AUGUST WILSON’S FENCES season sponsor title sponsor WELCOME Supporting This has been a season of intense to others’ expectations, and simply variety—we’ve presented plays about the joy or tribulations of surviving Canada at war, the colourful life of through life). the arts, barbershops, explored ancient myths, Director Djanet Sears debuts here and local (musical) murderous leg- with this production. Sears is a ends. Now we arrive here at Fences, renowned Canadian director, actor, which we have chosen for one simple locally. and playwright of great distinc- reason: it's one of the best written, tion. She has inspired us all with well-structured, modern classic plays her knowledge and passion towards ever penned. It tells a relatable story, Wilson's work. By combining these depicting how a family pulls together two forces, we are set for a beautiful and comes apart. August Wilson is presentation. We've gathered a pow- one of America's great writers, and erful ensemble of artists to bring this has an impressive collection of plays, masterpiece to life here at the Grand. earning him the well-deserved reputa- tion of being a master playwright. On this deceptively simple platform, a back porch, great ideas are about to I remember the first time I read Fences, explode. feeling drawn in by the incredibly well-crafted characters and being Welcome. perfectly surprised by the story. The story is very specific (Pittsburgh in dennis garnhum the 1950s), but becomes universal (the artistic director Each year, through various donations struggle to love each other, to live up and sponsorships, we are committed to helping our local communities. We would like to acknowledge the history of the traditional territory in which the Grand Theatre operates. We We’re proud to be the 2018/2019 season would also like to respect the longstanding relationships of the three local First Nations groups of this land and sponsor of the Grand Theatre. place in Southwestern Ontario. The three First Nations communities closest in proximity to the Grand are the Chippewa of the Thames First Nation (part of the Anishinaabe), the Oneida Nation of the Thames (part of the Haudenosaunee) and the Munsee-Delaware Nation (part of the Leni-Lunaape). 18-1626 The Grand Theatre_Ev2.indd 1 20/08/2018 12:06:49 PM spriet stage, march 19 to april 6, 2019 opening night march 22 August Wilson’s Fences Directed by Djanet Sears Starring Nigel Shawn Williams cast Gabriel PETER N. BAILEY Lyons CHRISTOPHER BAUTISTA Raynell DYLAN HOUGH Cory NGABO NABEA Jim Bono E.B. SMITH Rose ORDENA STEPHENS-THOMPSON Troy NIGEL SHAWN WILLIAMS Production team Director DJANET SEARS Set & Projection Designer ASTRID JANSON Costume Designer RACHEL FORBES Lighting Designer JASON HAND Projection Designer ADAM BARRETT Sound Designer VERNE GOOD Fight Director ANITA NITTOLY Stage Manager BEATRICE CAMPBELL Assistant Stage Manager SUZANNE MCARTHUR Apprentice Stage Manager TARYN DOUGALL Projection sources material provided by the Archives & Special Collections, University of Pittsburgh Library Systems. August Wilson’s Fences is presented by special arrangement with Samuel French, Inc. Originally produced on Broadway by Carole Shorenstein Hays, in association with Yale Repertory Theatre. World Premiere at Yale Repertory (Lloyd Richards, Artistic Director; Benjamin Mordecai, Managing Director); Second Production at The Goodman Theatre (Robert Falls, Artistic Director; Roche Schufler, Managing Director). Initially given a staged reading at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center’s National Playwrights Conference. The videotaping or making of electronic or other audio and/or visual recordings of this production or distributing recordings on any medium, including the internet, is strictly prohibited, a violation of the author’s rights and actionable under United States copyright law. For more information, please visit www.samuelfrench.com/whitepaper. Special thanks to Qwyn Charter MacLachlan; U of T Centre for Drame, Theatre and Performance Studies; Arcadia Housing Co-op; Pam Winter; GGA; Terese Sears; Rosemarie Sears; Celia Sears; Winnie Sears; Kyla Charter; Alex MacLachlan; Ella MacLachlan, Alejandra Nuñez; Mano Music; Steve West; Carlos Latorre title sponsor Picture Technicians, Artists, and Allied Crafts of the United States, its Territories and Canada, and the London Musicians’ Association Local 209. THANK YOU TO The videotaping or other video or audio recording of this production is strictly prohibited. OUR SPONSORS THE SPRIET STAGE IS GENEROUSLY SPONSORED BY HELEN & ANDY SPRIET. program sponsors season sponsor Grand Gala Accessing Season Hosting Assistive Hearing Presenting Sponsor the Arts Partner Devices title sponsors An Undiscovered Timothy Findley’s The Wars Barber Shop Chronicles A Christmas Carol Shakespeare 100 Schools Students Club Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad Vigilante August Wilson’s Fences Cabaret Mamma Mia! COMPASS New Play Development Barber Shop Chronicles Wardrobe Internship Accommodation Partners In tribute to Gloria & Joseph Gilbert high school project Title Sponsor Make a Difference Program Partners