The Lake Charles Little Theatre will open its production of “Fences” on Saturday, Feb. 23. The play, directed by Gabriel Brown, will run weekends through March 10.

“It is a great, family-oriented play. The story is so moving, so authentic, so truthful,” Brown told the American Press in a telephone interview. “It holds up a mirror to the audience and shows that others are facing the same problems we are facing.”

The story is about Troy Maxson, a former star of the Negro baseball leagues who works as a garbage man in 1957 Pittsburgh. Troy’s bitterness over his exclusion from the major leagues takes its toll on his relationships with his wife and his son.

“I am blown away by the talent that is available in Lake Charles,” Brown said of what is possibly the only all-black cast to appear at LCLT.

This will be Brown’s first directorial experience at LCLT, but he has run productions at McNeese State University and his own troupe, Gabriel Brown’s Urban Soul Theatre, including “A Lesson Before Dying” and “For Colored Girls.”

Six of the seven cast members are newcomers to the LCLT stage, but four have acted elsewhere. The players are Tommy Cole as Troy Maxson, Regina Hanks as Rose Maxson, Anthony Mitchell as Cory Maxson, Demme Frazier as Lyons, Tony James as Gabriel Maxson, Brian Austin as Jim Bono and Kassidy Ceasar as Raynell Maxson.

Joy Pace is assistant director. Other members of the crew are Randy Partin, set designer; Norman McKnight, light designer; Amy Sweat, stage manager; Regina Joseph, Orrin Prejean, and Nettra Soileau, assistant stage managers; and Sierra Jones, costume designer.

Demme Frazier plays Lyons

Michelle Higginbotham