New August Wilson Center exhibition reveals playwright's work, life
The August Wilson African American Cultural Center finally has a permanent exhibition dedicated to the life and work of its Pulitzer Prize-winning namesake.
“August Wilson: The Writer’s Landscape” opens to the public at noon Saturday.
Covering 3,600 square feet of gallery space in the downtown Pittsburgh facility at 980 Liberty Ave., the exhibition comprises three separate environments, each containing artifacts and interactive, multimedia elements.
The Coffee Shop, The Office and The Street explicate the progression of Wilson’s work, from his early days observing life and trying to write in a Hill District coffee shop, to working in his own office, to the 10 plays in “The American Century Cycle,” also known as the “Pittsburgh Cycle.”
And it all started with Wilson’s desk.
“I was packing up my house because I was downsizing, and I had always thought that I wanted to at least donate August’s real desk to the center,” said Wilson’s widow, Constanza Romero-Wilson, during a Tuesday press preview of the exhibition. “I told (the center’s President/CEO) Janis Burley Wilson about it, and then the idea grew and grew into this exhibit.
“I wanted to recreate his writing space to show people that August was a real person, that he was a famous writer, that he achieved so much,” she added. “He was born in the Hill District of Pittsburgh and he didn’t have any formal education — he was all self-taught — but he achieved so much.”
Visitors enter the exhibition through The Coffee Shop, which contains a vintage diner-style booth, counter and stools, along with 1960s newspaper and magazine clippings. The space interprets how Wilson drew inspiration for his stories and characters from the people he met and conversations he observed during his own coffee shop visits.
Next is a replica of Wilson’s home office, with the desk as its centerpiece, showcasing his working environment and items that he prized, including awards, books, manuscripts and records from his personal collection. Interactive images on the desk provide added insight into his creative process.
The Street is a journey through “The American Century Cycle,” with a separate gallery dedicated to each of its 10 plays.
The cycle begins with “Jitney” from 1982 and concludes with “Radio Golf” from 2005. It includes the Pulitzer winners, “Fences” and “The Piano Lesson,” along with “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” which became an Academy Award-winning film.
‘An amazing service’
Each space features video, audio, props and costumes from notable stage and screen productions of his work, illuminating the decades in which they are set and events that took place in Pittsburgh and across the nation during those times.
“Aunt Ester’s Red Door,” symbolizing the door to the house of a recurring character in the plays, connects the beginning and end of the exhibition.
In addition to illuminating Wilson’s work, the exhibition invites viewers to contemplate issues of race, representation, family and community, according to a release.
With artifacts from Wilson’s estate, the August Wilson Archive of the University of Pittsburgh Library System and others fabricated for the displays, “The Writer’s Landscape” was 28 months in development.
Romero-Wilson is chief curator of a creative team that includes Burley Wilson; Sandra Shannon, AWAACC scholar in residence; Mark Clayton Southers, founder and producing artistic director of Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company; Emmai Alaquiva, AWAACC artist in residence; exhibition designer Eisterhold Associates Inc., exhibition fabricator Display Dynamics Inc.; and Flyspace, a local event management and production company.
“Once again, August has done an amazing service to the city of Pittsburgh. This city has become the August Wilson hub, as it should be,” Romero-Wilson said. “We have this center, we have now ‘The Writers Landscape,’ The August Wilson House, the archives at the University of Pittsburgh library. All of those things are a very concerted effort to mark the city of Pittsburgh as the place where August Wilson came from.
“This permanent exhibit should outlive us all as a testimony of this incredible writer and his talent, the stories he left us,” she added. “He gave us so much. To be able to pay homage to those gifts means the world to me.”
The City of Pittsburgh will deliver an official proclamation declaring Friday as “August Wilson: The Writer’s Landscape Exhibition Day,” with an invitation-only ribbon-cutting at the center.
Admission to the exhibition will be free to the public in perpetuity beginning at noon Saturday. Visitors must register for timed tickets at awaacc.org.
All visitors will be required to show proof of full vaccination based on eligibility determined by the CDC. Masks are required, regardless of vaccination status.
Shirley McMarlin is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Shirley by email at smcmarlin@triblive.com or via Twitter .
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