Foothill Music Theatre Celebrates Unsung Heroes in WORKING, 2/18-3/6

Multi-award winning Foothill Music Theatre presents the timely musical WORKING. Based on Pulitzer Prize-winning author Studs Terkel's best-selling book of interviews with American workers, WORKING is directed by Milissa Carey with music direction by Mark Hanson and choreography by Michael Ryken. First adapted for the stage in 1978 by Grammy and Academy Award-winning composer Stephen Schwartz and acclaimed Broadway director Nina Faso and revised in 2009, WORKING chronicles the workday of twenty-six American workers with humor and poignancy. WORKING plays February 18, 2011 - March 6, 2011 at the Lohman Theatre at Foothill College in Los Altos. For tickets ($10-$26) and information, the public may visit www.foothillmusicals.com, or call the box office at (650) 949-7360.

In what the New York Times called "an unashamed celebration of The Common man," WORKING shines a well-deserved spotlight on the men and women the world so often takes for granted. Using original monologues from the book, this gentle ode to unsung heroes captures the reflections of twenty-six American workers, including a parking lot attendant, corporate executive, migrant worker, schoolteacher, housewife, fireman, waitress, millworker, and trucker-each eloquently expressing insecurities, dreams, struggles, and a search for identity beyond their job titles. Featuring songs by Stephen Schwartz (Wicked, Godspell, Pippin), Mary Rodgers (Once Upon a Mattress), and folk rock icon James Taylor ("Carolina in My Mind," "How Sweet it Is (To Be Loved By You)," "You've Got a Friend") as well as Craig Carnelia, Micki Grant, and Susan Birkenhead with additional lyrics by Matt Landers and Graciela Daniele, WORKING strikes an empathic chord, challenging audiences to walk a mile in their neighbors' shoes.

Louis "Studs" Terkel (1912-2008) was the host of a popular radio show in Chicago as well as a Pulitzer Prize-winning author. His award winning books are based on his extensive conversations with Americans from all walks of life that chronicled the profound and often tumultuous changes in the United States during the twentieth century, such as Division Street: America (1966), Hard Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression (1970), and Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do (1974). Terkel's work is highly praised and recognized in the world of arts and letters as helping to establish oral history as a serious genre. He was the recipient of numerous book awards including the Pulitzer Prize for The Good War (1985), the Irita Van Doren Book Award, and two National Book Award nominations. Terkel also received the Presidential National Humanities Medal (1999) and the National Medal of Humanities (1997).

The Foothill Music Theatre cast for WORKING includes Chris Carter, Ron Dritz, Nique Genelle, Kristopher Hauck, Mark Merman, Sara Renee Morris, Kristina Nakagawa, Leslie Newport, Emily Ota, Peter Owen, Linda Piccone, Erika Robertson, Clifford Samoranos, Jade Shojaee, Samantha Stidham, Molly Thornton, Celestial Tranquility, and Todd Wright.

 

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