DOCSLIB.ORG

August Wilson's Fences

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
August Wilson's Fences FEEL THE MOMENT 2015/2016 SEASON IN THIS ISSUE JANUARY – FEBRUARY 2016 Fences Title Page 2 Cast 3 About the Play 4 The Cast 8 The Creative Team 11 Sex with Strangers Title Page 15 Cast 16 The Cast 17 The Creative Team 18 ATC Board of Trustees 21 ATC Artistic Director 22 Corporate and Foundation Donors 23 Individual Donors 24 ATC Staff 30 Theatre Information 32 Fences playwright August Wilson Heather Lee Harper and Tyler Eglen in ATC’s Sex with Strangers. Photo by John Groseclose Cover art by: ESSER DESIGN 1 David Ira Goldstein Artistic Director Presents a Co-Production with Indiana Repertory Theatre Janet Allen Executive Artistic Director and CEO; Suzanne Sweeney Managing Director and COO AND Milwaukee Repertory Theater Mark Clements Artistic Director; Chad Bauman Managing Director AUGUST WILSON’S FENCES Lou Bellamy Director Vicki Smith Scenic Designer Mathew J. LeFebvre Costume Designer Don Darnutzer Lighting Designer Brian Jerome Peterson Sound Designer Timothy Toothman* Stage Manager Brenda K. Walker* Assistant Stage Manager Glenn Bruner*. Assistant Stage Manager On this original Arizona Theatre Company production, the ATC Production Staff is responsible for scenic construction, costume construction, lighting, projections, sound, props, furniture, wigs, scene painting and special effects Fences is produced by special arrangement with SAMUEL FRENCH, INC Originally produced by Yale Repertory Theatre, Lloyd Richards, Artistic Director 2015/2016 SEASON SPONSORS: I. MICHAEL AND BETH KASSER PRODUCTION SPONSOR: 2 FEEL THE MOMENT 2015/2016 SEASON CAST (IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE) David Alan Andersen* Troy Maxson Marcus Naylor* Jim Bono Kim Staunton* Rose James T. Alfred* Lyons Terry Bellamy* Gabriel Edgar Sanchez* Cory Simeeyah Grace Baker Raynell *Members of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States. TIME: 1957; later, 1965 PLACE: The Maxson family home in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania THERE WILL BE ONE FIFTEEN-MINUTE INTERMISSION. UNDERSTUDIES Sterling Boyns Cory / Lyons Nadya Crawford Raynell ADDITIONAL STAFF Emma DeVore Assistant to the Stage Manager Additional casting by ATC Artistic Staff and Claire Simon Casting. Arizona Theatre Company operates under agreements between the League of Resident Theatres (LORT) and Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States; Stage Directors and Choreographers, an independent national labor union; and United Scenic Artists Local USA-829, IATSE To learn more about Fences please visit the Education page on our website at arizonatheatre org for a comprehensive free Play Guide The Play Guide contains historical information, cultural context, and more Play Guides are also available in The Temple Lounge for a nominal charge to cover printing Cell phones and other devices that make a noise can greatly disturb your fellow audience members and the performers. PLEASE TURN THEM OFF before the performance and again after intermission. 3 FEEL THE MOMENT 2015/2016 SEASON ABOUT THE PLAY August Wilson (Playwright, April 27, 1945-October 2, 2005) authored Gem of the Ocean, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, The Piano Lesson, Seven Guitars, Fences, Two Trains Running, Jitney, King Hedley II, and Radio Golf. These works explore the heritage and experience of the descendants of Africans in North America, decade-by-decade, over the course of the twentieth century. His plays have been produced at regional theaters across the country and all over the world, as well as on Broadway. In 2003, Mr. Wilson made his professional stage debut in his one-man show, How I Learned What I Learned. Mr. Wilson’s Playwright August Wilson works garnered many awards including Pulitzer Prizes for Fences (1987) and for The Piano Lesson (1990); a Tony Award for Fences; Great Britain’s Olivier Award for Jitney; as well as seven New York Drama Critics Circle Awards for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Fences, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, The Piano Lesson, Two Trains Running, Seven Guitars, and Jitney. Additionally, the cast recording of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom received a 1985 Grammy Award, and Mr. Wilson received a 1995 Emmy Award nomination for his screenplay adaptation of The Piano Lesson. Mr. Wilson’s early works included the one-act plays The Janitor, Recycle, The Coldest Day of