(NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ) -- Crossroads Theatre Company presents Fences by August Wilson from May 29 through June 9, 2024 at the New Brunswick Performing Arts Center (NBPAC). Experience the transformative power of August Wilson's Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning masterpiece, directed by Crossroad's Artistic Director, Ricardo Khan.
Troy Maxson, a former star of the Negro baseball leagues, now works as a garbage man in 1957 Pittsburgh. Excluded from the major leagues in his prime, Troy has grown increasingly bitter, and his anger and frustration take a toll on his wife Rose and his son Cory, who now wants his own chance to play ball professionally.
This sensational, Pulitzer Prize-winning drama was August Wilson’s third play, and comes to Crossroads for the first time. Directed by Ricardo Khan who just recently directed the play in Johannesburg, South Africa where it played to sold out crowds, the Crossroads production will star performers from both the United States and South Africa.
Performances take place from May 29 through June 9, 2024. Tickets are available for purchase online. New Brunswick Performing Arts Center is located at 11 Livingston Avenue in New Brunswick, New Jersey.
“A blockbuster and a major American play.” – New York Daily News
The Crossroads Theatre Company (CTC) was founded in 1978 by Ricardo Khan (Founding Artistic Director) and L. Kenneth Richardson. Initial funding was provided by the CETA Program, Johnson & Johnson, the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, NJ State Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts. The vision of its founders was based on the belief that Black Theater is intended for a broad base diverse audience; a mission which was fulfilled.
As a major force in the development of new ideas and the introduction of formally marginalized writers, Crossroads brought works that challenged thee notion that only one class or group of people could be represented on the American stage. Prior to the company’s emergence in 1978, rarely could there have been found dignified opportunities for artists of color to explore and practice their craft in the professional theater.
In recognition of its success Crossroads was presented with the prestigious Tony Award in 1999 as the “outstanding regional theatre in America.” This marked the first time that a predominantly black theater company had earned this award. Crossroads remains to only culturally specific regional theater to have this honor.
Though founded with the intention to explore the African Diaspora it was eventually realized that Crossroads had become central to the depiction of global interaction with the other cultures in the world. As such the “new” Crossroads sought to reach beyond the borders of face and geography, to a place where theatrical enterprise could mine the rich aesthetics and folklores of the world stage.
