This is an Open Thread / Coffee Hour and all topics of conversation are welcome. Today's suggested topic is a play called "Panhandle." This play exposes the audience to the lives and times those Americans that lived through the Depression and the Dust Bowl. Jump the fold for the link to the video of the play on YouTube and some pictures from the play and some quotes from the reviews of the play.
What is for dinner? How are you doing? What is on your mind. If you are new to Street Prophets please introduce yourself beyond the fold in a comment. This is an Open Thread / Coffee Hour and all topics of conversation are welcome.
Last month I was asked by the producer of "Panhandle" to video record the play for sharing on YouTube. And below is the link to the video. The play had a lot of images from the Library of Congress displayed on two projections screens to the far right and left of the stage. So, for simplicity in making this video I assembled a sampling of the images and included them as a slide show that can be seen while opening musical overture to play is performed. Below I would like to share with you some clips of the reviews of the play.
Actors Ensemble is staging Walter Halsey Davis' play with music, 'Panhandle,' through January 31, 2014 at Live Oak Theatre, which tells that tale, shows something of the lives of that community who saw their hopes blow away literally as dust on the wind. It's a perfect piece for AE, the Berkeley community theater company--the oldest theater company in Berkeley--to be doing, rich in background as well as foregrounded characters who rise from the ensemble, representing the community. And the music by Marc Ream and Jeremy Cohen mixes songs for chorus and individuals, both anthems and more reflective numbers that contrast the moods of those changing times. From the The Berkeley Daily Planet Theatre Review by Ken Bullock
YouTube Video
The story of 'Panhandle' follows a cotton-farming family, especially the younger generation, go-getter Orin (played with energy by Ben Grubb) and his new wife Clara (pretty, demure Laura Espino--who shows, too, that Clara can rise to the occasion)--and Orin's "Sis" (sprightly Erika Bakse), abandoned by her husband, who provides some comic moments with her Temperance spirit and spirited temper, no church mouse! From the The Berkeley Daily Planet Theatre Review by Ken Bullock
From Library of Congress Prints & Photographs: Dust Bowl
WALTER DAVIS WROTE THE MUSICAL “PANHANDLE,” a play about how one small community in Texas was devastated by a series of catastrophic events around the time of the Great Depression, as a college project in 1972, together with musician Jeremy Sullivan and composer Marc Ream. Davis has won numerous awards for “Panhandle” and other written works, including Emmy, Writers Guild, Goldwyn, Peabody and Humanitas awards, as well as a Golden Globe nomination. Actors Ensemble opened the musical at the Live Oak Theatre in Berkeley on Friday. From The Benicia Herald Theatre Review by Elizabeth Warnimont
Perhaps the finest bit of dramaturgy, though, is the whole chronicle framed by the local storekeeper, The Old Man (played by the playwright), a gruff curmudgeon who proves the most tolerant of all, telling the story of the town's downfall to a WPA man (Chris Cruz) who arrives on the scene at the start of the play--that is,very late in the day--as a flashback over the better part of a decade, bracketing action and the history of disaster that stretches from the Crash of '29 to the Great War Veteran's March on Washington, 1932, put down harshly by the Hoover Administration, to the ascension of Roosevelt and the New Deal, only to fall back again with the drought and windstorms of the Dust Bowl, 1934-37. From the The Berkeley Daily Planet Theatre Review by Ken Bullock
A remarkably well-written story, “Panhandle,” with its detailed depiction of individuals and how the major events of the times affected their lives, has the feel of a historical novel. Davis was obviously moved by the stories of the thousands of farmers and their families whose livelihood was destroyed by a series of economic, environmental and political events completely beyond their control, beginning with the unprecedented stock market crash of 1929 that sent the value of cotton and other over-produced crops plummeting. The playwright’s compassion comes through vividly, enhanced by projected images of the destitute families and the horrific landscape of the period. The black-and-white and sepia photographs of the legendary dust storms and the land and structures they destroyed appear at key points during the play, culled from WPA (Works Progress Administration) archives. From The Benicia Herald Theatre Review by Elizabeth Warnimont