Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson, who made headlines in 1996 with a controversial speech about African American theatre, is in residence at the College as a Montgomery Fellow for the entire Winter term.
Wilson, who has won numerous awards for his work, is teaching a playwriting class in the drama department and participating in the National Black Theatre Summit.
"This is an opportunity for Dartmouth students to interact with one of the greatest living playwrights," said English Department Chair William Cook, who described Wilson's visit as "unusual and unusually positive."
Wilson, author of "Fences," "The Piano Lesson" and the recent "Seven Guitars," is the first full-term Montgomery Fellow since Wilma Mankiller visited the College in the winter of 1996.
The Montgomery Endowment, initiated in 1978 by Kenneth Montgomery '25, invites prominent individuals from various disciplines to come to the College to share their experiences in lectures or classes.
In addition to the playwriting course he is teaching, Wilson's body of work is the subject of a course being taught by Drama Professor Victor Walker.
Wilson will also be participating in National Black Theater Summit from March 2-6 in Ashland. The event is meant to continue the debate started by Wilson's speech, in which he called for the creation of a separate theater where Blacks do not have to work under the conventions of the predominantly white theater.
The event is being organized by Cook and Walker. The summit will be followed by a national conference on March 7 at the Hopkins Center titled "African American Theatre: The Next Stage," which will be open to the public.
Wilson will give his inaugural Montgomery fellowship lecture, titled "Testimony of the Witness," Jan. 15 in the Moore Theater of Hopkins Center.
The drama department is staging a production of Wilson's 1986 play, "Joe Turner's Come and Gone," guest-directed by Clinton Turner Davis, and accompanied by a seven-part lecture series on topics related to the play.
Additionally, from Jan. 24 to April 12 the Hood Museum of Art will hold an exhibit of the collages of artist Romare Bearden, whose work Wilson has used for the basis of some of his plays. Both Wilson and art scholar Sharon Patton from the University of Michigan will make public remarks about Bearden's work.
Wilson has written more than 20 plays in a career that spans nearly two decades. He received Pulitzer Prizes and Tony Awards for "Fences" (1987) and "The Piano Lesson" (1990). He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and was recently inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