the Year, Malcolm X, The Homecoming, and the musical satire Black Bart and the Sacred Hills. Mr. Wilson received many fellowships and awards, including the Rockefeller and Guggenheim Fellowships in Playwriting, the Whiting Writers Award, 2003 Heinz Award, was awarded a 1999 National Humanities Medal by the President of the United States, and received numerous honorary degrees from colleges and universities, as well as the only high school diploma ever issued by the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. He was an alumnus of New Dramatists, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a 1995 inductee into the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and on October 16, 2005, Broadway renamed the theater located at 245 West 52nd Street - The August Wilson Theatre. Additionally, Mr. Wilson was posthumously inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame in 2007. Mr. Wilson was born and raised in the Hill District of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and lived in Seattle, Washington at the time of his death. He is immediately survived by his two daughters, Sakina Ansari and Azula Carmen Wilson, and his wife, costume designer Constanza Romero. 4 FEEL THE MOMENT 2015/2016 SEASON ABOUT THE PLAY THE AMERICAN CENTURY CYCLE August Wilson’s American Century Cycle is a collection of ten plays that chronicle a collective century of the Black American experience, with each of the ten plays set in a different decade spanning the 20th century. Nine of the ten plays are set in the Hill District of Pittsburgh, one of many connection points woven through the multiple narratives. Though the American Century Cycle is not connected into a single linear story, several characters or their descendents appear more than once throughout the ten scripts; the character with the most appearances is Aunt Ester, a “washer of souls,” who appears in various stages of life and reference in Gem of the Ocean, Two Trains Running, King Hedley II, and Radio Golf. As a playwright, August Wilson was dedicated to cultivating social consciousness through the power of theatre, and the use of a medium through which a community could truly connect to invite an audience to bear witness to the state of the world around them, and their own place in the historical and contemporary social fabric. In an interview with The Paris Review, Wilson stated that “my plays offer (white Americans) a different way to look at black Americans. For instance, in Fences they see a garbageman, a person they don’t really look at, although they see a garbageman every day. By looking at Troy’s life, white people find out that the content of this black garbageman’s life is affected by the same things – love, honor, beauty, betrayal, duty. Recognizing that these things are as much part of his life as theirs can affect how they think about and deal with black people in their lives.” Gem of the Ocean, set in the 1900s, premiered in 2003 at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago before transferring to Broadway the following year. The play depicts 285-year-old Aunt Ester, a healer and a keeper of tradition, as she cleanses the souls of those who pass through her kitchen. She leads one new arrival, Citizen Barlow, aboard the legendary slave ship known as the Gem of the Ocean, to embark on a journey of spiritual redemption to the mythical City of Bones. Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, set in the 1910s, premiered in 1986 at Yale Repertory Theatre before opening at Broadway’s Ethel Barrymore Theatre in 1988. The play depicts the lives of boarding- house owner Seth Holly and his wife Bertha, as they meet and share living space with freed former slaves who have moved north after the Civil War, illuminating the ongoing racism and discrimination in the post-war United States. 5 FEEL THE MOMENT 2015/2016 SEASON ABOUT THE PLAY Jevetta Steele in ATC’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, 2010 David Downing in ATC’s Seven Guitars, 1997 Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, set in the 1920s, premiered at Yale Repertory Theatre in 1984 before opening on Broadway later that year. The only play of the American Century Cycle set in Chicago, it describes the rising tension between members of blues singer Ma Rainey’s band, and the desperation entwined in limited and thwarted opportunities. The Piano Lesson, set in the 1930s in the aftermath of the Great Depression, premiered at Yale Repertory Theatre in 1987, and later opened