AugustWilson.net

August Wilson Biography

Readers Please Note: This is a placeholder page.  I need to edit and post a bio that I wrote last year.  Plan to do that before spring 2012 begins.  Just need to find my flash drive.  DrD

Personal Information: Born Frederick August Kittel on April 27, 1945 in  Pittsburgh, PA; son of Frederick August Kittel and Daisy Wilson; stepfather, David Bedford.

PLAYS

August Wilson has created an impressionistic account of the African-American experience throughout the 20th century, with each of his plays set in a different decade.

The Pittsburgh Cycle:

• 1900s - Gem of the Ocean (2003)

• 1910s - Joe Turner's Come and Gone (1984)

• 1920s - Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (1982) - set in Chicago

• 1930s - The Piano Lesson (1986) - Pulitzer Prize

• 1940s - Seven Guitars (1995)

• 1950s - Fences (1983) - Pulitzer Prize

• 1960s - Two Trains Running (1990)

• 1970s - Jitney (1979)

• 1980s - King Hedley II (2001)

• 1990s - Radio Golf (2005)

AWARDS

• Ma Rainey's Black Bottom:  Award for best play, New York Drama Critics Circle, and Antoinette Perry ("Tony") Award nomination, League of New York Theatres and  Producers, both 1985, and Whiting Writers' Award from the Whiting  Foundation, 1986

• Play Award, and New York Drama Critics Circle Best Play Award, all 1986, and Pulitzer Prize for drama, Antoinette Perry Award for best play, and award for best Broadway play, Outer Critics Circle, all 1987

• Joe Turner's Come and Gone:  New York Drama Critics Circle Best Play award, and Antoinette Perry Award nomination for best play, both 1988

• The Piano Lesson:  Drama Desk Outstanding New Play Award, New York Drama Critics Circle Best Play Award, Antoinette Perry Award for Best Play, American Theatre Critics Outstanding Play Award, and Pulitzer Prize for drama, all 1990

• Two Trains Running:  Antoinette Perry Award nomination for best play, and American Theatre Critics' Association Award, both 1992

• Seven Guitars:  New York Drama Critics Circle Award, 1996

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