NEW HAVEN, CONN.: In recognition of the 80th anniversary of August Wilson’s birth, Long Wharf Theatre has announced a season-long August Wilson Celebration during its 2025-26 season. The celebration will highlight Wilson’s lasting influence on American theatre and connections to New Haven with events across the city. This includes free community events, workshops, panels, and special programs to bring Wilson’s work to audiences of all ages and backgrounds, as well as Long Wharf’s first production back in the Canal Dock Boathouse, Wilson’s Gem of the Ocean (Feb. 27-March 15, 2026). The celebration will launch with a kick-off party on October 25 at 2 p.m. at the New Haven Museum.
“This celebration is an invitation to all of New Haven,” Long Wharf artistic director Jacob G. Padrón said in a statement. “Wilson’s plays speak to the richness of Black life in America and resonate across cultures. By bringing his work into neighborhoods, libraries, and community spaces, we hope to honor his legacy while sparking new conversations about belonging, justice, and the stories that shape us.”
Long Wharf is collaborating with cultural and educational partners that include the City of New Haven, Creative Arts Workshop, Elements of Abundance, Kulturally LIT, The Narrative Project, Yale Schwarzman Center, the New Haven Museum, the Beinecke Library, and others to present events celebrating August Wilson’s impact. All five branches of the New Haven Free Public Library—Ives Main, Fair Haven, Mitchell, Stetson, and Wilson—will take part in the celebration. More events will include panel discussions, community conversations, and neighborhood-based gatherings to be announced.
“The City of New Haven is honored to partner with Long Wharf Theatre in celebrating the legacy of August Wilson,” Kim Futrell, the deputy director of arts, culture, and tourism at the City of New Haven, said in a statement. “This citywide initiative reflects the cultural richness and creative spirit that defines New Haven. By bringing powerful theatremaking into our neighborhoods, Long Wharf Theatre sets a bold standard of what community-rooted art with national impact can look like—and we’re proud to stand alongside them in this work.”
August Wilson’s history in New Haven runs deep. Yale Repertory Theatre was his longtime artistic home, where, alongside collaborators Lloyd Richards and Ben Mordecai, he premiered six plays in his monumental American Century Cycle, beginning with Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom in 1984. Following Wilson’s passing, Long Wharf Theatre produced Fences in 2013, directed by Phylicia Rashad. This season, for the first time, Long Wharf Theatre will bring the opening chapter of the cycle, Gem of the Ocean, to Greater New Haven, directed by frequent Long Wharf Theatre collaborator Cheyenne Barboza, who directed last season’s Unbecoming Tragedy which covers similar themes.
Founded in 1965, Long Wharf Theatre is a Tony-winning company that premieres new plays and stages reimagined classics that contribute to the American theatre canon. Today it builds on its legacy by activating a new producing model, bringing theatre directly into neighborhoods across New Haven and beyond. Dedicated to storytelling with lasting social impact, Long Wharf aims to expand what theatre can be: locally rooted, deeply resonant, and accessible to all.
