This chapter features a conversation between two set designers, Jack Magaw and Regina García, who have designed for Wilson productions at several regional theatres in the Chicago metropolitan area. In doing so, it sheds light on a vitally important area within Wilsonian production history, thereby adding to the ever-expanding field of Wilson studies. Both artists reflect on how they see their roles as set designers, what serves as inspiration when designing for a Wilson production, and how Black cultural spaces of Chicago shapes their work.

This chapter examines director Paulette Randall’s casting and rehearsal choices for productions of The Piano Lesson (1993) and Fences (2013). Assessing Randall’s rehearsal techniques and productions provides insights into how British practitioners connect with the specificity of Wilson’s plays and how they are received by audiences, which has repercussions for larger questions about staging African American plays in the UK. The chapter argues that one way that British practitioners tune into Wilson’s plays is by recognizing their themes as universal and by making parallels between African American and Black British experiences.

This chapter introduces the volume and provides an overview of Wilson’s life and work, as well as the book’s four thematically organized sections.

This chapter considers the influence of fellow writers James Baldwin and Ed Bullins on August Wilson’s dramaturgy. It argues that Bullins and Baldwin’s simultaneous inclusion on Wilson’s list of “Bs” represents both an expansion of his original influences and a specific articulation of his artistic pursuit or philosophy.

Acknowledging that August Wilson has often claimed Eugene O’Neill as one of the primary influences for his dramatic art, this chapter consider how his King Hedley II might be read to deconstruct O’Neill’s The Emperor Jones and reconstruct, in contrast, a world in which Wilson’s protagonist develops a functional spiritual center lacking in O’Neill’s, thereby redeeming, through an African American lens, the problematic racial work of the ostensibly progressive O’Neill.

August Wilson forged a formidable legacy as an advocate for Black art and aesthetic practices on and off the stage. In 1996, he delivered a speech at the Theatre Communications Group national conference entitled, “The Ground on Which I Stand,” in which he made a case for the importance of creating, supporting, and sustaining Black art and cultural institutions. The speech continues to serve as an important manifesto for those interested in dismantling the harmful systems and structures that persist in the theatre. This chapter revisits Wilson’s speech and places it in conversation with more recent demands to upend and dismantle white supremacy in the arts, including those articulated by the collective of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color theatremakers organizing under “We See You, White American Theatre.”

While many scholars have explored the ways in which “Africa” functions as a potent, living memory that animates August Wilson’s characters and audiences, this chapter suggests it is time to raise new questions about Wilson’s representation of Africa in his dramaturgy. In particular, it argues that Wilson’s American Century Cycle has projected an “Africa” not contemporaneous with African America. Indeed, this “Africa” stands outside of historical time. Accordingly, it is time for us to raise a new line of critical inquiry: What are the implications of such an ahistorical representation?

August Wilson famously and often stated that his influences primarily consisted of the “four B’s:” the blues, Romare Bearden, Amiri Baraka, and Jorge Luis Borges. While the blues, Bearden, and Baraka tend to get the most attention, Wilson’s debt to Borges remains abstract and elusive – something that made perfect sense in his mind, but is difficult for readers and theatergoers to bring into sharp focus. This chapter provides an overview of Wilson’s comments on Borges and offer two stories by Borges, “Shakespeare’s Memory” (1983) and “Pierre Menard, Author of the Quijote” (1941), as texts through which aspects of Wilson’s Gem of the Ocean (2003) might be understood.

August Wilson unlocked new dramaturgical terrain for contemporary playwrights. This chapter explores in greater depth the work of Dominique Morisseau, Ike Holter, and Lynn Nottage, three Black playwrights whose dramas offer unique expressions of Wilson’s influence on the contemporary stage. Musicality and concern for community history lie at the core of each of these playwrights’ dramaturgy, which comes to life in the repetition and revision of series of plays. For each of these writers, as for others on the contemporary stage, this chapter argues that Wilson unearthed fruitful aesthetic terrain.

Between 1984 and 2017, ten plays authored by Wilson would be staged on Broadway. Collectively known as the American Century Cycle, these dramas are recognized as perhaps the greatest singular triumph of any playwright in the American theatre. Wilson came to be celebrated for his distinctive authorial voice, mesmerizing audiences with his facilitation of Black American speech. The dramatist also helped launch the careers of many actors who would become household names, including Charles Dutton, Angela Bassett, and Viola Davis. This chapter offers a brief overview of the productions of Wilson’s plays on Broadway, giving particular attention to his collaborations with such directors as Lloyd Richards, Marion McClinton, and Kenny Leon.