Photo Flash: First Look at Cal Shakes' FENCES

alifornia Shakespeare Theater's 25th anniversary season at the Bruns Amphitheater continues withAugust Wilson's Pulitzer Prize-winning story of the American Dream deferred, Fences, directed byRaelle Myrick-Hodges in her Cal Shakes debut. Fences, which plays from July 6 through July 31, marks the first time Cal Shakes has presentedAugust Wilson's work on its stage. For tickets and information, contact the Cal Shakes Box Office at510.548.9666 or visit www.calshakes.org

Part of August Wilson's monumental ten-play Pittsburgh Cycle, and winner of the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award for Best Play, Fences is the playwright's "finest and most credible portrait of a relationship between a man and a woman" (New York Times). Set in 1950s Pittburgh, former Negro League ballplayer-turned-sanitation worker Troy Maxson and his wife, Rose, struggle to keep their marriage afloat as Troy battles to retain his dignity and his family in the face of a rapidly changing America.

The cast for Fences features Bay Area powerhouses Aldo Billingslea as former Negro League ballplayer turned sanitation worker Troy Maxson (Cal Shakes' Spunk, King Lear, A Winter's Tale, and Lady Windermere's Fan), and Margo Hall as his wife, Rose (Cal Shakes' A Raisin in the Sun, A Winter's Tale, and Spunk), whose enduring strength holds the family together. Also in the cast are J. Alphonse Nicholson (Seven Guitars, Actor's Theatre of Louisiana; The Piano Lesson, Cape Fear Regional Theatre; Autumn Harvest, Lincoln Center Theater) as Cory; Donald E. Lacy, Jr. (Cal Shakes' Hamlet: Blood in the Brain and Alleluia: The Road; Berkeley Rep's The People's Temple; The MiLes Davis Experience, produced by Columbia Records) as Gabriel; Guiesseppe Jones (title role in Othello, North Carolina Shakespeare Festival; Race, CATF; Master Harold...and the Boys, The Weston Playhouse) as Bono; Lance Gardner (most recently seen as Don Pedro/Ursula in Cal Shakes' season opener, Much Ado About Nothing), and Anaiya Asomugha and Kailynn Guidry, sharing the role of Raynell. Nicholson, Lacy, Jones, Asomugha, and Guidry are all making their Cal Shakes Main Stage debuts with this production.

Photos by Kevin Berne