Editing August Wilson (section)

==Post–Black Arts Movement==
Although Wilson's work is not formally recognized within the literary canon of the [[Black Arts Movement]], he was certainly a product of its mission, helping to co-found the Black Horizon Theatre in his hometown of Pittsburgh in 1968. Situated in Pittsburgh's Hill District, a historically and predominantly Black neighborhood, the Black Horizon Theatre became a cultural hub of Black creativity and community building.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.chronicle.pitt.edu/story/august-wilson-and-black-horizon-theatre|title=August Wilson and Black Horizon Theatre {{!}} Pitt Chronicle {{!}} University of Pittsburgh|website=www.chronicle.pitt.edu|first=Jill King |last=Greenwood|date=March 16, 2015|access-date=March 23, 2019}}</ref> As a playwright of what is considered the Post–Black Arts Movement, Wilson inherited the spirit of BAM, producing plays that celebrated the history and poetic sensibilities of Black people. His iconic Century Cycle successfully tracked and synthesized the experiences of Black America in the 20th century, using each historical decade, from 1904 to 1997, to document the physical, emotional, mental, and political strivings of Black life in the wake of emancipation.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.august-wilson-theatre.com/plays.php|title=August Wilson, Pulitzer winning playwright: Plays|website=www.august-wilson-theatre.com|access-date=March 23, 2019}}</ref>

Wilson's best-known plays are ''[[Fences (play)|Fences]]'' (1985) (which won a [[Pulitzer Prize]] and a [[Tony Award]]), ''[[The Piano Lesson]]'' (1990) (a Pulitzer Prize and the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award), ''[[Ma Rainey's Black Bottom]]'', and ''[[Joe Turner's Come and Gone]]''.

Wilson stated that he was most influenced by "the four Bs": blues music, the [[Argentine]] writer and poet [[Jorge Luis Borges]], the playwright [[Amiri Baraka]] and the painter [[Romare Bearden]].<ref Name="NYT"/> He went on to add writers [[Ed Bullins]] and [[James Baldwin]] to the list. He noted:

{{blockquote|From Borges, those wonderful gaucho stories from which I learned that you can be specific as to a time and place and culture and still have the work resonate with the universal themes of love, honor, duty, betrayal, etc. From Amiri Baraka, I learned that all art is political, although I don't write political plays. From Romare Bearden I learned that the fullness and richness of everyday life can be rendered without compromise or sentimentality.<ref Name="NYT"/>}}

He valued Bullins and Baldwin for their honest representations of everyday life.<ref Name="Parisreview"/>

Like Bearden, Wilson worked with collage techniques in writing: "I try to make my plays the equal of his canvases. In creating plays I often use the image of a stewing pot in which I toss various things that I'm going to make use of—a black cat, a garden, a bicycle, a man with a scar on his face, a pregnant woman, a man with a gun." On the meaning of his work, Wilson stated:

{{blockquote|I once wrote this short story called "The Best Blues Singer in the World", and it went like this—"The streets that Balboa walked were his own private ocean, and Balboa was drowning." End of story. That says it all. Nothing else to say. I've been rewriting that same story over and over again. All my plays are rewriting that same story.<ref Name="Parisreview"/>}}

===The ''Pittsburgh Cycle''===
<!-- Please note this began as the Pittsburgh Cycle and sources still note it as such - The alternate title of Century Cycle is noted with refs in this section -->
Wilson's ''Pittsburgh Cycle'',<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.biography.com/news/august-wilson-pittsburgh-cycle-century-cycle-plays-summary|title=August Wilson's 'Pittsburgh Cycle' Plays|date=June 3, 2020 }}</ref> also often referred to as his ''Century Cycle'',<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.marintheatre.org/productions/fences/fences-august-wilsons-century-cycle|title=10 Plays, 100 Years – Playwright August Wilson Reveals the History of a Community (From the Playbill)}}</ref> 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 (fictional town)|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".<ref Name="Parisreview">{{cite journal| url=http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/839/the-art-of-theater-no-14-august-wilson| journal=The Paris Review| title=August Wilson, The Art of Theater No. 14| author= Bonnie Lyons, George Plimpton| date=Winter 1999 | volume=Winter 1999| issue=153}}</ref> 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."<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|last=Wilson|first=August|title=The Ground on which I Stand|publisher=Theatre Communications Group|year=2001|isbn=978-1559361873|pages=151}}</ref>

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.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/august-wilson-the-ground-on-which-i-stand-august-wilsonbiography-and-career-timeline/3683/|title=August Wilson: The Ground on Which I Stand {{!}} Biography and Timeline {{!}} American Masters {{!}} PBS|date=January 28, 2015|website=American Masters|language=en-US|access-date=April 8, 2020}}</ref> 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.<ref Name="Parisreview"/>

Wilson told ''[[The Paris Review]]'':{{blockquote|I think my plays offer (White Americans) a different way to look at Black Americans. For instance, in ''Fences'' they see a garbageman, a person they don'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.<ref Name="NYT"/>}}

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 349 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".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.post-gazette.com/ae/theater-dance/2009/11/09/August-Wilson-s-mythic-character-Aunt-Ester-explored-in-theater-festival/stories/200911090252|title=August Wilson's mythic character Aunt Ester explored in theater festival|website=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette|first=Christopher|last=Rawson|language=en|date=November 9, 2009|access-date=April 8, 2020}}</ref> The plays often include an ''apparently'' mentally impaired oracular character (different in each play)—for example, Hedley Sr. in ''[[Seven Guitars]]'', Gabriel in ''[[Fences (play)|Fences]]'', Stool Pigeon in ''King Hedley II'', or Hambone in ''Two Trains Running''.{{citation needed|date=August 2022}}

