The Cradle Will Rock" at UCB

* "The Cradle Will Rock" at UCB
______________________________________________

Below is an announcement and a news release about an extraordinary musical
on labor history directed by a UCB Theater Dept lecturer and member of Local
1474, Lura Dolas, The Cradle Will Rock. It will play at Zellerbach in the
second and third weekends in October. The story of this musical’s original
staging (briefly sketched in the release below) is as fascinating as the
story it tells.
An interview with Lura Dolas about this production appears on p. 8 of the
latest issue of the UC-AFT Perspective. After the October 8 performance,
there will be a discussion with the directors and designers. Note also the
related events: a lecture on labor history and the first production of this
work this Wednesday, Sept 28 (4 pm), by UCB Professor Leon Litwack (who also
plays a small part in this production) and a panel discussion Oct 12 (5 pm)
placing the musical in the context of labor history, both at Zellerbach.

Michelle Squitieri
Field Representative
UC-AFT Local 1474
510 841-1609
510 384-6727 cell

The UC Berkeley Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies
presents:

*THE CRADLE WILL ROCK*
*Directed by Lura Dolas*
*October 7-16, 2005*
*Zellerbach Playhouse*

Performance dates/times:

Friday, October 7 (8pm)
Saturday, October 8 (8pm)
Sunday, October 9 (2pm)
Friday, October 14 (8pm)
Saturday, October 15 (8pm)
Sunday, October 16 (2pm)

*Oct. 8 performance will be followed by a panel discussion with the
directors and designers.

THE CRADLE WILL ROCK is about the turbulent struggle between workers and
management in the 1930's, the most violent period in American labor
history. Against the grim backdrop of the Depression, this “musical
drama” uses satire, irony and theatrical Brechtian techniques to
illustrate the corrupt, heartless tactics of management and the hope and
strength workers found in unity. Set in Steeltown U.S.A., the plot
revolves around the attempts of the CIO to unionize steel along industry
lines and paints the possibility of better wages, hours and working
conditions.

A bit about the play’s history--

THE CRADLE WILL ROCK was called “a play in music” by its creator, Marc
Blitzstein, and a “music drama” by Orson Welles, its first and long-time
producer. It has also been categorized as agitprop, operetta and musical
theater. It is a piece with strong social and political messages and
unmistakable Brechtian resonance.

The first production, prepared by the Welles-Houseman Federal Theater in
1937 was canceled by the “Administratrix” of the Arts Project in
Washington because of the controversial material it was seen to contain.
The subsequent struggle and the ingenious, courageous changes made by
the creators, cast, and producers which moved CRADLE WILL ROCK into
production and launched its astonishing success is a stirring story in
and of itself ­ one chronicled by Tim Robbins in a feature film.

Tickets go on sale in September:
$14 General, $10 Faculty/Staff, $8 Students/Seniors
Group Discounts Available

For more information, call 510-642-9925
or visit our website: http://theater.berkeley.edu

------------------------------------------

Here's the news release:

PRO-LABOR MUSICAL OPENS TDPS MAIN STAGE SEASON

The Cradle Will Rock, Marc Blitzstein's pro-union musical about the 1930's
Labor Movement, will open the TDPS Main Stage Season, running October 7-16,
2005 at the Zellerbach Playhouse

BERKELEY- UC Berkeley's Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance
Studies (TDPS) opens its 2005-06 season with Marc Blitzstein's The Cradle
Will Rock, directed by Bay Area director/actor Lura Dolas with musical
direction by Mark Sumner and choreography by Rodger Henderson. The
production features sets by Stan Kramer, costumes by Wendy Sparks, and
lighting by David K.H. Elliott. The Cradle Will Rock will run October 7-16
at the Zellerbach Playhouse on the UC Berkeley campus. The October 8
performance will be followed by a discussion with the directors and
designers.

"Music in the theater is a powerful weapon," Blitzstein wrote of The Cradle
Will Rock, his pro-union operetta about the 1930's Labor Movement. The
original production, directed by Orson Welles and developed within the WPA's
Federal Theatre Project, was banned for political reasons. The premiere was
scheduled to take place at the Maxine Elliott Theatre in New York on June
16, 1937, but the cast was locked out by government troops. An impromptu
performance without sets or costumes took place that same evening at the
Venice Theatre, with Blitzstein narrating at the piano. Blitzstein dedicated
The Cradle Will Rock to Bertolt Brecht, whom he credited with giving him the
original idea for the musical. The story of the premiere of Cradle was
featured in Tim Robbins 1999 film Cradle Will Rock.
Composer Marc Blitzstein was born in Philadelphia in 1905. He performed as a
soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra at age fifteen, studied at the
Curtis Institute of Music, and trained with Nadia Boulanger and Arnold
Schonberg. Although known to be gay, Blitzstein married novelist Eva
Goldbeck in 1933 (she died in 1936). His most well known works are The
Cradle Will Rock (1937), the opera Regina (1949 - an adaptation of Lillian
Hellman's The Little Foxes), and his adaptation of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt
Weill's Threepenny Opera (1952) which featured Blitzstein's only pop hit,
"Mack the Knife." In 1951 he was subpoenaed to appear before the House
Committee on Un-American Activities where he admitted to having been a
member of the Communist Party. He was subsequently blacklisted by the
Hollywood movie studios. In 1964, Blitzstein was robbed and murdered while
vacationing in Martinique.

