RIT’s NTID Performing Arts presents August Wilson’s ‘Fences,’ April 11-14

Fences, the American play written by August Wilson, will be presented next month by the Performing Arts department of Rochester Institute of Technology’s National Technical Institute for the Deaf. Shows will run at 7:30 p.m. April 11-13, and 2 p.m. April 14, in Panara Theatre, Lyndon Baines Johnson Hall, on the RIT campus.

In this production, as with all RIT/NTID Performing Arts shows, deaf actors will use American Sign Language and hearing actors will use spoken English to present the story. This rendition of Fences is the first deaf black production of the play.

The drama takes place in 1950s Philadelphia and features Troy Maxson, a former star of the Negro baseball leagues now working as a garbage man. As a black man, Maxson was excluded from the major leagues during his prime and his bitterness takes a toll on his relationships with his wife and son, who now wants his own chance to play ball.

Tickets - $5 for students, youth and senior citizens (60+), $10 for RIT faculty/staff/alumni and $12 for the general public – are available at the RIT University Arenas box office, by calling 585-475-4121 (voice), online at http://www.rittickets.com, or by email at arenas@rit.edu.