By Sharon Eberson

The landmark August Wilson House will celebrate the restoration and public unveiling of August Wilson’s childhood home in the Hill District, with community programming through spring 2023.

A press release announced that festivities begin April 30, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., with the annual August Wilson Birthday Celebration Block Party, a free, family-friendly event honoring the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright. The highlight of the celebratory year will be the public opening of the restored August Wilson House in summer 2022.

The house at 1727 Bedford Ave. was placed on the list of the City of Pittsburgh’s historic designations in 2008. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on April 30, 2013. When restoration is complete, it will be an arts center for programming, workshops, panel discussions, and a destination for resources related to Wilson’s life and work.

Since the block party’s inception in 2015, it has attracted thousands to the Hill District. As Pittsburgh celebrates the late playwright on what would have been his 77th birthday next month, guests are invited to contribute to the finishing touches through the Legacy Brick Campaign. People can purchase a personalized brick that will be incorporated into the house’s restoration.

August Wilson House has partnered with actor Russell Hornsby, who played Lyons in Denzel Washington‘s 2016 film adaptation of Wilson’s Fences, to help spread the word of the campaign. Hornsby stars in videos about the brick naming campaign that will roll out online this spring.

“I love August Wilson. He touches my soul, our souls in a way that no one that I’ve ever read has,” Denzel Washington said about Wilson’s body of work.

Washington visited the August Wilson House in 2018 to announce a major contribution to restoring the childhood home of the man who wrote the American Century Cycle, including nine plays set in Pittsburgh. Along with “Fences,” Washington produced the movie of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, also filmed in Pittsburgh.

According to the press release, the chance to reserve a brick will be available online soon and at the August Wilson Birthday Celebration Block Party.

Following August Wilson House’s public opening, one of Wilson’s plays will be produced and performed in the house’s backyard in late summer/early fall. Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company previously produced Seven Guitars there, in August 2016.

For more information visit: https://augustwilsonhouse.orghttps://augustwilsonhouse.org

Categories: Arts and Ideas

Tags: Denzel Washington