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Fences
by August Wilson
Directed by Kenny Leon
9/11/2009 – 10/11/2009
BU Theatre – Mainstage
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| Troy Maxson |
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| Bono |
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| Rose |
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| Lyons |
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| Gabriel |
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| Cory |
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| Raynell |
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| Scenic Design by |
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Music Direction &
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| Production Stage Manager |
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 August Wilson (Playwright)
August Wilson 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 African-Americans, decade-by-decade, over the course of the 20th century. Mr. Wilson's plays have been produced at regional theatres across the country and all over the world, as well as on Broadway. In 2003, Mr. Wilson made his professional stage debut in his one-man show, How I Learned What I Learned. Mr. Wilson's work garnered many awards, including Pulitzer Prizes for Fences (1987); and for The Piano Lesson (1990); a Tony Award for Fences; Great Britain's Olivier Award for Jitney; as well as 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 include 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 Rockefeller and Guggenheim Fellowships in Playwrighting, the Whiting Writers' Award, the 2003 Heinz Award, a 1999 National Humanities Medal by the President of the United States, and 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 indu ctee 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. 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 survived by his two daughters, Sakina Ansari and Azula Carmen Wilson, and his wife, costume designer Constanza Romero.
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 Kenny Leon (Director)
Kenny Leon directed the Huntington productions of August Wilson's Gem of the Ocean and Radio Golf. His Broadway work includes the 2004 Tony Award-winning revival of Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun, which recorded the highest-grossing weekly box office sales for a Broadway drama. He also directed the Emmy-nominated film "A Raisin in the Sun" which aired on ABC in 2008 and received the Director's Guild Award, Emmy Award, and Golden Globe Award nominations and won the NAACP image award for Outstanding Television Movie. Other directorial credits include the Tony Award-nominated productions of August Wilson's Gem of the Ocean and Radio Golf, Toni Morrison's opera, Margaret Garner, and Artistic Director of August Wilson's Century Cycle at the Kennedy Center. Mr. Leon has directed extensively around the country, including the Goodman Theatre, Center Theatre Group, and The Public Theater. He is the former Artistic Director of the Alliance Theatre where he produced the pemieres of Disney's Elaborate Lives: the Legend of Aida, Pearl Cleage's Blue for an Alabama Sky, and Alfred Uhry's The Last Night of Ballyhoo. Mr. Leon is a graduate and honorary Ph.D. of Clark Atlanta University and also founder and Artistic Director of True Colors Theatre Company, principal of KL Productions and a sought-after inspirational speaker.
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 John Beasley* (Troy)
John Beasley makes his Huntington Theatre Company
debut. He has appeared regionally in August Wilson's Two Trains
Running (Goodman Theatre, dir. Lloyd Richards), Jitney (Alliance
Theatre, dir. Kenny Leon), and Joe Turner’s Come and Gone (John
Beasley Theater). He appeared in Jitney, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone,
and Fences in The Kennedy Center’s August Wilson’s 20th Century.
He earned his Equity card playing the role of Troy in Fences at the New American
Theater in Rockford, IL. Mr. Beasley is the founder of the John Beasley Theater and
Workshop (JBT) in his hometown of Omaha, NE. Now in its tenth season, JBT is
the only minority theatre in Nebraska. He has starred in over 35 films including
Rudy, The Apostle, The General’s Daughter, The Sum of All Fears, and Walking Tall. His
TV credits include four years as a regular and narrator on the WB’s “Everwood”
and a regular on the short lived “Brewster Place” as love interest to Oprah
Winfrey’s character. Guest star appearances include “Boston Legal,” “Judging
Amy,” “CSI,” “NCIS,” and many others.
