SATURDAY, MAY 9, 2015 EXCLUSIVE: MNN's "INSIDE NEW YORK" Celebrates Theater icon August Wilson's birthday with Constanza Romero, Denzel Washington, Viola Davis and the cast of "FENCES!"
INSIDE NEW YORK will kick-off a celebration of August Wilson's birthday this month with a special rebroadcast of the Broadway Opening Night Revival of August Wilson's Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winning "Fences" with Oscar & Tony Award winner Denzel Washington, SAG and Tony Award winner Viola Davis, Cha Stewart-Coleman, Mykelti Williamson, Chris Chalk, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Russell Hornsby and August Wilson's widow Constanza Romero.
Denzel Washington who portrays Troy Maxson, a former baseball player in the Negro Leagues, shared with Inside New York the significance of August Wilson’s work to him and why he chose this Broadway role. The play is about the rage and complexity of emotion the family must cope with when Troy's glory days ends. He is now reduced to collecting trash, and must deal with his headstrong football-player son and his wife, who reevaluates their marriage when Troy comes home with the baby he fathered with another woman.
August Wilson’s widow Constanza Romero, the costume designer for the production said, “To have a first class revival of what is considered one of his masterpieces back on Broadway, done in a completely first-class treatment with wonderful actors, the designs look fantastic and for all the words being spoken by Denzel Washington — he’s a wonderful actor who reaches every single note that’s in August’s words.”
August Wilson, the groundbreaking two-time Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning playwright who devoted his life’s work to depicting and chronicling the Black experience in America in the 20th century is best known for his 10 plays, devoted to the "Century Cycle." The universality and depth of his stories about life in places like where he grew up in the poor but lively Black Hill District of Pittsburgh, spoke to both black and white audiences. "My plays are ultimately about love, honor, duty, betrayal,” he once said in an interview. All nine of the plays on Broadway received Tony Award nominations for best play and two won Pulitzer Prizes. October 2, 2015 will mark 10 years from his death.
Tune to INSIDE NEW YORK to hear from Ms. Romero and the entire cast why August Wilson, one of the greatest playwrights of the 20th century's play "Fences" is so significant.
INSIDE NEW YORK Celebrates August Wilson's "Fences" this Saturday, May 9, at 8:30PM on MNN2 (TWC 56, RCN 83, FiOS 34) and via Livestream on MNN.org. "INSIDE NEW YORK" is broadcast every Saturday at 8:30 pm on MNN2 and MNN.org. Get program updates, win tickets and promotional offers via Joan Allen on Facebook and Twitter ( @ARTSINEWYORK ).