His epic cycle   Here are the 10 plays written by August Wilson chronicling the black experience in America in the 20th century.   ● 1900s - "Gem of the Ocean": A haunting, ghostlike play, conjuring tales of slave ships and the black man arriving in chains in the New World.   ● 1910s - "Joe Turner's Come and Gone": It shows the children and grandchildren of slavery grappling with a world that won't let them forget the past.   ● 1920s - "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom": A volatile trumpet player rebels against racism in a Chicago recording studio.   ● 1930s - "The Piano Lesson": A brother and sister battle over a family heirloom, a link to the slavery in their past.   ● 1940s - "Seven Guitars": The final days of a Pittsburgh blues guitarist.   ● 1950s - "Fences": A father-son drama of dreams denied.   ● 1960s - "Two Trains Running": The displaced and the dreamers congregate in a dilapidated Pittsburgh restaurant scheduled for demolition.   ● 1970s - "Jitney": Another father-son tale, set in a gypsy cab station, as the owner of the cab company squares off against his offspring, newly released from prison.   ● 1980s - "King Hedley II": An ex-con attempts to get his life back on track despite the desperation, despair and violence that surrounds him.   ● 1990s - "Radio Golf": A successful middle-class entrepreneur tries to reconcile the present with the past.   ● The Associated Press

August Wilson was a master storyteller, a playwright who fashioned his tales of the black struggle in 20th-century America into a monumental 10-play cycle, one of the most ambitious in modern drama. "He was a poet and a musician with words," said Gordon Davidson, who, as artistic director of the Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles, produced eight of the 10 plays. "He knew the rhythms of speech and how you tell a story. He was especially interested in what you owe to history and how it's in your bones." Wilson died Sunday at Swedish Medical Center in Seattle, less than two months after he announced he had inoperable liver cancer. He was 60. Among his plays are "Fences," the writer's biggest Broadway hit; "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom"; and "The Piano Lesson." At the time of his death, Wilson was still working on the last play in the cycle, "Radio Golf," which recently closed in Los Angeles and will have productions next year in Seattle, Baltimore and several other cities. Wilson thought big. His plays were often epic, filled with rich, idiosyncratic language and memorable characters, steeped in the past, trying to survive in the present and wondering about the future. It took Wilson more than two decades to complete his cycle, one play for each decade. He grapples with major themes - from the effects of slavery on those who could still remember the Civil War to a burgeoning middle-class on the cusp of the 21st century. "Gem of the Ocean" and "Radio Golf" took place at the beginning and the end of the century, respectively. Both were directed by Kenny Leon. "We've lost a great writer - I think the greatest writer that our generation has seen - and I've lost a dear, dear friend and collaborator," said Leon. He said Wilson's work "encompasses all the strength and power that theater has to offer. I feel an incredible sense of responsibility on walking how he would want us to walk and delivering his work." His epic cycle

 

Here are the 10 plays written by August Wilson chronicling the black experience in America in the 20th century. ● 1900s - "Gem of the Ocean": A haunting, ghostlike play, conjuring tales of slave ships and the black man arriving in chains in the New World. ● 1910s - "Joe Turner's Come and Gone": It shows the children and grandchildren of slavery grappling with a world that won't let them forget the past. ● 1920s - "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom": A volatile trumpet player rebels against racism in a Chicago recording studio. ● 1930s - "The Piano Lesson": A brother and sister battle over a family heirloom, a link to the slavery in their past. ● 1940s - "Seven Guitars": The final days of a Pittsburgh blues guitarist. ● 1950s - "Fences": A father-son drama of dreams denied. ● 1960s - "Two Trains Running": The displaced and the dreamers congregate in a dilapidated Pittsburgh restaurant scheduled for demolition. ● 1970s - "Jitney": Another father-son tale, set in a gypsy cab station, as the owner of the cab company squares off against his offspring, newly released from prison. ● 1980s - "King Hedley II": An ex-con attempts to get his life back on track despite the desperation, despair and violence that surrounds him. ● 1990s - "Radio Golf": A successful middle-class entrepreneur tries to reconcile the present with the past. ● The Associated Press