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 Brandon J. Dirden* (Lyons)
Brandon J. Dirden makes his Huntington debut. On
Broadway, he appeared in Prelude To A Kiss (Roundabout Theatre
Company, dir. Daniel Sullivan), and Off Broadway, in The First
Breeze of Summer (Signature Theatre, dir. Ruben Santiago-
Hudson). His regional credits include the world premiere of
Magnolia (Goodman Theatre, dir. Anna Shapiro); Topdog/Underdog
(Playmakers Repertory Company); Ceremonies in Dark Old Men (True Colors
Theatre, dir. Kenny Leon); Othello, Twelfth Night, Metamorphoses, Comedy of Errors,
and others (Georgia Shakespeare Festival); A Death in the House…, A Christmas
Carol, and The Breach (Alliance Theatre); Take Me Out (Theatre in the Square); Come
On in My Kitchen (7 Stages); Miss Dessa (Ensemble Theater); Joe Turner’s Come and
Gone (Alley Theater); Harvey (Utah Shakespeare Festival); and Julius Caesar and As
You Like It (North Carolina Shakespeare Festival). He received a B.A. from
Morehouse College and an M.F.A. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-
Champaign, and is a member of The Actors Center.
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 Crystal Fox* (Rose)
Crystal Fox returns to the Huntington, having previously
appeared in Blues for an Alabama Sky. Off Broadway, she appeared
in Everybody’s Ruby at The Public Theater. Regionally, she has
appeared in Gem of the Ocean (Seattle Repertory Theatre), Ma
Rainey’s Black Bottom, 7 Guitars, and From the Mississippi Delta
(Alliance Theatre), and Flyin’ West (True Colors Theatre
Company). She received a Drammy Award for Best Actress for her performance in
For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf at Portland
Center Stage and a Helen Hayes Award nomination for Homeat Round House
Theatre. She appeared in 3 Sistahs at MetroStage and for two seasons at the Oregon
Shakespeare Festival in productions of Antony & Cleopatra, The Piano Lesson, Comedy
of Errors, and A Raisin in the Sun. Ms. Fox appeared in the film Driving Miss Daisy and
on television as Sgt. Luann Corbin on
“In the Heat of the Night,” as well as on
“Third Watch,” “Law & Order,” “The
Sopranos,” and in the TV films The Old
Settler and Mama Flora’s Family.
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Faith Lambert (Raynell)
Faith Lambert has appeared in many shows at Brown University's Rites and Reason Theatre, as well as playing Little Lala in The Colored Museum at the Providence Black Repertory Theatre. She is an accomplished gymnast, trained in tap and ballet dancing, and an honors student in the fourth grade at Sacred Heart Academy in East Providence, RI.
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 Eugene Lee* (Bono)
Eugene Lee
returns to the
Huntington, having
previously appeared
in Radio Golf and Gem
of the Ocean. Regional
credits include four of the plays in
August Wilson’s 20th Century(Kennedy
Center), Two Trains Running
(Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre); and
Home, Sons and Fathers of Sons,
Manhattan Made Me, and the Pulitzer
Prize-winning A Soldier’s Play (the
internationally renowned Negro
Ensemble Company, of which he was a
member). He is the 1990 recipient of
the NAACP Theatre Award for Best
Supporting Actor. Feature film credits
include Static, Fraternity Boys, and
Menace to Society. Mr. Lee’s television
credits include “The Women of
Brewster Place” and many more. He is
also a playwright whose works
include East Texas Hot Links, Fear Itself, Somebody Called: A Tale of Two Preachers,
Killingsworth, and the musical Twist. Mr. Lee serves as artist in residence and artistic
director of the Texas State University Black and Latino Playwright’s Conference.
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 Warner Miller* (Cory)
Warner Miller makes his Huntington debut, having recently
appeared in The Old Globe’s premiere of Since Africa. His credits
include August Wilson’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (Syracuse
Stage), The Piano Lesson (Geva Theatre and Indiana Repertory
Theatre), False Creeds (Alliance Theatre), A Raisin in the Sun
(Hartford Stage), The Ballad of Emmett Till (Eugene O’Neill Center),
and A Soldier’s Play (Black Spectrum Theatre). Film credits include Melvin Lucas
in American Gangster (dir. Ridley Scott), Nicky Lolo in HBO Films’ Wyclef Jean in
America,and Beadle in HBO Films’ Everyday People. Television credits include “Law
& Order,” “CSI: NY,” and “Guiding Light.” He earned his B.P.S. in music business at
Five Towns College.
