Fences
Educators Packet
Target Audience: Juniors and Seniors in High School
Ø Part 1 – Things To Know
Fences - 2 Acts with 9 Scenes
5 Males and 2 Females (with some mentioned but not on stage)
Playwrite: August Wilson
Plot Summary:
Fences - 2 Acts with 9 Scenes
5 Males and 2 Females (with some mentioned but not on stage)
Playwrite: August Wilson
Plot Summary:
Troy and Bono go to Troy's house for their weekly ritual of drinking and talking. Troy has asked Mr. Rand, their boss, why the black employees aren't allowed to drive the garbage trucks, only to lift the garbage. Bono thinks Troy is cheating on his wife, Rose. Troy and Rose's son, Cory, has been recruited by a college football team. Troy was in the Negro Leagues but never got a chance to play in the Major Leagues because he got too old to play just as the Major Leagues began accepting black players. Troy goes into a long epic story about his struggle in July of 1943 with death. Lyons shows up at the house because he knows it is Troy's payday. Rose reminds Troy about the fence she's asked him to finish building.
Cory and Troy work on the fence. Cory breaks the news to Troy that he has given away his job at the local grocery store, the A&P, during the football season. Cory begs Troy to let him play because a coach from North Carolina is coming all the way to Pittsburgh to see Cory play. Troy refuses and demands Cory to get his job back. Act One, scene four takes place on Friday and mirrors scene one. Troy has won his case and has been assigned as the first colored garbage truck driver in the city. Bono and Troy remember their fathers and their childhood experiences of leaving home in the south and moving north. Cory comes home enraged after finding out that Troy told the football coach that Cory may not play on the team. Troy warns Cory that his insubordinance is "strike one," against him.
Troy bails his brother Gabriel out of jail. Bono and Troy work on the fence. Bono explains to Troy and Cory that Rose wants the fence because she loves her family and wants to keep close to her love. Troy admits to Bono that he is having an affair with Alberta. Bono bets Troy that if he finishes building the fence for Rose, Bono will buy his wife, Lucille the refrigerator he has promised her for a long time. Troy tells Rose about a hearing in three weeks to determine whether or not Gabriel should be recommitted to an asylum. Troy tells Rose about his affair. Rose accuses Troy of taking and not giving. Troy grabs Rose's arm. Cory grabs Troy from behind. They fight and Troy wins. Troy calls "strike two" on Cory. Six months later, Troy says he is going over to the hospital to see Alberta who went into labor early. Rose tells Troy that Gabriel has been taken away to the asylum because Troy couldn't read the papers and signed him away. Alberta had a baby girl but died during childbirth. Troy challenges Death to come and get him after he builds a fence. Troy brings home his baby, Raynell. Rose takes in Raynell as her own child, but refuses to be dutiful as Troy's wife. On Troy's payday, Bono shows up unexpectedly. Troy and Bono acknowledge how each man made good on his bet about the fence and the refrigerator.
Troy insists that Cory leave the house and provide for himself. Cory brings up Troy's recent failings with Rose. Cory points out that the house and property, from which Troy is throwing Cory out, should actually be owned by Gabriel whose government checks paid for most of the mortgage payments. Troy physically attacks Cory. Troy kicks Cory out of the house for good. Cory leaves. Troy swings the baseball bat in the air, taunting Death. Eight years later, Raynell plays in her newly planted garden. Troy has died from a heart attack. Cory returns home from the Marines to attend Troy's funeral. Lyons and Bono join Rose too. Cory refuses to attend. Rose teaches Cory that not attending Troy's funeral does not make Cory a man. Raynell and Cory sing one of Troy's father's blues songs. Gabriel turns up, released or escaped from the mental hospital. Gabe blows his trumpet but no sound comes out. He tries again but the trumpet will not play. Disappointed and hurt, Gabriel dances. He makes a cry and the Heavens open wide. He says, "That's the way that goes," and the play ends.
