American icon Woody Guthrie comes to life when Will Kaufman’s “Woody Guthrie: Hard Times and Hard Travellin’” is presented by The Ridgefield Playhouse on Thursday, September 30, at 7:30 p.m.
Will Kaufman's “Woody Guthrie: Hard Times and Hard Travellin”, is a "live documentary" that sets the songs of Woody Guthrie in the context of the American 1930s -- the Dust Bowl, the Depression, the New Deal and the state of popular music itself. Live music is performed by Will Kaufman while a documentary film plays, creating the perfect backdrop to convey the feeling of what life was like during John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, which is part of The Big Read town-wide initiative to make reading a central part of our culture.
The Will Kaufman event takes place at The Ridgefield Playhouse on Thursday, September 30, at 7:30 p.m. and is the kickoff event for The Big Read, which will run through the month of October. This initiative is made possible through a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to The Ridgefield Playhouse in collaboration with Ridgefield Library. This production is presented by The Ridgefield Playhouse & The Acoustic Celebration.
The Will Kaufman show features such hard-hitting Guthrie songs as "Vigilante Man", "Pretty Boy Floyd" and "I Ain't Got No Home". Other relevant songs including Joe Hill's "The Preacher and the Slave" and "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" are brought into the conversation. The show highlights the blending of music and radical politics which typifies Guthrie's most powerful work.
"I thank Will Kaufman for introducing a new generation of Europeans to 'the other America'. It's a wonderful job he's doing”, exclaimed singer/songwriter Pete Seeger. A portion of the proceeds from Will Kaufman’s Woody Guthrie: Hard Times and Hard Travellin’ will go to The Woody Guthrie Foundations.
For tickets ($30 orches., $25 mezz., $15 student) and more information about The Ridgefield Playhouse, call the box office at 203-438-5795, or buy tickets online at ridgefieldplayhouse.org. The Ridgefield Playhouse is a not-for-profit arts center located at 80 East Ridge, parallel to Main Street, Ridgefield, CT.
