Experience FENCES 2027: A signature cultural event
Join Wanida Enterprises Corporation for a powerful theatrical experience that transcends generations. Discover the profound story of Troy Maxson and explore themes that resonate with every family.
FENCES 2027: More than a play
FENCES 2027 is Wanida Enterprises, LLC's presentation of August Wilson's Pulitzer Prize-winning American classic, Fences. This signature cultural event comes to the Canton Cultural Center for five performances on January 9, 10, 15, 16, and Martin Luther King Jr. Day, January 18, 2027.
Set in 1950s Pittsburgh, Fences tells the powerful story of Troy Maxson, a former Negro League baseball player whose unrealized dreams, responsibilities, relationships, and choices affect everyone in his family. Through Troy's story, August Wilson explores timeless themes of family, fathers and sons, race, opportunity, sacrifice, forgiveness, perseverance, and the dreams we pass from one generation to the next.
A community-wide cultural experience
What makes FENCES 2027 special is that it is intended to be more than a night at the theater. Wanida Enterprises is using Fences to create a community-wide cultural experience during the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday season—bringing together families, businesses, educators, and churches.
Everyone who appreciates a powerful story about family, dreams, relationships, and overcoming life's barriers is invited to experience FENCES 2027. While Fences is deeply rooted in the African American experience, its themes are universal. Parents and children, husbands and wives, young people pursuing their dreams, and adults reflecting on the choices they have made will all recognize something familiar in August Wilson's story.
Who should experience FENCES 2027?
We especially hope to welcome families and couples who will connect with the play's powerful examination of love, responsibility, sacrifice, and forgiveness. Fathers, sons, and men of all generations can relate to Troy and Cory's struggle over dreams, expectations, and what one generation wants for the next.
African American families and community organizations interested in experiencing an important work that explores Black life, history, and opportunity in 1950s America will find this production particularly resonant. Students, educators, and young adults will gain invaluable insights from August Wilson's seminal work.
A lasting message of hope and reflection
We hope audiences leave FENCES 2027 thinking about family, opportunity, forgiveness, and the legacy we leave for the people who come after us. Troy Maxson's story reminds us that the disappointments and barriers we experience can shape our lives—but they do not have to become fences that limit the dreams of the next generation.
Fences challenges us to consider the relationships between parents and children, husbands and wives, dreams and responsibilities, and the difficult choices that define a family. Most importantly, we want people to leave with something to talk about. We hope families discuss what they saw, parents and children better understand one another, and our community reflects on how far we have come—and the barriers we still have an opportunity to overcome.
The message we hope stays with you: Honor the sacrifices of those who came before you, learn from their struggles, forgive where you can, and never allow yesterday's fences to become tomorrow's limits.
Why FENCES 2027 now?
Wanida Enterprises Corporation chose to present FENCES 2027 because we believe this is the right time for our community to experience a story about family, opportunity, perseverance, inclusion, and the barriers that can separate one generation from another.
Presenting Fences during the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday season gives the production special meaning. August Wilson's story allows us to look back at the racial and economic barriers faced by Troy Maxson's generation while also asking an important question today: What are we doing with the opportunities their struggles helped make possible?
Wanida also wanted to create an event capable of bringing different parts of our community together. FENCES 2027 provides a common platform for families, businesses, schools, churches, healthcare organizations, sports organizations, community leaders, and people with developmental disabilities to participate in one shared cultural experience.