Photo by Paul Porowski for Playhouse 22
(EAST BRUNSWICK, NJ) -- Playhouse 22 presents August Wilson's Fences weekends from April 17 to May 3, 2026. In this Pulitzer Prize Award-Winning play, Troy Maxson, a former star of the Negro baseball leagues, is working 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.
The Playhouse 22 production is directed by Di Shawn J. Gandy. The cast includes Carmen Balentine (Troy Maxson), Rachelle Dorce (Rose Maxson), Jamin Powell (Jim Bono), Travis Gaston (Cory Maxson), Corey Mosley (Lyons Maxson), Immanuel Simmons (Gabriel Maxson), and Daylyne Renee (Raynell Maxson).
Performances take place Friday and Saturday nights at 8:00pm; Sunday matinees at 2:00pm. Tickets are available for purchase online or by calling the Box Office at (732) 254-3939. The theater is located at the Elliott Taubenslag Theater at the East Brunswick Community Arts Center (721 Cranbury Road) in East Brunswick, New Jersey. There will be a talkback session with the cast and crew following the Sunday, April 26 performance.
Photo by Paul Porowski for Playhouse 22
After premiering at Yale Repertory Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut in April 1985, Fences opened on Broadway at the 46th Street Theatre on March 26, 1987. Directed by Lloyd Richards, the production starred James Earl Jones, Mary Alice and Courtney B. Vance. In 2010, the play returned to Broadway, directed by Kenny Leon and starring Denzel Washington, Viola Davis and Chris Chalk.
Considered one of the most iconic plays of the 20th century, Fences is an exploration of fatherhood, identity, and legacy. The play won the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, four Tony Awards (including Best Play, 1987), and the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award. Its 2010 Broadway revival won three Tony Awards, including Best Revival, and the 2016 film adaptation earned four Oscar nominations, with Viola Davis winning Best Supporting Actress.
August Wilson (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, forming the compilation entitled The American Century Cycle. His plays have been produced on Broadway, at regional theaters across the country and all over the world.
In 2003, Mr. Wilson made his professional stage debut in his one-man show, How I Learned What I Learned, currently touring and featuring Eugene Lee reprising Mr. Wilson's role. Mr. Wilson’s works garnered many awards including: the Pulitzer Prize for Fences (1987) and for The Piano Lesson (1990); a Tony Award for Fences; Great Britain’s Olivier Award for Jitney; and 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.
Photo by Paul Porowski for Playhouse 22
Mr. Wilson received many fellowships and awards, including the Rockefeller and Guggenheim Fellowships in Playwriting, the Whiting Writers Award and the 2003 Heinz Award. He was awarded a 1999 National Humanities Medal by President Bill Clinton 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 theatre located at 245 West 52nd Street “The August Wilson Theatre.”
Today, his plays continue to be produced and his place in the American Theatre continues to grow. New York Public Radio recorded all ten plays in the The American Century Cycle at the Greene Space, casting many of the actors that worked on the original productions. PBS aired a documentary on Mr. Wilson, entitled The Ground On Which I Stand, as part of the American Masters series.
Playhouse 22 is East Brunswick's award-winning and critically-acclaimed non-profit community theater troupe since 1958. Driven and run by all volunteers, Playhouse 22 produces and stages four mainstage and three black-box shows as well as an annual holiday show every season. Conveniently located at the Elliott Taubenslag Theater at the East Brunswick Community Arts Center, 721 Cranbury Road, East Brunswick.
