Performances of August Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play “Fences” open Sept. 27 – Oct. 27 at the historic Ford’s Theatre in Northwest, directed by Timothy Douglas — one of the foremost interpreters of Wilson’s work.
The production features Erika Rose (Mosaic Theater Company’s “Queens Girl in Africa,” Woolly Mammoth’s “An Octoroon”), making her Ford’s debut, and Craig Wallace (“A Christmas Carol,” “Death of a Salesman”) in the roles of Rose and Troy Maxson.
Both actors, along with a carefully selected supporting cast, have names for themselves as bona fide “superstars” in the Washington, D.C., theatrical community.
Set in segregated Pittsburgh in 1957, “Fences” invites us into the life of Troy Maxson, a former Negro League baseball star struggling to provide for his family as a sanitation worker. Part of August Wilson’s 10-play Century Cycle, the play examines the fences we construct around ourselves and those whom we love while shedding a light on the challenges one Black family must endure in racist world.
Look for our interviews in next week’s edition with Rose and Douglas.