on Broadway in 1990. Winner of the 1990 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, The Piano Lesson was inspired by a painting of the same name by Romare Bearden. The play depicts the lives of Doaker Charles and his household, interwoven with their various perspectives on the meaning and fate of the family heirloom piano. Seven Guitars, set in the 1940s, premiered at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre in 1995 before moving on to Broadway in 1996. Seven Guitars details the journey of blues singer Floyd “Schoolboy” Barton as he seeks to define his own humanity, self-acceptance, and self-understanding and to right past wrongs after signing a record deal. The play begins with a funeral, describing the previous events in a series of flashbacks; the stories of some characters in Seven Guitars are later revisited in King Hedley II, set in the 1980s. Fences, set in the 1950s, premiered at Yale Repertory Theatre in 1985 before opening at Broadway’s 46th Street Theatre in 1987. Winner of the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and Tony Award for Best Play, Fences focuses on 53-year-old Troy as he struggles to provide for his family as a garbage collector, years after being forced to abandon his dreams of becoming a professional baseball player due to the persisting color barrier in Major League Baseball.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Normal Heart
    THE NORMAL HEART Written By Larry Kramer Final Shooting Script RYAN MURPHY TELEVISION © 2013 Home Box Office, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No portion of this script may be performed, published, reproduced, sold or distributed by any means or quoted or published in any medium, including on any website, without the prior written consent of Home Box Office. Distribution or disclosure of this material to unauthorized persons is prohibited. Disposal of this script copy does not alter any of the restrictions previously set forth. 1 EXT. APPROACHING FIRE ISLAND PINES. DAY 1 Masses of beautiful men come towards the camera. The dock is full and the boat is packed as it disgorges more beautiful young men. NED WEEKS, 40, with his dog Sam, prepares to disembark. He suddenly puts down his bag and pulls off his shirt. He wears a tank-top. 2 EXT. HARBOR AT FIRE ISLAND PINES. DAY 2 Ned is the last to disembark. Sam pulls him forward to the crowd of waiting men, now coming even closer. Ned suddenly puts down his bag and puts his shirt back on. CRAIG, 20s and endearing, greets him; they hug. NED How you doing, pumpkin? CRAIG We're doing great. 3 EXT. BRUCE NILES'S HOUSE. FIRE ISLAND PINES. DAY 3 TIGHT on a razor shaving a chiseled chest. Two HANDSOME guys in their 20s -- NICK and NINO -- are on the deck by a pool, shaving their pecs. They are taking this very seriously. Ned and Craig walk up, observe this. Craig laughs. CRAIG What are you guys doing? NINO Hairy is out.
    [Show full text]
  • Equality Winner’S Name Here | Company Name
    2019 THE NATIONAL LAW JOURNAL EQUALITY WINNER’S NAME HERE | COMPANY NAME Jeffrey S. Trachtman Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP Jeff Trachtman served as chair of Kramer Levin’s pro bono committee for 17 years. “The firm has been involved in LGBTQ equality issues go- ing back to the formation of GMHC, in 1981, as recounted in ‘The Normal Heart,’ a play about the early days of AIDS by Larry Kramer, whose brother was a firm founder. In the 1990s, I was asked to do an amicus brief in Boy Scouts v. Dale— what we used to call the ‘Homo 101’ brief, educating the courts about gay peo- ple. Later, we co-counseled with Lambda Legal on New York’s marriage equality challenge, Hernandez v. Robles.” Trachtman and the firm helped win one of the nation’s first rulings for marriage equality in that case. Although it was reversed on appeal in 2006, “there was such a backlash that the state assembly passed a marriage bill a year later, and the state senate followed in 2011. So our case did have an impact.” Trachtman has also filed Supreme Court amicus briefs in cases like Windsor, Obergefell, and Mas- terpiece Cakeshop representing “a wide range of mainstream religious groups favoring equality” and recently filed a similar brief in Bostock v. Clayton County, “which will determine whether Title VII covers gay and trans people.” Earlier, Trachtman also represented the lesbian partner of a 9/11 victim “seeking recognition as a surviving spouse under the Victims’ Fund.” Trachtman sees a mixed picture for the future.
