Notes the late August Wilson scrawled at places such as St. Paul's W.A. Frost restaurant have found a home at the University of Pittsburgh.
The university's library system has acquired the papers of Wilson, who grew up in the Pennsylvania city but wrote plays such as "Fences" while a resident of St. Paul from 1978-90. An upcoming film adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize- and Tony Award-winner's "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom," starring Viola Davis and the late Chadwick Boseman, is expected to be one of this year's major awards contenders. The university library announced that the archives — which it will begin processing next year and will showcase on a new website, augustwilson.library.pitt.edu — were acquired with the help of Wilson's widow and executor, Constanza Romero.
Included in the papers are hundreds of tablets containing the playwright's handwritten notes, drafts of all ten works in the American Century Cycle that features a drama for each decade in the 20th century (all but one set in Pittsburgh), unpublished scripts, photographs, correspondence (including with Penumbra Theatre founding company member and director Claude Purdy) and objects that include awards and mementos from productions of his plays.
Wilson was a company member of St. Paul's Penumbra, which gave his work its first professional production, has produced his work more often than any theater in the world and, with the University of Minnesota, sponsors a fellowship in his memory.
Chris Hewitt • 612-673-4367
