Harry J. Elam, Jr. The Past as Present in the Drama of August Wilson.(Book Review)

From: Comparative Drama | Date: June 22, 2004| Author: Feffer, Steve | Copyright information

Harry J. Elam, Jr. The Past as Present in the Drama of August Wilson. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2004. Pp. xix + 271. $49.50.

With a New York production scheduled for Spring 2005 of the final play in August Wilson's ten-play decade-by-decade cycle chronicling African-American life in the twentieth century, the time is certainly right for Harry J. Elam, Jr.'s outstanding study. According to Elam, Wilson's "singular commitment to exploring the experiences of...

Read all of this article with a FREE trial to HighBeam Research

Related newspaper, magazine, and journal articles from HighBeam Research

GEM OF THE THEATER BLACK POWER MEETS THE CLASSIC TRADITION IN THE SINGULAR WORK OF PLAYWRIGHT AUGUST WILSON
The Boston Globe ; August Wilson would probably not be overjoyed to be called the great integrationist. The playwright who has excelled at documenting the lives of African-Americans in the 20th century is also an unapologetic advocate of black power in the American theater, and there are obvious echoes in his work of
PLAYWRIGHT AUGUST WILSON DIES AT 60 PORTRAYED HISTORY OF BLACK AMERICA
The Boston Globe ; August Wilson, the country's preeminent African-American playwright, died yesterday at the age of 60 from liver cancer. Mr. Wilson's main body of work was a cycle of 10 plays, each set in a different decade in the 20th century, thus covering 100 years of African-American history and attitudes. They
'Wilson's 20th Century': An August Occasion; One Month, 10 Plays and Infinite Insights
The Washington Post ; Several years ago, a young Howard University grad named Derrick Sanders nervously approached August Wilson at a drama festival at which the playwright had just given a speech. Sanders wanted to tell him he was a great admirer, and to ask whether Wilson might talk to him some time about Sanders's
I Ain't Sorry for Nothin' I Done: August Wilson's Process of Playwrighting.(Review)
American Theatre ; by Joan Herrington, Limelight Editions, New York. 192 pp., $15 paper. Like an artist creating a collage, like a jazz musician rifling on a theme, August Wilson assembles bits and pieces of dialogue and builds his plays from there - a process Joan Herrington examines in her compelling new book I
The glory years: Lanford Wilson returns to form with a compassionate new play, 'Book of Days.'.
American Theatre ; In recent weeks, Lanford Wilson has been sitting quietly on the porch in his Sag Harbor, N.Y., home, alternately staring into space and reading several of his own full-length dramas. I've written a ton of plays, the one-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama says wearily of his recent autumnal
A Playwright's Demand for Black Theater; Angry Speech Embroils August Wilson in Controversy
The Washington Post ; Is it demeaning for a black actor to play King Lear? Should there be all-black theater institutions in the 1990s? And just how good are the plays of August Wilson, anyway? Those are just some of the issues fueling one of the most heated theatrical disputes in years -- a bare-knuckled brawl that has
Playwright August Wilson, dead at 60
New York Amsterdam News ; Boyd, Herb New York Amsterdam News 10-12-2005 August Wilson's plays were always invested with lilting poetry and insightful fragments ... Linda Jean Kittel, Richard Kittel, Donna Conley and Edwin Kittel. Article copyright The Amsterdam News. V.96;
A Man of Great Characters; Wilson Let the Lowly Have Their Say. This Month, They'll Be Heard.
The Washington Post ; There are virtually no walk-on roles in the plays of August Wilson. Perhaps that's because he wasn't particularly good at writing small. His dramas are filled with out-of-the-way people: workers at menial jobs and struggling businesses, itinerant hustlers, backup musicians, sanitation men, petty
August Wilson, Man of the Decades; As the Playwright's Century Series Winds Down, More Voices Pipe Up
The Washington Post ; It is not hard to imagine August Wilson conducting a seance; his plays tend to summon voices from all corners of the black American diaspora. As it happens, he is playing the role of medium at this very moment, channeling people who are taking shape in a new play he is contemplating, characters who
Playwright Wilson succumbs to cancer
Telegraph - Herald (Dubuque) ; NEW YORK (AP) - Playwright August Wilson, whose epic 10-play cycle chronicling the black experience in 20th-century America included such landmark dramas as "Fences" and "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom," died Sunday of liver cancer, a family spokeswoman said. He was 60. Wilson died at Swedish Medical