American Masters

History Series / 14 Seasons

American Masters, committed to producing comprehensive film biographies about the broad cast of characters who comprise our cultural history.

1h 23m / TV-PG

Scene from "Fences," a Pulitzer Prize-Winning Play

1m 2s / TV-PG

August Wilson's "Fences" won a Pulitzer Prize and four Tony Awards in 1987. In this scene staged for August Wilson: The Ground on Which I Stand, characters Tony, Rose and Bono have a heated conversation about baseball, Jackie Robinson and the unfairness of discrimination.

Monologue from "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" by August Wilson

47s / TV-PG

"White folks don’t understand about the blues," says Ma Rainey in the play, "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom," set in a Chicago recording studio in 1927. This dramatic reading created for August Wilson: The Ground on Which I Stand is performed by Ebony Jo-Ann. The play premiered in 1984 at Yale Repertory Theatre and opened on Broadway the same year to win a New York Drama Critics Circle award.

August Wilson: The Ground on Which I Stand

2m 41s / TV-PG

The film premieres Friday, February 20 at 9 p.m. on PBS (check local listings) to commemorate the 70th anniversary of Wilson’s birth, the 10th anniversary of his death and Black History Month. Unprecedented access to Wilson’s theatrical archives, rarely seen interviews and new dramatic readings bring to life his seminal 10-play cycle chronicling a century of African-American life.

Phylicia Rashad Performs "Gem of the Ocean" Aunt Ester Scene

2m 23s / TV-PG

In August Wilson's "Gem of the Ocean," Aunt Ester is a matriarch and former slave. Phylicia Rashad performed the role on Broadway and in a dramatic reading created for August Wilson: The Ground on Which I Stand, she enacts when Ester reveals the existence of the spiritual and symbolic City of Bones, made from African ancestors who died while crossing the Atlantic Ocean during the Middle Passage.

August Wilson in Seattle

1m 57s

In 1990, August Wilson and his wife, costume designer Constanza Romero, moved to Seattle. After his death in 2005, the Seattle Repertory Theatre and the Seattle Center honored the playwright by naming a promenade August Wilson Way, which includes a doorway portal and a quote from Wilson's play King Hedley II (1991). Romero tells the story of August Wilson Way in this film outtake.

August Wilson's Youth

1m 24s

August Wilson and two of his sisters recall his early school days, when he showed an early love of language and learning, and suffered daily insults for being black at a primarily white school. Wilson describes an instance when he timed his response to a bully to the words of the Pledge of Allegiance. This excerpt is from American Masters - August Wilson: The Ground on Which I Stand.

Ruben Santiago-Hudson's Skills for "Seven Guitars" Role

54s / TV-PG

Blues music runs through many of August Wilson's plays, particularly "Seven Guitars." Ruben Santiago-Hudson didn't know how to play harmonica when he auditioned for his role in it, but he aimed to have audiences say, "that harmonic player sure can act." Santiago-Hudson won a 1996 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play. This is an outtake from August Wilson: The Ground on Which I Stand.

Actor James Earl Jones on August Wilson's Plays

In this behind-the-scenes look from August Wilson: The Ground on Which I Stand, director Sam Pollard interviews James Earl Jones, a Tony Award winner in 1987 for his role in Wilson's "Fences," for which Wilson won the first of two Pulitzer Prizes for Drama. Jones characterizes Wilson's work, saying, "Most of all his plays are about families and the migration from greater pain to lesser pain."

Filmmaker Sam Pollard on His August Wilson Documentary

2m 29s

Filmmaker Sam Pollard's latest documentary for American Masters is August Wilson: The Ground on Which I Stand. In this filmmaker interview he speaks about Wilson's relevance, interviewing actors and more. The film premieres Friday, February 20 at 9 pm on PBS (check local listings).

Costume Designs for August Wilson Plays

3m 15s

Constanza Romero created costume designs for August Wilson's plays and the two artists married each other in 1994. Romero describes the decisions she made while creating looks for August Wilson's characters in Seven Guitars, Gem of the Ocean and more. This is a film outtake from August Wilson: The Ground on Which I Stand.

