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CENTER VALLEY, PA: July 14, 2022— August Wilson’s groundbreaking Pulitzer Prize- and Tony Award- winning drama Fences opens at Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, the professional theatre on the campus of DeSales University. The show previews July 27 and 28, opens on July 29 and runs through August 7 on the Main Stage at the Labuda Center for the Performing Arts.
Set in 1950s Pittsburgh against the backdrop of a rapidly changing America, August Wilson’s Fences depicts the yearnings and struggles of the Maxson family. Troy Maxson, a former home run king of the Negro baseball leagues now supports his family as a garbage collector, and builds fences around a world he has battled his entire life. An epic work of stunning poetry by a Pennsylvania native, Fences has been hailed by critics as “a blockbuster piece of theater” and “the strongest, most passionate American dramatic writing since Tennessee Williams.” Fences is a timeless story and a true American classic.
Wilson’s award-winning drama will be helmed by veteran stage, film, and television actor Tony Todd. Mr. Todd returns following his one-man performance in last season’s August Wilson play How I Learned What I Learned. With an acting career spanning more than 30 years, Todd has an extensive list of credits in all genres. He has received accolades for numerous roles on stage including a coveted Helen Hayes Award for his performance in Athol Fugard’s The Captain’s Tiger at La Jolla Playhouse, Manhattan Theatre Club, and The Kennedy Center; and originating the title role in the world premiere of August Wilson’s King Hedley II in Pittsburgh, Boston, and Seattle. His additional stage credits include Zooman & the Sign, Playboy of the West Indies, Les Blancs, Othello, Aida on Broadway, and many others, including Troy Maxson in Fences at the Geva Theatre Center.
His films include Oliver Stone’s Academy Award-winning Platoon; Lean On Me with Morgan Freeman; Clint Eastwood’s Bird; and the voice of the Fallen in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, among many others. The charismatic six-foot-five actor is perhaps best known for his chilling performances in horror and sci-fi films including the title role in the Candyman franchise, as well as the Hatchet and Final Destination franchise hits, along with Night of the Living Dead, The Crow, and The Rock.
Todd will be joined by stage, television, and film actress Ella Joyce who will play the role of Rose, Troy’s wife. Joyce’s stage career has earned her numerous awards and nominations. Select credits include: the Goodman Theatre, Having Our Say by Emily Mann, earning a Black Theater Alliance Nomination; August Wilson’s King Hedley II at The Matrix, earning a Los Angeles Ovation Award and a LA Drama Critics Circle Nomination; Tonya in the original production of King Hedley II at O’Reilly Pittsburgh Public Theater (starring alongside Mr. Todd); Two Trains Running on tour, premiering at Yale Rep; and originating the role of Lily Ann Green in Lynn Nottage’s Crumbs From the Table of Joy at Second Stage Theater, South Coast Rep, and Goodman Theatre, earning her a Jefferson Award and Black Theater Alliance Award. She is perhaps best known for her role as Eleanor on the sitcom Roc, which earned her an NAACP Nomination; as well as several other television shows including My Wife and Kids, Seinfeld, Eve, and The Jamie Foxx Show.
The production will be directed by Ryan Quinn, who is a co-founder and artistic director of Esperance Theater Company in New York City. His directing credits there include Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, Youth and Ambition, and Breitwisch Farm. Quinn received his MFA at the Yale School of Drama. Select directing credits include The Mountaintop at Arc Stages; Dad’s Season Tickets, The Lost Girl and So Thrive My Soul at Milwaukee Rep; and The Tempest, Macbeth, and The Two Noble Kinsmen at Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival. As an actor, Quinn recently appeared Off-Broadway as John Proctor in Bedlam’s critically acclaimed production of The Crucible. Additional Off-Broadway credits include Sense and Sensibility at A.R.T.; King Lear and Hamlet at Theatre for a New Audience; Whorl Inside a Loop at Second Stage, and many more.
Also joining the cast are Brian D. Coats as Gabriel, Troy’s brother; and Shane Taylor as Jim Bono, Troy’s friend.
Coats’ extensive Broadway credits include The Merry Wives of Windsor and The Two Gentlemen of Verona at The Public Theater; On the Levee at Lincoln Center Theater/LCT3; and La Ruta at Working Theater. Regional performances include Cincinnati Playhouse, Old Globe, Arena Stage, Seattle Rep, Pittsburgh Public, Denver Center for the Performing Arts, and Williamstown Theatre Festival, to name a few. Among some of his television credits are Blue Bloods, Law & Order, The Sopranos, and Boardwalk Empire.
