*The new Suzan-Lori Parks-directed Broadway production of August Wilson's Fences, previously due to bow in fall 2008, is now aiming for a spring 2009 opening, reps for the production confirm to Playbill News.
The second of Wilson's cycle of plays about one hundred years of the African-American experience, Fences is set in the backyard of the Maxson house in an urban neighborhood of a North American industrial city, 1957-1965.
The play follows 53-year-old sanitation worker and former Negro League baseball star, Troy Maxson, who dissuades his son from accepting a college football scholarship and persuades his wife to rear the child he recently fathered with another woman.
James Earl Jones won a Tony Award for his performance as Troy Maxson in the 1987-88 original Broadway run. The production also won Tonys in the categories of Best Play, Best Actor in a Play, Best Featured Actress in a Play (Mary Alice) and Best Direction of a Play (Lloyd Richards).
Carole Shorenstein Hays directs the revival, which so far has yet to announce a cast.