The piano lesson, August Wilson

the long version

This curriculum unit provides a variety of lessons for August Wilson's *The Piano Lesson*. Winner of the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best New Play in 1990 and Pulitzer Prize, *The Piano Lesson* is a story of living with the ghosts of one’s past. It illuminates the dilemma of African Americans who were faced with a legacy that suggested opportunities for the future yet kept those opportunities from materializing. The drama’s earthiness, incorporation of folk music, and the role of ghosts--all contribute to the play’s appeal.