Fences | August Wilson Biography
August Wilson was born Frederick August Kittel, on April 27, 1945. in a ghetto area of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, known as "The Hill." Wilson's white father, a German baker named August Kittel. abandoned the family when Wilson was a child. Wilson's mother, Daisy Wilson Kittel. worked as a cleaning woman to raise her six children. Later, after Wilson's mother had remarried, his stepfather moved the family to a white neighborhood where Wilson was subjected to unbridled racism. At age 15. Wilson dropped out of school after being falsely accused of plagiarism; after that episode, he continued his education on his own, with periods of extensive reading at the public library.
Wilson began his career writing poetry and short stories but switched to drama in 1978 when he was invited to write plays for a black theatre in Minneapolis-St. Paul. Several fellowships enabled Wilson to concentrate on writing plays as a full-time venture. Although his early efforts, Fullerton Street (1980), Black Bun and the Sacred Hills (1981), and Jitney (1982), received little attention, he gained recognition with his 1984 play, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, which was accepted for a staged reading at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center's National Playwright's Conference in 1982. The following year, Fences was also presented at the O'Neill conference, and in 1986 Joe Turner's Come and Gone became Wilson's third play to be produced at the conference.
Each of these plays followed their initial readings at the O'Neill with productions at the Yale Repertory Theatre and later stagings on Broadway. In 1987, The Piano Lesson opened al the Yale Repertory Theatre; Two Trains Running followed three years later. Wilson's Seven Guitars opened at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago in 1995. Wilson has stated that he envisions his plays as representative of the black experience in America, since each play is set in a different decade.
Wilson married for the first time in 1969, but the marriage ended after three years and the birth of a daughter, Sakina Ansari. He married for a second time in 1981; this marriage ended in 1990. Wilson has won several honors for his writing, including the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award, an Antionette ("Tony") Perry Award, and a Pulitzer Prize for Fences. The Piano Lesson was also awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 1990. Several of his other works have been nominated for Tony Awards.
Navigate
See Also:
- - For teachers, the Fences Lesson Plan.
- - Fences summary and study guide in the eNotes.
Tell a friend about Fences at eNotes.
- Add Fences to your favorites