An Appreciation: August Wilson (1945-2005)

-- August Wilson

August Wilson, one of America's greatest playwrights, died Sunday of liver cancer at the age of 60. With his announcement in August that inoperable liver cancer left him only a few months to live, many began to mourn not only the loss of the man but also the many years he may have continued to produce his critically acclaimed work. Wilson also left a host of rare accomplishments in American theater -- a Tony award for best play, six Tony nominations for best play, two Pulitzer Prizes and seven New York Drama Critics' Circle awards. As an African-American artist, he broke numerous barriers and raised the bar for excellence; as a leader in his field, he raised vital issues concerning the role of black playwriting and production in the broader American theatrical mainstream.

Wilson’s plays, such as 'Fences,' (1987), 'Joe Turner's Come and Gone' (1988), 'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom,' (1982) and 'Seven Guitars' (1996), were characterized by majesty and lyricism. They were sprawling, and yet intimate, sometimes unbuttoned and yet, in the hands of actors, marked by scenes that were often like a tightly riffed jazz set. The playwright recently completed a project of 20 years --a ten-play cycle exploring African American life in each decade of the 20th century. This ambitious project came to completion only in the past few weeks with the Los Angeles production of 'Radio Golf,,' the final work in the cycle.

"In an incredibly short amount of time," says playwright and director George C. Wolfe, "August Wilson redefined the American theatrical canon." One facet of Wilson's impact is "in terms of stories told of American stage," according to Wolfe. "In the tradition of American playwrights, Eugene O'Neill, and Arthur Miller in particular, he found the ways in which the small American stories were mythic, potent and elegant enough to rival any European playwrights. And he had an incredible love of black American language that will continue to be thrilling for decades to come.”

Born Frederick August Kittel in 1945 in Pittsburgh, Pa., a city whose impoverished Hill section became home to many of his characters, Wilson was one of the six children of Frederick August, a baker, and Daisy Wilson Kittel, a domestic worker. One of the driving forces behind his work, according to interviews, was his conviction that his generation of African Americans were not told much about the past of earlier generations. Wilson dropped out of school at 16 and was educated by his hometown libraries and the street corners of Pittsburgh. He joined the army for a short stint and had various odd jobs from porter to short-order cook. Among other influential experiences was his discovery of blues music. His work, which so notably reflects his knowledge of African-American expression, revels in the blues aesthetic. In 1965, the year his father died, he got a used typewriter, began writing poetry and changed his name to August Wilson. His life in the theater began three years later when he co-founded the Black Horizon Theater in Pittsburgh. His first play, 'Jitney,' was written in 1979.

In 1982, Wilson worked with director Lloyd Richards for the first time, and began to emerge as a mature artist. In the 1980s and 1990s, his plays also began a tradition of creating important landmarks for some of the most talented actors in the country including Laurence Fishburne, Charles Dutton, Phylicia Rashad, Reuben Santiago- Hudson, Viola Davis, Angela Bassett, Roscoe Lee Brown, S. Epatha Merkerson, and Brian Stokes Mitchell to mention a few. On October 16, the Virginia theater on Broadway, will be renamed the August Wilson theater, an honor given to on a few of the greatest artists of American theater such as Eugene O’Neill, Richard Rodgers and Helen Hayes. Wilson is survived by his wife, Constanza Romero, a costume designer, their daughter Azula Carmen, and his daughter by a previous marriage, Sakina Ansari.

Wilson's plays are replete with the ghosts of slavery visited on one generation in flesh, and on others in the mind, and still others in ways they cannot identify. Some seek control of their lives and doom themselves; some seek healing and find self-knowledge. Most of them are men in conversation among themselves. Sometimes they are women, speaking in outrage to us all. I was grateful and moved to see 'Gem of the Ocean,' in 2004 and witness a playwright already legendary willing to revisit old questions, and continue to take risks -- the kind of artist who continues to matter.

Though we will long find tragic that his life was cut short, August Wilson left a piece of text that gives further cause to celebrate the fact that he was able to say this summer that his life had been good and he was prepared for its ending. In his greatest work, 'Joe Turner's Come and Gone,' he writes of a man who has had a vision of finding his "own song," and who had seen a shining man: " . . . He told me he was the One Who Goes Before and Shows the Way. Said there was lots of shiny men and if I ever saw one again before I died then I would know that my song had been accepted and worked its full power in the world and I could lay down and die a happy man. A man who done left his mark on life . . . So I takes the power of my song and binds [people] together."

August Wilson was such a man.

About the Author
Thulani Davis is a writer living in New York City.

Read memorable quotations by August Wilson.