Taylor has performed Off-Broadway in such productions as Knives in Hens at The Shop Theater; the 50th Anniversary production of In White America at New Federal/Castillo Theatre; and Romeo and Juliet for the Lincoln Center Institute. Select regional credits include performances at Orlando Shakespeare Theater, Milwaukee Rep, Berkshire Theatre Festival, and Williamstown Theatre Festival. He has also received a Best International Actor Award at the Barbados National Film Festival for his roles in God’s Forgotten House and Sarbane’s-Oxley.
Portraying the Maxson children are PSF alum Brandon Edward Burton as Lyons, Troy’s oldest son from a previous marriage; Tyler Fauntleroy as Cory, Troy and Rose’s son; and local actor and Allentown Civic Theatre student Ilan Annum will play Raynell, Troy’s daughter.
Burton, a Yale School of Drama graduate, has performed and collaborated regionally with many theatres, including Baltimore Center Stage, The Public Theater, Shakespeare & Co., and Theatre of the Oppressed NYC. At Yale, he was the recipient of the Herschel Williams Prize for outstanding acting ability.
Fauntleroy’s credits include Off-Broadway’s Tambo and Bones at Playwrights Horizons and Looking for Leroy at New Federal Theatre. Select regional performances include Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, Folger Theatre, and People’s Light. His television credits include Succession, FBI, and The Oath.
The 1950s Pittsburgh set, where the play takes place, was designed by Baron E. Pugh, with lighting designed by Aja M. Jackson. Kendra L. Johnson designed costumes, with Earon Chew Nealey as hair, wig, and makeup designer. Larry D. Fowler, Jr. is the sound designer. J. Alex Cordaro is the fight director. Erin Joy Swank will serve as stage manager of the production, with Chiara H. Johnson as assistant stage manager.
Amaranth Foundation is the Production Sponsor for August Wilson’s Fences. The Production Co-Sponsor is Keenan Nagle Advertising. The Actor Sponsors are Lee & Dolly Butz. Kathleen Kund Nolan & Timothy E. Nolan are the 2022 Season Sponsors. Associate Season Sponsors are Douglas Dykhouse, Linda Lapos & Paul Wirth, the Szarko Family, and Harry C. Trexler Trust.
Subscription packages and single tickets can be purchased online at pashakespeare.org or by calling the PSF box office at 610.282.WILL [9455].
Summer 2022 Season
Main Stage: A Chorus Line (June 22 to July 10), Fences (July 27 to August 7), Shakespeare for Kids (July 28 to Aug 6).
Schubert Theatre: Little Red (June 3 to Aug 6), Every Brilliant Thing (June 7 to June 19), Much Ado About Nothing (July 13 to Aug 7), The River Bride (a staged reading, July 1 to July 3).
The season runs now to August 7 at the Labuda Center for the Performing Arts on the bucolic campus of DeSales University in Center Valley.
Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival features acclaimed actors from Broadway, television, and film, and is summer home to over 200 artists from around the country, including winners and nominees of the Tony, Obie, Emmy, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Jefferson, and Barrymore awards.
For tickets, contact the PSF box office at 610.282.WILL[9445] or pashakespeare.org.
About Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival
Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, under the leadership of Producing Artistic Director Patrick Mulcahy, is the only professional Equity theatre of its scope and scale within a 50-mile radius. PSF is one of only a handful of theatres on the continent producing Shakespeare, musicals, classics, and contemporary plays, all of which can normally be seen in rep and in multiple spaces within a few visits in a single summer season. Similarly, PSF was among just a handful of theatres on the continent in recent summers to produce three Shakespeare plays in a single summer season. A patron would have to travel seven to nine hours from PSF to find a comparable range of offerings at a single theatre within a few weeks’ time. The Festival’s award-winning company of many world-class artists includes Broadway, film, and television veterans, and winners and nominees of the Tony, Emmy, Obie, Outer Critics Circle, Drama Desk, Jefferson, Hayes, Lortel, and Barrymore awards. A leading Shakespeare theatre with a national reputation for excellence, PSF has received coverage in The Washington Post, NPR, American Theatre Magazine, Playbill.com, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and in recent seasons The New York Times has identified PSF as one of the leading summer theatre festivals in the nation. “A world-class theater experience on a par with the top Bard fests,” is how one New York Drama Desk reviewer characterized PSF. Founded in 1992 and the Official Shakespeare Festival of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, PSF’s mission is to enrich, inspire, engage, and entertain the widest possible audience through first-rate productions of classical and contemporary plays, with a core commitment to Shakespeare and other master dramatists, and through an array of education and mentorship programs. A not-for-profit theatre, PSF receives significant support from its host, DeSales University, from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Traditionally, with 150 performances of seven productions, the Festival attracts patrons each summer from 30+ states. In 30 years, PSF has offered 200+ total productions (82 Shakespeare), and entertained 1,000,000+ patrons from 50 states, now averaging 34,000-40,000 in attendance each summer season, plus another 13,000 students each year through its WillPower Tour to schools. PSF is a multi-year recipient of awards from the National Endowment for the Arts: Shakespeare in American Communities, and is a constituent of Theatre Communications Group, and the Shakespeare Theatre Association (STA). In 2013, leaders of the world’s premier Shakespeare theatres gathered at PSF as the Festival hosted the international STA Conference.
The Festival’s vision is for world-class theatre.
PATRICK MULCAHY (Producing Artistic Director, PSF) Since assuming leadership in 2003, Mulcahy has led PSF’s surge in artistic excellence, financial stability, and national recognition. Accomplishments include first and subsequent grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, attracting a multitude of award-winning artists including winners and nominees of the Tony, Obie, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Barrymore, and Emmy awards, a doubling of annual attendance, a successful campaign to double the Festival’s endowment, and the expansion of the number of Actors’ Equity contracts per season. He led the strategic planning process that led to PSF’s Vision 2030, a commitment to world-class professional theatre, and coverage in The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and The Washington Post. As a professional director, actor, and fight director, credits include Broadway, Off-Broadway, regional theatre, television and radio. Mr. Mulcahy has acted with many industry luminaries including Don Cheadle, Angela Bassett, Cynthia Nixon, and Tony Shaloub at the New York Shakespeare Festival, The Roundabout Theatre, Hartford Stage, Great Lakes Theatre Festival, and the Walnut Street Theatre. He served as fight director for A Few Good Men on Broadway, and multiple Off-Broadway productions starring Marcia Gay Harden, John Mahoney, Patrick Dempsey, and John Savage. He directed Oscar nominee Vera Farmiga in The Real Thing, and, for PSF, directed The Winter’s Tale, Henry IV, Part 1, The Tempest, Antony and Cleopatra, Hamlet, Macbeth, Julius Caesar, and Shakespeare in Love. Also Head of Acting at DeSales, Patrick holds degrees in acting and directing from Syracuse University.
Artist Bios:
ILAN ANNUM (Raynell, Fences) resides in Allentown with her family while attending elementary school in the Parkland School District. She’s a student at the Civic Theatre of Allentown. Her most recent roles were Caroling Urchin and Street Urchin in Civic Theatre’s, A Christmas Carol. She was a lead voice actor as Hazel in The Quarantine Plays by the Merry Beggars. Ilan takes voice and trumpet lessons. She’s an avid reader and entrepreneur of a custom pillow business. Ilan would like to thank her family and friends for their love and support. She is also profoundly grateful to director Ryan Quinn for this valuable experience.
BRANDON EDWARD BURTON* (Lyons, Fences) Regional: The Folks at Home (Baltimore Center Stage), Merry Wives (Public Theater). Yale Drama: Othello (Othello), Henry VI pt. 3 (York, George, Bona), Marty and the Hands That Could (Mike Money). Yale Rep: A Raisin in the Sun (Bobo). A native of Saint Louis, and a graduate of Yale School of Drama, he resides in New York, and has collaborated with fine and new media artists: Bassera Khan, Farai Malianga, Dominic Chambers, Theatre of the Oppressed NYC, and Shakespeare & Co. At Yale: Artistic Director of The Yale Cabaret (2019-2020 Season) and recipient of the Herschel Williams Prize for outstanding acting ability.
