3.

August Wilson's Fences

Boston has a lot to offer in the way of cultural enrichment. Something I craved in Atlanta and wasn't able to quite quench was my desire for theater. Last night we put on our Sunday clothes and bicycled over to the BU Theater, Huntington Theater, and saw a production of August Wilson's play Fences. I was awe-struck upon entering the theater. The stage housed some of the most intricate set design I have ever witnessed with large brownstone-type buildings that appeared to really be made as if they were meant to stand on the corner of 134th and 8th, tall buildings that reached into the ceiling of the theater, penetrating the imagined night sky, big, big, big buildings that made me feel small. I was unfamiliar with the content of Fences and unfamiliar with August Wilson's work, but after seeing the production I have decided that as soon as free time presents itself, I am heading to the BPL to grab a copy of his collected plays. Fences, in particular was the perfect entertainment stimuli to re-ignite my excitement in my field. I am taking a Harlem Renaissance Literature course where we discussed theater and the implications for African Americans regarding racial uplift and progress. This production was an all African American cast and it dealt implicitly and explicitly with features of African American life in the 20th Century. The issues exciting my interest in ideas such as reconstruction of the African American family post-Emancipation, reconstruction of womanhood and roles of women within that new family unit, as well as men constructing male identity, generational resistance/fear/hope, psychological effects of oppression, etc. etc. etc. The actors nailed the carefully and brilliantly created characters and the result was an overpowering onslaught of emotion and excitement.