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What Is August Wilson's Pittsburgh Cycle and How to Read It
The Pittsburgh Cycle is also known as the American Century Cycle.
By: Team BWW Oct. 16, 2022
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Earlier this week, Broadway welcomed back a work from legendary playwright August Wilson. The Piano Lesson returned for its first revival since it premiered on Broadway in 1990. The play is the fourth in Wilson's Pittsburgh Cycle- the most recent to appear on Broadway since Jitney in 2017.
What is the Pittsburgh Cycle?
August Wilson's Pittsburgh Cycle, also known as the American Century Cycle, is made up of ten plays, written between 1982 and 2005. Each set in a different decade in Pittsburgh's Hill District (with the exception of Ma Rainey's Black Bottom), the plays are meant to depict the Black experience throughout the 20th century.
Wilson did not write the plays in chronological order and each is a stand-alone story, therefore can be read or watched in any order. Most recommend however, that they are enjoyed in the order in which they are set. Read up on ten below!
Gem of the Ocean
Written in 2003
Setting: 1904
Aunt Ester, the drama's 285-year-old fiery matriarch, welcomes into her home Solly Two Kings, who was born into slavery and scouted for the Union Army, and Citizen Barlow, a young man from Alabama searching for a new life and in search of redemption. Aunt Ester is not too old to practice healing; she guides Barlow on a soaring, lyrical journey of spiritual awakening to the City of Bones.
Joe Turner's Come and Gone
Written in 1984
Setting: 1911
Boarding house owners Seth and Bertha Holly play host to a makeshift community of African Americans, many who have left the farms of the South to come to the cities of the North. Newcomer Herald Loomis arrives with his daughter in tow, in search of his lost wife after having spent 7 years of forced labor working for Joe Turner - but first he must regain a sense of his own heritage and identity.
Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
Written in 1984
Setting: 1927
Tensions and temperatures rise over the course of an afternoon recording session in 1920s Chicago as a band of musicians await trailblazing performer, the legendary Ma Rainey. Late to the session, the fearless, fiery Ma engages in a battle of wills with her white manager and producer over control of her music. As the band waits in the studio's claustrophobic rehearsal room, ambitious trumpeter Levee - spurs his fellow musicians into an eruption of stories revealing truths that will forever change the course of their lives.
The Piano Lesson
Written in 1987
Setting: 1936
A battle is brewing in the Charles household. At the center lies the family's prized heirloom piano. On one side, a brother plans to build the family fortune by selling it. On the other, a sister will go to any length to keep it and preserve the family history. Only their uncle stands in between. But even he can't hold back the ghosts of the past.
Seven Guitars
Written in 1995
Setting: 1948
Just released from his house in the street, Blues singer Floyd "Schoolboy" Barton is asked to sign a record deal after a song he recorded months before becomes an unexpected hit. After a year of trials and tribulations, Floyd is ready to right the past year's wrongs and return to Chicago with a new understanding of what's important in his life. Unfortunately his means of righting wrongs are inherently flawed.
Fences
Written in 1985
Setting: 1957
Both a monumental drama and an intimate family portrait, Fences tells the story of Troy Maxson, a man torn between the glory of his past and the uncertainty of his future. Emboldened by pride and embittered by sacrifice, Troy is determined to make life better for future generations, even as he struggles to embrace the dreams of his own son.
Two Trains Running
Written in 1990
Setting: 1969
In 1968 amidst the civil rights movement, Memphis Lee's restaurant is set to be demolished by the city. While he fights to be paid a fair price for his property, his employees and regulars search for work, love, and justice as their neighborhood changes around them.
Jitney
Written in 1982
Setting: 1977
This richly textured piece follows a group of men trying to eke out a living by driving unlicensed cabs, or jitneys. When the city threatens to board up the business and the boss' son returns from prison, tempers flare, potent secrets are revealed and the fragile threads binding these people together may come undone at last.
King Hedley II
Written in 1999
Setting: 1985
Hedley's wish, now that he has returned to Pittsburgh from prison, is to support himself by selling refrigerators and to start a family. Set during the Reagan Administration, the play comments critically on the supply-side economics theories of the day, examining whether their stated aim of providing trickle-down benefits to all Americans truly improved the lot of urban African Americans.
Radio Golf
Written in 2005
Setting: 1997
A successful and idealistic, Ivy League educated entrepreneur aspires to be the city's first black mayor. He and his business partner are on the verge of clinching a big redevelopment deal to revitalize the Hill District with high-rise apartment buildings and high-end chain stores. His wife is in line to be head of the public relations office of the governor. But what is the price of progress? Does building a city's future require erasing its history in the process?
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