It’s hard for an actor to go wrong if he’s true to the words August Wilson has written,” wrote James Earl Jones in his article about the playwright in 2001. Two years later, Wilson, still “writing it as it is,” was honored at the New Dramatists Luncheon at the Marriott Marquis. Walter Cronkite and theater producer Ben Mordecai were honorary co-chairs who joined Isobel Konecky and Scott Mauro, who chaired the luncheon.

The award winning playwright has portrayed the African-American experience in such memorable dramas as Jitney, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (most recently starring Whoopi Goldberg on Broadway), Fences, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, and Seven Guitars.

Tony Award nominee Brian Stokes Mitchell presented Wilson with the organization’s Lifetime Achievement Award; and Charles Dutton offered a heartfelt tribute to this prolific and important playwright.