Playwright, King Hedley II
One of American theatre’s foremost dramatists, August Wilson (1945–2005) authored the American Century Cycle, ten plays chronicling Black American life across each decade of the twentieth century. Centering Black American heritage and experience, August wrote by channeling what he described as “the blood’s memory,” the “deepest part of yourself where the ancestors are talking.” The entire cycle has been produced on Broadway and across national and international stages. Wilson’s works have garnered numerous awards, including Pulitzer Prizes for Fences (1987) and The Piano Lesson (1990), a Tony Award for Best Play for Fences, Great Britain’s Olivier Award for Jitney, and eight New York Drama Critics Circle Awards. Wilson is survived immediately by his daughters, Sakina Ansari and Azula Carmen Wilson, and his wife, costume designer and Executive Director of August’s artistic estate, Constanza Romero. The realization of August’s theatrical breadth and legacy would not exist without the extraordinary talent and boundless dedication of the artists who bring it to life. In their hands, Wilson’s body of work is a dynamic force, an ever-spinning cycle finding new dimensions of meaning for our world today. In the playwright’s words, “I believe in the American Theater, I believe in its power to inform about the human condition, its power to heal…its power to uncover the truths we wrestle from uncertain and sometimes unyielding realities.”