Marin Theatre Company's WOODY GUTHRIE'S AMERICAN SONG Extends Through 6/27

Marin Theatre Company has announced an extension of their revival of Woody Guthrie's American Song. The show now plays in Marin Theatre Company's Boyer Theatre through June 27, 2010. Conceived, adapted and directed by Peter Glazer, this musical has been pleasing audiences since its premiere in 1988. It won the Bay Area Critics Circle Award for best musical in its co-production at Berkeley Rep and San Jose Repertory Theatre in 1992.

Legendary folk singer Woody Guthrie wrote songs about hard times-the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl, high unemployment, and war. He also sang about the joy of being alive and being an American. Based on Woody Guthrie's extensive writings and songs, this stirring musical follows Guthrie as he rambles coast to coast from California to the New York Islands. It features about two dozen of his most famous songs.

The guitar-strumming, banjo-picking, bass-plucking five actors and three musicians perform songs from the prolific songwriter and troubadour, including Bound for Glory and This Land Is Your Land. Drawing from Woody Guthrie's essays and books, cast members speak through his voice and the voices that inhabited his world-dust-bowl refugees, migrant farm workers, transients, and American families.

Woody Guthrie is well known for his many songs as well as his travels across the country during the Great Depression. He was a figurehead for the folk music movement, inspiring numerous musicians including Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, U2, REM, and Pete Seeger. His music and writings are archived in the Library of Congress.

"MTC is delighted to revive this spectacular musical for Bay Area audiences with an incredible cast of actors and musicians," said Artistic Director Jasson Minadakis. "We've reunited writer/director Peter Glazer and music director Jeff Waxman with their outstanding ensemble from Colorado Shakespeare Festival's 2008 critically acclaimed production. This is a fascinating time to revisit the music and writings of Woody Guthrie. Not since the Great Depression has unemployment, inflation, and economic instability so shaken our country. Combined with the ongoing war, Americans are once again asking who we are as a nation. Now is the perfect time to turn to one of our most patriotic and probing chroniclers to seek inspiration, advice, and hope."

Playwright and director Peter Glazer has directed many productions of Woody Guthrie's American Song since its inception. Glazer's other work includes O'Carolan's Farewell to Music and the musical Matthew, Margaret, Pat and Kate which MTC produced in 1994. He is a professor at UC Berkeley.

The MTC cast reunites members of the Colorado Shakespeare Festival ensemble-Bay Area actors and musicians Sam Misner and Megan Smith of the band Misner & Smith, along with acting and vocal talents Lisa Asher and Matthew Mueller. Bay Area actor and singer Berwick Haynes joins the company to complete the MTC cast. Three musicians, including Bay Area favorite Tony Marcus of Cats & Jammers and Leftover Dreams, will join them onstage.

For more information visit www.marintheatre.org or call 415.388.5208.

Marin Theatre Company is located at 397 Miller Ave, Mill Valley CA 94941.

Previews-Thursday, May 27 through Sunday, May 30, 2010

Opening Night Gala -Tuesday, June 1 at 8:00 pm

Performance Schedule May 27 - June 27

Tues, Thu, Fri & Sat 8:00 pm

Wed 7:30 pm

Sun 7:00 pm

Matinees: Thu June 10, 1:00 pm | Sat June 5 and 20, 2 pm | Every Sun 2:00 pm

Please check www.marintheatre.org or call box office at 415.388.5208 for exact performance dates and times

Ticket Prices

Previews: Thu through Sun: $31

Regular Performances:

Tues: $31 in advance, or Pay-What-You-Can (excludes Opening)

Wed, Thu, & Sun Evenings: $34 & $41

Fri: $39 & $46

Sat Evenings: $44 & $51

Wed, Thu, Sat & Sun Matinees: $34 & $41

Opening Night (Tues) with Cast Reception: $44 & $51

Discounts available:

Student tickets: $20, all performances

Senior discounts, varies by performance, please call

RUSH tickets $15, available one-half hour prior to show, based on availability

Pay-What-You-Can Tuesdays (excludes Opening)

For group sales, contact Julie Knight, 415-388-5200 x3302

ABOUT MTC. Marin Theatre Company is the Bay Area's premiere mid-sized theater and the leading professional theater in the North Bay. We produce a five- to six-show season of provocative plays by passionate playwrights from the 20th century and today in two intimate theaters-a 231-seat proscenium and a 99-seat thrust. We are committed to the development and production of new plays by American Playwrights, with a comprehensive New Play Program that includes at least one world premiere each season, two nationally recognized annual playwriting awards, numerous new play readings and workshops by the nation's best emerging playwrights, and a leadership position in the National New Play Network. Our numerous educational programs serve more than 6,000 students each year.

ARTIST BIOS

Woodrow Wilson "Woody" Guthrie (1912-1967) is best known as an American singer-songwriter and folk musician whose musical legacy includes hundreds of political, traditional and children's songs, ballads and improvised works. His best-known song, This Land Is Your Land, is regularly sung in American schools. Guthrie traveled with migrant workers from Oklahoma to California and learned traditional folk and blues songs. Many of his songs are about his experiences in the Dust Bowl era during the Great Depression. Guthrie served as a figurehead in the American folk music movement, providing inspiration to a generation of new folk musicians, including mentor relationships with Ramblin' Jack Elliott and Bob Dylan. He was the father of American folk singer Arlo Guthrie. Many of his recorded songs are archived in the Library of Congress.

