April 27 - May 7
Woodstock Town Hall Theatre
31 The Green
Woodstock, VT 05091
Winner of the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, August Wilson’s Fences explores the evolving African-American experience on the brink of the Civil Rights Movement. August Wilson's American classic tells the story of Troy Maxson, a former star of the Negro baseball league who now works as a garbage man in 1950's Pittsburgh. Excluded as a black man from the major leagues during his prime, Troy's bitterness takes its toll on his relationships with his wife and son, who now wants his own chance to play ball. The recent Oscar-winning adaptation received rave reviews from critics and audiences across the country and we are looking forward to welcoming patrons to our staging of this classic American story.
In order of appearance
Troy Maxson: Brian Anthony Wilson*
Jim Bono, Troy’s friend: Ralph McCain*
Rose, Troy’s wife: Danielle Lee Greaves*
Lyons, Troy’s oldest son by a previous marriage: Nathaniel J. Ryan
Gabriel, Troy’s brother: Jolie Garrett*
Cory, Troy and Rose’s son: Gabriel Jenkinson
Raynell, Troy’s daughter: Celia Graham
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Director: Jarvis Antonio Green
Production Stage Manager: Adrienne Wells*
Assistant Stage Manager: Monica Derr
Set Designer: Carl Tallent
Costume Designer: Trisha Denton
Lighting Designer: Anthony Pelleccia
Sound Designer: Alek Deva
Associate Producer: Mitch Marois
Director of Production: Christian Kohn
Technical Director: Robert Brier
Master Carpenter: Matthew Sergeant
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*Member of AEA
Fences is presented by special agreement with SAMUEL FRENCH, INC.
Brian Anthony Wilson* (Troy Maxson) is honored to be working with Jarvis and this amazing cast! This is Brian's fourth production of Fences, having previously portrayed Gabriel, Lyons & Bono. Other August Wilson shows include: Seven Guitars (Red), Jitney (Becker), Two Trains Running (Hambone), King Hedley II (King), Joe Turner's Come & Gone (Herald) and The Piano Lesson (Boy Willie & Avery). Recent Theatre: Titus Andronicus (Titus, Rowan University). Film/TV credits include: Oceans 8, Creed, How To Get Girls, Title VII, Crooked & Narrow, Limitless, The Postman/Bloodline, The Deep, Gotham, Blue Bloods, The Jim Gaffigan Show, Broad City, Law & Order: SVU, The Sopranos and The Wire. For my Family and in Memory of my Daddy, John Timothy Wilson, you are missed!
Danielle Lee Greaves* (Rose) Broadway: A Streetcar Named Desire, Rent, Hairspray, Sunset Boulevard, Show Boat. New York: The Importance of Being Earnest, Two Gentlemen of Verona. National: The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess, The Lion King Cheetah Tour, Rent Benny Tour, Rent Angel Tour. Regional: Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, A Woman Called Truth, Ethel Waters - His Eye is on the Sparrow, Caroline, or Change. Film: Growing Up & Other Lies. Television: The Affair, Braindead, The Americans, Elementary, Show Me A Hero, Nurse Jackie, Smash, The Big C, Rescue Me, Damages, Whoopi, 100 Centre Street. Voiceover: Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
Ralph McCain* (Jim Bono) is thrilled to be working with JAG Productions. New York stage credits include A. Phillip Randolph in The Good Fights (New Federal Theatre); Elijah Muhammad in The Devil and Elijah Muhammad (The H.A.D.L.E.Y. Player); Rev. Charles Dupree in The Right Reverend Dupree in Exile (The Billie Holiday Theatre); Boyd Henry in The Sun Down Names and Night Gone Things (Negro Ensemble); and Sweets Crane in No Place To Be Somebody. Regional Credits: Winning Boy in the The Piano Lesson (Tennessee Repertory Theatre). Television credits: One Life To Live, Another World, Guiding Light and The Sopranos; An independent film, Flowers. Thanks Jarvis and staff for this opportunity.
Jolie Garrett* (Gabriel) is thrilled to be joining this cast of Fences. His NY theatre credits include: Playing With Fire (Gene Frankel Theatre, Audelco Award Nom.), Othello (Shakespeare in Delaware Park, Katharine Cornell Award Winner), Freedom Train (TheatreworksUSA), Medea, Merchant of Venice, & Sus (Jean Cocteau Repertory) and Julius Caesar Set in Africa (Nuyorican Poets Cafe). Regional Theatre: The Mountaintop (Vermont Stage), Much Ado About Nothing (Arkansas Rep.), Macbeth, Julius Caesar, and Romeo & Juliet (Shakespeare Theatre Company), I Am A Man (Arena Stage). Film: Independence Hall (History Channel), The Stockroom (Victor Cruz Entertainment), and Transition (Ducor Media Films--NAFCA "African Oscars" Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor).
Nathaniel J. Ryan (Lyons)
I've been tossed to and fro.
Hailing from Brooklyn New York
I land in Vermont.
Ready to give my sweat
and tears
To play the king of the Jungle.
Thank you to family and friends
Gabriel Jenkinson (Cory) is a newcomer to the professional theater scene, and is honored and excited to be a member of this production! He is currently a freshman studying full time at Dartmouth College, majoring in international relations with a minor in theater. Gabriel previously starred as George in Dartmouth’s production of Intimate Apparel, and as The President in The Madwoman of Chaillot at Harvard-Westlake in Los Angeles. In addition, he has featured in several TV, commercial, and film productions over the last year. Gabriel thanks his family for their constant love and support, and JAG productions for giving him this opportunity!
