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directed by nick corleydarcie deaville, helen j. russell and andy teirstein

the life & music of woody guthrie

DEVISED BY

DAVID M. LUTkEn wITh nIck corLEY and

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Education programs at Seattle Repertory Theatre are generously supported by:

The Chisholm Foundation | Washington State Arts Commission | Nordstrom | Kenneth and Rosemary Willman

U.S. Bank Foundation | Horizons Foundation | Loeb Family Charitable Foundation | Macy’s

Moccasin Lake Foundation | Muckleshoot Charitable Contributions | Theatre Forward

Tulalip Tribes Charitable Fund | KeyBank

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Dear Theatregoer,

Woody Sez is a window into American culture and history. As an immigrant, I remember the first time I was exposed to Woody Guthrie’s music. I remember feeling fulfilled by its sense of purpose and activism; it immediately transported me to a different era, and brought the images of America’s landscapes to my mind.

This play’s strength is that it doesn’t get caught up in idolizing the past. It shows Woody’s struggles and portrays music as a way of demonstrating resilience and creating community.

I hope this production will make you tap your toes and inspire you to find out more about the U.S.’s rich and complex history. I also hope that you will come out of this performance with new perspectives about the relationship between social politics and music and art.

Sincerely,

Arlene Martínez-VázquezEducation DirectorSeattle Repertory Theatre

Note from oUr EDUCATION DIRECTOR

HISToRy EconomIcS LITERAcy

GEoGRApHy cIvIcS ARTS

SocIAL STUDIES

P.S. Teachers, look out for links between each section of this guide with EALR & Common Core standards!

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tHe GreAt DePreSSIoN AND DUSt BoWLWoody Guthrie was entering his early 20s in 1929 when the Great Depression hit America. The Great Depression collapsed the American economic system, and eventually, the world’s as well. A year before the stock market crash, 4.2% of Americans were unemployed. By 1932, 23.6% of Americans were unemployed.

EALR HistoRy 4.1, 4.2

EALR Economics

2.4

EALR GEoGRApHy

3.2

This article first appeared in Northlight Theatre’s Season Access Guide for their 2012 production of Woody Sez.

During the Great Ohio River Flood of 1937, men and women in Louisville, Kentucky, line up seeking food and clothing from a relief station. Photo by Margaret Bourke-White

Unemployed men queued outside a depression soup kitchen.

During the 1920s, the economy was booming and many people were amassing debt while still investing large sums in the stock market. Credit cards were starting to be in use, and the social attitude towards buying on credit had shifted from negative to positive. People were buying household items: furniture, sew-ing machines, cars, but also mortgage debt was steadily rising. This system could not last and on Tuesday, October 29, 1929, the stock market crashed. Many people lost their savings and many millions more eventually lost their jobs. When President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected in 1933, he immediately set to work putting into law his New Deal to create jobs and provide financial assistance to agriculture, the arts, housing loans, and public works sectors. Regardless, the effects of the stock market crash would last well into the 1940s.

While the American people waited for the effects of the Great Depression to subside and the federal government’s New Deal programs to take effect, another crisis hit. Starting in 1930, summers in the Midwest became hotter and hotter. Midway through the decade, a drought made the heat worse—not only were crops and animals dying, but many Americans lost their lives due to the extreme heat. The topsoil on farms (the most nutrient-rich soil

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for farming) turned to dust. So much topsoil was being blown away that huge dust storms raced across the Great Plains, called “black blizzards.” Due to these severe dust storms, this period of the 1930s and the Great Plains region came to be described as the Dust Bowl. School was canceled, houses filled with dirt; it was so dark when a storm hit that animals would often settle down, thinking it was nighttime. After storms, houses and farm equipment looked as though sand dunes had risen up to consume them in a matter of hours. A resident wrote: “The impact is like a shovelful of fine sand flung against the face…We live with the dust, eat it, sleep with it, watch it strip us of possessions and the hope of possessions. It is becoming real.”

Woody Guthrie would join thousands of other Dust Bowl refugees and leave for California, hoping to find work and escape the devastation. However, once the refugees reached California, most could not find work. These refugees set up camps that they called “Hoovervilles,” named after President Herbert Hoover, whose administra-tion was in power at the onset of the Great Depression and, in the eyes of the public, was to blame for the collapse. There were Hoovervilles all over the country, with popula-tion numbers ranging from just a handful to thousands of people. Those who lived in these camps built their own

houses out of what they could find. Author John Steinbeck wrote the novel The Grapes of Wrath, published in 1939, about a family that migrated to California in search of work and lived in a Hooverville. By the early 1940s, most of the Hoovervilles had been torn down.

