Coyote on a Fence
play written by Bruce Graham
Coyote on a Fence is a play written by Bruce Graham. It was first produced at the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park in their thirty-eighth season (1997–98).
The play stars John Brennan, a death row convict who kicked in the face of a drug dealer named Dwayne Rigby prior to the start of the play. John, an articulate person who writes for the Death Row Advocate, meets Robert Alvin "Bobby" Reyburn, an uneducated hick carrying a death sentence for burning a church filled with African-American worshippers. The play explores the concept of the death penalty and the meaning of evil.
The play takes place in a prison in the southern United States.
Characters
John Brennan – A white, middle-aged and fairly well-educated prisoner who feels a sense of denial about his crime.
Robert Alvin "Bobby" Reyburn – A white, developmentally challenged prisoner in his late twenties.
Shawna DuChamps – The female prison guard who feels guilt over the deaths of the prisoners. Shawna's race may be determined by the individual production.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Coyote on a Fence” is play written by Bruce Graham. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Coyote, Fence and play, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “play written by Bruce Graham” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 28, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5180097. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1997.
Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.
Three-step research path
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Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Coyote on a Fence” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.