By Guest Host Sheilah Kast:

August Wilson didn’t finish high school. He educated himself by reading at the public library. But when he died this week at age 60, he was compared to some of the greatest playwrights in English literature –Tennessee Williams, Eugene O’Neill, even Shakespeare.

Wilson brought alive on the stage the African-American experience of the twentieth century, the grinding residues of slavery as played out generation after generation. He brought white America new insights, while at the same time changing the shape and direction of African-American theater.

Tune in to hear about August Wilson’s work and a bit of his work from a talented young actress.

Guests:

Ben Brantley, Chief Theater Critic for The New York Times

Professor Harry Elam, Chairman of the Department of Drama at Stanford University

Professor Michael Chemers, Assistant Professor of Dramatic Literature at Carnegie-Mellon University

Tricia Rose, Professor of American Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz.