August Wilson "Gave Voice to the Nameless Masses"

August Wilson's plays attempted to fill in blanks left by historians.

Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson passed away at age 60 of liver cancer on Oct. 2, but in the minds of artists, scholars and others at historically black colleges and universities, his influence lives on.

Born in Pittsburgh on April 27, 1945, to a German father and black mother, Wilson rose from poverty to critical acclaim as the author of such plays as "Fences" (1987), "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" (1985), and "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" (1988).

Each of these award winners was a part of Wilson's artistic ambition, which was to write 10 plays, each set in a different decade of the 20th century. Known for his realism, Wilson aspired to document the black experience.

Sandra Shannon, an English professor at Howard, has studied Wilson extensively and written three books about his work.

Referring to Wilson as the "black Shakespeare," Shannon said he was not a historian in the literal sense.

But with his work, she said, Wilson went back in time to fill in some of the blanks history books often gloss over.

"He gives voice to the nameless masses, and in that sense I consider him a prophet of his people," Shannon said. Looking at coverage of Hurricane Katrina, Shannon said she likened those who were stranded in the Louisiana Superdome to the characters in Wilson's plays.

"His plays were largely about disenfranchised people, marginalized people," Shannon said. "Those are the kind of people whose stories August Wilson could tell. Those are the kind of people he writes about and gives them nobility."

Besides portraying the lives of people Wilson called "leftovers from history," he is credited with revitalizing realism as a genre in theater, in an era when many playwrights write in a postmodern style.

Robin Boisseau, an assistant professor of theater at Hampton University, said Wilson took the genre of realism and "made it his own."

Wilson proved "realism isn't necessarily dead, and we can still produce plays that are viable," Boisseau said.

Wilson's ability to write critically acclaimed pieces that opened on Broadway and also were profitable made Wilson an exceptional artist for his era.

"He was a breath of fresh air in a time period that seems to be going more technological and less about the arts," Shannon said.

In recognition of Wilson's incredible success, the Virginia Theater on Broadway is to be renamed in his honor on Oct. 16.

As members of the theatrical and literary communities mourn the passing of a man some consider to be the greatest playwright of the past century, such artists as David Barrow Wiley speculate about the impact Wilson will have.

"He has inspired a younger generation of writers to take stock in their own experience," said Wiley, who is associate artistic director of the Irene C. Edmonds Youth Theater at Florida A&M University.

"You will see quite a few writers come forward who have been studying his work."

Shamirrah Hardin, a junior directing major at Howard, is one of those who have studied Wilson's work.

Hardin said she had recently finished reading "Fences" and writing a paper about the play when she learned of Wilson's death. Although she knew he was ill, she said she was surprised by his death.

Hardin said she believed Wilson's influence will endure.

"He did a play for every decade, and I feel like that's going to be a part of history for a long time because it is our history told through the arts," Hardin said.

Ayesha Rascoe, a student at Howard University, writes for the Hilltop.

Posted Oct. 6, 2005