August Wilson

Finalist! 1992 Pulitzer Prize in Drama This is the 1960s chapter of the Pulitzer Prize winning playwright's decade by decade saga of ordinary African Americans in this turbulent century. It takes place in Memphis Lee's coffee shop in a Pittsburgh neighborhood that is on the brink of economic development. Focus is on the characters who hang out there: a local sage, an elderly man who imparts the secrets of life as learned from a 322 year old sage, an ex con, a numbers runner, a laconic

Jim Becker and his unlicensed drivers take the people of Pittsburgh Hill District where regular taxi cabs won't - healing old wounds and tearing new ones as they pass the time in a condemned taxi rank between pick-ups. August Wilson's groundbreaking modern classic explores the fragile bond between eight men as they live, love and work in a racially segregated, post-Vietnam America. Jitney received its British premiere at the National Theatre, London, in 2001, when it won the Olivier Award for Best New Play. This new edition was published alongside the 2021–22 revival by The Old Vic, Headlong and Leeds Playhouse, directed by Tinuke Craig.

NOW A NETFLIX FILM STARRING VIOLA DAVIS AND CHADWICK BOSEMAN *Two stunning, intensely powerful modern classics about race in 20th century America from the legendary Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning playwright August Wilson*In Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, the great blues diva Ma Rainey is due to arrive at a run-down Chicago recording studio with her entourage to cut new sides of old favourites. Waiting for her are the black musicians in her band - and the white owners of the record company. A tense, searing account of racism in jazz-era America that the New Yorker called 'a genuine work of art'.Fences centres on Troy Maxson, a garbage collector, an embittered former baseball player and a proud, dominating father, in 1950s Pittsburgh. When college athletic recruiters scout his teenage son, Troy struggles against his young son's ambition, his wife, who he understands less and less, and his own frustrated dreams. 'A prolific and successful playwright who confines his themes to African American culture... The level of his achievement is high. This comes powerfully into view when the play is read, an activity for me that is equal to, and in some ways more fruitful than, seeing its stage production.' Toni Morrison'In his work, August Wilson depicted the struggles of Black Americans with uncommon lyrical richness, theatrical density and emotional heft, in plays that give vivid voices to people on the frayed margins of life' New York Times 'August Wilson has established himself as the richest theatrical voice to emerge in the U.S. since Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller' Time

Radio Golf is a fast-paced, dynamic, and wonderfully funny work about the world today and the dreams we have for the future. Set in Pittsburgh in the late 1990s, it's the story of a successful entrepreneur who aspires to become the city's first black mayor. But when the past begins to catch up with him, secrets get revealed that could be his undoing. The most contemporary of all of August Wilson's work, Radio Golf is the final play in his unprecedented ten-play cycle chronicling African-American life in the twentieth century - a series that includes the Pulitzer Prize-winning plays Fences and The Piano Lesson. Completed shortly after his death in 2005, this bittersweet drama of assimilation and alienation in nineties America traces the forces of change on a neighborhood and its people caught between history and the twenty-first century.

From Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson comes a one-man show that chronicles his life as a Black artist in the Hill District in Pittsburgh. From stories about his first jobs to his first loves and his experiences with racism Wilson recounts his life from his roots to the completion of The American Century Cycle. How I Learned What I Learned gives an inside look into one of the most celebrated playwriting voices of the twentieth century.

From the beloved Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Fences and The Piano Lesson, August Wilson's Jitney is a richly textured play that follows a group of men trying to eke out a living by driving unlicensed cabs, or jitneys. When the city threatens to board up the business and the boss's son returns from prison, tempers flare, potent secrets are revealed, and the fragile threads binding these people together may come undone at last. Through rich dialogue and compelling characters, Wilson masterfully captures the essence of a time and place, shedding light on the broader social and economic issues that continue to resonate. August Wilson's work remains profoundly relevant, as it addresses themes of identity, resilience, and the quest for dignity in the face of adversity. His legacy continues to inspire and provoke thought, making Jitney a must-read for anyone interested in the human condition and the ongoing struggle for justice and equality. In addition to an essential and insightful preface by Ruben Santiago-Hudson, this edition boasts production stills from the Manhattan Theatre Club's Broadway production, directed by Santiago-Hudson and featuring Harvy Blanks, Anthony Chisholm, Brandon J. Dirden, Andr Holland, Carra Patterson, Michael Potts, Keith Randolph Smith, Ray Anthony Thomas, and John Douglas Thompson. Jitney is the winner of: Tony Award for Best Play Revival New York Drama Critics Award for Best New Play Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Off Broadway Play

