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August Wilson: A Brief Biographical Outline and feature of Radio Golf

August Wilson (April 27, 1945 - October 2, 2005)

A seven time New York Drama Desk Award winner, two time Pulitzer prize honoree, and Tony Winner, August Wilson (birth name, Fredrick August Kittel Jr.) was born to his parents, Fredrick August Kittel Sr., and his mother Daisy Wilson.

August Wilson attending school up until the 10th Grade. While attending Gladstone High School , he dropped out in 1959 after his English Teacher Accused him of plagiarizing a term paper.

Wilson’s name change came after his Father’s Death in 1965 After his Mother’s Death to honor his Mother

In 1968 Wilson Founded the Black Horizon Theatre with his friend Rob Penny where he would have the World Premiere of Jitney. He would revisit it years later and reproduce it as part of his 10 cycle plays

Quick Info

Written by: August Wilson Date Premiered: April 22, 2005 Place Premiered: Yale Repertory Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut Date Premiered on Broadway: April 20, 2007 Genre: Drama Setting: A storefront redevelopment office in the Hill District in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1997

Radio Golf is the last of the 10-cycle plays written by Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning playwright August Wilson. It premiered at the Yale Repertory Theatre just six months before Wilson passed away in 2005.

Productions

Radio Golf premiered at the Yale Repertory Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut on April 22, 2005. The original cast included Richard Brooks (Harmond Wilks), Michele Shay (Mame Wilks), James A. Williams (Roosevelt Hicks), John Earl Jelks (Sterling Johnson), and Anthony Chisholm (Elder Joseph Barlow). Timothy Douglas directed this production with a set design by David Gallo. By July 31, 2005, Radio Golf was being produced at the Center Theatre Group/Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, California. Kenny Leon had taken over as director for this production and every production as it made its way across the country. The production opened at the Seattle Repertory theatre on January 25, 2005. It soon found its way to CENTERSTAGE in Baltimore in March 2006, the Huntington Theatre Company in Boston in September 2006, the Goodman Theatre in Chicago in January 2007, the McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton, New Jersey in March 2007, and finally to the Cort Theatre on Broadway on April 20, 2007. Radio Golf had been the ninth play by Wilson to be produced on Broadway. When it had closed of July 1, 2007, the production had seen seventeen previews and sixty-four performances. Altogether, Radio Golf had 272 performances by the time it arrived in New York.

Awards and Nominations

Won the 2007 New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best American Play Nominated for the 2007 Tony Award for Best Play Nominated for the 2007 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play – Anthony Chisholm (Elder Joseph Barlow) and John Earl Jelks (Sterling Johnson) Nominated for the 2007 Tony Award for Best Scenic Design of a Play Nominated for the 2007 Outer Circle Award for Best Play Nominated for the 2007 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play Nominated for the 2007 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play – Anthony Chisholm (Elder Joseph Barlow) Nominated for the 2007 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Set Design of a Play – David Gallo Nominated for the 2007 Drama League for Distinguished Production of a Play

Characters

· Harmond Wilks – a charming, well-educated real estate developer who is seeking to run for mayor of Pittsburgh. · Mame Wilks – Harmond’s wife of twenty years. An ambitious woman looking to be head of the public relations office for the governor of Pennsylvania. · Roosevelt Hicks – Harmond’s old college roommate, longtime friend, and business partner. He is the vice president of Mellon Bank and a devoted golfer. · Sterling Johnson – A self-employed contruction worker who robbed a bank thirty years ago. · Elder Joseph Barlow – Also known as Old Joe. He is a 79-year old eccentric, sage-like man who had recently returned to the Hill District.

Plot Summary

Harmond Wilks, a well-educated real estate developer and his wife, Mame Wilks, are looking to reconstruct a rough neighborhood in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania known as the Hill District. Harmond is seeking to be the first black mayor of Pittsburgh while his wife’s goal is to run the public relations department of the governor of Pennsylvania. Together, the pair shares a vision to rebuild the neighborhood and construct a new apartment complex and chain stores. Demolition of the area is about to begin when and old house located at 1839 Wylie brings up the district’s historic past. This house once belonged to Aunt Ester, a former slave who lived for centuries to tell tales dating back to the early 1600s. Suddenly the past collides with the future of the Hill district and it leaves Harmond to make a crucial decision.