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 Bill Nunn* (Gabriel)
Bill Nunn is a veteran of stage, film, and television. He
appeared on Broadway in the critically acclaimed revival of A
Raisin in the Sun, and was a company member with the milestone
presentation of August Wilson’s 20th Century at The Kennedy
Center. Mr. Nunn has also appeared in over fifty films and three
television series.
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Hyacinth Tauriac (Raynell)
Hyacinth Tauriac had performed with Pocket Players, Jr., a
troupe that performs in both English and American Sign
Language. She is in the third grade at Country School in Weston,
Massachusetts. Both of her parents are graduates of Boston
University.
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Marjorie Bradley Kellogg (Scenic Designer)
Marjorie Bradley Kellogg recently designed the world premiere of
Margaret Garner for the Michigan Opera. Her Broadway credits include Any Given
Day, George C. Scott’s revival of On Borrowed Time, Lucifer’s Child, American Buffalo
with Al Pacino, Da, Requiem for a Heavyweight, A Day in the Death of Joe Egg,
Solomon’s Child, Arsenic and Old Lace, Steaming, and The Best Little Whorehouse in
Texas. Her Off Broadway credits include productions at New York Shakespeare
Festival, Signature Theatre, Second Stage Theatre, Manhattan Theatre Club, Playwrights Horizons, and Roundabout Theatre Company. She is the recipient of
the 2006 USITT Distinguished Achievement Award in Scene Design, the
2002 Ruth Morley Design Award, the 1995 Mary L. Murphy Award for Excellence
in Design, the first Michael Merritt Award for Design and Collaboration (1994),
1983-1984 Boston Theatre Critics Circle Award, and the 1992-1994 Pew Charitable
Trust Residence at Alliance Theatre, Atlanta. She teaches at Princeton University
and Columbia University, and has served as associate professor of design at
Colgate University since 1995.
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Mariann Verheyen (Costume Designer)
Mariann Verheyen has designed for the Huntington since its
premiere season, Present Laughter (Independent Reviewers of New England Award)
being her most recent show. She designed Peter Pan for Broadway. Off Broadway
credits include The Public Theater/NYSF, The York, Second Stage Theatre, and
Hudson Guild Theatres. She has designed at The Ford’s, Alliance, Studio Arena,
Missouri Repertory, Pittsburgh Public, and Chicago Shakespeare Theatres;
Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park; and the Oregon, Colorado, and Alabama
Shakespeare Festivals. Ms. Verheyen has also designed for Disney Cruise Lines and
Disney World’s Animal Kingdom, and has styled television commercials for 15 years
in New York City. Her awards include two Boston IRNEs, Atlanta’s 2006 Suzi Award,
two Best of Atlanta Awards, a NYC Villager Downtowner Theatre Award, Chicago’s
2002 Jeff Award, 2005 and 2007 Jeff Award nominations, and an AUDELCO Award
nomination. She has a Distinguished Achievement Award from both her high
school and undergraduate school, St. Norbert College. She is head of the costume
design program at the Boston University College of Fine Arts, School of Theatre.
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Ann Wrightson (Lighting Designer)
Ann Wrightson previously designed Blues for an Alabama Sky, A
Raisin in the Sun, and Scenes from the Mississippi Delta for the Huntington. Her
Broadway work includes the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning August:
Osage County (Tony Award nomination; also the U.S. national tour and the
National Theatre, London) and Souvenir. Recent regional credits include The
Unmentionables (Yale Repertory Theatre), Up and The Man from Nebraska
(Steppenwolf Theatre Company), Gem of the Ocean and Radio Golf (Alliance
Theatre), Intimate Apparel (Guthrie Theater and Steppenwolf Theatre Company),
A Prayer for Owen Meany and Inana(Denver Center Theatre Company), and 10
seasons at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Her work has been seen at The
Kennedy Center, Long Wharf Theatre, and the National Playwrights Conference
at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center. Television work includes projects for
Comedy Central and “Politically Incorrect With Bill Maher.” She received the
Backstage Garland Award for Magic Fire at Oregon Shakespeare Festival, as well as
an AUDELCO nomination.
