[Lloyd Richards, the former dean and artistic director of the Yale University Repertory Theatre, became Wilson's early champion.] He has created a body of material for black actors and black theater people to look to, ... There has been a lack of material on the library shelves on black theater and a lack of theater by blacks. . . . Having August's body of work in there leads people to an examination of theater and an examination of themselves in theater. |
For me, it was easy to work with him. He was so very knowledgeable, but he was ready to listen, and he did. |
He hears the language of his people. |
He was really a neophyte when I first read his work. The O'Neill had rejected it five times, but the sixth time one of my readers said he had improved a great deal. He had learned to write dialogue, and now he was learning to write confrontations between two people. |
What those plays did for the black theater community was tremendous, |