Sources: http://houseofdebt.org/2014/03/15/household-debt-and-the-great-depression.html

Still from The Dust Bowl: A Film By Ken Burns.

A Hooverville in Sacramento, California.

stage itHow would you create a dust storm on stage? In a group, come up with a way to create the sound, feel, and look of a dust storm. Be specific with how it forms, approaches, and engulfs its surroundings. Consider the tools that theatre artists use: lights, sound, movement, and props. How would you show your audience what a dust storm is like? Perform your creation for the class.

foLK mUSIC IN tHe USA

EALR ARts 1.3, 4.2

EALR HistoRy

4.2

Folk music is one of the earliest methods of historical preservation. It was originally used to pass down ideas and stories that people felt were important. Woody Guthrie and artists like him used this popular form as a way to spread their ideas about social causes.

Folk Music iN THe early 20TH ceNTury It is the year 1910. A lack of protective labor laws creates harsh conditions for workers who struggle to earn money to feed themselves. In a union hall, many folk musicians gather. They might not know it, but they are greatly influenced by the earliest folk music in America, which was sung by slaves. These laborers, like the slaves who sang 100 years before them, hope to find an escape from their rough work environment. Folk musician and union agitator Joe Hill’s voice booms throughout the hall. His songs are reminiscent of Baptist hymns, but the words are replaced with verses concerning ongoing labor struggles. Woody Guthrie, another worker, fought for similar values. These men were not simply forming a genre of music specific to fighting against labor laws, but a genre of music that would be used to rail against many future inequalities.

Folk Music iN THe 1960s: civil riGHTs aND THe war iN vieTNaMIn the 1960s, working class Americans found themselves in a struggle again. This time, the concern was not the labor laws Hill and Guthrie rallied against, but Civil Rights and the war in Vietnam. Greatly influenced by Woody Guthrie and others, modern folk idols—such as Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, and Joan Baez—began to gather in coffee shops to play their music. This folk revival not only offered a vehicle for political commentary, but also a promise for change. Their songs dealt with everything from love and war, to work and play. By the 1970s, as the U.S. pulled out of Vietnam and the Civil Rights Movement made great strides, folk music began to fade into the background. However, there were still several successful folk musicians—Cat Stevens, James Taylor, and Jim Croce—who sang about relationships, religion, and the continuously evolving political climate. Woody Guthrie’s influence spread beyond folk musicians; rock idols such as Bruce Springsteen and Joe Strummer cite Woody as a major influence.

Folk Music oF THe 21sT ceNTury New political concerns such as civil rights for the LGBTQ+ community, women’s rights, the war in Iraq, and resurfacing racism have brought forward a new generation of American folk musicians and audiences. Folk festivals are thriving with younger audiences who join their parents in celebrating folk musicians such as Dar Williams, and Ani DiFranco, and the Indigo Girls. While most folk singers will rarely share the super-stardom that pop and alternative musicians experience, their music still resonates with many because of its welcoming nature and social commentary.

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This article first appeared in Northlight Theatre’s Season Access Guide for their 2012 production of Woody Sez.

Woody Guthrie.

“this song is Copyrighted in U.S., under Seal of Copyright #154085, for a period of 28 years, and anybody caught singin’ it without our permission, will be mighty good friends of ourn, cause we don’t give a dern. Publish it. Write it. Sing it. Swing to it. Yodel it. We wrote it, that’s all we wanted to do.” - Woody guthrie

EALR civics 1.4

HAVe A HOOTENANNY

The actors in Woody Sez will be hosting a few rousing hootenannies during the run of the show. See what all the fun is about and host your own!

In the Appalachia region in the 1920s, the word “hootenanny” was synonymous with “whatchamacallit” or “thingamajig,” a word used to describe something you did not have a name for. However, it could also signify a party or a gathering. In the 1930s, the word became associated with music and politics when the Washington Commonwealth Foundation, a political coalition in Seattle, used it to describe their monthly musical fundraisers. In some of the early hootenannies, Woody Guthrie performed his political folk music for trade-union audiences. A sense of community was as important to these hootenannies as the musical performances; delicious food and folk dancing were also vital elements of these evenings. Also, anyone could join in on the music—either playing an instrument or singing with the band. The greatest joy of a hootenanny is the lack of structure and boundaries between performers and audience members.