Ø Character List
Ø Troy Maxson - The protagonist of Fences, a fifty-three year-old, African American man who works for the sanitation department, lifting garbage into trucks. Troy is also a former baseball star in the Negro Leagues. Troy's athletic ability diminished before the Major Leagues accepted blacks. Hard-working, strong and prone to telling compelling, fanciful stories and twisting the truth, Troy is the family breadwinner and plays the dominant role in his over thirty-year friendship with fellow sanitation worker, Jim Bono. Troy's character is the centerpiece that all of the other relationships in Fences gather around. Troy is husband to Rose, father to Lyons, Cory, and Raynell, and brother to Gabriel. Troy is a tragic-hero who has excessive pride for his breadwinning role. Troy's years of hard-work for only meager progress depress him. Troy often fails to provide the love and support that would mean the most to his loved ones.
Ø Cory Maxson - The teenage son of Troy and Rose Maxson. A senior in high school, Cory gets good grades and college recruiters are coming to see him play football. Cory is a respectful son, compassionate nephew to his disabled Uncle Gabriel, and generally, a giving and enthusiastic person. An ambitious young man who has the talent and determination to realize his dreams, Cory comes of age during the course of the play when he challenges and confronts Troy and leaves home. Cory comes home from the Marines in the final scene of the play, attempting to defy Troy by refusing to go to his funeral, but Cory changes his mind after sharing memories of his father with Rose and Raynell.
Ø Rose Maxson - Troy's wife and mother of his second child, Cory. Rose is a forty-three year-old African American housewife who volunteers at her church regularly and loves her family. Rose's request that Troy and Cory build a fence in their small, dirt backyard comes to represent her desire to keep her loved-ones close to her love. Unlike Troy, Rose is a realist, not a romantic longing for the by- gone days of yore. She has high hopes for her son, Cory and sides with him in his wish to play football. Rose's acceptance of Troy's illegitimate daughter, Raynell, as her own child, exemplifies her compassion.
Ø Gabriel Maxson - Troy's brother. Gabriel was a soldier in the Second World War, during which he received a head injury that required a metal plate to be surgically implanted into his head. Because of the physical damage and his service, Gabriel receives checks from the government that Troy used in part to buy the Maxson's home where the play takes place. Gabriel wanders around the Maxson family's neighborhood carrying a basket and singing. He often thinks he is not a person, but the angel Gabriel who opens the gates of heaven with his trumpet for Saint Peter on Judgment Day. Gabriel exudes a child-like exuberance and a need to please.
Ø Jim Bono - Troy's best friend of over thirty years. Jim Bono is usually called "Bono" or "Mr. Bono" by the characters in Fences. Bono and Troy met in jail, where Troy learned to play baseball. Troy is a role model to Bono. Bono is the only character in Fences who remembers, first-hand, Troy's glory days of hitting homeruns in the Negro Leagues. Less controversial than Troy, Bono admires Troy's leadership and responsibility at work. Bono spends every Friday after work drinking beers and telling stories with Troy in the Maxson family's backyard. He is married to a woman named Lucille, who is friends with Rose. Bono is a devoted husband and friend. Bono's concern for Troy's marriage takes precedent over his loyalty to their friendship.
Ø Lyons Maxson - Troy's son, fathered before Troy's time in jail with a woman Troy met before Troy became a baseball player and before he met Rose. Lyons is an ambitious and talented jazz musician. He grew up without Troy for much of his childhood because Troy was in prison. Lyons, like most musicians, has a hard time making a living. For income, Lyons mostly depends on his girlfriend, Bonnie whom we never see on stage. Lyons does not live with Troy, Rose and Cory, but comes by the Maxson house frequently on Troy's payday to ask for money. Lyons, like Rose, plays the numbers, or local lottery. Their activity in the numbers game represents Rose and Lyons' belief in gambling for a better future. Lyons' jazz playing appears to Troy as an unconventional and foolish occupation. Troy calls jazz, "Chinese music," because he perceives the music as foreign and impractical. Lyons' humanity and belief in himself garners respect from others.
Ø Raynell Maxson - Troy's illegitimate child, mothered by Alberta, his lover. August Wilson introduces Raynell to the play as an infant. Her innocent need for care and support convinces Rose to take Troy back into the house. Later, Raynell plants seeds in the once barren dirt yard. Raynell is the only Maxson child that will live with few scars from Troy and is emblematic of new hope for the future and the positive values parents and older generations pass on to their young.
