From the 60 Minutes archive: August Wilson

Summary

This 60 Minutes archival piece takes a reflective journey through the life and work of August Wilson, one of America's most celebrated playwrights. Despite dropping out of high school, Wilson rose to fame through his passionate storytelling, rooted in the African-American experience. His plays, including Pulitzer winners "Fences" and "The Piano Lesson," vividly capture the challenges and triumphs of black life across decades. This narrative not only highlights Wilson’s artistic achievements but also delves into his personal trials, revealing the man behind the iconic works. His plays continue to resonate, offering powerful insights into race, identity, and justice.

Highlights

• August Wilson's journey from a high school dropout to a legendary playwright is inspiring. 🚀
• Wilson’s love for writing began with poetry in his youth, despite initial setbacks in school. 📜
• His series of plays tell the African-American story through the decades, with 'Fences' and 'The Piano Lesson' as significant highlights. 🏆
• Wilson draws on black American culture, depicting societal themes such as justice and legacy in his plays. ✊
• King Headley II, one of his plays, showcases the struggles of black life, addressing economic disintegration and violence. 🎭
• Wilson’s personal experiences with racism fueled his creative passion, influencing his narratives. 📖
• His commitment to his art often took precedence over personal matters, reflecting his dedication. ❤️
• Wilson’s work remains pivotal in exploring racial disparities, capturing both anger and truth. 🔥
• He lives with his family in Seattle, emphasizing that success hasn't changed his artistic focus. 🌲

Key Takeaways

• August Wilson, a high school dropout, became one of America's greatest playwrights, proving that talent and determination can defy the odds. 🎭
• Wilson's works, like 'Fences' and 'The Piano Lesson,' bring black American culture and history to the stage, affirming its richness and humanity. 💡
• His plays tackle themes of race, legacy, and justice, resonating with audiences across America. 🌍
• Wilson's early life in Pittsburgh and his experiences of racial adversity fueled his compelling narratives. 📚
• Despite his fame, Wilson prioritized his art above all else, stating his work is the essence of his life. 🎨

Overview

August Wilson's story is a remarkable one—a man who defied expectations to become one of America's most hailed playwrights. Born in Pittsburgh and growing up amidst adversity, Wilson turned his love for storytelling into a lifeline, weaving his early experiences into powerful drama. His work encapsulates the African-American experience across the 20th century, capturing the spirit and struggles of a community finding its place in America. 🎭

Wilson's plays are cultural landmarks, with titles like 'Fences' and 'The Piano Lesson' at the forefront, winning prestigious awards and acclaim. Each play functions as a piece of a larger tapestry, portraying the complexities of race, justice, and history with both humor and pathos. Through these narratives, Wilson presents the black experience with authenticity and pride, challenging audiences to confront social truths. 📚

Residing in Seattle but ever the voice of his Pittsburgh roots, Wilson remains a figure of profound influence, unapologetically placing his work above all else. For him, writing transcends personal gains, embracing a higher calling to reflect and respond to the world as it is and as it could be. His legacy speaks to the enduring power of storytelling in driving cultural discourse and bringing untold stories to the fore. 🖋️

Chapters

• 00:00 - 01:30: Introduction to August Wilson This chapter introduces August Wilson, one of America's greatest and most acclaimed playwrights, despite his humble beginnings as a high school dropout from Pittsburgh. His plays continue to be popular, and it's likely that at any given night, his work is being performed somewhere in America.
• 01:30 - 06:00: August Wilson's Early Life and Influences The chapter delves into August Wilson's early life, highlighting his passion for writing. It recounts a memory of Wilson's first poem, written for a girl named Nancy Ireland whom he was in love with in the seventh grade. The poem expressed themes of love and heartbreak with dramatic flair, reflecting a young Wilson's burgeoning talent and emotional depth. The chapter captures the innocence and earnestness of a young boy's creative expression and hints at the nascent stages of Wilson's development as a writer.
• 06:00 - 10:00: Beginning of Wilson's Playwriting Career The chapter details the early stages of Wilson's journey into playwriting. It recounts an anecdote where Wilson, initially shy about his work, submitted a poem anonymously but was encouraged by its positive reception. This moment marked a turning point, inspiring him to continue writing, leading to his significant contribution to literature with eight plays, each reflecting a different decade of the 20th century and the African-American experience.
• 10:00 - 15:00: Themes and Impact of Wilson's Plays The chapter discusses the themes and impact of playwright Wilson's plays, particularly highlighting 'Fences' and 'The Piano Lesson,' both of which are Pulitzer Prize winners. Wilson aims to showcase Black American culture on stage, asserting its existence and the unique way it is expressed. His plays often integrate themes related to the Black experience, such as the legacy of slavery, as seen in works like 'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom.'
• 15:00 - 19:00: Wilson's Personal Life and Philosophy The chapter titled 'Wilson's Personal Life and Philosophy' discusses themes and ideas reflected in Wilson's works. The content mentions a critique of American justice, symbolized by the blindfolded statue, suggesting a lack of fairness in the system as depicted in 'Two Trains Running'. It also references the character dynamics in 'Fences', particularly focusing on the fears and challenges of a father trying to secure a home for his family, reinforcing prevalent themes of struggle and affirmation in Wilson's narratives.
• 19:00 - 20:30: Conclusion The chapter titled 'Conclusion' highlights the achievements and contributions of playwright August Wilson. At 56, Wilson has become one of the most prominent figures in American theater, renowned for his plays that explore the value and humanity of Black Americans. His works are now essential reading for serious theater students. The chapter acknowledges Wilson's significant impact on Broadway, noting that he has almost single-handedly altered its landscape. His latest play at the time is 'King Hedley II.'