Diy: HoMeMaDe Musical iNsTruMeNTs American folk music boasts a tradition of homemade musical instruments, crafted from everyday household objects that anyone, regardless of economic class, could create. Join in the fun! Create these instruments from found objects.

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This activity first appeared in Northlight Theatre’s Season Access Guide for their 2012 production of Woody Sez.

EALR ARts 1.1, 3.1

See next page for instructions!

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DruMWhat you need: 1 cylindrical container (i.e. a big oatmeal can or coffee can), electrical tape, 2 pencils. Optional: construction paper for decorating.Instructions: Take off the lid of your container. To create the drumhead, criss-cross strips of electrical tape across the top of the can until it’s completely covered. To deco-rate your drum, measure and cut construction paper so it’ll fit around the outside of the drum, and then tape it in place. Use pencils as your drumsticks.

eMceeIn order to host your own hootenanny, choose an Emcee for the evening. This person will

welcome folks to the stage, introduce who is playing what instrument, and encourage folks to join in. Then, choose some musicians to start off the proceedings. Have them start a rhythm with their homemade instruments. Others can join in whenever they see fit. As a group of musicians, try to figure out when a song builds and when it ends. Then, let another person start the next song. As long as one person keeps the rhythm, the other musicians can improvise with their instruments. Those people not playing along on any particular song can clap or stomp along to support the rhythm.

GuiTarWhat you need: 1 empty tissue box, 1 paper towel roll, 1 straw, rubber bands of

different sizes. Instructions: Cut 1” slits in one end of the paper towel roll, and bend the cardboard

outwards – it should look like a flower. Then, wrap the rubber bands around the tissue box so they lie over the top of the box opening. Cut the straw to fit, and slide it perpendicularly

under the rubber bands just above the box opening. (This is your “fret.”) Finally, secure the neck by sliding the cut end under the rubber bands at the top of the box. You can tape it as well if

it’s still moving too much. Strum away!

HarMoNicaWhat you need: 1 comb, small piece of wax or tissue paper.Instructions: Cut the paper so it’s the same length as the comb, and fold it over the teeth of the comb, wax side in. Then put the comb to your lips and start humming. It might take practice, but soon, you’ll sound like a folk musician.

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EALR HistoRy 4.2, 4.4

EALR sociAL studiEs

5.3

tHe ACTIVISM of WooDYThis article first appeared in Northlight Theatre’s Season Access Guide for their 2012 production of Woody Sez.

PoliTics aND PoeTry: THe voice oF wooDy GuTHrieWoody Guthrie’s ascent to fame in the 1930s coincided with a growing populist movement, that emphasized the power of the masses over the elites. Guthrie’s per-sonal experience and the calamitous state of the country inspired him to write songs focused on the poor and their struggle to overcome crisis.

His songs took the Great Depression out of the realm of stark economics and inter-preted the hardships of real people. For in-stance, songs like “Do Re Mi” portrayed the lives of migrant farm workers in California: “Lots of folks back east, they say, is leavin’ home every day/beatin’ the hot old dusty way to the California line…California is a garden of Eden, a paradise to live in or see/ but believe it or not, you won’t find it so hot/if you ain’t got the do re mi.”

Woody’s songs not only told the stories of the victims of the crises, but they also satirized figures such as bankers, lawyers, businessmen, and politicians. He painted them as enemies of the underprivileged. In songs such as “The Jolly Banker,” he described financiers as being ruthless:

“When money you’re needing, and mouths you are feeding/I’m a jolly banker, jolly banker am I.”

Woody’s reputation grew as the “hobo advocate” and the “Dustiest of the Dust Bowlers.” Guthrie wrote articles for mag-azines like People’s Daily World, and his column “Woody Sez” appeared in The Daily Worker, a Communist periodical. Woody formally joined the Communist party in 1936, but never rigidly adhered to the party line, never directly speaking about Communism in his music. Popular songs like “This Land is Your Land” echoed Communist ideals about shared prosperity; however, audiences did not view the song as political.

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THINK ABOUT ITHow can you turn art into activism? Woody Guthrie used both his lyrics and the text he wrote on his guitar as ways to draw attention to his politics. Create an image, including an activ-ist slogan that draws attention to a social cause that you care about. You can achieve this by collage, drawing, graphic design, etc.

