In August Wilson’s powerful Pulitzer Prize-winning drama, a fractured family comes together to consider the legacy of their father, as his grown son and daughter argue over the heirloom he left behind.  A ghost story with traditional African-American songs, The Piano Lesson exposes the family’s struggles as they attempt to exorcise the demons of the past and bring forth a new hope for the future.

The Piano Lesson represents the 1930s decade in Wilson’s “The American Century Cycle” of 10 plays, each one representing African-American life over a decade in the twentieth century. Other titles include Fences, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Two Trains Running, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone and Seven Guitars. Wilson died in 2005.