October 12, 2009 - MPR’s Chris Roberts profiles August Wilson’s last play “Radio Golf.” Roberts talks with Lou Bellamy and Quentin Skinner about the play.
August 21, 2008 - MPR’s Tom Crann talks with Lou Bellamy, artistic director at Penumbra Theatre, about the production of "Fences" by August Wilson.
April 27, 2007 - If anything, playwright August Wilson's stature has been growing since his death two years ago. August Wilson, the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright who spent 12 years in St. Paul, died in 2005. The one-time St. Paulite has a Broadway theater named for him. In May, the New York Times will host an event celebrating Wilson's work, and earlier in the year the Kennedy Library honored Wilson, too. The participants at the Kennedy Library Forum were actor Charles Dutton and composer Dwight Andrews, both of whom worked on Wilson's Broadway productions. Dutton got interested in acting while serving a seven-and-a-half year jail sentence for mansluaghter. He eventually won a spot at Yale Drama School, where he was introduced to Wilson's work. From there is was on to Broadway, and Dutton was twice nominated for the Tony Award for his performances in Wilson's plays. Andrews served as music director for six Broadway productions of August Wilson plays. He is a professor of music theory and African American studies at Emory University, and practicing minister.
October 4, 2006 - The Penumbra Theatre Company in St. Paul kicked off its 30th anniversary season by announcing a multi-year August Wilson project.
December 27, 2005 - The theater world lost one of its great voices this year, and Minnesotans remembered the twelve years he made St. Paul his home. Two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner August Wilson died in October of liver cancer at the age of 60. Wilson left the state in 1990, but he made a short homecoming in 1991 to address the University of Minnesota Alumni Association.
December 15, 2005 - The play-writing world lost two of its titans in 2005 -- Arthur Miller in February, in August Wilson in October. The lives and works of both men were discussed at length at the times of their respective deaths, but now that we have a little distance, maybe we can talk without all the flowery language and rose-colored glasses about their legacy.
October 17, 2005 - The late playwright August Wilson now has a theater named after him on Broadway in New York City. Wilson lived in St. Paul during the 90s when he wrote many of his most famous plays. He died of liver cancer on October 2nd at the age of 60. The August Wilson Theater is the first on the Great White Way to be named after an African-American.
October 3, 2005 - One of the great voices of American theater has fallen silent. August Wilson, the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and one-time St. Paulite, died of liver cancer Sunday in Seattle. He was 60 years old.
October 3, 2005 - Playwright August Wilson has died of cancer. The Pulitzer-Prize winner rose to national prominence while living in Saint Paul during the 1980's. Minnesota Public Radio's William Wilcoxen reports.
October 3, 2005 - August Wilson moved to St. Paul in 1978 where he got his first paying job as a writer, composing educational scripts for the Science Museum of Minnesota. He lived here until 1990 and it was during that time that he began writing the set of plays that would make him famous. In 1991, Minnesota Public Radio aired a documentary about the playwright and his work. It is called "August Wilson's Sacred Book." Here is an excerpt narrated by Beth Friend.