August Wilson
Title Decade Premiere Opened on Broadway Awards Notes
Jitney 1970s 1982 Allegheny Repertory Theatre ( Pittsburgh ) 2017 Manhattan Theatre Club /at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre - After an extensive re-write it premiered for a second time at the Pittsburgh Public Theater in 1996 . Opened off-Broadway at the Second Stage Theatre in 2000 . It is the last of the cycle to be staged on Broadway , opening in January 2017
Ma Rainey 's Black Bottom 1920s 1984 Yale Rep ( New Haven , CT ) 1984 Cort Theatre New York Drama Critics ' Circle Award Presented in 1982 as a staged reading at The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center . Only play of the cycle not set in Pittsburgh . It is set in Chicago
Fences 1950s 1985 Yale Rep ( New Haven , CT ) 1987 46th Street Theatre Pulitzer Prize Tony Award Drama Desk Award Presented in 1983 as a staged reading at The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center
Joe Turner 's Come and Gone 1910s 1986 Yale Rep ( New Haven , CT ) 1988 Ethel Barrymore New York Drama Critics ' Circle Award Presented in 1984 as a staged reading at The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center
The Piano Lesson 1930s 1987 Yale Rep ( New Haven , CT ) 1990 Walter Kerr Pulitzer Prize Drama Desk Award New York Drama Critics ' Circle Award Presented in 1987 as a staged reading at The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center
Two Trains Running 1960s 1990 Yale Rep ( New Haven , CT ) 1992 Walter Kerr - -
Seven Guitars 1940s 1995 Goodman ( Chicago ) 1996 Walter Kerr New York Drama Critics ' Circle Award Presented in 1994 as a staged reading at The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center
King Hedley II 1980s 1999 Pittsburgh Public ( Pittsburgh ) 2001 Virginia Theatre - -
Gem of the Ocean 1900s 2003 Goodman ( Chicago ) 2004 Walter Kerr - -
Radio Golf 1990s 2005 Yale Rep ( New Haven , CT ) 2007 Cort Theatre New York Drama Critics ' Circle Award Wilson died between the premiere and the Broadway opening
Work -- The Pittsburgh Cycle
Wilson 's Pittsburgh Cycle , also often referred to as his Century Cycle , [ 10 ] consists of ten plays—nine of which are set in Pittsburgh 's Hill District ( the other being set in Chicago ) , an African-American neighborhood that takes on a mythic literary significance like Thomas Hardy 's Wessex , William Faulkner 's Yoknapatawpha County , or Irish playwright Brian Friel 's Ballybeg . The plays are each set in a different decade and aim to sketch the Black experience in the 20th century and `` raise consciousness through theater '' and echo `` the poetry in the everyday language of black America '' . [ 4 ] His writing of the Black experience always featured strong female characters and sometimes included elements of the supernatural . In his book , he wrote `` My mother 's a very strong , principled woman . My female characters . . . come in a large part from my mother '' [ 11 ] As for the elements of the supernatural , Wilson often featured some form of superstition or old tradition in plays that came down to supernatural roots . [ 12 ] One of his plays well known for featuring this is The Piano Lesson . In the play , the piano is used and releases spirits of the ancestors . Wilson wanted to create such an event in the play that the audience was left to decide what was real or not . He was fascinated by the power of theater as a medium where a community at large could come together to bear witness to events and currents unfolding . [ 4 ] I think my plays offer ( white Americans ) a different way to look at black Americans , '' he told The Paris Review . `` For instance , in Fences they see a garbageman , a person they do n't really look at , although they see a garbageman every day . By looking at Troy 's life , white people find out that the content of this black garbageman 's life is affected by the same things – love , honor , beauty , betrayal , duty . Recognizing that these things are as much part of his life as theirs can affect how they think about and deal with black people in their lives . [ 1 ] Although the plays of the cycle are not strictly connected to the degree of a serial story , some characters appear ( at various ages ) in more than one of the cycle 's plays . Children of characters in earlier plays may appear in later plays . The character most frequently mentioned in the cycle is Aunt Ester , a `` washer of souls '' . She is reported to be 285 years old in Gem of the Ocean , which takes place in her home at 1839 Wylie Avenue , and 322 in Two Trains Running . She dies in 1985 , during the events of King Hedley II . Much of the action of Radio Golf revolves around the plan to demolish and redevelop that house , some years after her death . Aunt Ester is a symbolic and recurring figure that represents the African American struggle . She is `` not literally three centuries old but a succession of folk priestesses ... [ s ] he embodies a weighty history of tragedy and triumph '' . [ 13 ] The plays often include an apparently mentally impaired oracular character ( different in each play ) —for example , Hedley Sr. in Seven Guitars , Gabriel in Fences , Stool Pigeon in King Hedley II , or Hambone in Two Trains Running .
August Wilson (April 27, 1945 - October 2, 2005) was an American playwright whose work included a series of ten plays, The Pittsburgh Cycle, for which he received two Pulitzer Prizes for Drama. Each work in the series is set in a different decade, and depicts comic and tragic aspects of the African-American experience in the 20th century.