THE GRAPES OF WRATH Opens 3/12 at Asolo Rep

Asolo Rep continues its 2013-2014 season with Frank Galati's triumphant adaptation of John Steinbeck's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel THE GRAPES OF WRATH, directed by Producing Artistic Director Michael Donald Edwards. Frank Galati's adaptation premiered at the Steppenwolf Theatre of Chicago in 1988. The Broadway production won the Tony award for Best Play and Best Direction of a Play in 1990 and was nominated for six additional Tony Awards. Galati also won a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director in 1990 and the play was nominated for four additional Drama Desk Awards. Previews will be March 12 - 13, opening night will be on March 14 at 8pm and the play will run through April 19.

A true American masterpiece, THE GRAPES OF WRATH chronicles the hardships of the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, particularly its detrimental effects on the nation's farmers. Also transformed into the 1940 Academy Award-winning film starring Henry Fonda, the play tells the inspirational story of one family of farmers, the Joads, and their harrowing cross-country journey from their depleted farm in Oklahoma to the supposedly thriving grape farms of California. The family's resilient matriarch, Ma Joad, and her son, Tom, who has been released from prison for killing a man at the beginning of the play, spearhead the family's adventure. The frail Granma and Grampa Joad, the family's patriarch, Pa Joad, newly pregnant Rose of Sharon, and her husband, Connie Rivers, and the disheartened preacher, Jim Casy, join Tom and Ma on the road to California. The Joad family's uplifting 2,000-mile quest for their own Eden by way of an old, beat-up jalopy reveals the insurmountable fortitude and tenacity of mankind.

"THE GRAPES OF WRATH is a great work of art. The Joad family's story of survival is uplifting and universal. For me, there are few plays that touch every aspect of what it is to be human, and this is one of them. The set, featuring a recreation of the Colorado River, onstage rain, and the iconic moving jalopy, is a visual masterpiece that vividly complements this extraordinary story of what it means to be an American," said Producing Artistic Director and Director of THE GRAPES OF WRATH Michael Donald Edwards.

In addition to the captivating set, designed by Scott Bradley, Asolo Rep's production features 28 cast members, including five local child actors. Onstage musicians enhance Steinbeck's powerful story of strength, perseverance and hope. The play's composer/music director, award-winning American folk musician Tim Grimm, explained that Americana singer-songwriter Woody Guthrie, who grew up in Oklahoma and lived through the Dust Bowl, and Pete Seeger, who was one of the fathers of American folk music, served as his greatest inspirations. Grimm will perform on stage alongside local musicians Sara Moone and Carmela Pedicini.

"In THE GRAPES OF WRATH, music operates in multiple ways. On one hand, it serves as a Greek chorus - commenting on what is happening or about to happen on stage, but it also has the ability to literally become a part of the scene and story. Woody sang the songs of the people with just a voice and guitar. There was nothing sweet about the way he sang his songs. But, as Steinbeck himself said about Woody, 'there is something more important for those who will listen. There is the will of a people to endure and fight against oppression. I think we call this the American spirit,'" said Tim Grimm.

THE GRAPES OF WRATH continues the second season of Asolo Rep's American Character Project, which explores the nation's distinctive political, social and historical elements, and this season focuses on the American family. Through the provocative characterization of the dynamic Joad family, Steinbeck, who won a Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962, artfully depicted one of the nation's most trying economic periods.

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