"FROM LORRAINE HANSBERRY TO AUGUST WILSON: An Interview with Lloyd Richards"
"After the necessary formalities in his York Street office during that August afternoon, Dean Richards gave me a seat next to him and sank into a worn leather chair. As I suspect he does to each play he encounters at the Rep or the O'Neill Center, he then proceeded to dissect carefully each of my questions before responding."
"The Long Wait"
Dr. Sandra Shannon published this article on August Wilson's play, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, in 1991 when the upstart playwright was still relatively new to the scene; he was less than halfway through writing the ten plays now known as the American Century Cycle. Here, Shannon focuses upon the toll that waiting takes on the entire cast, especially the trumpet player Levee. The premise of Shannon's article not only resonated with black Americans of the late 1920s but it also speaks to familiar obstacles faced in this current moment of unrest, which, thankfully, are being met with mass resistance.
publications
Dr. Sandra G. Shannon is Professor Emerita of African American Literature in the Department of English at Howard University. Widely acknowledged as the leading authority on playwright August Wilson, she is Founder of the August Wilson Society and has written numerous essays and chapters on Wilson.