BRIAN D. COATS* (Gabriel, Fences) has New York credits that include Broadway (MTC/ U.S. Tour) Jitney, On the Levee (Lincoln Center Theater/LCT3), La Ruta (Working Theater), Pan Asian Rep. Theatre, Ensemble Studio Theatre, The Bacchae, The First Noel (Classical Theatre of Harlem), The Merry Wives of Windsor and The Two Gentlemen of Verona (The Public Theater) among others. Regional/Touring credits: Mark Taper Forum, Old Globe, Arena Stage, Seattle Rep, Pittsburgh Public, Huntington Theatre, Cincinnati Playhouse, Two River Theater, Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Geva Theatre Center and others. Television credits: Queens, FBI: Most Wanted, Luke Cage, Boardwalk Empire, Law & Order, Law & Order: SVU, JAG, Blue Bloods, and The Sopranos. Mr. Coats is a graduate of the University of North Carolina’s School of the Arts.
TYLER FAUNTLEROY* (Cory, Fences) Off-Broadway: Tambo and Bones (Playwrights Horizons/Center Theatre Group), Looking for Leroy (New Federal Theatre). Regional: Tempest, The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington (Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival), Henry IV part 1 (Folger Theatre), Cinderella: A Musical Panto (People’s Light), Romeo and Juliet (Westport Country Playhouse), Next to Normal (Syracuse Stage); TV: Succession, FBI, The Oath. Audelco Award for Best Acting Ensemble. BFA: Virginia Commonwealth University.
ELLA JOYCE* (Rose, Fences) has earned many awards and citations for her work. Credits include: Goodman Theatre, Having Our Say by Emily Mann, earning a Black Theater Alliance Nomination for Dr. Bessie Delaney; August Wilson’s King Hedley II at The Matrix earning a Los Angeles Ovation Award and an LA Drama Critics Circle Nomination for the role of Ruby; Tonya in the original production of King Hedley II at O’Reilly Pittsburgh Public Theater with Tony Todd; Risa in Two Trains Running on tour, premiering at Yale Rep; originating the role of Lily Ann Green in Lynn Nottage’s Crumbs From the Table Of Joy at Second Stage Theater, South Coast Rep, and Goodman Theatre earning a Jefferson Award and Black Theater Alliance Award. As a Beinecke Fellow at Yale Rep School of Drama, Ella performed in Bossa Nova by Kirsten Greenidge which she also originated at the Sundance Playwriting Lab in Utah. She is an original founding member of The National Black Theatre Festival in Winston-Salem, NC, and has performed as a favorite at that Festival for years. She performed with Ruby Dee at the Bermuda Arts Festival in Ron Milner’s Checkmates. Ella is also known for her role of Eleanor in the sitcom Roc which earned her an NAACP Nomination. Other select TV/Film: Temptation, My Wife and Kids, The Jamie Foxx Show, Seinfeld, Eve, Being Mary Jane, Preacher’s Kid, Lucky Girl, Bubba Ho-Tep, Set It Off, Selma, Lord Selma, Nina, and MTV Award winning “Waterfalls” video. As a voiceover artist, she is heard on Audible Books-on-tape: Ron Milner’s Ruby McCollum Story, as the voice of Zora Neal Hurston produced by Los Angeles Theatre Works, and BET’s Storyporch children reading series.
SHANE TAYLOR* (Bono, Fences) PSF: debut. Off-Broadway: Knives in Hens (The Shop Theater) 50th Anniversary Production of In White America (New Federal/Castillo Theatre) and Romeo and Juliet (Lincoln Center Institute). In New York: The Desire (The Billie Holiday Theatre), The Love Talker (NY Fringe). Regional: Orlando Shakespeare Theatre, Luna Stage, Premiere Stages, Roundhouse Theater, Actor’s Theatre of Louisville, Berkshire Theatre Festival, Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, Indiana Repertory Theatre, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Berkeley Rep, Florida Studio Theater, and Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park. Film: God’s Forgotten House, Sarbane’s Oxley (Best International Actor 2007 Barbados International Film Festival). TV: King of the Bingo Game (PBS) and numerous appearances and voice-overs in national commercials. Education: MFA, Rutgers University, Mason Gross School of the Arts.