From the 60 Minutes archive: August Wilson Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 60 minutes rewind it's a name that may not ring a bell from any of you but by any definition the list of america's greatest playwrights includes august wilson and it's a safe bet that tonight somewhere in america the curtain will rise on one of his plays he's one of the most acclaimed playwrights of our time as well as one of the most popular not bad for a high school dropout from pittsburgh who most people thought would never amount to anything but for as long as he
• 00:30 - 01:00 can remember august wilson's been driven by a passion to write the first poem that i remember writing was a for nancy ireland a girl i was in love with in the seventh grade and it went uh i i would i could mend my festering heart harpoon by cupid's flaming dart but too far the shaft did penetrate alas it is too late you know that kind of stuff i remember and uh how did she react to that well she
• 01:00 - 01:30 uh i didn't see i didn't sign my name to this and she read the poem and she looked over at anthony kerwin you know and uh her and anthony you know and i said i would but it didn't discourage me i was excited i said it worked you know all i have to do the next time is to put my name to it so far august wilson has put his name to eight plays each set in a different decade of the 20th century together they tell the story of the african-american journey through the
• 01:30 - 02:00 last 100 years the best known are fences and the piano lesson both of which won the pulitzer prize what i'm trying to do is to take black american culture and place it on stage to demonstrate that it exists and to say that this is the way that we do things wilson weaves themes of the black experience into all of his plays themes like the legacy of slavery in mahraini's black body what to do see we is the leftovers the colored man is
• 02:00 - 02:30 the leftover the question of american justice in two trains running ain't no justice that's why they got that statue of her and got a blindfolded if anybody need to see she do and the trying times faced by a father in the play fences right now your daddy is scared because we said not here we found you no home basically i'm i'm trying to affirm the
• 02:30 - 03:00 value of blacks and to demonstrate their humanity mr august wilson at the age of 56 wilson is enjoying the fame that comes with being one of the most popular playwrights in america his works are required reading for any serious student of the american stage thank you so much okay you're welcome almost single-handedly wilson has changed the face of the great white way that's good his latest play is king headley ii i go for a job
• 03:00 - 03:30 they say what can you do like most of the characters in wilson's plays king is struggling to make it in america against the odds i know how to do business i'm talking about mayor governor i can do it all i ain't got no limits i know right from wrong i know which way to win blow too it don't blow my way if you look at the play king wants a job he wants to be able to provide for his family wants what everyone in america wants and he is unable to get
• 03:30 - 04:00 that because because he's black and because he's black he can't get from where he is to where he wants to be not on his terms wilson got to where he is on his terms but it wasn't easy we lived here he grew up with three sisters in a two-bedroom 35 a month apartment at the back of this building in the hill district of pittsburgh and now it's all boarded up it's all board up has been boarded up for years he was born frederick august kittle
• 04:00 - 04:30 named after his father who was white and a german immigrant according to wilson his father was an alcoholic difficult and rarely around the culture he grew up in was black that of his mother daisy wilson her dream was to get her children an education she sent august to catholic schools and in high school he was the only black in his class his sister linda jean says that the treatment he received there
• 04:30 - 05:00 was cruel this is august in the back row yes with his head hung down everybody else is looking at the camera why is his head down shame just such a shame was on him that was central catholic high school every day when he went to school it was a ninth grade he found a note on his desk go home
• 05:00 - 05:30 every single day i can recall a particular incident where the guy in front of me and my homeroom class made reference to this behind him to the other guy and when we said the pleasure of allegiance and when we ended with liberty and justice for all i let him have it and that was i recall my last day at school at that school wilson quit school altogether when he was only 15 years old
• 05:30 - 06:00 and hid it from his mother i didn't want my mother to know that i wasn't going to school so i thought oh i know what i'll go to the library so i got up every morning and i went to the library and i came home at three o'clock time to come home from school and no one knew any different what did you do in the library i read books over the next few years he read hundreds of books at pittsburgh's carnegie library and what he didn't learn in the library he learned on these streets where he spent years
• 06:00 - 06:30 listening to the stories and the voices that would later become the raw material for his plays over there in that empty lot was a place called the dog hut was sold hot dogs and i used to stand over there many a day and write poetry and stuff that stuff included starting the black horizon theater with a group of friends who were part of pittsburgh's black power movement we had our art society we're putting out mammograph magazines you know we're trying to change the world from from
