"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 Leon, adding that Wilson's work, "encompasses all the strength and power that theater has to offer. I feel an incredible sense of responsibility on walking how he would want us to walk and delivering his work."
Wilson received the best-play Tony 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 his cycle plays — "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, especially "the Hill," a dilapidated area of Pittsburgh where he spent much of his youth.
Born Frederick August Kittel on April 27, 1945, he was one of six children of Frederick Kittel, a baker who had emigrated from Germany at the age of 10, and Daisy Wilson. When his father died in 1965, he changed his name to August Wilson.
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.
- Associated Press
© Copyright 2005 by DiverseEducation.com