TONY TODD* (Troy, Fences) made his PSF debut last summer in Wilson’s How I Learned What I Learned. Other recent theater: TheaterWorks production of Dominique Morriseau’s Sunset Baby, Ghost in the House, the one man play about the late great boxer Jack Johnson, the world premiere of The Black Odyssey at Denver Center for the Performing Arts, the workshop of The Royale for the LATC at the Kirk Douglas Theater. He has also done a number of workshop seminars across the country. Tony is proud to have been in the productions of Fences, at the Geva Theatre Center; Captains Tiger, at the La Jolla Playhouse, Manhattan Theater Club, and The Kennedy Center (for which he received a Helen Hayes nomination); Zooman & the Sign at Second Stage; Home and Playboy of the West Indies, at Crossroads; Les Blancs at the Arena Stage, Huntington, and Seattle Rep. Tony originated the role of King Hedley II, at Pittsburgh Public, Huntington and Seattle Rep. Tony trained at Eugene O’Neill Theater Center and Trinity Rep Conservatory. Tony recently starred in the hit series The Flash as the sinister character ‘Zoom’, in the HBO series Room 104, and in the Freeform series Dead of Summer. Film/TV: Platoon, Lean On Me, Night of the Living Dead, The Crow, Candyman, Frankenstein, Sushi Girl, Transformers Prime, Final Destination 1,3,4,5, Le Secret, Star Trek the Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager, The Rock, Bird, The Man From Earth, Changing the Game, Hatchet 1&2, Chuck, Hawaii 5-0, Criminal Minds, Law & Order, Homicide, NYPD Blue, X-Files, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, Black Fox, 24, True Women, to name a few. Upcoming films: Drive Me to Vegas or Mars, From Jennifer, West of Hell among others. Presently Tony is finishing his screenplay Providence and preparing his one-man theater project Conversations with: Bayard Rustin, Woody Strode, and Lester Young.
Creative Team Bios:
J. ALEX CORDARO(Fight Director,Fences) has spent the last 30 years studying, practicing, teaching, and directing theatrical violence in the US and Europe. He has served as Fight Director on over 200 professional shows, including 12 World and U.S. Premieres with AEA and AGMA. Alex currently runs the stage combat progression at the University of the Arts in Philly.
LARRY D. FOWLER, JR. (Sound Designer, Fences) is a Philadelphia based theater sound designer, radio imaging producer, and music producer whose work spans 20+ years. Theater companies Larry has designed for include Arden Theater, Wilma Theater, Azuka Theater (current Board Member), InterAct Theater, Theater Horizon, People’s Light, New Paradise Labs, Simpatico, Theater Exile, Lantern Theatre, Denver Center, Trinity Rep, Rennie Harris Puremovement (DJ-Rome And Jewels), ELeon Dance, Danse4Nia, and Khaleah London Dance. He is a 3-time Barrymore Award nominee for his work on Blood Wedding (Wilma Theater, 2017), Peter and the Starcatcher (Theater Horizon, 2018), and Hype Man (InterAct Theater, 2018). In broadcast radio, Larry has been an in-studio producer and board operator for Radio One, Inc. in Philadelphia and is currently an imaging producer, voice over talent, and content editor for HealthcareNowRadio.com. He is also an Adjunct Associate Professor at The University of the Arts.
AJA M. JACKSON (Lighting Designer, Fences) Off-Broadway: A Commercial Jingle for Regina Comet. Regional: Hartford Stage, Lost in Yonkers; Everyman Theatre, Behold, A Negress; American Repertory Theater, Hear Word; The Public Theater Under the Radar Festival, Hear Word; North Carolina Black Rep, Freedom Summer; Kitchen Theatre, Catch as Catch Can; Speakeasy Stage, Once on This Island; Lyric Stage Company of Boston, The Cake, Breath and Imagination; Actors’ Shakespeare Project, Nat Turner in Jerusalem; Moonbox Productions, Passing Strange; Boston Early Music Festival, Pimpinone and Ino. Dance: Modern Connections, Hot Water Over Raised Fists. Holdtight: What Keeps You Going? Other: Boston Conservatory Theater, The Consul, Glory Denied, Can’t Keep Quiet, and Brandeis University.
CHIARA H. JOHNSON (Assistant Stage Manager, Every Brilliant Thing, Fences, River Bride) is a BIPOC stage manager from NYC. Credits include New York Theatre Workshop, Roundabout Theatre, Utah Shakespeare Festival, and Playbill’s Pride Plays series.
KENDRA L. JOHNSON (Costume Designer, Fences) made her design debut at PSF with last year’s How I Learned What I Learned. In her twenty years of designing, Kendra costumed over 100 productions, including the world premiere of The Power of Sail, The Cake, Intimate Apparel, Fences, Macbeth, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Dutchman. She has worked with theatres in the northeast, southeast, and midwest, including Cincinnati Shakespeare, Nebraska Repertory Theatre, Hangar Theatre in Ithaca, NY, Actor’s Express in Atlanta, and The Warehouse Theatre in Greenville, SC, and Geva Theatre in Rochester, NY. Kendra is also an associate professor in the Performing Arts Department at Clemson University, where she teaches costume design and technology and African American Theatre.
