An Interview with August Wilson

Abstract

August Wilson was born in 1945 in Pittsburgh. He began his career as a poet and after many years turned to playwriting. He has said that he is writing "about the stuff that beats in my head." Growing up in a poor section of Pittsburgh, hanging around in bars and pool halls after dropping out of high school because he felt rejected as a black-Wilson's youth was the archetypal black American experience. From the streets he learned a rich, vibrant argot which he has transmuted into powerful, striking dialogue. He plans to write twenty or thirty plays about the black experience in America, decade by decade, and feels he will have no shortage of material: "I've got the four hundred year biography of the black experience in America." August Wilson has won Bush, McKight, Rockefeller, and Guggenheim Foundation Fellowships in playwriting. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fences, which also won four "Tony" Awards, and the Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play. In 1988, Wilson's Fences and Joe Turner's Come and Gone were both running on Broadway. The many awards he has won for his plays indicate the high esteem in which they are held by the critics. He has touched a responsive chord in both blacks and whites in New York and in many regional theatres. His plays have been described as, "haunting, profound, and indescribably moving." Yvonne Shafer has published numerous essays, studies, and reviews in a number of major theatre journals. She, along with Marvin Carlson, is the co-author of a new theatre appreciation text, The Dramatic Mirror, forthcoming from Longman. The author wishes to thank the Yale Repertory Theatre for the photographs.

Images of African Traditional Religions and Christianity in Joe Turner's Come and Gone and the Piano Lesson

“…Finally, before we look to the plays themselves, we must look into August Wilson's background. Wilson was born in Pittsburgh in 1945 to a Black mother and White father (Lyons, 1999). His mother raised him after his father left.…”

“…He began writing poetry and eventually turned to playwriting. His goal was to write one play for each decade in the 20th century; he has published six (Lyons, 1999). The focus of this article deals with the play for the 1910s, Joe Turner's Come and Gone, and the play for the 1930s, The Piano Lesson.…”

“…The church is the only stable organization in the black community, and the community is organized around the church" (Lyons, 1999, p. 5). On the other hand, Wilson contended that churches have been the source of the Ku Klux Klan and still promote inequality today (Lyons, 1999). Wilson seems to have a contradictory nature that is not so pronounced in his plays.…”

“…Because the play is set in 1911, the environment and society are not far removed from slavery, Africa, and the religions of those times and places. Wilson said Joe Turner was his favorite play of the ones he has written (Lyons, 1999). One could argue the favoritism comes with the deep African religious practices in the play.…”