August Wilson

Playwright

August Wilson authored Gem of the Ocean, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, The Piano Lesson, Seven Guitars, Fences, Two Trains Running, Jitney, King Hedley II, and Radio Golf. These works explore the heritage and experience of African Americans decade by decade over the course of the twentieth century. His plays have been produced at regional theatres across the country, all over the world, and on Broadway.

He received Pulitzer Prizes for Fences (1987) and The Piano Lesson (1990), a Tony Award for Fences, Britain’s Olivier Award for Jitney, and eight New York Drama Critics’ Circle Awards. The cast recording of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom received a 1985 Grammy, and The Piano Lesson received a 1995 Emmy nomination.

Wilson received Rockefeller and Guggenheim Fellowships, the Whiting Writers’ Award, the 2003 Heinz Award, and in 1999 the National Humanities Medal from the President of the United States. He also received numerous honorary college degrees and the only high school diploma ever issued by the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. He was an alumnus of New Dramatists, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a 1995 inductee into the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

On October 16, 2005, Broadway renamed the theatre located at 245 West 52nd Street the August Wilson Theatre in his honor. Posthumously, he received the Dramatists Guild Award for Lifetime Achievement, was inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame, and became the namesake for Pittsburgh’s August Wilson Center for African American Culture.

Born and raised in Pittsburgh’s Hill District, he lived in Seattle at the time of his death. He is survived by his daughters, Sakina Ansari and Azula Carmen Wilson, and his wife, costume designer Constanza Romero.

Jade King Carroll

Director

Jade King Carroll is a freelance director based in NYC and the Producing Artistic Director of Chautauqua Theater Company (CTC) in Chautauqua, NY. A distinguished director specializing in new play development, she has collaborated extensively with acclaimed playwrights including Dael Orlandersmith, Chisa Hutchinson, Inda Craig-Galván, Kate Hamill, Dominique Morisseau, and C.A. Johnson. Carroll has supported emerging writers at leading institutions such as the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Roundabout Theatre Company, and Lincoln Center Education.

She has directed over 60 classical and contemporary productions at theaters nationwide, including: Amerikin (Primary Stages); The Light and The Dark (Primary Stages/CTC); A Jumping Off Point (Round House); Proof of Love (NYTW/Audible at Minetta Lane); New Age (Milwaukee Rep); Red Velvet (Shakespeare Theatre Company); Detroit ’67 (McCarter/Hartford Stage); Intimate Apparel, The Piano Lesson (McCarter, Hartford); Having Our Say (Hartford/Long Wharf); Autumn’s Harvest (Lincoln Center Institute); Stew (Ebony Rep); Seven Deadly Sins – Wrath (Miami New Drama – Drama League Award); Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill (Syracuse Stage); Trouble in Mind (Two River & PlayMakers Rep); Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, The Whipping Man, Skeleton Crew, Native Gardens, How I Learned What I Learned, Bad Dates, Perseverance (Portland Stage); The Revolutionists, Sunset Baby (City Theatre); A Raisin in the Sun (Perseverance); Pride and Prejudice, The Tempest (CTC); Seven Guitars, The Persians (People’s Light); Still Life (Ancram Opera House); King Hedley II (Portland Playhouse); Fat Ham (PlayMakers Rep); A Raisin in the Sun, Cardboard Piano (Juilliard); Laughing Wild, Redeemed, Skeleton Crew (Dorset Theatre Festival); Mr. Chickee’s Funny Money (Atlantic – NYT Family Pick); New Golden Age (Primary Stages – Susan Smith Blackburn nominee).

Her audio work includes new dramas for Audible, Marvel, Broadway Podcast Network, and Geva Theatre Center, including: Marvel’s Wastelanders: Doom (Ambies Nomination); Proof of Love (Audible); Redeemed (Broadway Podcast Network/Dorset); The Bleeding Class (Geva); Isolated Incidents (BPN). She was Associate Director for Broadway’s A Streetcar Named Desire (with Blair Underwood) and The Gin Game (with Cicely Tyson and James Earl Jones).

At CTC, Carroll has led two seasons of innovative new work, including the world premieres of tiny father by Mike Lew (dir. Moritz Von Stuelpnagel, co-produced with Barrington Stage) and The Light and The Dark by Kate Hamill (commissioned by Carroll, co-produced with Primary Stages). She has developed works by Sofya Levitsky-Weitz, Chisa Hutchinson, Harrison David Rivers, Anna Ziegler, C.A. Johnson (commission), Sharyn Rothstein (commission), Hilary Bettis, and Kate Hamill; most recently she has commissioned a new work by Zora Howard and a musical adaptation of Kwame Alexander’s book The Crossover.

CTC has also produced work by Lynn Nottage and Noah Haidle under her leadership. This summer, Carroll welcomes her mentor Emily Mann to direct Execution of Justice; Oliver Butler will workshop Rothstein’s Best for Baby; Mei Ann Teo will collaborate with Vichet Chum; Carroll will direct the world premiere of C.A. Johnson’s Tell Me You’re Dying and develop a new piece with James Anthony Tyler.

Under her leadership, CTC has secured two NYSCA grants and formed partnerships with the Telsey Office, City Theatre (PGH), and the Drama League, expanding its directing fellows’ program. Carroll oversees the educational arm of CTC, selecting and programming a yearly cohort of 8–12 MFA conservatory actors, 4–5 design fellows, and 3 Drama League FutureNow directing fellows.

In her first two years at CTC, Carroll helped raise $11.5 million and led the design and groundbreaking of the new Roe Green Theater Center, a completely accessible space which will include offices, rehearsal spaces, a prop shop, two green rooms, dressing rooms, a coaching room, and a flexible black box theater with lobby and a bar.

Previously, Carroll was a Van Lier and NYC Council of the Arts directing fellow at Second Stage, later receiving a TCG New Generation Future Leaders grant under the mentorship of Carole Rothman. At Dorset Theatre Festival, she ran a commissioning and fellowship program, commissioning Sarah Gancher’s bluegrass Onegin and audio plays by Theresa Rebeck and Chisa Hutchinson. She is also a former NYTW emerging artist fellow, Women’s Project Theater artistic apprentice, and McCarter Theatre Center apprentice. A Gates Millennium Scholar, she has also received SUNY New Paltz’s 40 Under 40 award, the Paul Green Award (National Theatre Conference/August Wilson estate), and the 2020 Drama League Award.

As an educator, Carroll has taught or guest-directed at Juilliard, Princeton, NYU, University of Iowa, Penn State, Adelphi, New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts, Point Park, UNC Chapel Hill, West Virginia University, Bard, University of Maryland, Columbia University, and Chautauqua Theater Company.