Peter Glazer (Playwright and Director) has been writing and directing theater for over 25 years. MTC produced his musical Matthew, Margaret, Pat and Kate in 1994, co-written with singer/songwriter Michael Smith. Woody Guthrie's American Song has been seen at over 100 theaters around the country since its premiere in 1988 including Berkeley Rep, San Jose Repertory Theatre, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Colorado Shakespeare Festival, Ford's Theater, and Melting Pot Theater in New York. It has received three Joseph Jefferson Awards in Chicago, two Bay Area Drama Critics Awards, and Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle nominations in New York City. Glazer adapted J.M. Coetzee's novel Foe and directed its world premiere at UC Berkeley in 2004, where he has also staged José Rivera's Marisol, Howard Barker's Seven Lears, and William Shakespeare's Measure for Measure. Other credits include O'Carolan's Farewell to Music, and Heart of Spain - A Musical of the Spanish Civil War, written and adapted with composer Eric Bain Peltoniemi. He is currently co-writing a new musical with Irish singer/songwriter Melanie O'Reilly, about three women who immigrated to the US from Ireland in the 19th century. Peter is author of Radical Nostalgia: Spanish Civil War Commemoration in America and co-editor of War is Beautiful: An American Ambulance Driver in the Spanish Civil War. He is an Associate Professor in the Department of Theater, Dance and Performance Studies at UC Berkeley.

Lisa Asher (Woman) makes her MTC debut in Woody Guthrie's American Song. She appeared in the award-winning 20th anniversary production at the Colorado Shakespeare Festival in 2008. Other recent credits include I Married Wyatt Earp at Bristol Riverside Theatre and Almost Heaven: John Denver's America at Denver Center Theatre Company. Lisa toured nationally with the Broadway show The Who's Tommy and appeared off Broadway in Woody Guthrie's American Song at Promenade Theatre. She performed in a tribute concert for Woody Guthrie at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame alongside Bruce Springsteen and Arlo Guthrie. Lisa is a recipient of a New York Nightlife Award, a MAC Award, and a Back Stage Bistro Award for her solo work in cabarets in New York. She has two solo CDs, Let The Mystery Be and Lisa Asher Live at The Duplex. She can also be heard on the original cast recording of Almost Heaven. Lisa is originally from Kentucky and is a graduate of the University of Kentucky.

Berwick Haynes (Man) was last seen at MTC as Winston in Avenue X. Bay Area credits include The Cay at California Theatre Center, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee at San Jose Repertory Theatre, and The Full Monty at Broadway By the Bay. Regional credits include Ain't Misbehavin' and Cyrano de Bergerac at Tennessee Repertory Theatre; Seussical the Musical at Chicago Shakespeare Theater; and Anyone Can Whistle with Patti LuPone and Audra McDonald at the Ravinia Festival. Berwick is a graduate of San Francisco State University.

Sam Misner (First Young Man) makes his MTC debut in Woody Guthrie's American Song. He reprises this role from the 2008 Colorado Shakespeare Festival production. Local credits include Cal Shakes, Center REP, Playground, and Pacific ALLIANCE THEATRE Company. Regional credits include Colorado Shakespeare Festival, Indiana Repertory Theatre, Syracuse Stage, GeVa Theatre Center, Foothill Theatre Company, and four seasons with Shakespeare Santa Cruz. Sam also performs and tours regularly in the Folk/Americana duo, Misner & Smith. His song "Madeline" won the West Coast Songwriter's Association's Song of the Year in 2007, and the title track of the duo's most recent album Poor Player was nominated in the New Folk Song category in the Just Plain Folks music organization's international song contest. Sam holds a B.A. in theater arts from the University of California Santa Cruz.

Matthew Mueller (Second Young Man) makes his MTC debut in Woody Guthrie's American Song after appearing in the 2008 Colorado Shakespeare Festival production. Regional credits include A Christmas Carol, Hamlet, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Love's Labor's Lost, and Around the World in 80 Days (Denver Post Ovation Award) at Colorado Shakespeare Festival; Morisot Reclining, The Glass Menagerie, and Savage in Limbo at Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company; Contrived Ending at Conundrum Productions; Stories on Stage, Richard III, and Living History at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts; and American Buffalo at Palm Beach Dramaworks. Matt has appeared in productions of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) at Colorado Shakespeare Festival, Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company, and Utah Shakespearean Festival.

Megan Smith (Young Woman) makes her MTC debut in Woody Guthrie's American Song after appearing in the 2008 Colorado Shakespeare Festival production. Local credits include San Jose Repertory Theatre, Cal Shakes, TheatreWorks, SF Playhouse, Center REP, and Playground. Regional credits include the Colorado Shakespeare Festival, Willamette Repertory Theatre, Foothill Theatre Company, Capital Stage, and Viola in Nancy Carlin's production of Twelfth Night at the Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival. Megan performs original music with the Folk/Americana duo, Misner & Smith. The pair recently headlined at Berkeley's Freight & Salvage and will be on tour throughout the western states following this production.

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