AUGUST WILSON’S CHANGING HILL
NOTES FROM THE DRAMATURG
By Former Literary Manager, Taylor Barfield
Nine of August Wilson’s ten American Century Cycle plays take place in his native Hill District. Only Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom is set outside the confines of this 1.4 square mile Pittsburgh neighborhood. Like many writers, Wilson wrote what he knew. He was born and raised in the Hill. It’s where he bought his first typewriter and began writing poetry. It’s where he sat on stoops and in barbershops, listening to the stories and vocal cadences of the people around him. He once said in an interview, “when I left my mother’s house, I went out into the world, into that community, to learn what it meant to be a man, to learn whatever it is that the community had to teach me. And it was there I met lifelong friends who taught me and raised me.” His Cycle allowed Wilson to capture the voices of the community that raised him while also indirectly exploring the evolution of the Hill over the course of the 20th century. In writing one play for each decade, Wilson was able to exhibit the extensive changes that occurred in Pittsburgh as a result of the Great Migration, the fight for equal rights, the economic decline of the neighborhood, and the gentrification projects that are at the heart of Radio Golf.
Century Cycle in Chronological Order 1904: Gem of the Ocean 1911: Joe Turner’s Come and Gone 1927: Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom 1936: The Piano Lesson 1948: Seven Guitars 1957: Fences 1969: Two Trains Running 1977: Jitney 1985: King Hedley II 1997: Radio Golf
Century Cycle by World Premiere Year 1982: Jitney 1984: Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom 1985: Fences 1986: Joe Turner’s Come and Gone 1987: The Piano Lesson 1990: Two Trains Running 1995: Seven Guitars 1999: King Hedley II 2003: Gem of the Ocean 2005: Radio Golf
Although Wilson wrote specifically about Pittsburgh, his stories are emblematic of changes that happened across the country during the 20th century in places like Detroit, San Francisco, Baltimore, St. Louis and Chicago. Like many of these cities, Wilson’s Pittsburgh was greatly affected by The Great Migration. During the century’s first four decades, black people fled north looking to escape the segregation, disenfranchisement, and violence prevalent in the south. Many also sought opportunities in these bustling industry towns. Hill District in the early 20th century 24
