The Making of August Wilson's Pittsburgh Cycle

August Wilson’s ten-play Pittsburgh Cycle is one of the great achievements of American literature: a decade-by-decade chronicle of twentieth-century Black life set in and around one Pittsburgh neighborhood. Drawing on the blues, oral traditions, and a metaphysics entirely Wilson’s own, the plays transformed the American stage and reshaped the American story.

Few artists have lived inside the Pittsburgh Cycle as completely as Ruben Santiago-Hudson. Wilson wrote roles specifically for him, and over three decades Santiago-Hudson has acted in, directed, adapted, and produced work from the cycle. He won a Tony Award for creating the role of Canewell in Seven Guitars; directed the Tony Award–winning revival of Jitney; wrote the screenplay for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom; and was asked by Wilson, before his death, to perform his autobiographical solo play, How I Learned What I Learned. Last season, Santiago-Hudson starred in Joe Turner’s Come and Gone on Broadway, and he is currently writing its screen adaptation. This fall, he returns to Seven Guitars as director at Lincoln Center Theater.

In this master class, Santiago-Hudson will draw on his years of collaboration with Wilson to take us inside the making of the Pittsburgh Cycle, from Wilson’s writing process to the rehearsal room, and reveal the dramatic architecture that underlies these extraordinary plays.

ENGLISH, THEATER, DRAMA, HISTORY, SOCIAL STUDIES

CTLE credit available