partners Community Pillar Partner Westminster Florist Hotel Wine Framing Wardrobe & Props College Foundation government funders Vehicles Apparel Catering Lighting Printing Grand Gala DIRECTOR’S NOTES What happens to a 2019 dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? SAVE Or fester like a sore— THE And then run? Does it stink like rotten meat? Date Or crust and sugar over— like a syrupy sweet? June 13 Maybe it just sags 2019 like a heavy load. SPRIET STAGE Or does it explode? langston hughes, 1951 Excerpted from the celebrated Harlem Renaissance writer Langston Hughes’ poetic suite Montage of a Dream Deferred, this poem not only implicitly critiques African American life, it raises questions about the consequences of withholding equal opportunity from an entire group of people. It is also the epigraph to Lorraine Hansberry’s ground breaking play A Raisin in the Sun. Published in 1959, A Raisin in the Sun was the first commercially successful play by an African American playwright, despite a long list of Black playwrights that came before. Written nearly 30 years later, Fences by August Wilson is arguably the second most commer- I HAVE A cially successful African American play. A Raisin in the Sun and Fences share similar themes. Both are set in the same era. Both examine the experiences of a family who are the progeny of Africans abducted to the Americas, and enslaved for 400 years. Both plays also use an epigraph to alert the reader to the more signifi- cant ideas, and influences in the work. However, the epigraph to Fences is a poem written by August Wilson himself. In preparing DREAM the reader for this particular story, set in the Hill District of Pittsburgh in 1957, about Troy honouring louise pitre Maxson, his wife Rose, his children, his brother Gabriel and his best friend Jim, Wilson writes: in support of When the sins of our fathers visit us Make a Difference Youth Programs and the High School Project We do not have to play host. We can banish them with forgiveness Tickets Tables As God, in His Largeness and Laws. $250 ea. $2500 august Wilson Epigraph: Fences, 1987 To book your tickets or to enquire about PRESENTED BY Sponsorship Opportunities please contact: djanet sears [email protected] white working class neighbourhood, where Wilson’s cultural impact cannot be under- they experienced racism, vandalism, and stated. He made it his project to chronicle abuse. At 15, Wilson dropped out of school, the African American experience throughout and instead educated himself at the Carnegie the 20th century, and the plays that resulted Library of Pittsburgh by reading the works are some of the finest works of contempo- of Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison, Langston rary theatre. His plays emphasize the way Hughes, Amiri Baraka, and others. In that land and space inspires art, and it is no 1965, Wilson left his mother’s home, moved surprise that he chose the rich soil of the in with a group of young Black artists and Hill District as the setting for many of his intellectuals, began his work as a writer, works. Wilson’s impact was deeply felt: his and was exposed to Malcolm X’s speeches childhood home in Pittsburgh—1727 Bedford and the Black Power movement. These Avenue—became a site of pilgrimage, and experiences fundamentally influenced is now a historic landmark dedicated to Wilson’s political and artistic perspective. him. Currently, there are plans in place to In 1968, Wilson began to explore working restore the building and transform it into a in theatre, and along with Rob Penny, he community gathering space, housing artist returned to his childhood neighbourhood studios and exhibits dedicated to celebrating to found the Black Horizon Theater in the and continuing Wilson’s important work of Hill District. He served as the theatre’s telling the stories of the African diaspora in Company Director, with Penny serving as the United States. playwright-in-residence. MEGHAN o’HARA CULTURAL LANDSCAPES: education and outreach coordinator AUGUST WILSON August Wilson was born in April 1945, the housing was in short supply due to segrega- son of Daisy Wilson, an African-American tion laws that prevented African Americans cleaner, and Frederick August Kittel Sr, a from residing anywhere outside the Hill baker of German descent. His given name District. Despite cramped conditions, the was Frederick August Kittel Jr., but he took area blossomed creatively, becoming a hub the name August Wilson—adopting his for jazz music in particular. It is this rich cul- mother’s surname—after his father was tural environment that Wilson highlights in absent for most of his childhood. Wilson was many of his plays. However, in the 1950s, the brought up in the Hill District of Pittsburgh, U.S. government planned to redevelop much Pennsylvania, a historically African- of the aging housing in the Hill District. This American neighbourhood where Wilson urban renewal plan saw many of the neigh- observed the ways that economics and race bourhood’s residents displaced from their intersect in the daily lives of those around homes, isolated the area from neighbouring him.