From the pen of one of our country's most acclaimed playwrights and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and four Tony Awards, including Best Play, Fences tells the powerful story of Troy Maxson, a former star of the Negro Baseball Leagues but now a disillusioned and cynical garbage collector who strives to keep his family intact while battling his troublesome past and stubborn pride. Fences explores the boundaries—real and imagined-- we place on ourselves and others as we confront life in an ever-changing world.

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PERFORMANCES & TICKETS
Performances for Fences are 7 p.m. Wednesdays, 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, and 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Sundays, Feb. 2-18. The closing Little Rock performance will be at 2 p.m. on Feb. 18; Fences then relocates to Arkansas State University in Jonesboro for performances at the Fowler Center (870-972-ASU1). Citadel Night is a special preview is Wednesday, Jan. 31; the show starts at 7 p.m.; meet director Gilbert McCauley at 6:15. Another special sneak preview performance Thursday, Feb. 1, includes a pre-show discussion with director Gilbert McCauley at 7:15 p.m. Opening Night, Friday, Feb. 2, includes a post-show reception with the cast in the lobby. The Feb. 7 performance is sign-interpreted for the hearing impaired. Tickets are $20 - $35 (group discounts available).

Fences contains adult language and mature themes.

More about Fences follows...


CAST
Lawrence Evans .... Bono
Yaegel Welch .... Cory
Lawrence Hamilton .... Gabriel
Wendell B. Franklin .... Lyons
Kharlissa Lovelace .... Raynell
Nia Simone Jackson .... Raynell
Judyann Elder .... Rose
Gerard Catus .... Troy Maxson

Director: Gilbert McCauley
Playwright: August Wilson
Set Designer: Mike Nichols
Costume Designer: Olivia Koach
Lighting Designer: William Marshall
Sound Designer: Jason Pruzin
Production Manager: Rafael Colon Castanera
Stage Manager: Nicole Bouclier
Properties Designer: Lynda Kwalleck

Written by August Wilson, Fences is a bold drama inspired by an urban landscape in the 1950s. Permeated with passion, friendship and humor, Fences explores the family ties that bind and the boundaries – real and imagined – we place on ourselves and others as we confront life in an ever-changing world.

THE PLAYWRIGHT
From the pen of August Wilson, one of America’s most celebrated contemporary playwrights, Fences is part of Wilson’s ten-play cycle chronicling the 20th century African-American experience. Each work focuses on what he perceived to be the largest issue to confront Blacks in the decade each play addresses. He completed Radio Golf, the tenth play in a monumental series, shortly before his death in 2005. Other titles in the series include Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, The Piano Lesson and Joe Turner’s Come and Gone.

THE PLAY
Debuting on Broadway 20 years ago this March, Fences garnered a Pulitzer Prize for Drama and four Tony Awards, including Best Play in 1987. (In 1990 Wilson also received the Pulitzer for The Piano Lesson, which The Rep produced in 2003.) Fences has been called Wilson’s most popular work. Unique among the cycle, Fences focuses on a pivotal character, Troy Maxson, a former star of the Negro Baseball Leagues but now a disillusioned and cynical garbage collector. Maxson strives to keep his family intact while battling his troublesome past and stubborn pride. His relationship with his second wife Rose, his son Cory, and a newborn child are integral to how he’s survived in the past and yet, must be changed by the future. He’s always had to fight to keep what he had; on the brink of a new era in civil rights, Troy’s inability to embrace change may alienate him forever from the power he seeks to attain.

THE ACTORS
Rep newcomer Gerard Catus portrays Troy Maxson, a man seeking acceptance on his own terms. Winner of two New York AUDELCO Awards, for Best Actor in a Drama and Best Ensemble Performance, Catus has appeared in such stageworks as Driving Miss Daisy, A Raisin in the Sun, and Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill.

Another veteran of stage and television, actress Judyann Elder plays Rose, Troy’s wife. A founding acting member of the Tony Award-winning Negro Ensemble Company, Elder made her Broadway debut as Coretta Scott King opposite Billy Dee Williams in I Have A Dream and has extensive television credits, including recurring roles on Martin and Murphy Brown.

