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The Piano Lesson
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The Piano Lesson Paperback - 1990

by Wilson, August

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  • Acceptable

Set in 1936, The Piano Lesson is a powerful new play from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Fences and Ma Rainey's Black Bottom. A sister and brother fight over a piano that has been in the family for three generations, creating a remarkable drama that embodies the painful past and expectant future of black Americans.

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Details

  • Title The Piano Lesson
  • Author Wilson, August
  • Binding Paperback
  • Edition Reprint
  • Condition Used - Acceptable
  • Pages 144
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Plume, New York, New York, U.S.A.
  • Date 1990-12-01
  • Bookseller's Inventory # 0452265347-7-1
  • ISBN 9780452265349 / 0452265347
  • Weight 0.3 lbs (0.14 kg)
  • Dimensions 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.4 in (20.07 x 13.21 x 1.02 cm)
  • Ages 18 to UP years
  • Grade levels 13 - UP
  • Themes
    • Catalog Heading: Language Arts/Literature
    • Curriculum Strand: Language Arts/Literature
    • Ethnic Orientation: African American
  • Library of Congress subjects Drama, African American families
  • Library of Congress Catalog Number 90038735
  • Dewey Decimal Code 812.54

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Summary

August Wilson has already given the American theater such spell-binding plays about the black experience in 20th-century America as Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, Joe Turner's Come and Gone, and the Pulitzer Prize-winning, Fences. In his second Pulitzer Prize-winner, The Piano Lesson, Wilson has fashioned his most haunting and dramatic work yet.

At the heart of the play stands the ornately carved upright piano which, as the Charles family's prized, hard-won possession, has been gathering dust in the parlor of Berniece Charles's Pittsburgh home. When Boy Willie, Berniece's exuberant brother, bursts into her life with his dream of buying the same Mississippi land that his family had worked as slaves, he plans to sell their antique piano for the hard cash he needs to stake his future. But Berniece refuses to sell, clinging to the piano as a reminder of the history that is their family legacy. This dilemma is the real "piano lesson," reminding us that blacks are often deprived both of the symbols of their past and of opportunity in the present.

From the publisher

August Wilson is a major American playwright whose work has been consistently acclaimed as among the finest of the American theater. His first play, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, won the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for best new play of 1984-85. His second play, Fences, won numerous awards for best play of the year, 1987, including the Tony Award, the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award, the Drama Desk Award, and the Pulitzer Prize. Joe Turner's Come and Gone, his third play, was also voted best play of 1987-88 by the New York Drama Critics' Circle. In 1990, Wilson was awarded his second Pulitzer Prize for The Piano Lesson.

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Citations

  • Ebony, 11/01/2005, Page 44

About the author

August Wilson was a major American playwright whose work has been consistently acclaimed as among the finest of the American theater. Most recently, Fences was adapted into a major motion picture directed by and starring Denzel Washington. The play won numerous awards for best play of the year in 1987 including the Tony Award, the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award, the Drama Desk Award, and the Pulitzer Prize. Among other awards, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom won the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for best new play of 1984-85 and Joe Turner's Come and Gone was voted best play of 1987-1988 by the New York Drama Critics' Circle. In 1990, Wilson was awarded his second Pulitzer Prize for The Piano Lesson. August Wilson died in 2005.