    [Show full text]
  • Community in August Wilson and Tony Kushner
    FROM THE INDIVIDUAL TO THE COLLECTIVE: COMMUNITY IN AUGUST WILSON AND TONY KUSHNER By Copyright 2007 Richard Noggle Ph.D., University of Kansas 2007 Submitted to the Department of English and the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Kansas In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy ________________________ Chairperson, Maryemma Graham ________________________ Chairperson, Iris Smith Fischer ________________________ Paul Stephen Lim ________________________ William J. Harris ________________________ Henry Bial Date defended ________________ 2 The Dissertation Committee for Richard Noggle certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: FROM THE INDIVIDUAL TO THE COLLECTIVE: COMMUNITY IN AUGUST WILSON AND TONY KUSHNER Committee: ________________________ Chairperson, Maryemma Graham ________________________ Chairperson, Iris Smith Fischer ________________________ Paul Stephen Lim ________________________ William J. Harris ________________________ Henry Bial Date approved _______________ 3 ABSTRACT My study examines the playwrights August Wilson and Tony Kushner as “political” artists whose work, while positing very different definitions of “community,” offers a similar critique of an American tendency toward a kind of misguided, dangerous individualism that precludes “interconnection.” I begin with a look at how “community” is defined by each author through interviews and personal statements. My approach to the plays which follow is thematic as opposed to chronological. The organization, in fact, mirrors a pattern often found in the plays themselves: I begin with individuals who are cut off from their respective communities, turn to individuals who “reconnect” through encounters with communal history and memory, and conclude by examining various “successful” visions of community and examples of communities in crisis and decay.
    [Show full text]
  • Program from the Production
    STC Board of Trustees Board of Trustees Stephen A. Hopkins Emeritus Trustees Michael R. Klein, Chair Lawrence A. Hough R. Robert Linowes*, Robert E. Falb, Vice Chair W. Mike House Founding Chairman John Hill, Treasurer Jerry J. Jasinowski James B. Adler Pauline Schneider, Secretary Norman D. Jemal Heidi L. Berry* Michael Kahn, Artistic Director Scott Kaufmann David A. Brody* Kevin Kolevar Melvin S. Cohen* Trustees Abbe D. Lowell Ralph P. Davidson Nicholas W. Allard Bernard F. McKay James F. Fitzpatrick Ashley M. Allen Eleanor Merrill Dr. Sidney Harman* Stephen E. Allis Melissa A. Moss Lady Manning Anita M. Antenucci Robert S. Osborne Kathleen Matthews Jeffrey D. Bauman Stephen M. Ryan William F. McSweeny Afsaneh Beschloss K. Stuart Shea V. Sue Molina William C. Bodie George P. Stamas Walter Pincus Landon Butler Lady Westmacott Eden Rafshoon Dr. Paul Carter Rob Wilder Emily Malino Scheuer* Chelsea Clinton Suzanne S. Youngkin Lady Sheinwald Dr. Mark Epstein Mrs. Louis Sullivan Andrew C. Florance Ex-Officio Daniel W. Toohey Dr. Natwar Gandhi Chris Jennings, Sarah Valente Miles Gilburne Managing Director Lady Wright Barbara Harman John R. Hauge * Deceased 3 Dear Friend, Table of Contents I am often asked to choose my favorite Shakespeare play, and Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2 Title Page 5 it is very easy for me to answer immediately Henry IV, Parts 1 The Play of History and 2. In my opinion, there is by Drew Lichtenberg 6 no other play in the English Synopsis: Henry IV, Part 1 9 language which so completely captures the complexity and Synopsis: Henry IV, Part 2 10 diversity of an entire world.
    [Show full text]
  • A Play and Critical Analysis
    CORE Metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk Provided by University of Birmingham Research Archive, E-theses Repository ‘CURRENT REGIMES’ A PLAY & CRITICAL ANALYSIS by LUCY TYLER A thesis submitted to The University of Birmingham for the degree of MPHIL(B) PLAYWRITING STUDIES Department of Drama and Theatre Arts The University of Birmingham September 2010 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. Acknowledgements I would like to express my gratitude to a number of people without whom this play would not have been the same. Kate North, Steve Waters, Steph Dale, Naomi Cooke and my cohort on the Playwriting course. I would also like to thank my parents. Contents: The Critical Analysis..................................................p.1 Bibliography...............................................................p.30 Appendices.................................................................p.36 Current Regimes- A Play............................................p.52 Fiona and Caroline are stressed. They’re adopting a child together and decide to take a relaxing, last minute holiday to Spain. But there’s a problem. The hotel’s a fascist hotbed, there’s a picture of the Dictator Franco above the twin beds (when they specifically booked a double), and the hotel’s situated right next to Franco’s grave at The Valley of the Fallen.
