The Dramaturgical Essay by Sarah Bellamy, Education Director

The Negro Leagues tell the story of American segregation through the lens of the country's most cherished pastime: baseball. Set in 1957, Fences is the story of Troy Maxon, a legendary baseball player whose prime came before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier.

1957 is remembered for many reasons. Some might recall the opening of two movies starring the dark-haired, blue-eyed crooner Elvis Presley - Loving You and Jailhouse Rock. Wham-O produced the first Frisbee in 1957. Dr. Seuss published the much-loved children's story The Cat in the Hat. Jimmy Hoffa was arrested on charges of bribery by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Beloved actor Humphrey Bogart died that year. But perhaps what shook the nation most deeply was the day nine black children were admitted to the local public high school in Little Rock, Arkansas. The children, selected by the NAACP based on the merit of their outstanding academic achievements, bore the brunt of white America’s resentment at mandatory integration. Their perseverance signaled the coming of a new era for America in which the last bastions of segregation were beginning to give way. The world of baseball—America's favorite pastime—had changed as well. When Jackie Robinson signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers, ball clubs across the country were allowed to recruit the stellar athletes that had been confined to the Negro Leagues for almost seventy years. The great legends of the Negro Leagues, "the Sol Whites and Charley Grants, the Rube Fosters and the Josh Gibsons had come at last to the end of a long dark trail. The door had been opened, but it would not be they who would step inside." ¹ It would be only a few short years before one of the most significant sociopolitical shifts in the world, the American Civil Rights Movement, launched into full swing.

Visit penumbratheatre.org for more information on Fences in our free study guide.

 
¹Holway, John. Voices from the Great Black Baseball Leagues. New York: Da Capo Press, 1992, p.14.

© 2012 Penumbra Theatre