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The Piano Lesson
August Wilson
August Wilson's The Piano Lesson
by August Wilson
Awards & Recognition
Drama Desk Award Drama League Award Outer Critics Circle Pulitzer Prize Tony Award
Winner! 1990 Pulitzer Prize for Drama Winner! 1990 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding New Play Nominee: 1990 Tony Award for Best Play Nominee: 2013 Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Revival of a Play Nominee: 2013 Drama League Award for Outstanding Revival of a Play Nominee: 2023 Tony Award, Best Revival of a Play August Wilson is the recipient of the 1986 Whiting Award for Drama.
Synopsis
It is 1936, and Boy Willie arrives in Pittsburgh from the South in a battered truck loaded with watermelons to sell.
He has an opportunity to buy some land down home, but he has to come up with the money right quick.
He wants to sell a piano that has great importance to his family, but he shares ownership with his sister Berniece, and the piano sits in her living room.
Berniece has already rejected several offers, because the antique piano is covered with beautiful carvings detailing the family’s rise from slavery.
Boy Willie argues that the past is past, but Berniece proves to be more formidable than he anticipated.
Press Reviews
"Like other Wilson plays, it seems to sing even when it is talking."
— The New York Times
"Wonderful... A play of magnificent confrontations."
— New York Post
Characters
| Character |
|---|
| Winning Boy |
| Boy Willie |
| Lymon |
| Maretha |
| Grace |
| Berniece |
| Doaker |
| Avery |
Videos
Berta, Berta from "The Piano Lesson" Live in The Greene Space
Publication
August Wilson's The Piano Lesson is a play written by August Wilson and published by Samuel French .
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Performance Rights
Available for Licensing
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