Director Lura Dolas has taught the advanced acting class at UC Berkeley for
the past 16 years. Her professional experience includes leading roles with
the California, Oregon, San Francisco, and Santa Fe Shakespeare Festivals,
Empty Space Theater in Seattle, Theater Emery in Atlanta, Sacramento Theater
Company, and Aurora Theatre Company in Berkeley, among others. Last year she
received a Critic's Circle Nomination for work in The Persians at Aurora.
She has taught and directed student productions at Boston University's
Theatre Institute, American Conservatory Theater, California Shakespeare
Festival, Mills College, Academy of Media and Theatre Arts, and California
Institute of the Arts in Los Angeles. Dolas founded and, for twelve years,
directed the California Shakespeare Festival Institute. Dolas holds an M.A.
from Antioch International in conjunction with London Drama Studio and
American Conservatory Theater.

Musical Director Mark Sumner has been the Director of UC Choral Ensembles
for the past eight years. At Berkeley he conducts the UC Alumni Chorus, UC
Women's Chorale, Perfect Fifth, is musical director of BareStage, and
administers five other singing groups. His teaching experience includes
choral music conducting positions at UC Santa Barbara and at University of
Southern California. He has an extensive background as a professional singer
(American Bach Soloists, San Francisco Chamber Singers (Volti), Los Angeles
Chamber Singers and Cappella, Los Angeles Master Chorale, Los Angeles Music
Center Opera, Tulsa Opera, and Dallas Civic Opera) and has served as
director for over thirty musicals and plays. In addition to his work at UC
Berkeley, he is also the Director of Music at the First Unitarian
Universalist Society of San Francisco.

Costume designer Wendy Sparks has been designing in the Bay Area since 1992.
Her most recent theater design credits include Marat/Sade, Getting Married,
Signs Of Life, Orestes, Cleopatra: The Musical, Good, Partisans, A Midsummer
Nights Dream, and Noises Off. Recent dance designs include Hometown, Grace,
Disaster Series -The Continuation, and Folk for Joe Goode Performance Group,
and Temporal Rust and Falling After Too for LEVYdance. Sparks has been
nominated for an Izzy award for co-designing Bach de Trois for Diablo Ballet
with Janet Nakamura. She has been a fashion designer for Planet Five
Productions and is currently Head Costumer for TDPS.

Lighting designer David K. H. Elliott has designed for American Ballet
Theatre, San Francisco Ballet, and ODC/San Francisco. He toured with the
Bolshoi, Kirov, and Paris Opera Ballet, and the White Oak Dance Project. His
work includes designs for Berkeley Repertory Theatre's Virgin Molly,
Dragonwings, and Mother Jones, and John Fisher's Combat!, An American
Melodrama and Partisans for UC Berkeley, as well as productions for
Pennsylvania Ballet, Boston Ballet, Linda Ronstadt, Della Davidson, Robert
Wilson, Keith Terry, Hartford Stage Company, Playwrights Horizons, and the
Organic Theater. As the California Shakespeare Festival's Resident Lighting
Designer for seven seasons, he designed 28 productions and won Drama-Logue
awards for the 1992 production of Two Gentlemen of Verona and the 1997
production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. He received Chicago's Joseph
Jefferson Award in 1979 for the Organic Theater's Warp. Elliott teaches
lighting design for TDPS.

Set designer Stan Kramer is the Technical Director for the UC Berkeley
Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies. He has designed sets
for numerous TDPS productions, including John Fisher's Cleopatra: The
Musical, and most recently for Carol Murota's Thinking Myself Home as part
of University Dance Theater 2004.

Related Events
In conjunction with the production of The Cradle Will Rock, TDPS is
presenting the following special events, which are free and open to the
public. These events take place at the Zellerbach Playhouse.

Take Back the Power: Bread, Roses, and Revolution: September 28 at 4pm
Presentation by Professor Leon Litwack, Historian and Pulitzer Prize winner.
In conjunction with the Department's production of Marc Blitzstein's The
Cradle Will Rock, this lecture will examine the history of the labor
movement in this country, including the violent events surrounding the
formation of the CIO, the international scene, and the pro-industry climate
that many feel contributed to U.S. involvement in W.W.I. Litwack will also
discuss the artistic climate in which The Cradle Will Rock percolated and
the extraordinary story of its first production.

Panel Discussion: Cradling the New Deal: October 12 at 5pm
An interdisciplinary panel of experts will contextualize The Cradle Will
Rock within histories of labor organizing during the Great Depression and
today. How have the concerns of organized labor changed since the
Depression? What lessons can we learn about systems of organizing from the
play? What is its relevance for us now? Panel members will include Fred
Glass, Peter Glazer, and Kathleen Moran. Moderated by Shannon Steen.

Tickets and Information
The Cradle Will Rock opens on October 7 at the Zellerbach Playhouse on the
UC Berkeley campus (on Spieker Plaza near the intersection of Bancroft Way
and Dana Street) and runs through October 16. Performance times are as
follows: Oct. 7 (8pm), Oct. 8 (8pm), Oct. 9 (2pm), Oct. 14 (8pm), Oct. 15
(8pm), Oct. 16 (2pm). Tickets prices are $14.00 general admission; $10.00
for UC faculty/staff; and $8.00 for students/seniors. For tickets, visit
http://theater.berkeley.edu or call (510) 642-9925. Tickets may be purchased
in-person at the Zellerbach Playhouse box office on Fridays from 1pm to 4pm.
The box office also opens one hour prior to each performance for ticket
sales.

STUDENT GROUP DISCOUNT - $6.00 tickets for groups of 10 or more students.
Download the student group order form at: http://theater.berkeley.edu

For directions to the Zellerbach Playhouse and more information about the
Department,
please call (510) 642-9925 or visit our website: http://theater.berkeley.edu

-30-
[EDITORS, please note: photos are available upon request]

--
Jennifer Reil
Publicity & Development Manager
Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies
UC Berkeley
101 Dwinelle Annex
Berkeley, CA 94720-2560
(510) 642-8268
jreil [at] berkeley.edu
http://theater.berkeley.edu