Rubicon Theatre Co Presents LONESOME TRAVELER

Rubicon Theatre Company continues its 2010-2011 Season with the World Premiere of Lonesome Traveler, a musical event that takes audiences on a journey down the rivers and streams of American Folk Music -- from the hills of Appalachia to the nightclubs of San Francisco and New York; from the 1920s to the 1960s. Written and directed by Rubicon's Artistic Director James O'Neil, with Musical Direction and Arrangements by Dan Wheetman, Lonesome Traveler begins April 13 and continues through May 15 at Rubicon Theatre in Ventura's Downtown Cultural District. Presented in the style of a concert, Lonesome Traveler is performed by nine artists who create musical portraits inspired by folk immortals such as Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, The Carter Family, Lead Belly, Cisco Houston, The Almanac Singers, The Weavers, The Kingston Trio, Peter Paul & Mary and others whose music and influence changed American music - and America itself-forever.

The company includes Tracy Nicole Chapman (Caroline, or Change and Into the Woods on Broadway), Anthony Manough (The Lion King and Jesus Christ Superstar on Broadway/Rubicon's Songs for a New World), L.A.-based singer/songwriters Justine Bennett and Brendan (B. Willing) James (both mainstays in the Ventura music community and regular performers at Zoey's Café), Sylvie Davidson (a Seattle actress and singer whose credits include work at both ACT and Book-It), second-generation musicians

James Webb and Trevor Wheetman, and New York-based actor/musicians Nicholas Mongiardo-Cooper and Justin Flagg (who plays the title character). All of the artists play multiple instruments and sing.

A few of the well-known song titles include "Will the Circle Be Unbroken," "This Land is Your Land," "Deportee," "Talkin' Union," "Goodnight Irene," "Puff, the Magic Dragon," "Mr. Tambourine Man," "We Shall Overcome," "Jamaica Farewell," "Tzena, Tzena, Tzena" and "Maggie's Farm."

Performances of Lonesome Traveler are Wednesday through Saturday evenings, with matinees at 2:00 p.m. on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays, at 1006 E. Main Street, Ventura, CA 93001. The press opening is Saturday, April 23 at 8:00 p.m. For tickets, call (805) 667-2900 or go to www.rubicontheatre.org.

About the Production

The concept for Lonesome Traveler comes from the imagination of James O'Neil. O'Neil is co-founder and Artistic Director at Rubicon, and this past year accepted the L.A. Drama Critics' Circle Award for "Sustained Excellence" on behalf of the company. He helmed Rubicon's Ovation Award-winning production of Arthur Miller's All My Sons, received the NAACP Award for Directing for Rubicon's production of Driving Miss Daisy with Michael Learned which was presented during the 50th Anniversary of Brown vs. Board of Education, and has also directed classics by Albee and Tennessee Williams for the company, in addition to numerous new works. The journey to Lonesome Traveler for O'Neil was years- even decades -in the making.

"My relationship with this music goes back to when I was six or seven-years-old," O'Neil remarks. "My father was a child of the Great Depression. He grew up in Oklahoma and came to California during the Dust Bowl. He was a ranch hand in Goleta and later became the head of the local retail clerk's union, and a union organizer. Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger were his heroes - my dad even played the guitar a little. As I was growing up in the late ‘50s and early ‘60s, our house was filled with the sounds of the folk revival."

"Even then I knew that the music was for me - and for all of us. Folk music is a declaration of a particular kind of humanity - one that perseveres through life's difficulties and respects and cares for others. The title of Lonesome Traveler essentially comes from the idea that we all take a solitary journey through life - we come in and out of this world alone. But music is a great unifier - a great healer. It can help us feel a little less lost or alone."

O'Neil's thoughts are echoed by Musical Director Dan Wheetman: "This music was born out of hardscrabble living. However, it reflects the joy of life; no matter how many obstacles we face, the human spirit rises above and rejoices in being alive."
Wheetman was the first person O'Neil called once he began work on Lonesome Traveler. A member of the band Marley's Ghost, Dan was last at Rubicon as Musical Director for Back Home Again, for which he received an Ovation Award. He wrote the music for the stage version of The Cider House Rules, and has garnered several L.A. Critics' Circle Awards for Musical Direction and a Tony nomination as a writer for It Ain't Nothin' But the Blues at Lincoln Center.

