August Wilson’s plays show his ability to draw upon and transcend the turbulent years he spent at his now-famous Hill District address at 1827 Bedford Avenue. With the benefit of time and distance, Wilson wrote a series of compelling dramas that speak not just to the tensions within a single Black family but also to conditions faced by the Black masses still impacted by the trauma of slavery and the effects of cultural fragmentation. We thus see in Wilson’s series of symbolic and sometimes clearly allegorical characters evidence of an overarching narrative about the counterbalances between forces that set Black families asunder and the resilience that reunites and bonds them together. This chapter explores the ways Wilson’s plays demand that we regard “family” in both literal and figurative terms through an analysis of the Black family portraits on display in them.

August Wilson once suggested that African Americans leaving the US South during the Great Migration was one of the worst things that happened to the community. Because the Great Migration and the chronicle of African and African American migrants’ histories/herstories are intertwined discussions, this chapter suggests that the American Century Cycle enables Wilson to design a culturally specific study of the affects and effects of the migration on the characters and geographic spaces he plots. It considers how Wilson uses the plays in the cycle to demonstrate his point while also providing hope that, even within the urban North, the realities of the South and transformation of Southern mores will not be forgotten or ignored.

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.

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?

This chapter explores themes of black masculinity and homosocial bonding in August Wilson’s plays by offering careful analysis of several of the characters and plotlines from the American Century Cycle.

In 2015, actor, director, and producer, Denzel Washington and the Wilson estate committed to producing all ten of the American Century Cycle plays as films. Fences and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom were the first to receive film adaptations. This essay considers the politics of adapting Wilson’s plays into films for contemporary audiences. It also assesses the implications of translating work for a new medium and how this can help cultivate new audiences.

One critically overlooked aspect of August Wilson’s work is his repeated meditations on acts of perception. This chapter argues that it is precisely in this facet that an understanding of what the playwright learned from Romare Bearden – especially the artist’s collages of the 1960s – can prove most helpful in considering the cultural work Wilson’s monumental body of work does.