fences
... that has grown and flowered. In 1981, Penumbra gave Wilson his first professional production when it staged "Black Bart and the Sacred Hills," a series of poems adapted into a play. Penumbra has staged every one of his Broadway successes (except his most recent play, "Seven Guitars") as well as a couple of other early works, including "Jitney," which Wilson recently revised for an upcoming off-Broadway production. While the company has showcased the works of a new generation of black American playwrights, Wilson's plays have often paid the bills. Its 1996-97 three-play season began with a successful production of "Ma Rainey" and is winding up with "Fences." "It's the first time we have put two of his plays in one season, but they are both selling," said Bellamy, who has scheduled "Seven Guitars" for its Twin Cities premiere in Penumbra's upcoming season. Bellamy recognizes Wilson as one of his theater's longest and most loyal supporters: "Everybody knows that Claude brought him here and one-half hour after he got off the plane from Pittsburgh, August was sitting in here. But what they don't know is that the play wasn't pulling very well, and August used to come every night with his wife just to sit in the audience and help us. It was just to fill up a seat, but he wanted to help. "He has always been very generous to us. His name does so much. Most of our national recognition comes from our relationship with him. We are mentioned in his biography in theater programs. If I ever need help, I know I can turn to him." Expectant in many ways While Wilson calls this production of "Fences" special, he is looking forward to an even bigger production in September. He and his wife, Constanza Romero, are expecting their first child. Wilson, who is 52 and has a 27-year-old daughter by a previous marriage, was bubbling over with paternal anticipation. "I'm so excited," he said, adding that he has started a library for the newcomer - not of Dr. Seuss or Pat the Bunny but adult books by authors that he likes, such as Salman Rushdie, and hopes his child will like, too, when he or she is growing up. "I am putting a note in each one, telling why I have chosen the book," he said. Wilson, who talks of his plays with the pride and enthusiasm of a parent, also revealed that he hopes to have a new play, "King Headley the Second" ready for production next year and that a film of "Fences" might finally go into production. "King Headley," which will fill the 1980s slot in Wilson's decade-by-decade examination of black experience in the 20th century - "Fences" is set in the 1950s - will mark the first time he has carried over a character from one play to another. It is a sequel of sorts to "Seven Guitars," following the life of one character 37 years later. The film rights for "Fences" were optioned by movie star Eddie Murphy nine years ago, but the project has been mired since, though Wilson has written a screenplay of which he is very proud. He pointed out that the 10-year option will expire soon, which should put a little more oomph in the process. "Something may happen soon," he said. Copyright 1997 Star Tribune. Republished under license to Infonautics Corp. All other rights reserved. Peter Vaughan; Staff Writer, Mending `Fences' // For the first time since playwright August Wilson rose to prominence in the 1980s, his words will be heard at the Guthrie Theater, with the opening this week of his Pulitzer Prize-. , Minneapolis Star Tribune, 05-11-1997, pp 01F. . The Hill District: August Wilson: A Tribute August Wilson, Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama 1987 and 1990.(12) BORN: 1945. ...August would always be at the library, reading everything. Then, he'd come home and tell our mother what he learned that day. He was kind of like a walking newspaper. (13) I grew up without a father. When I was 20 I went down onto Centre Avenue to learn from the community how to be a man. My education comes from the years I spent there. Mostly I'd listen to the older guys, because I was impressed. Here was a guy who lived 60 years--and I didn't think I was going to make it to the next year. (14) My plays stem from impressions I formed on The Hill in the '50s and '60s...Those were times of great struggle and change for blacks. (15) Drawn to the Black Power movement in the 1960s, he helped found a volunteer troupe in his native Pittsburgh that mounted the incendiary works of LeRoi Jones [Amiri Baraka]. "I tried to write myself, but I wasn't any good at dialogue," he says--a surprising judgment for a playwright whose characters speak with color and dialectical authenticity. (16) Wilson gives words to trumpeters and trash men, cabbies and conjurers, boarders and landladies, all joined by a heritage of slavery. Their patois is his poetry, their dreams are his dramas. (17) [In "Joe Turner's Come and