Celia Graham (Raynell) is a third grader at the Lyme School. Whether it is at home, in school, or at classes at the Alliance for the Visual Arts (AVA) in Lebanon, Celia loves to create art. This production of Fences is her first time on the stage, and she is very happy to have the opportunity to participate. She’s like to add that she enjoys eating cupcakes and kiwis.
August Wilson (Playwright) is author of THE AMERICAN CENTURY CYCLE, including the plays 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. His plays have been produced on Broadway, at regional theaters across the country, and all over the world. 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 was the recipient of many prestigious fellowships and honors, including a 1999 National Humanities Medal by President Bill Clinton, the Rockefeller and Guggenheim Fellowships in Playwriting, the Whiting Writers Award, 2003 Heinz Award, and received numerous honorary degrees. 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.
Jarvis Antonio Green (Director) is the Founding Producing Artistic Director of JAG Productions and BarnArts Center for the Arts. He is the former Director of Theatre Arts at ArtisTree Community Arts Center right outside of beautiful Woodstock, VT. Jarvis received his training at the prestigious Stella Adler Studio of Acting in New York City, Anderson University and South Carolina Governor's School for the Arts. Directing credits: Choir Boy (JAG Productions), Laughter on the 23rd Floor, Fiddler on the Roof (ArtisTree Theatre Company), The 39 Steps, Master Class, Porgy and Bess in Concert, Oliver!, Grease, Little Shop of Horrors (BarnArts Center for the Arts), Suessical the Musical (NCCT).
Adrienne Wells* (Production Stage Manager) is pleased to be working again with JAG Productions after having stage managed for last year’s production of Choir Boy. Ms. Wells has worked in live theater, educational tours and events, opera, jazz, fashion, television, live events, and festivals. Past work includes: Freud’s Last Session (Pittsburgh Public Theater), Beggar’s Holiday (Opera Theater of Pittsburgh), Pete N’ Keely (St. Michael’s Playhouse), The Mask of Moriarty (Pittsburgh Irish and Classic Theater). Ms. Wells serves as the Corresponding Secretary for the Stage Managers’ Association, is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama, and a proud member of Actors’ Equity Association.
Monica Derr (Assistant Production Stage Manager) is thrilled to be back in Vermont and to be working once again with JAG Productions. This is her third production with JAG, having worked on Choir Boy and JAGFest. Since receiving her B.A. in Drama from Franciscan University of Steubenville, OH, she has worked as a stage manager in New Hampshire and Vermont and as a staff crew member at the Palace Theatre in Manchester, NH. Other credits include Picasso at the Lapin Agile, The Odd Couple (The Little Church Theater), Laughter on the 23rd Floor (ArtistTree Theatre Company), Singin' in the Rain, and Billy Elliot (Palace Theatre).
Carl Tallent (Scenic Design) is happy to be back in Woodstock after having designed the recent productions of Cabaret and Cats also here at the Town Hall. Carl has also designed many productions at Saint Michael's Playhouse in Colchester VT. Based in NYC, Carl works in theatre, interiors, and also visual displays. He is a teaching artist at Roundabout Theatre Company and a window dresser at Bergdorf Goodman. He will return to Woodstock in August to design three shows for ArtisTree's fall season.
Anthony Pellecchia (Lighting Design) is the Assistant Professor of Lighting Design at the University of Memphis Department of Theatre & Dance. He is a native of Columbus, Ohio where he received his MFA in 2009 from The Ohio State University. Anthony is excited to be back in Vermont after designing Wait Until Dark, Baskervilles and Sister Act at Saint Michael’s Playhouse the past two summers. Anthony’s professional and academic work in theatre, dance, and opera, has received awards and recognition from the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, the United States Institute of Theatre Technology, and USA Weekender.
Alek Deva (Sound Design) creates music, sound, and video for stories and storytelling, with a particular interest in theater, dance, and film. Recent projects include: 4000 Miles (original sound/music, Shaker Bridge Theatre), Macbeth (video design, Northern Stage), The Mountaintop (original sound/music, Northern Stage), Resfeber (original music and direction, Access Theater NYC), The Sweetest Land (original score, feature documentary film), and Danny Eflman’s Music from the Films of Tim Burton, (technical director/video tech for the live orchestra event seen in cities all over the world). Thanks to Jess and his family for their love and support. www.alekdeva.com
Trisha Denton (Costume Design) is a theater artist based in Burlington, Vermont. As the Artistic Director of In Tandem Arts she directs and produces hybrid works that explore social issues. Recently finishing an MA in applied performance at Dartmouth College, Trish was active with the prison theater organization, Telling My Story. She has directed countless community/children's productions and loves making theater accessible to newcomers. Foremost a storyteller, her practice also includes prop making, performing objects, scenic design and costuming. This is her second show as a member of JAG's design team.
Finnie Trimpi (Props Coordinator) is a busy bee busting out paintings, flower arrangements and anything else she can get her hands into…Finnie holds a BS in Art Education and has spent 10+ years in public, private and nonprofit classrooms between Vermont and Nantucket. Theatre is a love of hers starting with her high school musicals where she painted sets, managed the props and occasionally graced the stage. She is most comfortable making sure the show runs smoothly and looks its best with her assisting behind the scenes.