Tribute to August Wilson

Death of America's pre-eminent playwright

By Brenda Payton | Oakland Tribune | October 8, 2005

It was probably predictable that the obituaries of August Wilson would describe him as the preeminent African-American playwright. It's not that it's an incorrect description, it just isn't broad enough. Given the scope of his body of work and the remarkable accomplishments of his career, he is arguably the preeminent American playwright.

Paradoxically, one of his major themes was addressing that discrepancy, making the point eloquently that the African-American story is an American story. Indeed, in terms of the pursuit of the country's promise of freedom and justice for all, it is the quintessential American story. You might say the history of African Americans, from slavery through Jim Crow to equal rights, made the American story.

Making the point eloquently. His vision was epic. He wrote 10 plays covering each decade of the 20th century. His language was rich and poetic. Majestic really. Most of his characters are simple people, farmers, factory workers, boarding house owners, but they speak with beauty and depth. One theater scholar said the rhythm of Wilson's language lends it power to pull the audience into the world he has created. In an interview, Wilson said when he discovered the blues, he started listening to the way everyday people spoke in his Pittsburgh neighborhood.

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Playwright August Wilson Dies of Cancer

By MICHAEL KUCHWARA, AP

NEW YORK (Oct. 2) - Playwright August Wilson, whose epic 10-play cycle chronicling the black experience in 20th-century America included such landmark dramas as "Fences" and "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom," died Sunday of liver cancer, a family spokeswoman said. He was 60.

Wilson died at Swedish Hospital in Seattle, surrounded by his family, said Dena Levitin, Wilson's personal assistant. The playwright had disclosed in late August that his illness was inoperable and he had only a few months to live.

His plays were big, often sprawling and poetic, dealing primarily with the effects of slavery on succeeding generations of black Americans: from turn-of-century characters who could remember the Civil War to a prosperous middle class at the end of the century who had forgotten the past.

Wilson's astonishing creation, which took more than 20 years to complete, was remarkable not only for his commitment to a certain structure - one play for each decade - but for the quality of the writing. It was a unique achievement in American drama. Not even Eugene O'Neill, who authored the masterpiece "Long Day's Journey Into Night," accomplished such a monumental effort.

During that time, Wilson received the best-play Tony Award for "Fences," plus best-play Tony nominations for six of his other plays, the Pulitzer Prize for both "Fences" and "The Piano Lesson," and a record seven New York Drama Critics' Circle prizes.