AUGUST WILSON

Pulitzer prize winning playwright

August Wilson was a Pulitzer Prize winning playwright whose most famous work was a series of plays called The Pittsburgh Cycle. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1985 for Fences – which also received a Tony Award – and in 1990 for The Piano Lesson.

Fences was recognised further for the recent production featuring Denzel Washington and Viola Davis with three Tony Awards in 2010 for Best Revival of a Play, Best Performance by an Actor in a Play and Best Performance by an Actress in a Play.

Following his death in 2005 the Virginia Theatre in New York was renamed in his honour and is the first Broadway theatre to be named after an African-American. He is also honoured by the August Wilson Center for African American Culture in Pittsburgh and August Wilson Way in Seattle.

The Pittsburgh Cycle

Gem of the Ocean (2003) – 1900s

Joe Turner’s Come and Gone (1988) – 1910s

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (1984) – 1920s

The Piano Lesson (1990) – 1930s

Seven Guitars (1995) – 1940s

Fences (1987) – 1950s

Two Trains Running (1991) – 1960s

Jitney (1982) – 1970s

King Hedley II (1999) – 1980s

Radio Golf (2005) – 1990s

Other Plays

Wilson also wrote other plays that are unconnected to the Pittsburgh Cycle - they are listed below with the year he wrote them.

Recycle (1973)

Black Bart and the Sacred Hills (1977)

Fullerton Street (1980)

The Homecoming (1989)

The Coldest Day of the Year (1989)

How I Learned What I Learned (2002–03)

ARE YOU LOOKING FOR
AUGUST WILSON THEATER?

Mean Girls at August Wilson Theater on Broadway

August Wilson Theater

New York City

On October 16, 2005, only 14 days after Wilson's death, the Virginia Theatre in New York's Broadway theatre district was renamed the August Wilson Theatre. This is the first Broadway theatre to bear the name of an African-American.

Now showing Tina Fey's broadway musical interpretation of: Mean Girls

Buy Tickets at August Wilson Theater on Broadway

August Wilson Books and Play Memorbelia