For Guthrie, his populist interests coincided with Roosevelt’s New Deal and its government public works initiatives. He was a spokesperson for government programs designed to provide jobs and security for those in need. Guthrie’s relationship with the Boneville Power Administration (BPA), serves as the best example. The BPA, created by the federal government in 1937, transmitted electrical power throughout the Pacific Northwest. Under its payroll, Woody wrote the songs “Roll on Columbia,” “Oregon Trail,” and “Biggest Thing that Man Has Done.” Woody’s music helped publicize government action under the New Deal and gave it a significance that grew to mythic proportions. The Columbia River Songs mixed the artistry of folk music with 1930s politics, giving strength to the progressive movement.

Woody Guthrie, a pioneer for progressive causes, gave a voice to millions of voiceless Americans with his music and writing. Guthrie died in 1967, but his legacy lives on with artists like Bob Dylan, Cat Stevens, and contemporary bands like the Dixie Chicks, Public Enemy, and U2, who continue to use music to inspire social change. Lady Gaga is another prime example of an artist who uses her talent and popularity for social change. Her song “Born This Way” was a chart-topper anthem that she meant as empowering music for women and for the gay community; she herself calls it her “freedom song.” Along with the track, she and her mother co-founded a charity called the Born This Way Foundation, which is an American non-profit working to inspire youth, promote kindness, and build more sustainable communities.

It is clear that the causes Guthrie championed still resonate in America today—in particular the role of unions, the power of big banks, and the fairness of our class system.

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EALR HistoRy

4.2

EALR GEoGRApHy

3.1, 3.2

This aerial shot captures the enormity of the Grand Coulee Dam.

The Grand coulee Dam located in Central Washington is truly an awe-inspiring feat of human endeav-or. Constructed during 1933-1942, it is a hydroelectric dam and the largest electric power-producing facility in the United States. It was also a major component of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal—a plan intended to pull the United States out of the Great Depression by modernizing and re-imagining America’s infrastructure.

In 1930, over 75% of the electrical supply was owned by only 10 companies. Owners of these companies included some of the richest and most powerful men in the country—John D. Rock-efeller, J.P. Morgan, and Samuel Insull, to name a few. It’s hard to imagine now, but electricity was once viewed as a commodity to be bought and sold on the open market. FDR and his New Deal al-lies firmly believed that the public would most benefit if America moved away from private utilities and toward a government-run utility system. Not surprisingly, they ran up against powerful op-position from these companies that were intent on sustaining their profits by keeping utilities as privatized commodities.

FDR knew that the only way to beat these influential companies would be to rouse a populist movement in favor of his plan. In May 1941, Woody Guthrie was hired by the U.S. Interior Depart-ment to write songs for and narrate a documentary film that pro-moted hydroelectric dams on the Columbia River. The government hoped that folk songs—a music genre aimed at appealing to the

WooDY IN tHe PACIFIC NORTHWEST

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sensibility of ordinary Americans—would elicit more widespread support for developing the Columbia River Basin. Although he only spent one month in the Pacific Northwest, the natural beauty of the region inspired one of the most prolific periods in his career—he wrote a collection of 26 songs in 30 days that would come to be known as the “columbia river songs.” Some of his most famous songs were written during this short period of time: “Grand Coulee Dam,” “Roll on Columbia,” “Pastures of Plenty,” and “The Biggest Thing Man Has Ever Done.”

At the time of his hiring, Woody had just left his job as a radio host in New York City—the first well-paying gig in his career—because he felt the radio station placed commercial considerations above artistic freedom. They would not allow him to choose the songs he wanted to sing, so he left after only seven broadcasts. More than financial gain, he wanted his work to be meaningful. The time spent writ-ing songs in the Pacific Northwest was truly life-changing for Woody. His son, Arlo Guthrie, addressed the influence of this period on his father’s life:

“He saw himself for the first time as being on the inside of a worthwhile, monumental, world-chang-ing, nature-challenging, huge-beyond-belief thing. It was bigger than him, and frankly there weren’t many things he considered bigger than him. Most people are the center of their own universe, and it’s rare you get a chance to participate in something that you know is bigger than you and your country. He saw this as a big deal. He felt there was a real purpose here, an urgency. He believed what was happening here was not only good, but needed.”

The scale and scope of the Grand Coulee Dam epitomized the ambition of Roosevelt’s New Deal. FDR’s vision of how the dam would impact the devel-opment of the Pacific Northwest was central to Woody’s decision to promote it. Originally, FDR imagined that farms powered by the Grand Coulee Dam would be organized around townsites placed by federal planners and limited to 80 acres to prevent the benefits from going to large landowners. In a 1937 speech, Roosevelt stated:

“We will do everything in our power to encourage the building-up of the smaller communities in the United States. Today many people are beginning to realize that there is inherent weakness in cities…and inherent strength in a wider geographical distribution of population.”

