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AUGUST WILSON TIMELINE

1945 April 27 Frederick August Kittel is born in Pittsburgh's Hill District.
1959 August is the only black student at Pittsburgh Central Catholic High School.
1960 He drops out of Gladstone High School when a teacher accuses him of plagiarizing a paper on Napoleon.
1962 He enlists in the U.S. Army but leaves after only one year.
1965 His father dies and August changes his name to Wilson, his mother's maiden name.
1968 Wilson and Rob Penny co-found the Black Horizon Theater in the Hill District of Pittsburgh.
1969 Wilson marries Brenda Burton, a nurse.
1970 January 22 Wilson's oldest daughter, Sakina Ansari Wilson, is born.
1972 Wilson divorces Brenda Burton.
1978 He moves to Saint Paul, Minnesota and begins writing educational scripts for the Science Museum of Minnesota.
1980 He receives a fellowship for the Minneapolis Playwrights Center.
1981 He marries Judy Oliver, a social worker.
1982 Jitney premieres at the Allegheny Repertory Theatre in Pittsburgh.
1984 April Ma Rainey's Black Bottom premieres at the Yale Repertory Theatre, catapulting August Wilson to the forefront of the American theatre scene.
October 11 Ma Rainey's Black Bottom moves to the Cort Theatre on Broadway where it will enjoy a run of 276 performances and win the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Play of the Year.
1985 April 30 Fences premieres at the Yale Repertory Theatre.
1986 May Joe Turner's Come and Gone premieres at the Yale Repertory Theatre.
1987 March 26 Fences opens at the 46th Street Theatre on Broadway where it will enjoy a run of 525 performances and earn Wilson a Tony Award for Best Play as well as his first Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
November 26 The Piano Lesson premieres at the Yale Repertory Theatre.
1988 March 27 Joe Turner's Come and Gone opens at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on Broadway.
1990 Wilson divorces Judy Oliver and moves to Seattle.
March Two Trains Running premieres at the Yale Repertory Theatre.
April 16 The Piano Lesson opens at the Walter Kerr Theatre on Broadway where it will enjoy a run of 328 performances and earn Wilson his second Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
1992 April 13 Two Trains Running opens at the Walter Kerr Theatre on Broadway.
1994 Wilson marries costume designer Constanza Romero.
1995 January Seven Guitars premieres at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago.
1996 March 28 Seven Guitars opens at the Walter Kerr Theatre on Broadway.
1999 December King Hedley II premieres at the Pittsburgh Public Theatre.
2001 May 1 King Hedley II opens at the Virginia Theatre on Broadway.
2003 April Gem of the Ocean premieres at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago.
2004 December 6 Gem of the Ocean opens at the Walter Kerr Theatre on Broadway.
2005 April 22 Radio Golf premieres at the Yale Repertory Theatre, completing Wilson's ten-play cycle chronicling the African-American experience through each decade of the 20th century.
June Wilson is diagnosed with liver cancer.
October 2 August Wilson dies at the age of 60.
October 17 Broadway's Virginia Theatre is renamed in Wilson's honor. It is the first Broadway theatre to bear the name of an African American.
Browse August Wilson Quotes