and that's when he bought his first typewriter and began writing poems. -
Black Horizons Theater
at 23 years old he became the co-founder of Black Horizons Theater. A theater in Pittsburgh that was a community-based Black Nationalist theater company. -
Wilsons first introduction to theater
Wilson was originally a poet and short story writer but his first experience with theater was when he co-founded Black Horizons Theater in 1968 where he learned to direct plays but still didn't consider writing them until 1979 when he wrote his first award-winning play Jitney. -
Wilson marries his first wife
August Wilson married his first wife Brenda Burton in 1969 and they had one child named Sakina Ansari Unfortunately their marriage only lasted about 3 years -
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The Black Horizons Theater Company disbands
Wilson's co-founded theater company The Black Nationalist Theater ended up disbanding in the mid-1970s -
The Century Cycle
as a reminder, The Century Cycle is a set of 10 plays 9 of which are based in The Hills District of Pittsburgh PA, during the 20th century each play is set in a different decade all the plays are centered around the same topic the African-American Experience in this time period. -
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10 plays
The plays in the cycle include Jitney (1982), Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (1982), Joe Turner's Come and Gone (1984), Fences (1985), The Piano Lesson (1987), Two Trains Running (1990), Seven Guitars (1994), Gem of the Ocean (2003), Radio Golf (2005), and King Hedley II (2005). Wilson also has a one-man show "How I Learned What I Learned" that talks about one man's journey of self-discovery and what It means to be a black artist in America. -
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August marries his second Wife
August Wilson Married his second wife Judy Oliver in 1981 they did not end up having any children and got divorced in 1990. -
Augusts first play!
in 1979 August Wilson ended up writing his first play from "The Century Cycle" Jitney, Like most of Wilson's plays from The Cycle it was based in Pittsburgh. The play is set in 1977 at an unofficial taxi station facing demolition. It explores the lives of the drivers, conflicts between generations, and ideas of identity and legacy. The play premiered in 1982, earning Wilson a fellowship at the Minneapolis Playwright Center. l -
August on Broadway
In 1982 August Wilson met Lloyd Richards the African-American artistic director of the Yale Repertory Theatre he would later go on to direct Wilson's first 6 plays on Broadway. -
Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
"Ma Rainey Black Bottom" is a play inspired by the real-life Ma Rainey also known as "The Mother of the Blues" This play is the one play from the Cycle that does not take place in Pittsburgh but is set in Chicago. Set in 1927 the play centers on the challenges of Black musicians, and faces issues of Black art and culture, and racial tensions as it follows Rainey and her band as they wait to record in a studio. -
Augusts wins his first award!
in 1984 August won his first award, he received the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best American Play for "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom". In total, Wilson has won 19 major competitive awards but has many honors and recognitions as well. -
Fences
"Fences" is one of August Wilsons' most famous plays. The play is focused on Troy Maxson, a former star of the Negro Baseball League, and how he deals with his exclusion from the Major Leagues and how his anger takes a toll on his relationship with his wife and son. The play was adapted into a movie featuring Denzel Washington and Viola Davis, and it received numerous awards, including a Pulitzer Prize a Tony Award, and the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for best play of the year in 1987. -
August marries his third and final wife
August married Constanza Romero in 1994 after Constanzas drama teacher at Yale assigned her to design costumes for Wilsons' Play " The Piano Lesson". They ended up having one child together their daughter Azula Carmen Wilson. Unfortunately, Wilson passed away in October 2005 -
Wilsons four B's
August Wilson said that his education and inspiration for playwrighting came from the four B's The blues, the art of painter Romare Bearden, the writing of poet Amiri Baraka, and writer/poet Jorge Luis Borges. -
Wilsons Legacy Comes to an End
In June 2005 August was diagnosed with terminal liver cancer and four months later He passed away. -
The August Wilson Theater
The theater sometimes known as "The Kit Kat Club", was designed by architect C. Howard Crane and Kenneth Franzheim opened in 1925 as the Guild Theatre. Over the years, it was renamed several times before being named after famous playwright August Wilson in 2005. Some famous plays at this theater include Our Town, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, On Your Toes, Carrie, City of Angels, My Fair Lady, Smokey Joe’s Cafe, Little Shop of Horrors, and Jersey Boys. -
sources
https://www.britannica.com/biography/August-Wilson
https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/black-arts-movement-1965-1975/
https://www.millersville.edu/africanamericanstudies/jackson-lecture1/august-wilson.php
https://www.whosdatedwho.com/dating/august-wilson-and-brenda-burton#google_vignette
https://www.concordtheatricals.com/p/3858/august-wilsons-fences
https://www.historylink.org/File/10315 -
Take Away
After doing all this research on August Wilson I think the the most important thing I have learned is that you can drop out of High School and still be successful, Just kidding but the most important thing is that August Wilson is very inspiring it was motivating to see him grow from practically nothing having his biological father leave him and his family and facing lots of racism as a kid to being an amazing playwright with many award-winning plays and even having a movie adaptation