Ø Characters mentioned in the Script but not actually cast:
Alberta - Troy's buxom lover from Tallahassee and Raynell's mother. Alberta dies while giving birth. She symbolizes the exotic dream of Troy's to escape his real life problems and live in an illusion with no time.
Mr. Stawicki - Cory's boss at the A&P
Coach Zellman - Cory's high school football coach who encourages recruiters to come to see Cory play football.
Mr. Rand - Bono and Troy's boss at the Sanitation Department who doubted that Troy would win his discrimination case.
Miss Pearl - Gabe's landlady at his new apartment.
Playwright: August Wilson (April 27, 1945 - October 2, 2005)
One of the most influential writers in American theater. He is best known for his unprecedented cycle of 10 plays, often called the Pittsburgh Cycle because all but one play is set in the Pittsburgh neighborhood where August Wilson grew up. The series of plays chronicle the tragedies and aspirations of African Americans during each decade of the 20th century. After his father died in 1965, August Wilson officially changed his name to honor his mother. That same year, he purchased his first typewriter and began to write poetry. Drawn to the theater and inspired by the civil rights movement, in 1968 August Wilson co-founded the Black Horizons Theatre in the Hill District of Pittsburgh with his friend, Rob Penny. His early work failed to gain much attention, but his third play, "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" (1982), about a group of black musicians discussing their experiences in racist America, won August Wilson wide recognition as a dramatist and interpreter of the African American experience.
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One of the most influential writers in American theater. He is best known for his unprecedented cycle of 10 plays, often called the Pittsburgh Cycle because all but one play is set in the Pittsburgh neighborhood where August Wilson grew up. The series of plays chronicle the tragedies and aspirations of African Americans during each decade of the 20th century. After his father died in 1965, August Wilson officially changed his name to honor his mother. That same year, he purchased his first typewriter and began to write poetry. Drawn to the theater and inspired by the civil rights movement, in 1968 August Wilson co-founded the Black Horizons Theatre in the Hill District of Pittsburgh with his friend, Rob Penny. His early work failed to gain much attention, but his third play, "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" (1982), about a group of black musicians discussing their experiences in racist America, won August Wilson wide recognition as a dramatist and interpreter of the African American experience.
Production History
“Fences” is part of Wilson’s great decade-by-decade cycle of the African-American experience in the 20th century, largely set (as “Fences” is) in the Hill District of Pittsburgh. It shares with more adventurous works like “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone” and “Seven Guitars” a specific sense of the history that brought its characters to their point in time. That includes handed-down recollections of slavery and more immediate memories of the northward migration from cotton country.
The original production of “Fences” was the most financially successful play in the Wilson cycle, propelled in part by a Tony-winning turn by the star, James Earl Jones. In 2004 Ms. Hays was a savior of sorts to another Wilson play, stepping in with an investment of nearly $1 million when a Broadway production of Wilson’s “Gem of the Ocean,” which is chronologically first in the cycle, had run into a severe budget shortfall.
Here are a list of 5 questions you should ask yourself after reading the play “Fences”
A. August Wilson names the family Maxson. The name Maxson is a combination of the Mason-Dixon Line. What is the Mason-Dixon Line? Where is the Mason-Dixon Line? Why is this line appropriate for the play?
Follow this link to read about The Mason-Dixon Line and print out a map of the line:
http://geography.about.com/od/politicalgeography/a/masondixon.htm
B. Troy says, “Death ain’t nothing but a fastball on the outside corner.” What is the meaning of mixing a baseball metaphor and death for Troy? How does Troy view death?
C. The play takes place in 1957. Find at least 10 major events that happened in the United States in 1957 that had newspaper headlines. What was going on in 1957 regarding racism? (Hint: Look into Little Rock, Arkansas & Martin Luther King & President Eisenhower)
D. Fences is named such because the fence in the yard is both a literal fence in the Maxson yard and a figurative one representing what for each of these three family members: Troy, Rose, and Cory
E. Having read the play and considering the time period of 1957, what problems did the character Troy cause for himself and what problems did he have that were out of his control?
Part III - Exploring Further
Read this review of Denzel Washington as he plays Troy Maxson in 2010. It is interesting to think that actors who are loved by their fans can cause some problems for audiences when viewed as a “bad guy” or … does it matter?
