The Piano Lesson
| The Piano Lesson | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Written by | August Wilson |
| Date premiered | 26 November 1987 |
| Place premiered | Yale Repertory Theatre New Haven, Connecticut |
| Original language | Transclusion error: {{En}} is only for use in File namespace. Use {{langx|en}} or {{in lang|en}} instead. |
| Series | The Pittsburgh Cycle |
| Setting | Pittsburgh, 1936 |
The Piano Lesson is a play by American playwright August Wilson, the fourth in his series, The Pittsburgh Cycle. The play premiered on 26 November 1987 at the Yale Repertory Theatre and debuted on Broadway in 1990. The original Broadway cast featured Charles S. Dutton, Carl Gordon, Rocky Carroll, and S. Epatha Merkerson. Wilson received the New York Drama Critics Circle Award and his second Pulitzer Prize for Drama for the work.
Plot synopsis
- Characters
- Boy Willie
- Lymon
- Maretha
- Doaker
- Grace
- Avery
- Berniece
- Wining Boy
The play concerns a brother and a sister who argue about whether they should sell their family piano. Boy Willie, a sharecropper from the South, wants to sell his family's ancestral piano to buy land. His Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania sister Berniece insists on keeping it. The piano has the carved faces of their great-grandfather's wife and son, who were sold in exchange for the piano during the days of enslavement.
Productions
The play was adapted for a teleplay production in 1995 directed by Lloyd Richards with Charles S. Dutton as Boy Willie and Alfre Woodard as Berniece.
Awards and nominations
- Awards
- 1990 Drama Desk Award Outstanding New Play
- 1990 New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best Play
- 1990 Pulitzer Prize for Drama
- 1996 Peabody Award
- Nominations
- 1989 Pulitzer Prize for Drama
- 1990 Tony Award for Best Play
- 1995 Outstanding Made for Television Movie
- 1996 Outstanding Television Movie or Mini-Series
References
- Wilson, August (1990). The Piano Lesson. New York: Plume. ISBN 0452265347.
External links
