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Director of Working a Musical
Project Type
Directing & Performing
Date
March 2023
Eastern University
Eastern University
St. Davids, PA
Custom
Director's Note Excerpt:
“It is about search, too, for the daily meaning as well as daily bread, for recognition as well as cash…in short; for a sort of life rather than a Monday through Friday sort of dying. Perhaps immortality, too, is part of the quest. To be remembered was the wish, spoken and unspoken, of the heroes and heroines of this book.” -Studs Terkel
Working is a musical inspired by documentary interviews that were turned into a 1972 book by oral historian Studs Terkel who illuminated real people with real stories. Although the original subjects’ names were changed for the sake of privacy, their powerful words remain true to the original telling of their story.
Our musical version of Working includes interviews conducted by Dramaturg Kaitlyn Arrow with Eastern’s beloved barista, Sandi Miller, and respected Philadelphia Police Sergeant and Esperanza College Professor, Gregorrio Santiago. By bringing their stories to life on the McInnis Stage we hope to cultivate an environment of hospitality and empathy as we listen to our neighbors who are overworked and overlooked.
Working a Musical, directed by Megan Odland, participated in the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival. Megan was the first student director of a main stage production at Eastern University. Two festival respondents, Aileen Lynch-McCulloch and Victor Capecce, who worked on the original Broadway production himself, came to review the show and speak the cast and crew afterwards. Their comments are written below.
“The production was quite wonderful. The directorial concept of minimalizing was what the ORIGINAL production pre-Broadway had, and made sense. (The Broadway production was inundated with scenery, and the elite Broadway audiences at the time were not receptive to the theme of the play.)”
“The choice was brilliant. My pitch to KCACTF is that this is a very important play for this time. The director’s work was quite good for a novice; and dealing with the disparity of skills in the cast was nicely done. I would encourage her and the Department to continue with the clear trajectory of growth evident in this challenging production.”
“The cast and crew should be both proud and honored that they have accomplished a wonderful, evocative and provocative theatre experience!”
