August Wilson (1945-2005)
Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
Co-founder of Pittsburgh's Black Horizon Theater and the author of a cycle of ten plays that have been hailed as a unique triumph in American literature. The plays cover each decade of the 20th century and most focus on African American life in the Hill District. Two of the plays, "Fences" and "The Piano Lesson," won Pulitzer prizes for best drama in 1987 and 1990; "Fences" also won Broadway's Tony Award. This site is Wilson's birthplace.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
On this spot in Pittsburgh's Hill District was born August Wilson, one of the towering American playwrights of the 20th century. He got his start co-founding the Black Horizon Theater before writing his monumental "American Century Cycle"—ten plays, one for each decade of the 1900s—most set among the working people of the very neighborhood that raised him. Two of them, "Fences" and "The Piano Lesson," earned Pulitzer Prizes, and "Fences" took a Tony as well.
Why it matters
Wilson turned an ordinary Pittsburgh neighborhood into one of the great settings in American drama, giving African American life a place at the center of the national stage.
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Related people
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