Pitt faculty react to the death of August Wilson

The Pittsburgh community suffered a great loss Sunday morning when local legend August Wilson,… The Pittsburgh community suffered a great loss Sunday morning when local legend August Wilson, Pulitzer Prize winning playwright and poet from the Hill District passed away at age 60 from liver cancer.

Pitt professors, old friends and those influenced by Wilson’s works were saddened by the news that the playwright’s life came to an end shortly after he completed his “Pittsburgh Cycle,” an unprecedented series of 10 plays, one for each decade of the 20th century.

All but one of Wilson’s “cycle plays” were set in the Hill District.

“We have a man who has done a complete cycle and has woven memorable characters through that,” said Vernell Lillie, a Pitt theatre professor who worked with Wilson in the early days.

Lillie said that Wilson was always part of the community. She recalled visiting his house in the Hill, located behind a barbershop and grocery store.

Lillie, who considered herself a colleague and a friend of Wilson, said that he loved Pittsburgh, enjoyed jazz and the art of Romare Bearden. She described him as a soft, gentle person and most of all a good listener.

“Nine times out of 10, he would be talking with young, aspiring writers, because he had time for them,” she said.

Although he never taught at Pitt, Wilson did help the theatre department with their repertory productions, directing and giving advice to the actors.

Along with Pitt faculty member Rob Penny, Wilson co-founded the Black Horizon Theatre in 1968 and Pitt’s Kuntu Writer’s Workshop in 1976.

Penny instructed the poets while Wilson guided the playwrights, although Lillie said Wilson was a poet at heart.

Lillie took Wilson and Penny’s concept of the Writer’s Workshop and founded Pitt’s Kuntu Repertory Theatre.

“At that point in time [when Wilson lived in Pittsburgh] this place was alive with individuals who were black nationalists and alive now in the same way,” Lillie said.

Eileen Morris, managing director of Pitt’s Kuntu Theatre, has performed in and produced pieces by Wilson.

She said that she loves his work because it speaks strongly to the experience of living life in the Hill District, but also to other communities around the world.

“In every one of his plays, there is strength, intensity, vibrant thrust of energy, information, consciousness, love and respect for human beings that becomes a personal script to each audience member,” she said.

Morris had the opportunity to meet Wilson in 1998, when she attended the African American National Summit in New Hampshire. Wilson was chairman of the board.

She described him as a quiet, but thought-provoking man. She said that during the week at the Summit, Wilson was “intensely writing and writing” and although he did not say much, she could feel the power of his silence.

“He’s not just a playwright, he’s August Wilson,” she said recalling a time when he came to see her production of one of his plays in her home state of Texas.

Pitt theatre professor, Kathleen George, teaches Wilson’s plays in her classes. She said that she felt saddened when she heard the news of Wilson’s death, which came “too early and too fast.”

“We should take all the time we need to keep remembering him and we do that by reading and producing his plays,” George said.

Larry Davis, the dean of Pitt’s School of Social Work and Donald M. Henderson professor, said that Wilson’s work portrays blacks as a complex people having common problems and handling them on top of a layer of racism.

Davis said Wilson’s work serves to humanize America’s image of interpersonal relationships, with the African-American family in particular, and helps to dismiss the caricatures and one-dimensional stereotypes of blacks.

“He was helpful to those of us involved in racial rights,” Davis said.

He described the playwright as “an ally in a different arena.”

“I have one less powerful person advocating for dismissing stereotyping of African- American families,” he said.

Davis said that he identified personally with Wilson’s play, “The Piano Lesson,” a story about a brother who wants to sell the family piano and his sister who wants to keep it to hold onto its culture.

“How much of our old selves do we trade in order to be new, and does it mean giving up who we were to become who we might be?” he said.

While away from Pittsburgh, Wilson got published, saw his plays produced on Broadway and continued writing more works to add to the cycle.

The Pitt Kuntu Repertory Theatre produced Wilson’s plays, “Homecoming,” “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” and “Seven Guitars.”

Lillie said that when Wilson moved away from Pittsburgh, he gained a tremendous perspective on life and “unleashed his powers as a playwright.”

She said that she did not want Wilson to leave Pittsburgh because she thought he belonged with her and Penny, but understood it was a great opportunity for him.

Davis, who is not originally from Pittsburgh, said he was impressed when he found out that Wilson, one of his favorite playwrights was from here.

He only wished that he had worked with him.

“It was an honor to have him as our hometown boy,” Davis said.