Suzan-Lori Parks To Direct Wilson's 'Fences' On Broadway

Suzan-Lori Parks will be directing what many consider August Wilson's greatest masterpiece, Fences. The revival will come to Broadway in the Spring of 2009.

Fences swept the 1987 awards winning the Pulitzer Prize for Drama as well as best play in the Drama Critics Circle Awards, the Tony Awards, and the Drama Desk Awards. James Earl Jones also won a Tony for his portrayal of the lead male character, Troy.

The play is the sixth play in a ten part series known as the Pittsburgh Cycle. Like most of Wilson's plays, Fences explores race relations and the African-American family in the 1950's. The play centers around the patriarch Troy's estranged relationship with his son and his wife Rose after he leaves them for another woman and tries to come back into the family. The play also deals with matters of economic hardship and issues of racial equality in America just prior to the Civil Right Movement.

Suzan-Lori Parks, a long time promoter and producer of Wilson's plays will make her Broadway directorial debuet. She herself is a playwright who also writes about the same issues as Wilson explored in his plays. Her own play about racial and familial relations, Topdog/Underdog won the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Her other plays include Venus (Obie Award Winner, The American Play, and In the Blood. In 2005 Parks swore to write one short play a day for the entire year. In 2006 she teamed up with the Public Theater for 365 Days/365 Plays where each of those plays were presented in various locations by various companies in New York in conjunction with the Public.