As soon as white folks say a play's good, the theater is jammed with blacks and whites.

[Wilson may never see the marquee or sit in the theater that carries his name. Last month, in an interview with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, he announced that he was dying of liver cancer, with three to five months to live. He disclosed it with the type of plainspoken grit one of his heroic characters might admire.] I've lived a blessed life, ... I'm ready.

I first got involved in theater in 1968, at the height of a social tumult. I was a poet.

As soon as white folks say a play's good, the theater is jammed with blacks and whites.

I think it was the ability of the theater to communicate ideas and extol virtues that drew me to it. And also, I was, and remain, fascinated by the idea of an audience as a community of people who gather willingly to bear witness.

We?re in contact with three national movie chains. One of our goals is to put a movie theater on the eastern side of the property. It?s a high priority goal.