August Wilson Research Paper

August Wilson the writer behind Fences was born on April 27, 1945 in the Hill District of Pittsburgh, PA. August Wilson birth name was Frederick August Kittel Jr. he was the son of a German immigrant named Frederick August Kittel and to an African American woman named Daisy Wilson. Wilson was the fourth of six children and the oldest son. As a child Wilson attended St. Richard’s Parochial School. After his parents divorced his mother, his siblings and him moved from the poor Bedford Avenue area of Pittsburgh to a mostly white suburb in the Oakland section. After facing constant discrimination from his classmates at Central Catholic High School he decided to transfer to Connelly Vocational High School and later moved to Gladstone High School.

He helped shape the African-American experience through a series of 10 plays. Wilson’s ten plays were known as The Pittsburgh Cycle, each of these plays were set in different decades of the 20th century. 9 out of 10 of the plays are set in the Pittsburgh’s Hill District, located near Wilson’s childhood home. The only play that is not based in Pittsburgh Hill District was Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom which was located in Chicago. August Wilson's plays consisted of Jitney (1979), Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (1982), Fences (1983), Joe Turner’s Come and Gone (1986), The Piano Lesson (1986), Two Trains Running (1990), Seven Guitars (1995), King Hedley II (2001), Gem of the Ocean (2003) and Radio Golf (2005). August Wilson wrote Fences in 1957 and was the 3rd play that he had written. August Wilson won a Pulitzer Prize and a Tony Award for his play Fences. He also earned a second Pulitzer Award for another play called The Piano Lesson. Fences by August Wilson premiered on Broadway in 1987 earning him his first Pulitzer Prize along with a Tony Award. In 1996 Seven Guitars was premiered on the Broadway stage, followed by King Hedley II in 2001 and Gem of the Ocean in 2004. A collection of Wilson’s work were entitled Three Plays by August Wilson and was pushed into book form in 1991. In 2005 some months before his death his play Radio Golf had opened in Los Angeles,