Playwright: August Wilson
• "Fences," which starred James Earl Jones, set a
record for a nonmusical Broadway production
when it grossed $11 million in a single year, and
ran for 525 performances.
• Together, Mr. Wilson's plays logged nearly
1,800 performances on Broadway in a little more
than two decades, and they have been seen in
more than 2,000 separate productions, amateur
and professional.

Each of the plays in the cycle was set in a different
decade of the 20th century, and all but "Ma Rainey" took
place in the impoverished but vibrant African-American
Hill District of Pittsburgh, where Mr. Wilson was born.

In 1978, before he had become a successful writer, Mr.
Wilson moved to St. Paul, and in 1994 he settled in
Seattle, where he died.

But his spiritual home remained the rough streets of the
Hill District, where as a young man he sat in thrall to the
voices of African-American working men and women.

Years later, he would discern in their stories, their jokes
and their squabbles the raw material for an art that
would celebrate the sustaining richness of the black
American experience, bruising as it often was.
 In his work, Mr. Wilson depicted the struggles of
black Americans with uncommon lyrical
richness, theatrical density and emotional heft, in
plays that gave vivid voices to people on the
frayed margins of life: cabdrivers and maids,
garbage men and petty criminals.
 In bringing to the popular American stage the
gritty specifics of the lives of his poor, troubleplagued and sometimes powerfully embittered
black characters, Mr. Wilson also described
universal truths about the struggle for dignity,
love, security and happiness in the face of often
overwhelming obstacles.
Fences by August Wilson
• Fences is the story of a responsible yet
otherwise flawed black garbage collector in preCivil Rights America who, in August Wilson's
hands, rises to the level of an epic hero.
• Deemed a "generational play," it mirrors the
classic struggle of status quo, tradition, and
age, versus change, innovation, and youth.
• During its 1987 Broadway run, Fences
garnered four Tony Awards, the New York
Drama Critics Circle Award, and the Pulitzer
Prize.
• It has been produced around the world and is
one of the most significant African-American
plays of the 20th century.
 -Fences presents a sliceof-life in a black tenement
in Pittsburgh set in the
late 1950s through 1965.
August Wilson’s Fences
 -The main character, Troy
Maxson, is a garbage
collector who has taken
great pride in keeping his
family together and
providing for them.
 -Troy's rebellion and
frustration set the tone for
the play as he struggles
for fairness in a society
which seems to offer
none.
 -In his struggle he builds
fences between himself
and family.
 -Troy also wrestles with the
idea of death and claims
that he sees death as
nothing but a fastball,
something he can handle.
 -The baseball metaphor is
used in relation to death
and throughout the play.
 -The father and son
relationship
between Troy and
Cory is explored as
a central part of the
drama.
 -Their relationship
becomes
complicated by
strong feelings of
pride and
independence on
both sides.
 -Troy is not a flawless
protagonist in that his
relationship with his
wife, Rose, is
challenged at every
turn.
 Eventually his behavior
has consequenses.
 According to Wilson,
"One question in the play
is ` Are the tools we are
given sufficient to
compete in a world that
is different from the one
our parent's knew?'
 I think they are--it's just
that we have to do
different things with the
tools."
This Be The Verse
by Philip Larkin
They * (screw) you up, your mum and dad.
They may not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the faults they had
And add some extra, just for you.
But they were *(screwed) up in their turn
By fools in old-style hats and coats,
Who half the time were soppy-stern
And half at one another's throats.
Man hands on misery to man.
It deepens like a coastal shelf.
Get out as early as you can,
And don't have any kids yourself.
* The original language of this poem has been modified to suite the young,
unsoiled, and impressionable minds of the youngsters at B.L.H.S.
 Fences is both unique
to the plight of African
Americans and
universal in its
depiction of the
human condition.
 The father-son and
husband-wife
relationships cross
both unique and
universal boundaries.
Eventually, Tragic Heroes Experience
some or all of the following:
• FALL FROM GREAT
HEIGHTS OR HIGH
ESTEEM
• REALIZE THEY HAVE
MADE AN
IRREVERSIBLE
MISTAKE
• FACES AND ACCEPTS
DEATH WITH HONOR
• MEET A TRAGIC DEATH
• Do any of these people
look familiar?
Things to think about…
Is Troy a tragic hero?
Is Okonkwo?
What similarities do these two
characters share?