The Piano Lesson is a Pulitzer Prize-winning play written by August Wilson and set in Pittsburgh in the year 1936. The play tells the story of the Charles family and their plans for a family piano. The piano is carved with the images of their ancestors, who were slaves to the former owner of the instrument. The characters in the play grapple over what to do with the piano and how those different ideas emerge from conflicting instincts about how to acknowledge the past and make plans for the future.