• 06:30 - 07:00 the place where we were standing but where his mother saw him standing was on the street corner working part-time jobs throwing his life away my mother thought i was wasting my talent and she thought i was capable more than being a dishwasher and so you go mom what are you doing your son is washing dishes that's not the best hopes that you have for him you know what were you writing in those days i was writing poetry i was writing short fiction or yeah i wasn't writing plays it was a
• 07:00 - 07:30 i tried to write a play in 68 and i couldn't write dialogue i had a character say to the other guy hey man what's happening and that's it nothing and i sat there for 20 minutes trying to think of what else to say and so i said you know i'll stick with my poetry and fiction the story will continue after this it wasn't until wilson left pittsburgh in 1978 that he started to write drama
• 07:30 - 08:00 seriously his first major success came in 1982 when he was invited by the prestigious eugene o'neill theater in waterford connecticut to put on his play ma rainey's black bottom [Music] the show's success was a breakthrough for wilson and for his mother who finally saw her son's work performed shortly before she died did she ever
• 08:00 - 08:30 come around to say son i'm proud of you she she told me she was proud of me she was dying at the time but she came she came and saw the play and she was very proud mahrani's black bottom established wilson as a major new voice in the american theater of the eight plays he's written so far
• 08:30 - 09:00 seven have made it to broadway where august wilson's name has become a trademark for powerful drama and for humor but wilson's humor is almost always provocative with a gun is bad news you can't even use the word gun in the same sense if you say the word done in the same things with the word and you in trouble the white man's panic unless you say the policeman
• 09:00 - 09:30 who do you write your plays for i don't write for a black audience i don't write for white audience i write for myself wilson says that for him writing is a spiritual experience even though he often does it in coffee shops he describes the process of listening to his character's voices as tapping in to the blood's memory he's known for writing long plays and then spending months on the road
• 09:30 - 10:00 editing them down yeah that's it just days before his latest play opened he was still working with the show's director making cuts say that and put these two together okay yeah try that okay we got a change king headley ii like most of wilson's plays takes place in pittsburgh it deals with economic disintegration and violence in the black community violence that wilson believes results from the black community's disconnection from its roots people wandering all over
• 10:00 - 10:30 the place they got lost they don't even know the story of how they got from kid to tech if that connection to your grandparent is broken then you are lost in the world you don't know who you are you don't know what your duty is without that tradition without something in place that says this is how you conduct yourself in the world then we're just wandering all over the place without any purpose without any future without
• 10:30 - 11:00 any direction and you think that there is a disconnection that black america is lost i think so yes in the play that despair is voiced by king headley's wife a woman so sick of seeing young black men gunned down that she decides to have an abortion i'm through with babies i ain't raised her no more and reasonable kid that somebody shoot him that his friend shoot him to have the police shoot him i want to bring another
• 11:00 - 11:30 life into this world that don't respect life i don't want to raise no more babies when you got to fight to keep them alive i ain't going through that i ain't having this baby and i ain't got to explain it to nobody all of wilson's plays have focused on the most important issues facing the black community racism being at the top of that list and his social agenda has led many to call him an angry playwright which he doesn't deny
• 11:30 - 12:00 here's the difference between white and black in america a black man unarmed standing in a vessel viewer's house is shot 41 times a white man waving a rifle on the lawn of the white house 150 yards from the leader of the free world they negotiate with him for 10 minutes and shoot him one time in the lake that's the difference in being white and black in america so yes you know i'm angry i have a lot to be angry about
• 12:00 - 12:30 in that regard he's especially upset that his little girl has already learned that difference i have a three and a half-year-old daughter who came home from preschool one day and told me daddy it's dangerous to be an african-american she's learning that it's dangerous to be yourself certainly you don't want your kid walking around with that in their head but this is what the society tells you wilson lives with his colombian-born wife and their daughter in one of the most historic neighborhoods in seattle washington
• 12:30 - 13:00 a long way from the hill district of pittsburgh his success as a playwright has made him wealthy but for august wilson it's never been about the money have you made sacrifices to do what it is that you do in terms of your family life oh absolutely all my life i've made sacrifices for the work and to me ultimately the work is the most important thing because that's how i live that's what what keeps me here and that's
• 13:00 - 13:30 the whole purpose of my life and i fit everything else into that and family of course comes second actually to work that could be tough for the family to hear well absolutely but you know this is this is a reality you know and yeah art first life first