    [Show full text]
  • A Public University's Defense of Free Expression: the Issues and Events
    DOCUMENT RESUME ED 327 894 CS 507 373 AUTHOR Smith, Ralph R.; Moore, DalP TITLE A Public University's Defense of Free Expression: The Issues and Events in the Staging of "The Normal Heart." PUB DATE Nov 90 NOTE 21p.; Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Speech Communication Association (76th, Chicago, IL, November 1-4, 1990). PUB TYPE Viewpoints (120) -- Reports - Descriptive (141) -- Speeches/Conference Papers (150) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC01 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Academic Freedom; Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrone; *Censorship; Discourse Analysis; *Freedom of Speech; Higher Education; *Homosexuality; Public Colleges; *School Community Relationship; *Theater Arts IDENTIFIERS First Amendment; *Normal Heart (Kramer); Rhetorical Strategies; 'Southwest Missouri State University ABSTRACT In 1989, some Springfield, Missouri residents demanded cancellation of the Southwest Missouri State University (SMSU) theater department's production of Larry Kramer's play, "The Normal Heart," which they allevd to be obscene. Opponents purchased newspaper advertisements which charged that the publicly funded production promoted a "homosexual, anti-family lifestyle." They held a rally, which attracted approximately 1,200 demonstrators. SMSU's attorney argued that the First Amendment barred cancellation ahsent substantial government interest, and asserted that the play was not obscene. Play opponents did not raise constitutional arguments, but suggested that freedom without commitment to moral order amounted to a "free-for-all." Some proponents of the production used the occasion to further AIDS education, while others labelled the play's critics as bigots. An arson incident brought national attention to the controversy and accusations from both sides in the dispute. The universi:4 formed a committee to oversee security for the play's performances.
    [Show full text]
  • University of Birmingham Museum, Furniture
    University of Birmingham Museum, furniture, men McTighe, Trish DOI: 10.3138/MD.3053 License: None: All rights reserved Document Version Peer reviewed version Citation for published version (Harvard): McTighe, T 2017, 'Museum, furniture, men: the Queer ecology of I Am My Own Wife', Modern Drama, vol. 60, no. 2, pp. 150-168. https://doi.org/10.3138/MD.3053 Link to publication on Research at Birmingham portal Publisher Rights Statement: Checked 24/11/2016 General rights Unless a licence is specified above, all rights (including copyright and moral rights) in this document are retained by the authors and/or the copyright holders. The express permission of the copyright holder must be obtained for any use of this material other than for purposes permitted by law. •Users may freely distribute the URL that is used to identify this publication. •Users may download and/or print one copy of the publication from the University of Birmingham research portal for the purpose of private study or non-commercial research. •User may use extracts from the document in line with the concept of ‘fair dealing’ under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (?) •Users may not further distribute the material nor use it for the purposes of commercial gain. Where a licence is displayed above, please note the terms and conditions of the licence govern your use of this document. When citing, please reference the published version. Take down policy While the University of Birmingham exercises care and attention in making items available there are rare occasions when an item has been uploaded in error or has been deemed to be commercially or otherwise sensitive.
