August Wilson: The Ground on Which I Stand

"White folks don’t understand about the blues," says Ma Rainey in the play, "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom," set in a Chicago recording studio in 1927. This dramatic reading created for August Wilson: The Ground on Which I Stand is performed by Ebony Jo-Ann. The play premiered in 1984 at Yale Repertory Theatre and opened on Broadway the same year to win a New York Drama Critics Circle award.

August Wilson's "Fences" won a Pulitzer Prize and four Tony Awards in 1987. In this scene staged for August Wilson: The Ground on Which I Stand, characters Tony, Rose and Bono have a heated conversation about baseball, Jackie Robinson and the unfairness of discrimination.

In August Wilson's "Gem of the Ocean," Aunt Ester is a matriarch and former slave. Phylicia Rashad performed the role on Broadway and in a dramatic reading created for August Wilson: The Ground on Which I Stand, she enacts when Ester reveals the existence of the spiritual and symbolic City of Bones, made from African ancestors who died while crossing the Atlantic Ocean during the Middle Passage.

Blues music runs through many of August Wilson's plays, particularly "Seven Guitars." Ruben Santiago-Hudson didn't know how to play harmonica when he auditioned for his role in it, but he aimed to have audiences say, "that harmonic player sure can act." Santiago-Hudson won a 1996 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play. This is an outtake from August Wilson: The Ground on Which I Stand.

August Wilson and two of his sisters recall his early school days, when he showed an early love of language and learning, and suffered daily insults for being black at a primarily white school. Wilson describes an instance when he timed his response to a bully to the words of the Pledge of Allegiance. This excerpt is from American Masters - August Wilson: The Ground on Which I Stand.

In 1990, August Wilson and his wife, costume designer Constanza Romero, moved to Seattle. After his death in 2005, the Seattle Repertory Theatre and the Seattle Center honored the playwright by naming a promenade August Wilson Way, which includes a doorway portal and a quote from Wilson's play King Hedley II (1991). Romero tells the story of August Wilson Way in this film outtake.

After showing highlights from August Wilson: The Ground on Which I Stand on February 9, 2015, the film's director and producer, Sam Pollard, moderated a panel with actors Phylicia Rashad and Ruben Santiago-Hudson; Constanza Romero, Wilson’s widow and costume designer, and Rich Blint, Ph.D., of Columbia University. Co-presented by THIRTEEN and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

In this behind-the-scenes look from August Wilson: The Ground on Which I Stand, director Sam Pollard interviews James Earl Jones, a Tony Award winner in 1987 for his role in Wilson's "Fences," for which Wilson won the first of two Pulitzer Prizes for Drama. Jones characterizes Wilson's work, saying, "Most of all his plays are about families and the migration from greater pain to lesser pain."

Filmmaker Sam Pollard's latest documentary for American Masters is August Wilson: The Ground on Which I Stand. In this filmmaker interview he speaks about Wilson's relevance, interviewing actors and more. The film premieres Friday, February 20 at 9 pm on PBS (check local listings).

Constanza Romero created costume designs for August Wilson's plays and the two artists married each other in 1994. Romero describes the decisions she made while creating looks for August Wilson's characters in Seven Guitars, Gem of the Ocean and more. This is a film outtake from August Wilson: The Ground on Which I Stand.

August Wilson describes how dialogue comes to him and guides his character development and the plot. This film excerpt from August Wilson: The Ground on Which I Stand includes a dramatic reading of the opening scene of "Two Trains Running" (Broadway premiere 1992).

Tony-award winner Ruben Santiago-Hudson, now directing the Broadway premiere of August Wilson's "Jitney," shares what he feels are the essential ingredients for any August Wilson play.