August Wilson - Introduction

August Wilson was a playwright.  He was born on April 27, 1945.  He grew up in a working class area of Pittsburgh.  His father was a German American baker and he abandoned the family when August was only five years old.  His mother remarried and the family moved to a mostly white suburb.  August dropped out of school at the age of sixteen because he was fed up with racial indignities.  It was then when his education started in the local library.  He was a confounder of Black Horizon’s Theater Company in 1968.  At this time his voice was expressed in poetry.  He moved to St. Paul, Minnesota in 1978 where he wrote his first major play, Jitney.  August is a soft-spoken man but he is also a man of strong convictions about the role of the blacks of his country.  From the beginning he had involved himself in “trying to raise consciousness through theater.”  He has an astonishing memory and equal abilities as a mimic.  With supreme skill he can shift his voice into the rich languages of the South which stands hardly a trace of a regional accent.  He impersonates the railroads keepers that he met as a boy in Pats’ Place in Pittsburgh.  Henry Louis Gates, Jr.  referred August Wilson as “the most celebrated American playwright now writing, and . . . certainly the most accomplished black playwright in this nation’s history.”  In 1959 he was the only black student in Central Catholic High School but threats and abuse drove him away.  Connelly Vocational proves to be unchallenging.  In 1960 he dropped out of Gladstone High school in the 10^th grade when a teacher accused him of plagiarizing a 20 page paper on Napoleon.  He gets his own education at the library and on the street.  Between 1962 and 1963 he enlisted in the U.S. Army for three years but he leaves after one.  He had several jobs such as a porter, short-order cook, gardener, and dishwasher.  He discovers the blues in 1965.  His biological father also died and he changed his name in 1965.  He bought his first type writer for $20 and began writing poetry.  In 1969 he marries Brenda Burton and his stepfather dies.  His first daughter was born on January 22, 1970.  Their marriage ends in 1972.  He moved to St. Paul, Minnesota where he landed a job writing for a Science Museum.   In 1980 he had a fellowship at Minneapolis Playwrights Center.  He marries a social worker in 1981.  His mother, daisy Wilson died in 1983.  He won his first New York Drama Critics award in 1985 form “Ma Rainey. In 1987 “Fences” opened on Broadway and it won the Pulitzer Prize.  “Fences” grossed $11 million in its first year.  He was named the 1990 Pittsburgher of the Year by Pittsburgh Magazine in 1989.  In 1990 gave a speech at the 1990 Pittsburgher of Year award and “Piano Lesson” opens on Broadway and wins the Pulitzer Prize.  His second marriage ends in 1990 and he moves to Seattle.  In 1992 he receives honorary degree from Pitt and he speaks at the Honors Convocation.  He marries for the third time in 1994 to Constanza Romero a custom designer.  In 1995  “Piano Lesson” broadcasts on Hallmark Hall of Fame.  He had a public debate in New York City with Robert Brustein on status of black theater in 1997.  In 1999 he was honored at the 100^th anniversary of Hill District Branch Library.  He was also named by Post-Gazette as top Pittsburgh cultural power broker.                                                  

Rawson, Chris. "August Wilson - a Timeline." Post-Gazette.com. 5 Dec. 1999. Web. 04 May 2011.