Read and listen to the videos of James Earl Jones (the original Troy) as he speaks of his family life and the racism his grandmother held against white people. He speaks of how he overcame that in his own life after moving north from Mississippi.
Look at this cover of Time Magazine in 1957. Who is the man on the cover? Read this article for more information on the Civil Rights Movement.
Blues and Jazz was popular in 1957. Follow these links to find jazz and blues music that was popular in 1957.
Watch this YouTube video of an interview with author August Wilson. He speaks about being an African American and his culture. He defines the terms “black” and “white” and speaks about his culture.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loMoBHNGbrE
Program Notes:
Program Notes:
Fences by August Wilson, centers around the tragic character, Troy, who lives in the changing times when American racism meets the Civil Rights Movement. Troy never gets to become the person he dreamed to be, but his life represents the lives of many African American men who sacrificed for those who come behind him to have the chance to live their dreams. Symbolizing this time period in America, Wilson gives Troy the last name of “Maxson” which stands for a shortened version of the Mason-Dixon Line in southern Pennsylvania where the play is set. The Mason-Dixon Line was the imaginary dividing line between the free states and the slave states in the 1800’s.
Wilson set Fences during the baseball season of 1957 when Hank Aaron led the Milwaukee Braves to the World Series. During 1957, Aaron and other African American athletes proved they had the talent, the desire, and the drive to compete with White athletes in American. Many, like Hank Aaron, excelled and were widely praised by the White community for their abilities. Troy was a baseball player who never got to experience his own dream of professional baseball, but in Fences we see Troy excited to know that players like Aaron get to have successful careers in the leagues. Wilson hopes to express the sorrow Troy experiences during this time of changing racism as Troy and other characters witness Aaron’s successes, recall their own glory times, but know now they are too old to get to experience what Aaron does.
Fences takes place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where August Wilson grew up. Troy Maxson and his family moved to Pittsburgh to begin a new live free from Southern racism. Many African Americans like Troy and his friend Bono did whatever they could to survive and even spent time in jail for the crimes they committed to get to a place of living free from the racism their elders had gone through. Troy and the other characters in Fences live lives that prove that the consequences of being sons and grandsons of slaves without resources and financial help to pull themselves out of their poverty and their lack of opportunities such as Troy not being able to play major league baseball. During the eight years of the play Fences, the audience sees how Troy and his family are subjected to the division (or Fence) that even occurs in the African American Community of those who lived the sad lives that paved the way for a better future for the younger African Americans. Troy’s tragic character full of sadness and anger suffocates the hope his son has for a future in football and costs him a relationship with his son in Fences. Troy’s wife loves him and her family and is willing to do whatever it takes to keep them together and she represents many African American housewives of her time.
Welcome to 1957-1965 and to the home of the Maxson family! Enjoy the jazz and blues of the time period when America was in a cold war with the USSR, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs the Civil Rights Law, Martin Luther King, Jr. makes the cover of Time Magazine, school segregation laws are abolished in America, and Hank Aaron leads the Milwaukee Braves to the World Series. African American musicians like Sam Cooke appear on television on such shows as the famous Ed Sullivan Show where white stars like Elvis Presley and Buddy Holley are regulars. Pretend to drive in the new Chevrolet Impala with its long sleek body and tail fins while listening to the music of Presley and Cooke on your radio. Enjoy turning on your imaginary television to view the brand new American family television series called Leave It To Beaver and compare your memories of that family with that of the Maxson family. Visually picture the casseroles and steak suppers that were popular for that time period and settle back to enjoy your time with the Maxson’s. Watch as the Maxson’s build a fence in their yard as other fences in America are coming down. Decide for yourself whether Troy’s fences are really there or whether he causes many fences to divide him from his wife, children, family, and friends. Ponder how we could have been better to the Troy Maxsons in America. After all, wasn’t slavery abolished long before Troy’s birth? Didn’t President Abraham Lincoln make all men free long before Troy and Bono went to work for the city of Pittsburgh in the garbage and sanitation department? Why couldn’t it have been Troy who led the Milwaukee Braves to the World Series? To hear him tell it, he could have knocked home runs over any Fences.