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Pioneer Theatre Company producers are hoping the Hollywood star power of Denzel Washington's movie adaptation of "Fences," which opens Dec. 25, will cast reflected light on the Utah production of the prize-winning August Wilson classic.

The convergence of PTC's "Fences" — which plays Jan. 6-21 — and the film adaptation is just a coincidence, says guest director Timothy Douglas, who signed his PTC contract before the movie release date was announced.

Past movie adaptations have led to more stage revivals of the work that inspired them, but it's rare for plays to receive Washington-scaled marketing attention. And it's also somewhat rare to have a black actor direct himself in a film adaptation, although Washington's dual role is particularly fitting. When Wilson was alive, the playwright requested that black directors be hired to helm his stage works as a matter of parity, Douglas says.

The production offers a rare chance for viewers to compare simultaneous film and stage versions of the same story, one chapter of Wilson's acclaimed 10-play "Pittsburgh Cycle," also referred to as his "Century Cycle." The plays focus on African-American characters living in different decades of the 20th century, mostly set in Pittsburgh. Washington has announced he intends to direct all 10 plays, to be shown on HBO.

"There's something to be said about the communal experience of going to see a live production that has a very different emotional impact" than a film, says Martine Kei Green-Rogers, a University of Utah theater professor who is the production's dramaturg. "You see the actors onstage, going through their journeys, and every night it's different, even though they're telling the same story."

This marks the second stint for Douglas as a guest director at Pioneer Theatre, after directing the acclaimed 2013 production of Bruce Norris' "Clybourne Park." He says he gained a respect for Utah audiences for the way they took in — without defensiveness or overt expressions of white guilt — the entirety of a difficult play about the way Americans avoid talking about racial divides. That response changed the way he approached the play the next time he directed it.

"Fences" is the fourth Wilson play in which Douglas has worked with Washington, D.C.-based actor Michael Anthony Williams. Williams is tackling the role of Troy Maxson, a tragic protagonist who is a father, a garbage man and a former convict with thwarted dreams of becoming a baseball player. James Earl Jones created the role in the 1987 Broadway premiere.

It's widely considered one of the great roles in the American theater canon, and Douglas says the play has the impact and depth of Greek tragedy. "Troy Maxson is Othello, Macbeth, Willy Loman combined," director Kenny Leon told NPR when he directed Washington in the 2010 Broadway revival.

Williams, 56, played Maxson's best friend, Jim Bono, in a Louisiana professional theater production of "Fences" 16 years ago. "Very rarely do actors get an opportunity to embody a character who is so very complex," Williams says. "I don't think I was prepared as an actor or a man to even think about playing this part until now."

The husband and father is complex, of course, and flawed. "He's making his way the best he knows how and embraces the security that he feels will anchor him," Williams says. He shuts down the football-playing dreams of his younger son, and then when another woman enters the picture, everything gets more complicated.

Douglas says he has come to a richer understanding of the character as he has realized that Troy is drawing upon the innate African warrior deeply rooted in him, even if he doesn't realize it.

For Williams, his portrayal is anchored in his experience as a father, raising his daughter, Margarita. "I've been performing as a professional actor for 30 years, won a bunch of awards, but nothing much matters what I did before she came onto the planet," he says. "Every decision about doing a show, every character I portray, is being watched with a magnifying glass by my daughter."

She helps him select acting roles and helps him memorize his lines, Williams says. At 11, Margarita has read eight of Wilson's 10-play cycle, all of the scripts displayed on a shelf in her bedroom under a poster of Wilson.

"My journey is to allow myself to feel the pain of this man, the seeming bitterness of this man, but also to maintain and let the light shine on the humanity of this man and the sheer love he has for his family," the actor says. "And all of that is in me organically."

The director says Williams has the ability to surrender to a role and let the character unfold to him, which allows his portrayal to illuminate the text.

Douglas has spent at least half of his career focused on Wilson plays. As a Yale drama student, he worked with Wilson, who premiered five of his "Century Cycle" plays at Yale Repertory Theatre. Douglas understudied roles in the premieres of "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom," "Fences" and "Joe Turner's Come and Gone."

Years later, after he turned to directing, the playwright tapped him to direct Yale Rep's 2005 premiere of "Radio Golf."

"From August's arrival on the scene, I was in the room, although we didn't know he was going to be August Wilson," Douglas says. Drawing upon the mysticism woven throughout Wilson's work, he adds: "It was destiny. There's no Timothy Douglas in theater without August Wilson."

Douglas brings his knowledge of Wilson's work to "Fences," his fourth time bringing life to the play. "I never get tired of investigating his work," the director says, underscoring how the story rooted in 1950s-era Pittsburgh plays with new relevance in contemporary America.

Douglas says there's been a new emotional rawness among the cast in the rehearsal room, a reaction to producing a universal play about race and about flawed fathers and sons after a racially divisive presidential election. " 'Fences' is having a dialogue with what's happening in America right now," the director says.

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'Fences'

Pioneer Theatre Company presents its production of the Tony- and Pulitzer-winning classic by playwright August Wilson, directed by Timothy Douglas.

When • Jan. 6-21: 7 p.m. Monday-Thursday; 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday; 2 p.m. Saturday matinees

Where • Simmons Pioneer Memorial Theatre, University of Utah campus, 300 S. 1400 East, Salt Lake City

Tickets • $25-$44, $5 more day of show (group pricing available); K-12 students eligible for half-price tickets for Monday and Tuesday shows; 801-581-6961 or pioneertheatre.org