Challenges & Opportunities of Teaching Fences

Fences provides all sorts of great opportunities in the classroom. For one, it's immediately accessible. The play's dialogue is colloquial and its characters quite approachable. The conflicts in the play – father versus son, the betrayed woman – are ones that students will immediately recognize and understand.

The play is also a great opportunity to discuss the conventions of tragedy, without the students having to immediately take on the challenge of sifting through Shakespeare or the Greeks. Troy's whopping case of hamartia could prove to be a great example to use when you take on classical works.