Theatre’s poet of Black America

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 on Sunday.

He was 60. He died of liver cancer.”We’ve lost a great writer, I think the greatest writer that our generation has seen and I’ve lost a dear, dear friend and collaborator,” said Kenny Leon, who directed the Broadway production of ‘Gem of the Ocean’ as well as Wilson’s most recent play, ‘Radio Golf’.Leon said Wilson’s work, “encompasses all the strength and power that theatre has to offer”.Wilson’s 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.The playwright’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.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.Pittsburgh, Wilson’s birthplace, is the setting for nine of the 10 plays in the cycle (‘Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom’ is set in a Chicago recording studio).Although he lived in Seattle, the playwright had a great deal of affection for his hometown.Wilson, a bulky, affable man who always had a story to tell, usually returned to Pittsburgh once a year to visit his mother’s grave, but he said he couldn’t live there: “Too many ghosts.But I love it.That’s what gave birth to me.”A high school dropout, Wilson enlisted in the army but left after a year, finding employment as a porter, short-order cook and dishwasher.Wilson was largely self-educated.The public library was his university and the recordings of such iconic singers and musicians as Bessie Smith and Jelly Roll Morton, and the paintings of such artists as Romare Bearden his inspiration.He started writing in 1965, when he acquired a used typewriter.His initial works were poems, but in 1968, Wilson co-founded Pittsburgh’s Black Horizon Theatre.In 1978, he moved to Minnesota, writing for the Science Museum in St Paul and later landing a fellowship at the Minneapolis Playwrights Center.In 1982, his play, ‘Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom’, was accepted by the National Playwrights Conference at the O’Neill Theatre Center in Connecticut.It was there that Wilson met Lloyd Richards, who also ran the Yale School of Drama.Their relationship proved fruitful, and Richards directed six of Wilson’s plays on Broadway.The first was ‘Ma Rainey’, which opened on Broadway in 1984.Wilson’s reputation was cemented in 1987 by the father-son drama ‘Fences’, his biggest commercial success.The play, which featured a Tony-winning performance by James Earl Jones, ran for more than a year.It was followed in New York by ‘Joe Turner’s Come and Gone’ (1988), ‘The Piano Lesson’ (1990), ‘Two Trains Running’ (1992), ‘Seven Guitars’ (1996), ‘Jitney’ (2000), ‘King Hedley II’ (2001) and ‘Gem of the Ocean’ (2004).Wilson’s plays gave steady employment to black actors, not only in New York but in regional theatres, where most of his plays tried out before coming to Broadway.Besides Jones, such well-known actors as Laurence Fishburne, Phylicia Rashad, Angela Bassett, Charles S Dutton, Brian Stokes Mitchell, S Epatha Merkerson, Roscoe Lee Browne and Leslie Uggams appeared in his plays on Broadway.- Nampa-APHe died of liver cancer.”We’ve lost a great writer, I think the greatest writer that our generation has seen and I’ve lost a dear, dear friend and collaborator,” said Kenny Leon, who directed the Broadway production of ‘Gem of the Ocean’ as well as Wilson’s most recent play, ‘Radio Golf’.Leon said Wilson’s work, “encompasses all the strength and power that theatre has to offer”.Wilson’s 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.The playwright’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.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.Pittsburgh, Wilson’s birthplace, is the setting for nine of the 10 plays in the cycle (‘Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom’ is set in a Chicago recording studio).Although he lived in Seattle, the playwright had a great deal of affection for his hometown.Wilson, a bulky, affable man who always had a story to tell, usually returned to Pittsburgh once a year to visit his mother’s grave, but he said he couldn’t live there: “Too many ghosts.But I love it.That’s what gave birth to me.”A high school dropout, Wilson enlisted in the army but left after a year, finding employment as a porter, short-order cook and dishwasher.Wilson was largely self-educated.The public library was his university and the recordings of such iconic singers and musicians as Bessie Smith and Jelly Roll Morton, and the paintings of such artists as Romare Bearden his inspiration.He started writing in 1965, when he acquired a used typewriter.His initial works were poems, but in 1968, Wilson co-founded Pittsburgh’s Black Horizon Theatre.In 1978, he moved to Minnesota, writing for the Science Museum in St Paul and later landing a fellowship at the Minneapolis Playwrights Center.In 1982, his play, ‘Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom’, was accepted by the National Playwrights Conference at the O’Neill Theatre Center in Connecticut.It was there that Wilson met Lloyd Richards, who also ran the Yale School of Drama.Their relationship proved fruitful, and Richards directed six of Wilson’s plays on Broadway.The first was ‘Ma Rainey’, which opened on Broadway in 1984.Wilson’s reputation was cemented in 1987 by the father-son drama ‘Fences’, his biggest commercial success.The play, which featured a Tony-winning performance by James Earl Jones, ran for more than a year.It was followed in New York by ‘Joe Turner’s Come and Gone’ (1988), ‘The Piano Lesson’ (1990), ‘Two Trains Running’ (1992), ‘Seven Guitars’ (1996), ‘Jitney’ (2000), ‘King Hedley II’ (2001) and ‘Gem of the Ocean’ (2004).Wilson’s plays gave steady employment to black actors, not only in New York but in regional theatres, where most of his plays tried out before coming to Broadway.Besides Jones, such well-known actors as Laurence Fishburne, Phylicia Rashad, Angela Bassett, Charles S Dutton, Brian Stokes Mitchell, S Epatha Merkerson, Roscoe Lee Browne and Leslie Uggams appeared in his plays on Broadway.- Nampa-AP