August Wilson on the Dialogue in His Plays

1m 38s

August Wilson describes how dialogue comes to him and guides his character development and the plot. This film excerpt from August Wilson: The Ground on Which I Stand includes a dramatic reading of the opening scene of "Two Trains Running" (Broadway premiere 1992).

Ricky Jay and Art Spiegelman in Conversation

51m 4s

This web-extra feature is a Hammer Conversation with Ricky Jay and Art Spiegelman, from the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles on November 17, 2007. Sleight-of-hand magician Ricky Jay and cartoonist Art Spiegelman discussed works from "Extraordinary Exhibitions," featuring over eighty 17th-, 18th-, and 19th-century ephemeral advertising sheets known as broadsides, from Ricky Jay's own collection.

Season 2015 Overview

30s

The 2015 American Masters season kicks off with its first magician profile --- the great Ricky Jay --- followed by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, August Wilson; violin virtuoso Jascha Heifetz; and Ken Burns' portrait of American Ballet Theatre. More films to be announced.

Ricky Jay on His Mentor: Charlie Miller

1m 32s / TV-14

Ricky Jay learned much from magician Charlie Miller about how to refine his practice and make a move better each time he performs it. Despite the extreme repetition and level of questioning Miller demanded, Jay describes working on sleight-of-hand moves with Miller "as close to pure joy as anything that I can imagine." Ricky Jay: Deceptive Practice premieres Friday, January 23 at 9 pm on PBS.

Sleight of Hand and Three-Card Monte with Ricky Jay

2m 23s / TV-PG

At a performance in London, Ricky Jay demonstrates three-card monte in his one-man show, "Ricky Jay and his 52 Assistants," which premiered Off-Broadway in 1994. Jay considers himself lucky to feel part of the continuum of sleight-of-hand artists, whose tradition goes back more than a century. American Masters - Ricky Jay: Deceptive Practice premieres Friday, January 23 at 9 pm on PBS.

Filmmaker Molly Bernstein on Ricky Jay: Deceptive Practice

4m 26s

Filmmaker Molly Bernstein describes her astonishment the first time she saw Ricky Jay perform. It led her to learn more about sleight-of-hand and the history of magic. She and her partner eventually earned Jay's trust and began the documentary film that was more than a decade in the making.

Ricky Jay Remembers Mentor Dai Vernon

3m 41s

"If I had never seen him do magic he'd be the most remarkable person I ever met," say Ricky Jay of his friend and mentor, the magician Dai Vernon (1894 -1992), also known as "Professor." A remarkable observer is one way Ricky Jay describes the sleight of hand artist, whose lifetime spanned a century.

Ricky Jay: Deceptive Practice - Trailer

2m 20s

This portrait of the inimitable magician Ricky Jay delves into the mysterious world of sleight-of-hand and its small circle of eccentric devotees. Jay is also a best-selling author, historian, actor and a leading collector of antiquarian books and artifacts. Told largely in Jay’s own distinctive voice, the documentary traces the story of his achievement and that of other master magicians.

Ricky Jay on Ways of Learning: Books and Teachers

53s / TV-14

"I’ve collected thousands of books in my life about magic technique. But I believe that the real key to learning is personally. It’s almost like the sensei master relationship in the martial arts--that the way you want to learn is by someone that you respect showing you something." -- Ricky Jay. Learn more about Jay's scholarship and mentors in Ricky Jay: Deceptive Practice, Fri., Jan. 23 at 9 pm.

Bing Crosby's Innovations in Technology

4m 44s

Not only was Crosby a multimedia star, he advanced the technology to record music and make television --- such as the laugh track. Filmmaker Robert Trachtenberg describes how his crew was able to include in "American Masters - Bing Crosby Rediscovered" the private letters Crosby recorded on dictabelts. American Masters Executive Producer Michael Kantor adds perspective on Crosby's significance.

Supported by