Read Anywhere and on Any Device!

Subscribe to Read | $0.00

Join today and start reading your favorite books for Free!

Create Free Account

Conversations with August Wilson

Jackson R. Bryer

3.6/5 ( ratings)

"What I want to do is place the culture of Black America on stage, to demonstrate that it has the ability to offer sustenance." In little more than twenty years, playwright August Wilson completed a ten-play cycle depicting African American life in the twentieth century, with each play taking place in a different decade. Two of the plays-Fences and The Piano Lesson -were awarded the Pulitzer Prize, and seven of them received the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for best American play. Wilson was indisputably the most significant American playwright to emerge since Edward Albee. Conversations with August Wilson collects a selection of the many interviews Wilson gave from 1984 to 2004. In the interviews, the playwright covers at length and in detail his plays and his background. He comments as well on such subjects as the differences between African Americans and whites, his call for more black theater companies, and his belief that African Americans made a mistake in assimilating themselves into the white mainstream. He also talks about his major influences, what he calls his "four B's"-the blues, writers James Baldwin and Amiri Baraka, and painter Romare Bearden. Wilson also discusses his writing process and his multiple collaborations with director Lloyd Richards. Throughout, Wilson is candid, expansive, and provocative, displaying in these exchanges his willingness to confront controversial topics just as he did in his plays. Jackson R. Bryer is professor emeritus of English at the University of Maryland. Mary C. Hartig teaches English at Montgomery College and is the coeditor, with Jackson R. Bryer, of Facts on File Companion to American Drama.

Language: English

Pages: 284

Format: Paperback

Publisher: University Press of Mississippi

Release: March 30, 2012

ISBN: 1578068312

ISBN 13: 9781578068319

Conversations with August Wilson

Jackson R. Bryer

3.6/5 ( ratings)

"What I want to do is place the culture of Black America on stage, to demonstrate that it has the ability to offer sustenance." In little more than twenty years, playwright August Wilson completed a ten-play cycle depicting African American life in the twentieth century, with each play taking place in a different decade. Two of the plays-Fences and The Piano Lesson -were awarded the Pulitzer Prize, and seven of them received the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for best American play. Wilson was indisputably the most significant American playwright to emerge since Edward Albee. Conversations with August Wilson collects a selection of the many interviews Wilson gave from 1984 to 2004. In the interviews, the playwright covers at length and in detail his plays and his background. He comments as well on such subjects as the differences between African Americans and whites, his call for more black theater companies, and his belief that African Americans made a mistake in assimilating themselves into the white mainstream. He also talks about his major influences, what he calls his "four B's"-the blues, writers James Baldwin and Amiri Baraka, and painter Romare Bearden. Wilson also discusses his writing process and his multiple collaborations with director Lloyd Richards. Throughout, Wilson is candid, expansive, and provocative, displaying in these exchanges his willingness to confront controversial topics just as he did in his plays. Jackson R. Bryer is professor emeritus of English at the University of Maryland. Mary C. Hartig teaches English at Montgomery College and is the coeditor, with Jackson R. Bryer, of Facts on File Companion to American Drama.

Language: English

Pages: 284

Format: Paperback

Publisher: University Press of Mississippi

Release: March 30, 2012

ISBN: 1578068312

ISBN 13: 9781578068319

More books from Jackson R. Bryer

The Heath Anthology of American Literature: Volume D: Modern Period, 1910-1945

3.9/5 ( ratings)

Dear Scott, Dearest Zelda: The Love Letters of F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald

The Heath Anthology of American Literature, Volume A: Colonial Period to 1800

3.5/5 ( ratings)

The Heath Anthology of American Literature: Late Nineteenth Century (1865-1910), Volume C

3.7/5 ( ratings)

The Heath Anthology of American Literature: Volume A: Beginnings to 1800

3.6/5 ( ratings)

The Heath Anthology of American Literature: Volume E, Contemporary Period: 1945 to the Present

The Heath Anthology of American Literature, Volume 1

3.9/5 ( ratings)

The Heath Anthology of American Literature: Modern Period (1910-1945), Volume D

The Basil And Josephine Stories

3.7/5 ( ratings)

The Art of the American Musical: Conversations With the Creators

4.1/5 ( ratings)

Conversations with Lillian Hellman

3.8/5 ( ratings)

Why I Like This Story

3.5/5 ( ratings)

French Connections: Hemingway and Fitzgerald Abroad

3.4/5 ( ratings)

F. Scott Fitzgerald in the Twenty-First Century

3.2/5 ( ratings)

The Playwright's Art: Conversations with Contemporary American Dramatists

Approaches to Teaching Fitzgerald's the Great Gatsby

3.7/5 ( ratings)

The Short Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald: New Approaches in Criticism

3.6/5 ( ratings)

Conversations With Thornton Wilder (Literary Conversations Series)

Nabokov: The Man and His Work

Rate this book!

Write a review?