Today marks what would have been August Wilson’s 81st birthday.
Born Frederick August Kittel on April 27, 1945, in Pittsburgh’s Hill District neighborhood, 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.
Over the years, Wilson absorbed the conversations, stories and rhythms of life in the Hill District, and later incorporated them into plays that were centered around Black families living in Pittsburgh.
In fact, all but one of the plays in Wilson’s legendary 10-play cycle — one for each decade of the 20th century — is set in Pittsburgh. And two of them won Pulitzer Prizes.
Wilson’s plays were entertaining, informative and explored the comedy, tragedy and spirituality of Black culture. Many of Wilson’s works have gone on to become films, or filmed versions of the plays.
Here are a few of the best moments from Wilson’s works.
‘The Piano Lesson’
In Wilson’s cycle play set in the 1930s, a family struggles over what to do with a valuable heirloom piano that incorporates family history and emotional baggage. At one point, several of the men in the story joke about getting sent to “the Parchman farm,” otherwise known as a prison labor camp.
What starts as a joke — one man teasing another about having sung an old field holler during his stretch at the farm — quickly transforms into an experience of shared trauma. Every man at the table knows the holler, “Berta Berta,” and as they each join in singing it, it becomes more and more powerful, a reminder of their past and what they had to do to survive.
‘Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom’
Wilson’s 1920s play tells the story of blues singer Ma Rainey, a real vocalist sometimes referred to as “the Mother of the Blues.”
The play — Wilson’s one cycle play not set in Pittsburgh, taking place in a 1927 Chicago recording studio — follows Rainey as she clashes with her producers and an ambitious trumpet player. It pits tradition against ambition and draws on the cultural identity that blues music reinforced.
In this scene, Ma Rainey (played here by Viola Davis) talks about the importance of the blues.
‘Fences’
“What law says I got to like you?”
That’s a rough thing for a father to say to his son. But the commanding James Earl Jones — playing a tough-love father in Wilson’s cycle play set in the 1950s — uses it as a way to make sure his son knows to demand respect in life, and to not worry himself about whether someone likes him.
The titular fence is being built by Troy, the father, is a sort of allegory, not just about keeping death away, but about the emotional barrier he places between himself and his family, between himself and the racial discrimination he experiences, and between what he wanted for his life and what he ended up with.
‘Jitney’
Wilson’s cycle play from the 1970s tells the story of men working an unlicensed “jitney” taxi service in Pittsburgh’s Hill District. As always, family plays a central role in the story, with tension between the station’s owner, Becker, and his son who recently came home from a 2o-year prison sentence.
Becker’s son wants to reconcile with his father, who did not visit him in prison, but it goes wrong. The two never officially settle their differences, but the son’s love for his father comes out in the end.
‘King Hedley II’
This cycle play, set in the 1980s, is among his darkest works. It’s the tale of an ex-convict who tries to save $10,000 by selling stolen refrigerators in order to buy a video store and make a better life for himself.
In this scene, he talks to his pregnant wife, Tonya, about some seeds he purchased, how they’re growing despite the rocky soil, and comparing it to their baby and his desire to bring something good into the world.