By the time August Wilson passed away in 2005, the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright had completed a profound body of work that has left an indelible mark on Black culture, American literature and Broadway. Now in a historic event, his series of 10 plays, each chronicling a decade of the African-American experience during the 20th century, will be recorded for the first time ever.

Titled August Wilson's American Century Cycle, the groundbreaking series brings together a stellar group of actors, directors and other talents — many of whom worked with Wilson — for live staged readings and recordings of the playwright's dramas at New York Public Radio's the Greene Space. They include actors Phylicia Rashad, Leslie Uggams, Keith David, S. Epatha Merkerson, Wendell Pierce and Taraji P. Henson (in her Wilson debut) as well as theater directors Michele Shay and Kenny Leon, artistic director Ruben Santiago-Hudson and associate director Stephen McKinley Henderson. The readings will be scored with original music by Grammy-nominated composer Bill Sims Jr. and other composers who worked with Wilson, and the plays will appear in the order in which they premiered, starting with Ma Rainey's Black Bottom and ending with Radio Golf.

There will also be a talk series, giving audiences a deeper look at Wilson's plays, the themes he explored in his works and the historic relationships he formed with his artistic collaborators. Several of those involved in the project say it's an endeavor that was a long time coming, and according to Santiago-Hudson, "It needed a force that would make it happen." Three forces, in fact.

First, the Greene Space's founding executive producer, Indira Etwaroo, fresh on the heels of producing a highly successful music and literary salon celebrating the 75th anniversary of Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God, proposed doing something similar to honor Wilson. Second came New York Public Radio President and CEO Laura Walker, who loved the idea and OK'ed it. She then approached Constanza Romero, Wilson's widow and executor of his estate, and got her on board. Finally, "I sat down for tea with Ruben to pitch him the idea. He was so incredibly thrilled," recalled Etwaroo. "In many ways, it was the meeting of the minds."