Little Rock’s own Lawrence Hamilton plays Troy’s brother Gabriel, whose anticipation of meeting St. Peter balances his near-fatal injuries from World War II. Hamilton, an inductee into the Arkansas Black Hall of Fame and Arkansas Entertainers Hall of Fame and the Director of Choral Activities at Philander Smith College, holds numerous Broadway credits. At The Rep, he appeared in the 2003 production of The Piano Lesson as Whining Boy, created Souvenir, An Evening of Song, and directed the 2006 production of Crowns.

The role of Raynell, Troy’s daughter, is played by two Arkansas youngsters, Nia Simone Jackson and Kharlissa Lovelace. Wendell B. Franklin and Yaegel Welch play Lyons and Cory, Troy’s sons. Lawrence Evans, returning after his Rep debut as Corporal Bernard Cobb in A Soldier’s Play, performs as Bono, Troy’s co-worker and best friend. (Click on the company names in blue for individual biographies.)

DIRECTION & DESIGN
Gilbert McCauley returns to The Rep to direct on the MainStage for a third time, previously leading The Rep’s productions of The Piano Lesson and A Soldier’s Play. Presently an associate professor at the University of Massachusetts, McCauley hails from Missouri, where he worked with the acclaimed Repertory Theatre of St. Louis. He has also directed works Off Broadway and at such regional theatres as Arena Stage, Goodman Theatre, Old Globe Theatre, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Playwrights Horizons, Seattle Repertory Theatre, as well as the National Theatre of Ghana.

The Rep’s design team for Fences includes Rep Resident Set Designer and Technical Director Mike Nichols, Sound Designer M. Jason Pruzin, Olivia Koach on costumes, and Properties Director Linda Kwallek. Lighting is created by William Marshall, assistant professor in scenic design at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, making his Rep debut. As was August Wilson, the design elements are inspired by the Pittsburgh landscape, the works of Romare Bearden, and the music of legendary Blues musicians.

Homepage Photo: Troy Maxson (Gerard Catus) and wife Rose (Judyann Elder) share a moment of solitude. Photo by Benjamin Krain. Show art by Gary Wayne Golden.

“The strongest, most passionate American dramatic writing since Tennessee Williams…Fences gave me one of the richest experiences I have ever had in the theatre.” – Clive Barnes, New York Post

[Fences is] “a work of tremendous impact that summons up gratitude for the beauty of its language, the truth of its character and the power of its portrayals.” – Chicago Tribune

"A moving story line and a hero almost Shakespearian in contour." – The Wall Street Journal

"Always absorbing…The work’s protagonist – and grandest creation – is a Vesuvius of rage….The play’s finest moments perfectly capture that inky, almost imperceptibly agitated darkness just before the fences of racism, for a time, came crashing down.” – The New York Times

PERFORMANCES & TICKETS at ASU Jonesboro
Supported by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, performances for Fences at ASU Theatre are February 20, 21, 23, 24 at 7:30 PM. Tickets are $8 in advance and $10 at the door. For ticket information, contact the ASU Theatre Box Office at 870-972-ASU1 (972-2781), or purchase tickets online at www.tickets.astate.edu.

“The brilliance of August Wilson is on dazzling display…The Rep’s Fences is powerful, well-staged…If you have never seen Fences, do not miss it now. It will forever change your thinking…” – The Times

“Fences is fantastically turned out by The Rep with a talented cast and amazing set, both of which serve to highlight the gorgeous script…It’s an incredible history lesson, a close reading of familial relationships, an almost painfully thorough examination of failure, and a good and great dose of hope.” – Arkansas Times

ASU Theatre welcomes Arkansas Repertory Theatre’s production of the award-winning drama, Fences, at 7:30 PM, February 20 – 24 at the ASU Theatre in the Fowler Center.

Fences, written by August Wilson, is a bold drama inspired by an urban landscape in the 1950s. Permeated with passion, friendship and humor, Fences explores the family ties that bind and the boundaries - real and imagined - we place on ourselves and others as we confront life in an ever-changing world.