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August Wilson (né Frederick August Kittel Jr.; April 27, 1945 – October 2, 2005) was an American playwright. He has been referred to as the "theater's poet of Black America". [1] He is best known for a series of 10 plays, collectively called The Pittsburgh Cycle (or The Century Cycle), which chronicle the experiences and heritage of the ...
Sep 28, 2024 · August Wilson (born April 27, 1945, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.—died October 2, 2005, Seattle, Washington) was a playwright who penned an acclaimed cycle of plays, each set in a different decade of the 20th century, about Black American life.
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- August Wilson’s Childhood
- August Wilson’s Artistic Development
- August Wilson’s Century Play Cycle
- August Wilson’s Legacy
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Wilson’s rise from humble beginnings to Broadway was unlikely. Born Frederick August Kittel on April 27, 1945, in the Hill District community of Pittsburgh, he was the son of Daisy Wilson, an African-American cleaning woman, and Frederick Kittel, a German immigrant and baker who was mostly absent from Wilson’s life. His mother raised Wilson and his...
Wilson had begun writing plays — one a musical western — before relocating to Minneapolis. There he was given a fellowship to the Minnesota Playwrights Center, which led to his acceptance into the National Playwrights Conference at the O’Neill Theater Center in Connecticut. During the conference — an intense collaboration of artists testing new wor...
Wilson’s greatest contribution to American culture would be his defining 10-play cycle, one for each decade of the past century. All but one — Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom— set in the city of Pittsburgh: 1900: Gem of the Ocean (2002) 1910: Joe Turner’s Come and Gone (1986) 1920: Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (1984) 1930: The Piano Lesson (1989) 1940: Seven ...
In the late 90s, with a career spanning nearly two decades, Wilson married his third wife, costume designer Constanza Romero. The two had a daughter and moved to Seattle, WA, where Wilson continued to work on the last plays in the cycle. In June 2005, Wilson was diagnosed with terminal liver cancer. He died Sunday, October 2, 2005, in a Seattle hos...
April 27, 1945– Frederick August Kittel is born in Pittsburgh, PA, in the city neighborhood known as “The Hill.” The Hill is Pittsburgh’s Harlem, a hub of creativity and commerce, and in 1945, still racially mixed. His mother, Daisy Wilson, was African-American, while his father, a German immigrant named Frederick Kittel, was white. He is one of se...
Jan 24, 2024 · In 1981 Wilson married his second wife Judy Oliver. The pair divorced in 1990. In 1994, Wilson married for the third time, to a costume designer named Constanza Romero and had daughter,...
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Quick Facts. Also Known As: Frederick August Kittel Jr. Died At Age: 60. Family: Spouse/Ex-: Brenda Burton (m.1969-1972), Constanza Romero (m.1994-2005), Judy Oliver (m.1981-1990) father: Frederick August Kittel Sr. mother: Daisy Wilson. siblings: Barbara Jean Wilson, Donna Conley, Edwin Kittel, Freda Ellis, Linda Jean Kittel, Richard Kittel.
Oct 2, 2007 · Two years ago, the American theater lost its most celebrated African-American playwright. August Wilson died Oct. 2, 2005, at age 60.
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Jan 16, 2020 · Illness and Death . Wilson died of liver cancer on October 2, 2005, at the age of 60 in a Seattle hospital. He had not announced that he was suffering from the disease until a month before his death. His third wife, costume designer Constanza Romero, three daughters (one with Romero and two with his first wife), and several siblings survived him.
