Brian Anthony Wilson and Danielle Lee Greaves to Lead FENCES at JAG Productions; Cast Complete!

JAG Productions has announced the full casting for their upcoming production of August Wilson's Pulitzer-Prize winning play Fences at Woodstock Town Hall Theatre in Woodstock, VT. Fences, directed by Jarvis Antonio Green (JAG Productions: Choir Boy), will run from April 27 through May 7.

 

The cast is lead by Brian Anthony Wilson as Troy Maxson and Danielle Lee Greaves as Rose. Wilson previously starred in HBO's hit show The Wire as Detective Vernon Holley. He is matched with Broadway veteran Greaves whose credits include Hairspray, A Streetcar Named Desire, Sunset Boulevard and Rent.

Additional casting sees Jolie Garrett as Gabriel (Vermont Stage: The Mountaintop), Ralph McCain as Jim Bono (Tennesse Repertory: The Piano Lesson) and Nathaniel J. Ryan as Lyons (ALLIANCE THEATRE: The Nacirema Society). As always, JAG Productions will feature local talent including Celia Graham as Raynell, a native of Lyme, NH and Gabriel Jenkinson as Cory Maxson, a freshman student at Dartmouth College.

The creative team for Fences includes Carl Tallent (scenic design), Anthony Pellecchia (lighting design), Trisha Denton (costume design), and Alek Deva (sound design).

The play is set in the 1950's in Pittsburgh and tells the story of Troy Maxon, a former baseball player in the Negro Baseball League who dreamed of stardom but was deemed too old to continue his career when the major leagues integrated. Now a sanitation worker, Troy is bitter having missed his opportunity for success. His battle with resentment leads to tension with his wife and son in the midst of a changing American decade.

Fences is the inaugural presentation of JAG Productions' 10-year commitment to staging The American Century Cycle, August Wilson's series of ten plays charting the African American experience through the twentieth century.

The movie adaptation of Fences directed by and starring Denzel Washington triumphed at the box office earlier this year and swept award ceremonies. Washington shared the screen with Viola Davis earning her the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in a film, an accolade achieved by 7 African-American actresses in history.

JAG Productions was founded in 2015 by Jarvis Antonio Green with the mission of sharing new and inspirational stories to the Upper Valley community. Green wants the audience to leave feeling "shifted" with new perspectives and awareness. The company aims for its patrons to move through the world with more love, greater kindness, and greater compassion for one another after seeing a production.

Please find headshots attached for Brian Anthony Wilson and Danielle Lee Greaves.

Tickets for Fences can be purchased at www.JAGProductionsVT.com or by calling 802.457.3981.

Performance Schedule:

APRIL 27, 28 - Preview Performances at 7:30 PM. Tickets: $20.

APRIL 29 - Opening Night at 7:30 PM. Following the opening night performance, JAG Productions will host a reception for the audience and company of Fences. Please join us for this unique opportunity to meet the cast and crew!

APRIL 30 - MAY 6 - 2:00 PM (Saturday and Sunday Matinee) and 7:30 PM
Please join us immediately following the performance for a talk back with the cast and creative team of Fences led by Jarvis Antonio Green.

MAY 7 - Closing Night at 5pm

August Wilson (Playwright) 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 complication 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 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 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, 2003 Heinz Award, 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. 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.

For more information about JAG Productions, visit www.JAGProductionsVT.com.

 

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