"He saw himself for the first time as being on the inside of a worthwhile, monumental, world-changing,

nature-challenging, huge-beyond-belief thing."

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This bold vision appealed to Guthrie on several levels. Firstly, the government’s commitment to supporting small farms instead of larger industrial farms was con-sistent with his disdain for big business commercialism. More importantly, he saw an opportunity for the dis-placed people of the Oklahoma Dust Bowl to migrate and be able to work for themselves. Guthrie often sang about how the Dust Bowl refugees felt abandoned by their gov-ernment at a time of their greatest need; FDR’s intent to transform the Pacific Northwest seemed to be a workable plan put forth by the government to help the people still feeling the effects of the Great Depression.

As transformational as this vision intended to be, world events changed how the dam would impact the country. Less than a year after Guthrie finished his last “Colum-bia River Song,” the U.S. entered World War II, and the power intended to build up the rural communities that Guthrie sang about had to be reallocated toward the war effort. Although the fact that the dam went to the war effort likely didn’t bother Guthrie much, who famously said that his “guitar killed fascists,” it did doom the grand New Deal vision for the Columbia Basin. Millions of Americans flocked to urban indus-trial centers to work in the nation’s factories, producing the arsenal that the military would use to fight in the war. The country experienced an economic boom after the war, which made the notion of living simply on a farm less palatable to the average American. Over time, the federal government loosened regulations on farming in the region. Today, the water from the dam is distributed to the massive in-dustrial farms that the New Deal intended to marginalize.

Although Guthrie’s hope that Dust Bowl refugees would finally have a place to call home never came to be, the music inspired by his stint in the Pacific Northwest is one of his most enduring legacies.

THINK ABOUT IT - write about itWoody Guthrie was inspired by the landscape and natural beauty of the Pacific Northwest. Who or what inspires you? What is it about this place, person, or concept that you admire? Write a poem or song about the source of your greatest inspiration.

Sources:www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=11918998www.woodyguthrie.org/Lyrics/Grand_Coulee_Dam.htmarchive.seattleweekly.com/news/963596-129/how-woody-guthrie-found-hope-forwww.woodyguthrie.org/biography/biography5.htmwww.usbr.gov/pn/grandcoulee/pubs/factsheet.pdf

Woody Guthrie.

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Glossaryarki: A native of the state of Arkansas.

Boom chasers: Job seekers who looked for jobs by chasing reports of oil discoveries, commonly referred to as “booms.”

Buckskin: Refers to a color that resembles certain shades of tanned deerskin.

Dad gum: A slang curse word.

Hoolihan: To bring down a bull.

Huntington’s chorea: A genetic disorder that affects muscle coordination and leads to cognitive decline and psychiatric problems. The disease is now referred to as Huntington’s Disease, which is the most common genetic cause of involuntary writhing movements called “chorea.”

Jalopy: An old, deteriorating motor vehicle, especially an automobile.

kate smith: An American singer best known for her rendition of “God Bless America.”

odyssey: A long and eventful journey.

old Dan: An old, run-down mule.

oil Derricks: Towers and pumps used to draw oil out of the ground.

okie: A native of the state of Oklahoma, just as Woody was.

osage: A Native American people formerly inhabiting western Missouri and later, southeast Kansas. Substantial oil reserves were discovered on Osage lands in the early 20th century.

relief office: Office offering pensions and jobs to sufferers of the Great Depression.

rockyfeller center: A take on “Rockefeller Center,” a large complex skyscraper constructed during the Great Depression. Named after its financer, John D. Rockefeller Jr., one of the richest men in history.

shotgun shack: A small, narrow house, where each room leads to the next with no hallways linking them; it was built from the end of the civil war until the 1920s.

Tom Joad: A fictional character from John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath. Tom Joad has long been an icon of social injustice and protest movements, and Woody is just one artist to include him in his work. He wrote a song titled "Tom Joad," telling the story of how he yearned to go back to his family, but ended up going off to fight for people’s rights instead.

uncle sammy: A slang name for Uncle Sam.

Git Box: A slang phrase for guitar box.

Fink: A hired strike breaker.

ccss.ELA-LitERAcy.RH.9-10.4

This glossary first appeared in Northlight Theatre’s Season Access Guide for their 2012 production of Woody Sez.

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BY LISA krondirected by braden abraham