(WILLIAMSTOWN, NJ) -- The Road Company presents August Wilson's Fences across two weekends from March 12-22, 2026. The play one the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and a 2010 revival won the Tony Award, Drama Desk Award, and Outer Critics Circle Award for best revival.
The play features 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.
The cast includes: Craig Bazan (Troy Maxson), Beatrice Hemmings (Rose Maxson), Jai Surles (Cory Maxson), Zaquiiran Jones (Gabriel), Brandon Tabb (Lyons Maxson), Beaux Emerson (Jim Bono), and Aaliyah Douglas (Raynell Maxson).
Performances take place Thursdays at 7:30pm; Friday and Saturdays at 8:00pm; and Sundays at 2:00pm. Tickets are available for purchase online. The theater is located at 405 S Main Street in Williamstown, New Jersey.
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.
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.
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.”
The Road Company believes in providing professional quality live theater, educational programming and community outreach by creating artistic, technical and operational opportunities to celebrate, educate and share stories of diversity, equality and inclusion.
The company's core value is to include and support all artists and patrons no matter their age, race, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability. They will continue to use their artistic expression to transcend a message of hope, love and equality to strengthen the community while keeping the Arts alive in the historic Grand Theatre.