"The impetus to write Lonesome Traveler has grown over the past few years," says O'Neil. "There has been a resurgence of interest in folk music, with a bumper crop of young musicians reinterpreting and re-popularizing some of the older songs. I suddenly realized I wanted to - needed to - help create a context for a new generation."
"Some of what we think of as American folk music came from other cultures as immigrants came to America: songs derived from traditional English or Scottish ballads, Irish reels, African spirituals or Bahamian lullabies, for example. These songs express universal feelings - love, regret, hunger, jealousy, humor, pain or pride. They were passed from generation to generation and then recorded in the South and Southeast in the mid-1920s by preservationists and opportunists."

"Other songs relate to the times in which they were written," says O'Neil. "Folk music is ‘The People's Music,' and these songs are the people's responses to societal ills - issues of oppression, religious persecution, unemployment, unsafe working conditions, poverty and war. These are often story songs.

"Still other American folk songs influence and change the times," continues O'Neil. "Many of these are songs of praise, solidarity and rebellion and include patriotic songs, union anthems, political commentary, etc.
"To me, Lonesome Traveler is about ‘the history that made the music, and the music that made history'."

How it Unfolds: The Rubicon Folk Club

"The music takes center stage," says O'Neil. "But as a stage director, I also envisioned it in theatrical terms - particularly at the beginning and end of the show. Much of the rest is like a concert, or a series of them, in the various venues where this music might have been found - coffee houses and folk clubs and college campuses and backwoods' porches - all the places where this music happened along the way.

"We start in 1926, with a JohnLomax-like charactermaking an early recording for the Library of Congress and end with Dylan picking up the electric guitar at Newport in the ‘60s. The first act ends in 1952, when some of the performers were blacklisted. The second act picks up with the folk revival in 1958, continuing through 1965.
"It's a new show," continues O'Neil. "We're experimenting with how the themes and ideas are woven into the story. We'll be working on it, and changing things, and figuring out what the audience reaction means - all that comes with developing a new show. This is the beginning."

Throughout the process, O'Neil has been working closely with designer Tom Giamario, with whom he has collaborated on numerous shows including Rubicon's successful environmental production of Fiddler on the Roof.

In his work, Giamario has focused on creating a connection between the performers and the audience that might be similar to a hootenanny or folk concert. Says Giamario, "The performers were aware that it wasn't about them, nor was it about whose song it was or where it came from. It was, ‘Hey, we're ALL going to participate in this together.' Something like an old-time Baptist revival - the experience of sharing the music rejuvenates - it's cathartic. There's something that happens when we sing together. Of course, in folk music there's often a narrative that helps the audience relate to the experience."

"From the outset, Jim was clear that he wanted to engage the audience - he didn't want to create a revue where the audience could be detached or distant," continues Giamario. "Folk music is very much about participation, not observation. We hope the experience will be much as it might have been back in the day."

In addition to Giamario (Set and Lighting Designer), the design team for Lonesome Traveler includes Multimedia Designer Dave Mickey (adjunct professor of Integrated Media at Cal Arts where he received his MFA, and of theatre sound design at Golden West and Pomona); Sound Designer Jonathan Burke (whose previous Rubicon credits include Daddy Long Legs and the Off-Broadway bound The Best is Yet to Come); Pamela Shaw (Rubicon's Doubt, The Rainmaker and Defying Gravity, among others); Hair and Wig Designer Marty Kopulsky (Putnam County Spelling Bee on Broadway/Baltimore Waltz Off Broadway); and Prop Designer T. Theresa Scarano.
Sponsors & Community Partnerships
Lonesome Traveler is sponsored by Loretta and Mike Merewether and Barbara Meister/Barber Ford, Volkswagon, Suburu, RV. Co-sponsors are Lori and Dr. Richard Reisman, E.J. Harrison & Sons/Harrison Industries and Hilford Moving and Storage. The production is a part of the Festival of New American Musicals (lafestival.org) and Ventura Music Week (venturamusicweek.com)

Dates, Prices and Special Performances
Lonesome Traveler opens at Rubicon Theatre on Wednesday, April 13 at 7:00 p.m. Performances continue through May 15, Wednesdays at 2:00 and 7:00 p.m., Thursdays and Fridays at 8:00 p.m., Saturdays at 2:00 and 8:00 p.m., and Sundays at 2:00 p.m. Ticket prices are $49 to $69, depending on the day of the week. Tickets for students are $30; $15 for groups of 12 or more students.

Tickets for Lonesome Traveler may be purchased in person through the Rubicon Theatre Box Office, located at 1006 E. Main Street (Laurel entrance). To charge by phone, call (805) 667-2900. Or visit Rubicon online at www.rubicontheatre.org. Twenty-four-hour-a-day ticketing is available online, thanks to a grant from the Irvine Foundation Regional Arts Initiative.

To post a comment, you must register and login.