Synopsis: Set in 1904 Pittsburgh, Citizen Barlow, in spiritual turmoil, arrives at Aunt Ester’s house claiming sanctuary from Caesar, the local constable. His arrival sets into motion a series of events, including a journey to the City of Bones, which leads to startling discoveries and sets him on a course where duty leads to redemption.

Pictured: Phylicia Rashad (left) and Lisa-Gay Hamilton, photo by Joan Marcus

Synopsis: The great migration of African-Americans from the farms of the South to the cities of the North is captured in this drama of folks passing through a Pittsburgh boarding house in 1911. One of them is on a special quest, to find a mystical "Shining Man." When a threatening stranger arrives, he suspects his quest may be at an end.
Pictured: Raynor Scheine (left), Ed Hall and Delroy Lindo, photo by Joan Marcus

Synopsis: A group of black jazz musicians gathers in a Chicago recording studio in the 1920's to make one of the earliest blues recordings. But their rehearsal room turns into an arena for blowing off their anger at each other, at whites, and eventually even at God.
Pictured: Theresa Merritt, photo by Bert Andrews

Synopsis: Wilson's Pulitzer-winning drama finds a black family torn between selling an old piano that represents the family's heritage or using the money to make a new start. The piano, which in slave days was once traded for the family's patriarch and is haunted by the ghosts of the past, becomes a powerful symbol of the entire history of Africans in America.
Pictured: Charles S. Dutton (left) and Rocky Carroll, photo by Gerry Goodstein

Synopsis: A group of blues musicians in 1940's Pittsburgh plot and plan to get to Chicago, cut a record and make their fortunes.
Pictured: Ruben Santiago-Hudson (left) and Keith David

Synopsis: Set in 1950s Pittsburgh, the drama follows Troy Maxson, a former baseball player in the Negro Leagues, now reduced to collecting trash. Troy must deal with his headstrong football-player son, who has a chance to go so much further than he did; and with his wife, who reevaluates their marriage when Troy comes home with the baby he fathered with another woman. Winner of the 1985 Pulitzer Prize for drama.

Pictured: James Earl Jones, photo by William B. Carter

Synopsis: Set in Pittsburgh in 1969, Two Trains Running is set in Memphis Lee’s restaurant, which is scheduled to be razed in a city redevelopment plan. For most of their lives, he and his customers have shared their struggles, their faith, and their hope as individuals and as a people. Wilson creates a heartfelt drama of lives in transition, evolving social awareness and spirits rising.
Pictured: Laurence Fishburne (left) and Al White, photo by Jay Thompson

Synopsis: August Wilson's earliest written play, Jitney takes place in 1977 Pittsburgh around a gypsy (or jitney) cab station. The owner's son is coming home after 20 years in jail, but urban renewal may cause the station to be shut down.
Pictured: Russell Hornsby (left) and Anthony Chisholm, photo by Craig Schwartz

Synopsis: King Hedley II is the eighth in August Wilson's series of plays chronicling African-Americans in each decade of the twentieth century. The play depicts the lives of residents of Pittsburgh's Hill District as they attempt to rise above their impoverished surroundings.
Pictured: Brian Stokes Mitchell and Leslie Uggams

Synopsis: If the government declares the Hill District blighted, federal money will be made available for re-development. Can the money be legally diverted to buy a radio station and cash in before the tax laws granting favorable status to minority owners are repealed? If inner city kids learn to play golf can they reach the middle class as adults? And what will happen to Aunt Esther's house? The tenth and final play of August Wilson's lauded cycle about the African-American experience in each decade of the 20th century.