Gone"], Wilson is a generous artist; he provides 11 compelling characters, an irresistible story and a power of language that lends a vivid music to a myriad of emotions. (18) August always had a strong sense of history...He feels we can all learn from the past so we can improve the future. I think Pittsburgh's history has been very, very important to him. This city is a puzzle, a disjointed place with all the different ethnic groups going their separate ways. But everything that is America exists here, from the artistic beauty to the ugliness. It's all had an effect on August. (19) Notes 1. Based on: Department of City Planning, City of Pittsburgh, "Middle Hill," in 1990 Census of Population and Housing Reports, Report No. 3, Whole City G-Q, Population, Social, Economic, & Housing Data by Neighborhood, 1940-1990 ([Pittsburgh]: City of Pittsburgh, [n.d.]), [unpaged]; Department of City Planning, City of Pittsburgh, "Upper Hill," in 1990 Census of Population and Housing Reports, Report No. 3, Whole City R-Z, Population, Social, Economic, & Housing Data by Neighborhood, 1940-1990 ([Pittsburgh]: City of Pittsburgh, [n.d.]), [unpaged]; and University Center for Social and Urban Research, University of Pittsburgh, The Social Geography of Allegheny County, vol. 2, Neighborhood Profiles (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh, [n.d.]), 462-465, 598-601. 2. Shari Kubitz, "Hill House at 25: From Housing to Child Care, Help Is Just a Visit Away," Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 16 October 1989, 11. 3. Abby Mendelson, "Hill House: Celebrating 25 Years of Community Service," Pittsburgh, February 1990: 22. 4. "Hill House Center a 'One-Stop Supermarket of Human Services,'" New Pittsburgh Courier, 27 July 1991, C9. 5. Sandy Hamm, "Hill District Jazz Culture Revisited," New Pittsburgh Courier, 9 June 1993, B1. 6. Mark Belko, "'Commodore' Posey Plied Boats, Ore Trade," Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 21 February 1994, B7. 7. Robert W. Peterson, "Only the Ball Was White," Part II, Pittsburgh Press, 2 August 1970, [Sunday Magazine], 4. 8.Mark Gallaway, "A Look Back at Negro Baseball," Tribune-Review, 29 August 1993, D8. 9.Rob Ruck, "Harold Tinker: He Played with the Best on The Hill. A Baseball Legend Looks Back," Pittsburgh (August 1991): 30. [Rob Ruck quoting Harold Tinker.] 10. Gallaway, D8. 11.Rob Ruck, "Black Sandlot Baseball: The Pittsburgh Crawfords," Western Pennsylvania Historical Magazine, (January 1983): 66. [Rob Ruck quoting Charley Hughes.] 12. "August Wilson Wins Second Pulitzer Prize for Drama," Pittsburgh Press, 13 April 1990, A12. 13. Bob Hoover, "Bedford Avenue to Broadway: Childhood in Hill Leads to a Pulitzer for August Wilson," Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 1 June 1987, 15. [Bob Hoover quoting Freda Ellis, August Wilson's older sister.] 14. Jim Davidson, "A Playwright Who Stirs the Imagination: A Dropout from The Hill District, August Wilson Is Now a Hit on Broadway," Pittsburgh Press, 4 November 1984, F1. 15. Robert Brenner, "Playwright's Heart Is in Pittsburgh," Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 19 July 1982, 17. 16. William A. Henry III, "Exorcising the Demons of Memory: August Wilson Exults in the Blues and Etches Slavery's Legacy," Time, 11 April 1988, 77. 17.Samuel G. Freedman, "A Voice from the Streets: August Wilson's Plays Portray the Sound and Feel of Black Poverty," New York Times Magazine, 15 March 1987, 36. 18.Jack Kroll, "August Wilson's Come to Stay: A Major Writer Illuminates the Black Experience," Newsweek, 11 April 1988, 82. 19.Hoover, 15. [Bob Hoover quoting University of Pittsburgh professor, Rob Penny.] 20.William Y. Bell, Jr., Commercial Recreation Facilities among Negroes in The Hill District of Pittsburgh [Thesis] (Pittsburgh: [University of Pittsburgh], 1938), 66. 21.Ira De A. Reid, Social Conditions of the Negro in The Hill District of Pittsburgh ([Pittsburgh]: General Committee on the Hill Survey, 1930), 56. 22. "Nation Eulogizes Vann," Pittsburgh Courier, 2 November 1940, 1. 23. Andrew Buni, Robert L. Vann of the Pittsburgh Courier (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1974), 3. 24. Ibid., 321. 25. Eulogizes, 1. 26. Ibid., 4. 27. "Self-Respect," Bulletin Index, 17 May 1934, 13. 28. Eulogizes, 4. 29. Self-Respect, 13. 30. Based on: Department of City Planning, City of Pittsburgh, "Middle Hill," in 1990 Census of Population and Housing Reports, Report No. 3, Whole City G-Q, Population, Social, Economic, & Housing Data by Neighborhood, 1940-1990 ([Pittsburgh]: City of Pittsburgh, [n.d.]), [unpaged]; Department of City Planning, City of Pittsburgh, "Upper Hill," in 1990 Census of Population and Housing Reports, Report No. 3, Whole City R-Z, Population, Social, Economic, & Housing Data by Neighborhood, 1940-1990 ([Pittsburgh]: City of Pittsburgh, [...