    [Show full text]
  • Museum, Furniture, Men: the Queer Ecology of I Am My Own Wife Mctighe, Trish
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by University of Birmingham Research Portal Museum, Furniture, Men: The Queer Ecology of I Am My Own Wife McTighe, Trish DOI: 10.3138/MD.3053 License: None: All rights reserved Document Version Peer reviewed version Citation for published version (Harvard): McTighe, T 2017, 'Museum, Furniture, Men: The Queer Ecology of I Am My Own Wife', Modern Drama, vol. 60, no. 2, pp. 150-168. https://doi.org/10.3138/MD.3053 Link to publication on Research at Birmingham portal Publisher Rights Statement: Checked 24/11/2016 General rights Unless a licence is specified above, all rights (including copyright and moral rights) in this document are retained by the authors and/or the copyright holders. The express permission of the copyright holder must be obtained for any use of this material other than for purposes permitted by law. •Users may freely distribute the URL that is used to identify this publication. •Users may download and/or print one copy of the publication from the University of Birmingham research portal for the purpose of private study or non-commercial research. •User may use extracts from the document in line with the concept of ‘fair dealing’ under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (?) •Users may not further distribute the material nor use it for the purposes of commercial gain. Where a licence is displayed above, please note the terms and conditions of the licence govern your use of this document. When citing, please reference the published version.
    [Show full text]
  • Famous People from Michigan
    APPENDIX E Famo[ People fom Michigan any nationally or internationally known people were born or have made Mtheir home in Michigan. BUSINESS AND PHILANTHROPY William Agee John F. Dodge Henry Joy John Jacob Astor Herbert H. Dow John Harvey Kellogg Anna Sutherland Bissell Max DuPre Will K. Kellogg Michael Blumenthal William C. Durant Charles Kettering William E. Boeing Georgia Emery Sebastian S. Kresge Walter Briggs John Fetzer Madeline LaFramboise David Dunbar Buick Frederic Fisher Henry M. Leland William Austin Burt Max Fisher Elijah McCoy Roy Chapin David Gerber Charles S. Mott Louis Chevrolet Edsel Ford Charles Nash Walter P. Chrysler Henry Ford Ransom E. Olds James Couzens Henry Ford II Charles W. Post Keith Crain Barry Gordy Alfred P. Sloan Henry Crapo Charles H. Hackley Peter Stroh William Crapo Joseph L. Hudson Alfred Taubman Mary Cunningham George M. Humphrey William E. Upjohn Harlow H. Curtice Lee Iacocca Jay Van Andel John DeLorean Mike Illitch Charles E. Wilson Richard DeVos Rick Inatome John Ziegler Horace E. Dodge Robert Ingersol ARTS AND LETTERS Mitch Albom Milton Brooks Marguerite Lofft DeAngeli Harriette Simpson Arnow Ken Burns Meindert DeJong W. H. Auden Semyon Bychkov John Dewey Liberty Hyde Bailey Alexander Calder Antal Dorati Ray Stannard Baker Will Carleton Alden Dow (pen: David Grayson) Jim Cash Sexton Ehrling L. Frank Baum (Charles) Bruce Catton Richard Ellmann Harry Bertoia Elizabeth Margaret Jack Epps, Jr. William Bolcom Chandler Edna Ferber Carrie Jacobs Bond Manny Crisostomo Phillip Fike Lilian Jackson Braun James Oliver Curwood 398 MICHIGAN IN BRIEF APPENDIX E: FAMOUS PEOPLE FROM MICHIGAN Marshall Fredericks Hugie Lee-Smith Carl M.
    [Show full text]
  • News Release
    NEWS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE AUGUST WILSON’S STUNNING “FENCES” IS AS TIMELY AS IT IS POWERFUL, JAN. 16-FEB. 6 TUCSON, Ariz. (Jan. 6, 2016): Arizona Theatre Company celebrates the new year with a great American classic in August Wilson’s stunning, Pulitzer-Prize winning play, Fences. A vivid, heartfelt exploration of the African-American experience set in the 1950’s, the story remains strikingly relevant today. Performances begin at the Temple of Music & Art, 333 S. Scott Ave., on Jan. 16 and run through Feb. 6. I. Michael and Beth Kasser are Arizona Theatre Company’s 2015-16 Season Sponsors. The Stonewall Foundation is the Production Sponsor. Perhaps the best known of Wilson’s plays and winner of the Tony Award for Best Play, Fences tells the gripping story of sanitation worker Troy Maxson, a star baseball player whose career was blunted by the racism prevalent in pre-Jackie Robinson America. Feeling his world rapidly changing, Troy builds a fence to protect what is familiar and hold off what threatens. Muscular and lyrical, filled with some of the greatest characters and scenes in American Drama, this August Wilson blockbuster shows what can happen when a strong man is robbed of his dreams. Fences, the searing story of a man who stepped up to the plate too many times only to go down swinging, is as American as baseball itself. Called “stunning, explosive and tender” (The Seattle Times), Fences is “August Wilson at his finest” (Boston Herald). “Time has enhanced the luster of the play and it stands apart thanks to its distinctive lyricism and theatricality and its unforgettable central character.
