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August Wilson, original name Frederick August Kittel, He was born on April 27, 1945, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S. His parents were Daisy Wilson and Fredrick August Kittel, He was fourth of Six children.
https://www.centertheatregroup.org/programs/students-and-educators/august-wilson-monologue-competition/august-wilson-biography/ -
Wilson grew up in Hill District of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Which is the setting for majority of his plays, Wilson attended St. Richard’s Parochial School and then graduated and went on to Central Catholic High School in 1959.
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Wilson grew up in Hill District of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Which is the setting for majority of his plays, Wilson attended St. Richard’s Parochial School and then graduated and went on to Central Catholic High School in 1959.
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August faced harassment which later caused him to transfered to two different high schools during his freshman year of high school. In 1960, at age 15, Wilson dropped out of Gladstone High School after his teacher accused him of plagiarizing his paper on Napoleon.
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In 1962, Wilson enlisted in to the United States Army for three years, But left after one year in the service. Which then he started working odd jobs in order to support himself such as becoming a dish washer, porter, cook, and a gardener.
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In 1965, August purchased his very first typewriter for 20.00 from the money that his sister Freda paid him for writing a term paper for her. With this he had begun to write poetry
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In 1968, Wilson and Rob Penny collaborated, founding the Black Horizon Theater, a community based black nationalist theater company
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Wilson married his first wife, Brenda Burton, and had his first daughter Sakin Ansari Wilson.
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During Wilson and Penny's collaboration, where Penny was the playwriter and Wilson served as the self-taught resident director up until the mid 1970's, when the company dissolved.
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In 1978, Wilson moved to St. Paul, Minnesota, where he started to concentrate more on his playwriting and became a company member of the Penumbra Theatre led by his colleague Lou Bellamy
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In 1979, Wilson wrote Jitney which he considered his first real play. Which was a play that took place in the hill district in Pittsburg in 1977, in a gypsy cab station during the time of Pittsburg's period of urban renewal as the city tries to shut down businesses including the cab station where we meet five cab drivers struggling to survive.
https://stageagent.com/shows/play/1350/jitney -
In 1980, Wilson received a fellowship from the Minneapolis Playwrite's Center and within the year. Wilson married his second wife Judy Oliver
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In 1982, Wilson wrote the play Ma Rainey's Black Bottom which premiered at Eugene O'Neil Theater Center. It was also one of the first plays he had written that gave him widespread recognition. Ma Rainey's Black Bottom was set in a recording studio, Ma Rainey's Band players Cutler, Toledo, Slow Drag, and Levee gather to record an album of her songs as they wait for her to arrive the tell stories, jokes, and argue.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ma_Rainey%27s_Black_Bottom -
In 1982, Wilson also met Lloyd Richards, the African-American artistic director of the Yale Repertory Theatre, who would direct Wilson's first six play's on Broadway
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Fences is a play that is written by August Wilson that takes place in 1957, in what is assumed to be Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. The play follows Troy Maxson, a 53-year old man who struggles to provide for his wife and son. In a time where slavery has ended but the civil rights movement has not come to fruition.
https://stageagent.com/shows/play/1260/fences -
In 1987, Wilson won his first Pulitzer Prize for his play Fences. Later on in 1990, He won his second Pulitzer Prize for The Piano Lesson
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In 1990, he later moved to Seattle, Washington, where he later met costume designer Costanza Romero. In 1994, they married and together they had a daughter, Azula Carmen Wilson.
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June 2005, At the age of 60, Wilson was diagnosed with Liver Cancer
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On October 2nd, 2005, Wilson died on a Sunday in Seattle's Swedish Medical Center
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Shortly after his death, The former Virginia Theater on Broadway was renamed The august Wilson Theatre, and on February 17th, 2006, the African American Cultural Center of Greater Pittsburg officially became the August Wilson Center for African American Culture. In addition, in its Seventh Year the August Wilson monolgue Competition was created.