EARON CHEW NEALEY (Hair, Wig and Makeup Design, Fences). Broadway: Macbeth (Associate Hair Designer); Chicken and Biscuits (Associate Wig and Makeup Designer); Sweat (Associate Makeup Designer). Other design: Kinky Boots (Bucks County Playhouse); On Killing (Soho Rep); Fat Ham, Cullad Wattah, Mojada (The Public Theater); Little Girl Blue (Goodspeed, New World Stages); Meet Vera Stark, Matilda (Colorado University); On Sugarlad (NYTW); Nina Simone: Four Women (Berkshire Theatre Group); Once on This Island (Pioneer Theatre Company); Little Women (Dallas Theater Center); Oklahoma!, Patsy Cline (Weston Theater Company); Memphis, Dream Girls (Cape Fear Regional Theater); Cadillac Crew, Twelfth Night (Yale Rep).
BARON E. PUGH (Scenic Designer, Fences) PSF: How I Learned What I Learned. Lyric Stage Company of Boston: The Light, Breath and Imagination, The Wiz. The Huntington Theatre: The Bluest Eye (associate designer). Trinity Rep: Tiny Beautiful Things, Radio Golf. TheatreSquared: The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity, School Girls. Umbrella Theater: The Colored Museum, The Old Man and the Old Moon. SpeakEasy Stage Company: Passover, Choir Boy, School Girls. Shakespeare Theater of New Jersey: The Comedy of Errors, Snug. Baron received his MFA in Scenic Design from Boston University and is a proud member of United Scenic Artists Local 829.
RYAN QUINN (Director, Fences) is an actor, director, teacher. In 2021, he directed The Mountaintop at Arc Stages, Dad’s Season Tickets at Milwaukee Rep, and The Tempest at The Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival (where he also directed Macbeth, The Two Noble Kinsman and two productions of Romeo and Juliet for the tour/conservatory company). Ryan is a co-founder and the artistic director of Esperance Theater Company, directing Twelfth Night, Youth and Ambition, and Breitwisch Farm. Additional directing: Everybody, Lost Girl, So Thrive My Soul at Milwaukee Rep (PTI Program), God of Carnage and Stick Fly at AADA, and Comedy of Errors at LIU Post. As an actor, Ryan most recently appeared Off-Broadway as John Proctor in Bedlam’s critically acclaimed production of The Crucible. Also, with Bedlam; DeadDogPark at 59E59 Theaters, Sense and Sensibility at A.R.T. and Portland Center Stage, Bedlam: The Series, and Hedda Gabler later in 2022. Additional Off-Broadway: Whorl Inside a Loop at Second Stage, Vanity Fair at The Pearl, The Killer, Antony and Cleopatra, King Lear, and Hamlet at Theatre for a New Audience. MFA: Yale School of Drama.
ERIN JOY SWANK* (Stage Manager, Fences, River Bride) (she/her) enjoys working in a variety of genres; recent credits include Baltimore Center Stage, Tantrum Theater, Memphis Opera, Cirque Dreams Holidaze, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Tuacahn Center for the Arts, and The Nutcracker in Las Vegas. Five Christmases of yore were spent touring the Radio City Christmas Spectacular, featuring the Rockettes and three adorable camels. Erin recently became a published author, collaborating on Off Headset: Essays on Stage Management Work, Life, and Career (Routledge), and writes a popular blog geeking out about stage management.
AUGUST WILSON (Playwright, Fences) (1945—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 theater located at 245 West 52nd Street –“The August Wilson Theatre.” Additionally, Mr. Wilson was posthumously inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame in 2007. 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. Mr. Wilson was born and raised in the Hill District of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and lived in Seattle, Washington at the time of his death. He is immediately survived by his two daughters, Sakina Ansari and Azula Carmen Wilson, and his wife, costume designer Constanza Romero, who is the executor of his estate.
*Member of Actors’ Equity Association.
Information provided to TVL by:
Tina Louise Slak
Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival
The Professional Theatre at DeSales University
2755 Station Avenue
Center Valley, PA 18034
p: 610-282-WILL [9455]
www.pashakespeare.org