    [Show full text]
  • An Interview with American Playwright August Wilson
    AUGUST WILSON/ Tibbetts/ 1! AN INTERVIEW WITH AMERICAN PLAYWRIGHT AUGUST WILSON By John C. Tibbetts Interviews on 30 April and 3 May 2002 Raphael Hotel and Hallmark Corporate Headquarters, Kansas City MO TIBBETTS INTRODUCTION TO INTERVIEW: August Wilson was born Frederick August Kittel in 1945 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania’s Hill District, an area famous for the many black performers who began their careers there—Lena Horne, Erroll Garner, Ahmad Jamal, Earl (Fatha) Hines, and Billy Eckstine. The fourth child of six children of a baker and a cleaning woman (whose maiden name was Wilson), he was an avid reader and displayed early on a gift and a passion for poetry. But the world of theatre eventually claimed him, and he co-founded the Black Horizons Theatre in 1968 and turned to playwriting in earnest. He moved to St. Paul, Minnesota in 1978, where he began writing Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, a play about the struggle between black musicians and their white bosses in the 1920s, and Jitney, whose story was set at a taxi stand on the Hill. Wilson’s career was launched when his work came to the attention of Lloyd Richards, an experienced director and head of the Yale Drama School Thus began a creative partnership that has lasted to the present day. Ma Rainey debuted on Broadway in 1984 and was a sensational success. Despite the fact that there were many esteemed black playwrights working at the time—Amiri Baraka, Ron Milner, Richard Wesley, Ed Bullins, and Phillip Hayes Dean, to cite just a few—no African-American plays had hitherto been successful on Broadway.
    [Show full text]
  • Lloyd Richards in Rehearsal
    Lloyd Richards in Rehearsal by Everett C. Dixon A Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Graduate Program in Theatre Studies, York University, Toronto, Ontario September 2013 © Everett Dixon, September 2013 Abstract This dissertation analyzes the rehearsal process of Caribbean-Canadian-American director Lloyd Richards (1919-2006), drawing on fifty original interviews conducted with Richards' artistic colleagues from all periods of his directing career, as well as on archival materials such as video-recordings, print and recorded interviews, performance reviews and unpublished letters and workshop notes. In order to frame this analysis, the dissertation will use Russian directing concepts of character, event and action to show how African American theatre traditions can be reformulated as directing strategies, thus suggesting the existence of a particularly African American directing methodology. The main analytical tool of the dissertation will be Stanislavsky's concept of "super-super­ objective," translated here as "larger thematic action," understood as an aesthetic ideal formulated as a call to action. The ultimate goal of the dissertation will be to come to an approximate formulation of Richards' "larger thematic action." Some of the artists interviewed are: Michael Schultz, Douglas Turner Ward, Woodie King, Jr., Dwight Andrews, Stephen Henderson, Thomas Richards, Scott Richards, James Earl Jones, Charles S. Dutton, Courtney B. Vance, Michele Shay, Ella Joyce, and others. Keywords: action, black aesthetics, black theatre movement, character, Dutton (Charles S.), event, Hansberry (Lorraine), Henderson (Stephen M.), Molette (Carlton W. and Barbara J.), Richards (Lloyd), Richards (Scott), Richards (Thomas), Jones (James Earl), Joyce (Ella), Vance (Courtney ii B.), Schultz (Michael), Shay (Michele), Stanislavsky (Konstantin), super-objective, theatre, Ward (Douglas Turner), Wilson (August).
    [Show full text]