The Music World of Fences
WITH COMPOSER & SOUND DESIGNER, KHALIL MADOVI
Music sits at the heart of Fences, just as it did in Black family life across the 1950s and '60s.
August Wilson’s writing weaves the rhythm of blues and jazz into the fabric of the Maxson family's identity. That’s where Director Daniel Bailey and Composer and Sound Designer Khalil Madovi started with their vision for the show’s music and sound.
For Black communities in post-war America, music was a way to express what couldn't be said out loud. A means not of escape, but of transcending circumstances.
On stage here, it’s another language that speaks in repetition and breakaways of what’s come before. Music holds love, hope and joy central in a story that holds its fair share of grief.
In a gift of a behind the scenes session, Khalil talks us through some of his process.
Specifically, he shares unique insights into the loops and cycles that exist in black music of the early 20th century. Then he talks us through how that mirrors the generational patterns and cycles in the family dynamics we see on stage. As well as the hope and joy that holds fast underneath.
