5M/3W | Drama/Full-Length
Winner! 1990 Pulitzer Prize for Drama
Winner! 1990 Drama Desk Award, Outstanding New Play
Nominee! 1990 Tony Award, Best Play
Nominee! 2013 Outer Critics Circle Award, Outstanding Revival of a Play
Nominee! 2013 Drama League Award, Outstanding Revival of a Play


It is 1936 and Boy Willie arrives in Pittsburgh from the South in a battered truck loaded with watermelons to sell. He has an opportunity to buy some land down home, but he has to come up with the money right quick. He wants to sell an old piano that has been in his family for generations, but he shares ownership with his sister and it sits in her living room. She has already rejected several offers because the antique piano is covered with incredible carvings detailing the family's rise from slavery. Boy Willie tries to persuade his stubborn sister that the past is past, but she is more formidable than he anticipated.