Winner! 1990 Pulitzer Prize for DramaWinner! 1990 Drama Desk Award Outstanding New PlayNominee! 1990 Tony Award Best PlayNominee! 2013 Outer Critics Circle Award Outstanding Revival of a PlayNominee! 2013 Drama League Award Outstanding Revival of a PlayIt is 1936 and Boy Willie arrives in Pittsburgh from the South in a battered truck loaded with watermelons to sell. He has an opportunity to buy some land down home but he has to come up with the money right quick. He wa

Finalist! 2000 Pulitzer Prize in DramaPeddling stolen refrigerators in the feeble hope of making enough money to open a video store King Hedley a man whose self worth is built on self delusion is scraping in the dirt of an urban backyard trying to plant seeds where nothing will grow. Getting spending killing and dying in a world where getting is hard and killing is commonplace are threads woven into this 1980's installment in the author's renowned cycle of plays about the black ex

Set in 1904 August Wilson's Gem of the Ocean begins on the eve of Aunt Esther's 287th birthday. When Citizen Barlow comes to her Pittsburgh's Hill District home seeking asylum she sets him off on a spiritual journey to find a city in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Gem of the Ocean is the ninth work in Wilson's ten-play cycle that has recorded the American Black experience and helped to define generations. The Broadway run starred Tony Award winner Phylicia Rashad as Aunt Esthe

Drama Characters: 8 male, 1 female Interior SetSet in 1970 in the Hill District of Pittsburgh that is served by a makeshift taxi company, Jitney is a beautiful addition to the author's decade by decade cycle of plays about the black American experience in the twentieth century. "Explosive... Crackles with theatrical energy."-N.Y. Daily News"Could be described as just a lot of men sitting around talking. But the talk has such varied range and mus

Full Length, Tragic comedyCharacters: 4 male, 3 female Exterior Set The sixth in the author's decade by decade exploration of the black experience in America, two of which have won Pulitzer Prizes, Seven Guitars is part bawdy comedy, part dark elegy and part mystery. In the backyard of a Pittsburgh tenement in 1948, friends gather to mourn for a blues guitarist and singer who died just as his career was on the verge of taking off. The action that follows is

Play with music Characters: 8 males (5 black, 3 white) 2 black females Scenery: Unit set It's 1927 in a rundown studio in Chicago where Ma Rainey is recording new sides of old favorites. More goes down in the session than music in this riveting portrayal of rage, racism, the self hate and exploitation. "Searing ... funny, salty, carnal and lyrical.... Wilson has lighted a dramatic fuse that snakes and hisses through several anguished eras of American life. When the fuse reaches its e

Drama / Casting: 6m, 5f / Scenery: Interior Sets Set in a black boardinghouse in Pittsburgh in 1911, this drama by the author of The Piano Lesson, Seven Guitars and Fences is an installment in the author's series chronicling black life in each decade of this century. Each denizen of the boardinghouse has a different relationship to a past of slavery as well as to the urban present. They include the proprietors, an eccentric clairvoyant with a penchant for old country voodoo, a young homeboy u

"The concluding work in one of the most ambitious dramatic projects ever undertaken . . . a play that could well be Mr. Wilson's most provocative."--Ben Brantley, "The New York Times"""Radio Golf "is a rich, carefully wrought human tapestry that is colorful, playful, thoughtful and compelling."--Ed Kaufman, "The Hollywood Reporter""Radio Golf "is August Wilson's final play. Set in 1990 Pittsburgh, it is the conclusion of his Century Cycle--Wilson's ten-play chronicle of the African American experience throughout the twentieth century--and is the last play he completed before his death. With "Radio Golf" Wilson's lifework comes full circle as Aunt Ester's onetime home at 1839 Wylie Avenue (the setting of the cycle's first play) is slated for demolition to make way for a slick new real estate venture aimed to boost both the depressed Hill District and Harmond Wilks' chance of becoming the city's first black mayor. A play in which history, memory, and legacy challenge notions of progress and country club ideals, "Radio Golf "has been produced throughout the country and will come to Broadway this season.August Wilson's plays include "Gem of the Ocean, Joe Turner's Come and Gone, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, The Piano Lesson, Seven Guitars, Fences, Two Trains Running, Jitney, King Hedley II, " and "Radio Golf." They have been produced at theaters across the country, on Broadway, and throughout the world.