August Wilson: The Ground on Which I Stand

Explore the life and legacy of playwright August Wilson (April 27, 1945–October 2, 2005), the man some call America's Shakespeare, from his roots as an activist and poet to his indelible mark on Broadway. Film and theater luminaries including Viola Davis, Charles Dutton, Laurence Fishburne, James Earl Jones, Suzan-Lori Parks, and Phylicia Rashad share their stories of the career and life-changing experience of bringing Wilson's rich theatrical voice to the stage. With unprecedented access to Wilson's theatrical archives, rarely seen interviews and new dramatic readings, filmmaker Sam Pollard (Slavery by Another Name) brings to life Wilson's seminal 10-play cycle chronicling each decade of the 20th-century African-American experience, including the Tony- and Pulitzer-winning Fences and Pulitzer-winning The Piano Lesson. Family, friends, colleagues, and scholars trace Wilson's influences, creative evolution, triumphs, struggles, and quest for cultural determinism before his untimely death from liver cancer.