When many people think of theatre they think of Broadway. Bright lights. Big city. Grandiose fanfare. NYC. Triple-digit tickets. You know the Broadway drill. Enjoying a fabulous theatrical production, however, does not have to always mean making the great voyage to New York City and paying hundreds of bucks per ticket. Though Broadway is a treat, taking in an enthralling LIVE show can also be as captivating and as affordable as looking in your own backyard. Our nation is filled with amazing regional theaters, and there is likely one near you.

In this Black And Making It interview, we go behind the scenes during tech rehearsal to talk with the cast and director of FENCES by August Wilson at Circle Theatre, a regional theater located in the downtown arts hub of Fort Worth, Texas. We get their take on:

• What makes the work of Pulitzer Prize-winning Black playwright August Wilson universal and timeless
• The value regional theaters bring to communities
• The importance of theatre in the black community
• What black and making it means to them
• And more!

Watch our interview in the video above. FENCES, directed by D. Wambui Richardson, opens on Friday, September 2, 2022 and runs through September 24, 2022. Purchase tickets at CircleTheatre.com. Can’t make it to Texas? Plan a visit to the regional theater near you.

In August Wilson’s American classic, Troy Maxson, a former star baseball player, is excluded from the major leagues, as a Black man. He is deemed ‘too old’ by the time the Majors begins admitting Black athletes. Troy’s bitterness takes its toll on his relationships with his son, who now wants his own chance to become a football star, and his wife, who reevaluates their marriage when Troy comes home with a secret that changes their lives. Set in the 1950s, it is the sixth in Wilson’s ten-part “Pittsburgh Cycle” — a collection of ten plays that span across decades to document African American experiences in the 20th-Century. This sensational drama was the recipient of the Pulitzer Prize and numerous New York Drama Critic’s and Tony awards—it is not to be missed. ~ Circle Theatre

Header image courtesy of Circle Theatre.

~

BAM-iT! Founder Ayvaunn Penn (Columbia University Playwriting Dean’s Fellow, Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference Finalist) is all things art and education. She is named by Playbill.com and Black Theatre Coalition as a Next Generation of Black Theatre Professionals honoree. Penn is a theatre professor, playwright-director, and lyricist-composer passionate about theatre for social change, applied theatre, and nurturing future generations of theatre artists. She hopes to one day write for children’s animation! Learn more about Penn at ThePennSpeaks.com and follow her @ThePennSpeaks on social media. Don’t forget to subscribe to BlackAndMakingItTV.com!