Act 1

The play begins Harmond and Mame Wilks moving boxes into the office of Bedford Hills Redevelopment, Inc., located in the Hill District of Pittsburgh, an office that will soon become Harmond’s campaign office. Harmond is seeking candidacy as the first black mayor in Pittsburgh while his wife has applied to be the head of the public relations office of the governor. We meet Roosevelt Hicks, longtime friend of Harmond and vice president of Mellon Bank. Roosevelt is also business partners with Harmond. The two are looking to redevelop the quickly decaying Hill District and construct a high-rise apartment complex and multiple chain stores such as Barnes & Noble, Starbucks, and Whole Foods. While they plan for reconstruction, they must wait to see if they are approved the $5 million of federal funding for the project. The district must first be declared blighted by city council. Sterling Johnson, a self-employed construction worker, enters Harmond’s office looking for work. It turns out that Harmond and Sterling attended the same school, Saint Richard’s, growing up. They discuss Harmond’s brother, Raymond, who was killed in Vietnam, and the reasons why neither Harmond or Sterling had avoided being drafted: Harmond was attending college and Sterling was in prison for robbing a bank. Harmond learns that there is an old man that has been painting one of the houses that set to be demolished. This man’s name is Joseph Barlow, or as he prefers to be called, Old Joe. Old Joe claims that the house is his and he was trying to fix it so he could give it to his daughter. He has no documentation to prove ownership and is pushed out the door by Roosevelt. Old Joe returns to the office several times throughout the play trying to save his house. Harmond runs into a few issues with the house on 1839 Wylie and realizes that the house does actually belong to Old Joe. He bought the house to demolish, however Old Joe never received proper notification that the house that had been abandoned for years was to be sold. This begins the conflict with Harmond. He must choose between destroying a house that technically does not belong to him or giving the house back to its owner, but jeopardizing his own plans to rebuild the neighborhood.

Act 2

The Second Act opens with Sterling passing out flyers inviting neighbors to a paint party at the Wylie house the day it’s to be demolished. Harmond begins to be torn between what he wants to do and what he should do. He attempts to convince himself that he should continue to demolish the house for the sake of multimillion dollar the redevelopment project. Roosevelt begins to notice that Harmond is trying to save the house and become irate at idea. During another conversation between Old Joe and Harmond about the house, they realize that Ester Tyler, Old Joe’s Mother, also known as Black Mary, was the name of Harmond’s grandfather’s sister. Old Joe and Harmond discover that they’re cousins. This pushed Harmond to save the house despite the loss of a multimillion dollar deal. As word speads that the home at 1839 Wylie will not be demolished, companies supporting the reconstruction begin to pull out of the deal leaving Roosevelt just as furious as before. Roosevelt decides to take matters into his own hands and call up the demolition crew to continue their arrangement to knock down the house. It becomes a war between Harmond and Roosevelt. At the end of the play, Roosevelt tells Harmond that he is buying him out because he is endangering their business. Roosevelt leaves and Harmond is left in the office by himself. After a moment, he rolls up his sleeves and grabs a paint brush to join the paint party to save the house located at 1839 Wylie.

Interesting facts about August

August Wilson Famously Refused to do a movie version of Fences because the movie company that wanted to produce it would not allow him to use a Black Director.

August Wilson was not the legal name that he was born Fredrick August Kittel

For Every year that August Wilson has written a play, he has been honored with either an award, or a nomination for that production. These awards include multiple Tony Awards and Drama Desk Awards.

There are claims that August Wilson was racist because of his belief that only the African American Community could relate to his works and therefore were the only ones who could produce them but those claims are widely disputed.

August Wilson is a two-time Pulitzer Prize Winner, Once for Fences, and once for the Piano Les

August Wilson Quotes

“Confront the dark parts of yourself, and work to banish them with illumination and forgiveness. Your willingness to wrestle with your demons will cause your angels to sing. Use the pain as fuel, as a reminder of your strength.”

“All you need in the world is love and laughter. That's all anybody needs. To have love in one hand and laughter in the other.”

“Blacks in America want to forget about slavery -- the stigma, the shame. That's the wrong move. If you can't be who you are, who can you be? How can you know what to do? We have our history. We have our book, which is the blues. And we forget it all.”

External Links http://www.radiogolfonbroadway.com/pop-finalpress.html

http://www.ibdb.com/production.php?id=456785

Further Reading Wilson, August (2007). Radio Golf: 1997 (First edition ed.). New York: Theatre Communications Group. ISBN 9781559363068.