The show goes up in the Armory. The stage area – a high-ceilinged opening, difficult to describe and even more difficult to see in the dim blue light – surrounds two rows of mismatched chairs. The audience sits in the center of the space, dressed in their Houseparties formalwear. There are sculptures on the walls…

Two nights before Fences opens, I saw director Roger Q. Mason ‘08 in rehearsal at Theater Intime. He stood onstage, reading and gesturing for a missing actor over the top of his script. The wooden set was unpainted, and the rehearsal was running late – usual last-week features of a show about to pull itself…