{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Year of premiere
! Title
! Decade
! Opened on Broadway<ref name="Century">[http://www.tcg.org/publications/augustwilson/histories.cfm The August Wilson ''Century Cycle''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141012101745/http://www.tcg.org/publications/augustwilson/histories.cfm |date=October 12, 2014 }}.[[Theatre Communications Group]]. Retrieved October 7, 2014.</ref>
|-
| 1982
| ''[[Jitney (play)|Jitney]]''
| 1970s
| 2017 – [[Samuel J. Friedman Theatre]]
|-
| 1984
| ''[[Ma Rainey's Black Bottom]]''
| 1920s
| 1984 – [[James Earl Jones Theatre|Cort Theatre]]
|-
| 1985
| ''[[Fences (play)|Fences]]''
| 1950s
| 1987 – [[46th Street Theatre]]
|-
| 1986
| ''[[Joe Turner's Come and Gone]]''
| 1910s
| 1988 – [[Ethel Barrymore Theatre|Ethel Barrymore]]
|-
| 1987
| ''[[The Piano Lesson]]''
| 1930s
| 1990 – [[Walter Kerr Theatre|Walter Kerr]]
|-
| 1990
| ''[[Two Trains Running]]''
| 1960s
| 1992 – [[Walter Kerr Theatre|Walter Kerr]]
|-
| 1995
| ''[[Seven Guitars]]''
| 1940s
| 1996 – [[Walter Kerr Theatre|Walter Kerr]]
|-
| 1999
| ''[[King Hedley II]]''
| 1980s
| 2001 – [[Virginia Theatre]]
|-
| 2003
| ''[[Gem of the Ocean]]''
| 1900s
| 2004 – [[Walter Kerr Theatre|Walter Kerr]]
|-
| 2005
| ''[[Radio Golf]]''
| 1990s
| 2007 – [[James Earl Jones Theatre|Cort Theatre]]
|}

Chicago's [[Goodman Theatre]] was the first theater in the world to produce the entire 10-play cycle, in productions which spanned from 1986 to 2007. Two of the Goodman's productions—''Seven Guitars'' and ''Gem of the Ocean''—were world premieres.<ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.suntimes.com/entertainment/stage/24839663-421/story.html | title=Court Theatre stages August Wilson's 'Seven Guitars' |first= Mary|last= Houlihan|date= January 8, 2014|work=[[Chicago Sun-Times]]}}</ref> [[Israel Hicks]] produced the entire 10-play cycle from 1990 to 2009 for the [[Denver Center for the Performing Arts#Entities of the DCPA|Denver Center Theatre Company]].<ref>{{cite news|last=Weber|first= Bruce|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/08/theater/08hicks.html |title=Israel Hicks, Director of August Wilson's Cycle, Dies at 66|newspaper=The New York Times|date= July 7, 2010|access-date= July 8, 2010}}</ref> [[Geva Theatre Center]] produced all 10 plays in decade order from 2007 to 2011 as ''August Wilson's American Century''. The [[Huntington Theatre Company]] of [[Boston]] has produced all 10 plays, finishing in 2012. During Wilson's life he worked closely with The Huntington to produce the later plays. [[Pittsburgh Public Theater]] was the first theater company in Pittsburgh to produce the entire Century Cycle, including the world premiere of ''[[King Hedley II]]'' to open the [[O'Reilly Theater]] in [[Downtown Pittsburgh]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.pghcitypaper.com/pittsburgh/the-final-installment-of-august-wilsons-epic-pittsburgh-cycle-premieres-at-the-public/Content?oid=1340845|title=The final installment of August Wilson's epic Pittsburgh Cycle premieres at the Public|first=Robert|last=Isenberg|date=October 2, 2008| newspaper=Pittsburgh City Paper}}</ref>

TAG – The Actors' Group, in Honolulu, Hawaii, produced all 10 plays in the cycle starting in 2004 with ''Two Trains Running'' and culminating in 2015 with ''Ma Rainey's Black Bottom''. All shows were Hawaii premieres, all were extremely successful at the box office and garnered many local theatre awards for the actors and the organization. The Black Rep in St. Louis and the Anthony Bean Community Theater in New Orleans have also presented the complete cycle.

In the years after Wilson's death the 10-play cycle has been referred to as ''The August Wilson Century Cycle''<ref>{{cite book|title=August Wilson Century Cycle|first=August|last=Wilson|year=2007|publisher=Theatre Communications Group|isbn=978-1559363075}}</ref> and as ''The American Century Cycle''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.openculture.com/2015/05/listen-to-playwright-august-wilsons-american-century-cycle-in-its-entirety-10-free-plays.html|title=Listen to Playwright August Wilson's American Century Cycle in Its Entirety: 10 Free Plays}}</ref>

Two years before his death in 2005, Wilson wrote and performed an unpublished one-man play entitled ''How I Learned What I Learned'' about the power of art and the power of possibility. This was produced at New York's Signature Theatre and directed by Todd Kreidler, Wilson's friend and protégé. ''How I Learned'' explores his days as a struggling young writer in Pittsburgh's Hill District and how the neighborhood and its people inspired his cycle of plays about the African-American experience.<ref>{{Cite web|title=How I Learned What I Learned|url=http://publictheater.culturaldistrict.org/production/40795/how-i-learned-what-i-learned|work=publictheater.culturaldistrict.org|access-date = September 24, 2015}}</ref>