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Ben Emerson (Sound Designer)
Ben Emerson has been the audio supervisor at the Huntington
Theatre Company for the last ten years while designing freelance in the Boston
area and teaching sound design at the Boston University School of Theatre. His
design credits at the Huntington include The Miracle at Naples, What the Butler
Saw, Cookin’ at the Cookery, Gross Indecency, Cabaret Verboten, and The Glass
Menagerie. Additional regional credits include Mrs. Sedgewick’s Head (Trinity
Repertory Company) and Woman in Black, Quartet, The Pavilion, and Short Haired
Grace (Merrimack Repertory Theatre). Mr. Emerson’s local designs include Where
Elephants Weep (Cambodian Living Arts), Wind in the Willows (Gloucester Stage
Company), The Order of Things (Centastage), as well as Freedom of the City (The
Súgán Theatre Company) and others. Mr. Emerson received an IRNE Award for
Best Sound Design for his design of The Seafarer for SpeakEasy Stage Company, for
whom he also designed The Wrestling Patient.
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Dwight D. Andrews (Music Director/Original Music)
Dwight D. Andrews has previously composed music
for the Huntington productions of From the Mississippi Delta, The Piano Lesson, and
Seven Guitars. On Broadway, he composed for the original productions of Ma
Rainey’s Black Bottom, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, The Piano Lesson, Fences, and Seven
Guitars, and the revivals of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and A Raisin in the Sun. His Off
Broadway credits include Everybody’s Ruby, Gertrude Stein’s Photograph, and The
Resurrection of Lady Lester. His regional credits include music supervisor for The
Kennedy Center’s August Wilson’s 20th Century, Playboy of the West Indies, Jitney,
Heliotrope Bouquet, Blues in the Night, Death of a Salesman, From the Mississippi Delta,
Miss Evers’ Boys, Flying West, and Blues for an Alabama Sky. His film and television
credits include The Old Settler, Miss Evers' Boys, and The Piano Lesson. Mr. Andrews
was resident music director of the Yale Repertory Theatre under Lloyd Richards.
He has taught at Yale, Harvard, and Rice Universities, and is an associate professor
of music theory at Emory University in Atlanta.
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Alaine Alldaffer (Casting Director)
Alaine Alldaffer is also the casting director for Playwrights
Horizons, where her credits include Grey Gardens (also for Broadway) and Dead
Man’s Cell Phone with Mary Louise Parker. She is currently casting This with Parker
Posey and the upcoming musical Burnt Part Boys. Television credits include “The
Knights of Prosperity” (aka “Let’s Rob Mick Jagger”) for ABC. Associate credits
include “Ed” (NBC) and ”Monk” (USA). In addition to the Huntington, Ms.
Alldafer has cast productions for the Long Wharf Theatre and Soho Rep, among
others, as well as for the Williamstown Theatre and Humana Festivals. She is the
current casting director for Women’s Project (NYC). She credits Lisa Donadio as
her associate casting director.
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Leslie Sears (Production Stage Manager)
Leslie Sears worked previously at the Huntington on
The Miracle at Naples, The Corn is Green, How Shakespeare Won the West, and The
Rivals. Her additional theatre credits include Little Women (NetWorks! Tours); The
Four of Us, Othello, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Titus Andronicus, As You Like It,
Antony and Cleopatra, and Two Noble Kinsmen (The Old Globe); and Hamlet
(Commonwealth Shakespeare Company). Ms. Sears’ opera credits include Flight,
La Traviata, Thaïs, Madame Butterfly, The Marriage of Figaro, and La bohéme (Boston Lyric Opera) and Cosi fan tutte, The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, and Don
Giovanni (Tanglewood Music Center). Ms. Sears is a graduate of Boston University.
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Vanessa Coakley (Stage Manager)
Vanessa Coakley returns to the Huntington having previously
served as production assistant for The Corn is Green. Regionally, she has worked on
Fatal Attraction: A Greek Tragedy (Classic Stage Company); Dinner (Bay Street
Theatre); The Bartered Bride (Opera Boston); The House of Blue Leaves (Mark Taper
Forum); The Nutcracker, Swan Lake, and Three Masterpieces (Boston Ballet); and
Beyond Therapy, Herringbone, and Blithe Spirit (Williamstown Theatre Festival). Ms.
Coakley is a graduate of Emerson College.
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