[NEohioPAL] Woody Guthrie's American Song OPENS at Actors' Summit

[Neil Thackaberry]

*For Immediate Release*

*For additional information contact: *
*Neil Thackaberry (330) 374-7568*
*Akron**, Ohio*

* *

*Woody Guthrie’s American Song*

*Opens at Actors’ Summit*



*Woody Guthrie’s American Song*, based on the writings and music of the most
iconic folk singer of his generation will begin a four week run at Actors’
Summit with a preview performance on Thursday, October 6th and the official
opening on Friday, October 7th.  The play will be presented at Greystone
Hall in downtown Akron.  Actors’ Summit is Akron’s Equity professional
theater and this show marks the opening of the theater’s 13th season.  *Woody
Guthrie’s American Song* traces the life of the American troubadour who gave
a passionate voice to America during the Great Depression and Dust Bowl.  Based
on the songs & writings by Woody Guthrie, the play was conceived and adapted
by Peter Glazer.



Unlike other productions of this play, the Actors’ Summit production has no
pit orchestra.  The musical accompaniment is provided by a talented cast of
eight actor/singer/musicians.



“This approach is both challenging and exciting,” said Neil Thackaberry,
director.  “In rehearsal the artists are simultaneously mastering the
instrumental music, the vocal music, Woody’s writing, and the staging.”



The New York Times said the play "manages to find both the high beauty and
the earthly humor of Guthrie's love affair with America."



“The range and energy of Woody’s music, and the history he chronicled have
been a real education for the younger members of the cast,” Thackaberry
said.  “Some of our younger actors have discovered the human cost of the
Dust Bowl and the Great Depression.”



*The Songwriter Poet*



*Woody Guthrie* is an American legend:  a rambling troubadour who made the
scene at a hundred historical happenings—the Oklahoma oil boom, the Dust
Bowl migrations, the Great Depression—and made these scenes unforgettable
with songs of praise and protest.  “This Land Is Your Land,” “So Long, It’s
Been Good To Know You,” “Pastures of Plenty” and “Union Maid” are just a few
of the Guthrie songs that have made his name a byword in American music.



Woodrow Wilson Guthrie, named in honor of the US president, was born in 1912
in Okemah, Oklahoma.  In his early teens, with bad times at home, Woody took
to the road from Texas to California, working the farms and orchards, with
odd jobs here and there, until he landed a radio program of his own in late
1939 in Los Angeles.  He was a participant in the union movements that
founded the early agricultural workers union and the Congress of Industrial
Organizations (CIO), singing at union halls and on picket lines.  In 1941 he
headed for New York and served a stint in the Merchant fleets during World
War II.



His acclaimed autobiography, *Bound for Glory*, was written in 1943 and made
into a major film in 1976.  His other books, *Seeds of Man*, *Born to Win*,
*Woody Sez* and *Pastures of Plenty* have won literary praise and
established Guthrie as an important writer of his time.  In 1995, Woody’s
daughter Nora approached Billy Bragg with the idea of setting music to many
of Woody’s lyrics for which there had been no music—lyrics/poems which came
out of the Woody Guthrie Archive.  Billy joined with the band Wilco and set
music to these unheard songs.  The CD Mermaid Avenue was released in 1998 to
critical acclaim, made bestseller lists, and earned a Grammy nomination,
soon to be followed by Mermaid Avenue Volume II.



In October 1967, after many years in hospitals, Woody Guthrie died as a
result of Huntington’s disease.  He had written over a thousand songs.



*The Playwright*



Peter Glazer is a director and playwright whose works include *Woody
Guthrie’s American Song*, which has been seen at over 100 theaters around
the US and won dozens of awards, including two Bay Area Drama Critics
awards, three Joseph Jefferson Awards in Chicago, and Drama Desk and Outer
Critics Circle nominations in New York City.



Other works and collaborations include *O’Carolan’s Farewell to
Music*; *Michael,
Margaret, Pat & Kate; Heart of Spain - A Musical of the Spanish Civil War;*and
*Foe*, adapted from Nobel Laureate J.M. Coetzee’s novel.  Additional
directing credits include José Rivera’s *Marisol, Big River, My Fair Lady*,
Brad Fraser’s *Unidentified Human Remains* and *The True Nature of Love*,
Howard Barker’s *Seven Lears*, Shakespeare’s *Measure for Measure*, Harold
Pinter’s *Silence* and Maria Irene Fornes *Springtime*.  Glazer holds a
doctorate in Performance Studies from Northwestern University, and is an
Associate Professor in the Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance
Studies at the University of California, Berkeley.



*Ticket Prices*



Season subscription prices range from $100 at preview and Saturday matinee
performances to $175 for Friday and Saturday performances.  Good-Time-Any-Time
Coupons are $260 for 10 admissions.  Individual ticket prices range from $19
at preview performances and Saturday matinees to $30 for Friday and Saturday
evenings.  All full time students with ID can attend any performance for $9.
Individual tickets will go on sale two weeks prior to the first performance
of each show.

* *

*Tickets**
Season Subscriptions & Good-Time-Any-Time Coupons** can be purchased by
phone at (330) 374-7568.  To make dinner reservations call (330) 374-8905.**
*
* * *Web site* *Actors’ Summit Theater can be found on the web at
www.actorssummit.org. *
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