The American Century Cycle

by Rachel Ropella

The American Century Cycle is a collection of ten plays written by August Wilson, each focused on a different decade, chronicling the African American experience during the 20th century. It was also referred to as The Pittsburgh Cycle since nine of the ten plays take place in Pittsburgh's Hill District. There are numerous characters and locations that reappear or are mentioned throughout this cycle, although the plays’ narratives are not always directly connected. Five of the plays of The American Century Cycle were initially workshopped at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center as a part of the National Playwrights Conference (NPC) in the 1980s, including Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, Fences, and The Piano Lesson.

It was there that Wilson worked with the head of NPC, theater director Lloyd Richards. Six of the ten plays of the cycle later premiered at Yale Rep under Richards's direction, before having celebrated Broadway runs and countless productions at regional theaters across the country.

It is important to note that these plays were not written in chronological order. In the play synopsis guide below, The American Century Cycle is listed in chronological order by the decade the play represents, with the year it was written listed after.

The 1900s: Gem of the Ocean (2003) Set at 1839 Wylie Avenue in the Hill District, the 285-year-old matriarch Aunt Ester has to contend with both her family and her new boarder, a young man named Citizen Barlow. After an incident at the local steel mill leads to a strike and riots, Aunt Ester takes Citizen on a spiritual journey aboard the legendary slave ship, Gem of the Ocean, to the mythical City of Bones. There, Citizen comes to understand the story of his ancestors and faces the truth about his crime and the man he wronged.

The 1910s: Joe Turner’s Come and Gone (written in 1986)

Set at the boarding house of Seth and Bertha Holly, this play focuses on the comings and goings of the new tenants who are trying to build their cultural identity after being freed in the South and moving to Pittsburgh during the Great Migration. For Herald Loomis, along with his daughter Zonia, this move during the Migration is also secretly an attempt to find his wife. Seth is suspicious of Loomis and wants him gone, but Bertha and the others see him differently, helping Loomis recover his lost spirit and find a new life.

The 1920s: Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (1984) The only play of the cycle set outside of Pittsburgh, this play takes place over a single recording session in Chicago, focusing on real American blues singer Ma Rainey and her band. Though the older bandmates socialize while waiting for Ma to arrive, the younger, talented but hotheaded trumpeter Levee dreams of having his own band. Tempers rise when Ma arrives and makes demands of the producers while various technical problems are solved. Seeing this tension, Levee struggles against the realities of how Black recording artists are being exploited by White producers.

The 1930s: The Piano Lesson (1987, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama)

Two siblings, Boy Willie and Berniece, argue over what to do with their family’s heirloom piano, which has the faces of their ancestors carved into it. While Boy Willie wants to sell the piano to buy the now-dead Sutter’s land, where their family labored as slaves, Berniece wants to keep it. She feels the presence of the ancestral ghosts and the ghost of Sutter in the household and knows that the piano is the key to coming to terms with their family’s painful history.

The 1940s: Seven Guitars (1995, nominated for the Pulitzer Prize)

Starting with the funeral of Floyd "Schoolboy" Barton, the play tracks the events that led to his untimely death. Barton, a local blues guitarist, is just out of prison and dreams of stardom when a major recording studio offers an unexpected opportunity of a lifetime. However, he pawned his guitar for money and needs to buy it back before leaving Pittsburgh. He tries to get a band together, reconcile with his girlfriend Vera, and find money to get his guitar back, but he keeps running into systemic barriers that prevent him from achieving his dream.

The 1950s: Fences (1985, winner of Pulitzer Prize for Drama and seven Tonys)

This play focuses on Troy Maxson, a former star of the Negro baseball league who’s now a blue-collar garbage man. Troy’s bitterness about being barred from the Major Leagues due to racial discrimination takes its toll on his relationships with his wife Rose and his teenaged son Cory. Cory has his eyes on an opportunity for a college football scholarship, but after finding out that Troy has curtailed his chances, the two have a blow-out fight that leads Cory to enlist in the military. After Troy’s passing, the surviving family must confront his legacy and how their lives have changed.

The 1960s: Two Trains Running (1990, nominated for the Pulitzer Prize)

Amidst the Civil Rights Movement, Memphis Lee is faced with the pressure to sell his diner, as the entire Hill District is being subjected to growing gentrification. Meanwhile, the eclectic host of regulars muse about their current experiences, from recent demonstrations, to romance, to the difficulty of looking for work.

As the diner becomes slated for demolition, Memphis must decide if he should allow the government to take over his building or sell the property to a ruthless businessman, fearing how it will impact his neighborhood and regulars.

The 1970s: Jitney (1982, winner of Tony Award for Best Revival)

This play follows the lives and struggles of five unlicensed jitney cab drivers operating out of a station in the Hill District. Becker, the station owner, spirals when his son Booster gets out of jail (where he served time for murdering his ex-girlfriend) at the same time the cab station is under threat of being shut down. As the older characters battle gentrification, alcoholism, and their interpersonal conflicts, the younger characters try to plant the seeds of hope for their futures and take up the helm of responsibility.

The 1980s: King Hedley II (1999, nominated for the Pulitzer Prize)

In what is often considered one of Wilson’s darkest plays, King Hedley II tries to start afresh by selling stolen refrigerators after being in prison for seven years. King plans to save up $10,000 in order to buy a video store and become a “real” businessman, but family ties are tested and he soon learns Reagan's claim of “trickle-down economics” is not what he thought it’d be. Many of the characters and storylines of Seven Guitars are revisited, playing an integral part in this play.

The 1990s: Radio Golf (2005)

Harmond Wilks is about to announce his candidacy to be Pittsburgh's first Black mayor and is working with his friend to redevelop the Hill District, planning for high-rise apartments and high-end chain stores. However, when Wilks discovers that 1839 Wylie Avenue, which is slated for demolition, was illegally acquired, he finds himself at odds with the house’s owner. Through Wilks’s complicated quest to revive his childhood neighborhood, August Wilson’s final play examines how we can dream of the future while honoring the ghosts and legacy of the past.