One of the really fun parts of the job is working with our colleagues over at the New Haven Free Public Library to put together the reading list for our upcoming production. We talk to them a bit about the themes for each show – a subject they’ve already given a lot of consideration – and they come back with a list of amazing titles, touching all different aspects of the particular play on our stage.
In this case, August Wilson’s Fences touches on a wide array of subjects – family, race, baseball – making the books in the microbranch assembled by NHFPL librarian Sandra Hernandez-Laguna all the more fascinating. Come check them out – all you need is a valid Connecticut library card. Click on the links to get a bit of information about each title.
Understanding August Wilson- Mary Bogumil
Some of my Best friends are black: the strange story of integration in America- Tanner Colby
August Wilson: A case book- edited by Marilyn Elkins
The Sports Gene: Inside the Science of Extraordinary Athletic Performance- David Epstein
Urban Alchemy: Restoring Joy in America’s Sorted-Out cities- Mindy Thompson Fullilove
Life upon these shores: Looking at African American history, 1513-2008- Henry Louis Gates
I ain’t Sorry for Nothin I done- Joan Herrington
From Jim Crow to Civil Rights- Michael Klarman
August Wilson: Completing the 20th century cycle- edited by Alan Nadel
August Wilson and the African American Odyssey- Kim Pereira
A chance to win: boyhood, baseball, and the struggle for redemption in the Inner City — Jonathan Schuppe
August Wilson’s Fences: A Reference Guide- Sandra Shannon
Seven black plays- Chuck Smith
Gem of the Ocean – August Wilson
Joe Turner’s Come and Gone- August Wilson
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom- August Wilson
The Piano Lesson- August Wilson
Two Trains Running- August Wilson
The Truly Disadvantaged- the inner city, the underclass and public policy- William Julius Wilson
My soul is a witness: a chronology of the civil rights era in the United States, 1954-1965
— Steve Scarpa