THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, October 14, 1995 TAG: 9510130061
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TERESA ANNAS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 158 lines
IN 1990, THEATER director Christopher Hanna paid $50 to have his heart broken over poor people suffering through the Great Depression.
The high-priced ticket was for ``The Grapes of Wrath,'' on Broadway.
First a 1939 book by John Steinbeck, then a classic 1940 John Ford film, ``The Grapes of Wrath,'' was made into a play in the late 1980s by Chicago's Steppenwolf Theater Company.
``In Chicago, it was a very bare-bones production,'' Hanna said. ``When it finally ended up on Broadway, it was very successful. But they made it a huge spectacle.''
Such an overproduced show seemed, at the least, insensitive to the material.
``And then you pay $50 for your ticket, to see a play about homelessness and displacement,'' Hanna said.
Such irony. That same 50 bucks could bring food and shelter to the poor, to folks like the Joads.
The regional premiere of the acclaimed drama opened Friday at Old Dominion University. Hanna, who teaches theater at ODU, directs The University Players, which casts students with top area actors.
The story follows the ever-struggling Joad family as they flee Oklahoma's dust bowl for the promise of California, where it is rumored that sweet fruits fall freely from trees and labor abounds for any decent man.
Problem was, the Joads didn't have the dough, or the do-re-mi, as pro-union folkie Woody Guthrie put it, to survive the unexpected wilds of the West Coast.
With midwestern stoicism, the family encountered horrors ranging from floods to starvation. Work was scarce, and brought pitiful wages. And if you were caught unemployed, they might throw you in jail or make you work for free.
As Woody sang:
You better go back to beautiful Texas,
Oklahoma, Kansas, Georgia, Tennessee.
California is a garden of Eden,
A paradise to live in or see.
But, believe it or not, you won't find it so hot.
If you ain't got that do-re-mi.
After seeing the play in 1990, Hanna read Steinbeck's book and saw the film for the first time. The story's power astonished him.
``I am a theater person. I've always thought that Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller had the copyright on the soul of the American consciousness. But after reading Steinbeck, I saw that he was in touch with a sense of American dignity I had never encountered before.''
A few years later, when Hanna took the ODU job as assistant professor, he began to consider mounting the show.
``We've never tackled anything of this size and scope before. I mean, this is a cast of 35 people playing 62 roles. I've never worked on a show like this in my life. I've never been able to.''
In professional theater, union pay rates would make such a large cast unaffordable for most budgets. Plus, the stage magic required to create certain scripted effects could conceivably cost in the millions.
On stage, there are thunderstorms, campfires and a flood. People swim in a river.
Of course, ODU did not budget millions for this ``Grapes of Wrath.''
``We're trying not to make a `Les Miserables' out of it - not that we could afford to - because this show is not about amazing technical effects,'' Hanna said.
It's a show about the human spirit, and community, the milk of human kindness.
To create the illusion that characters are swimming, scenic designer Konrad Winters created a pit in the stage floor, then built in a pool. Winters also created a ragtag '38 truck, akin to the Joad's Hudson Super Six described in the novel.
The on-stage truck is a main character. It is the family's only constant, the closest thing they have to a sense of place once they leave Oklahoma.
The show also features square dances and waltzes and live Depression-era music performed by local actors Duke Miller and Steve Kohrherr with accordianist Andy Vaaler.
Veteran local actors portray members of the Joad clan, including Candy Aston as Ma and Bob Nelson as Pa.
``Everybody has just fit in perfectly. Bob was born to play this role,'' Hanna said, noting that Nelson is rehearsing for ``Wrath'' while directing an upcoming Generic Theater show, ``The Swan.''
``It's been difficult for him. He's been literally running back and forth,'' Hanna said. ``But I practically forced him to play it. There is no way this play could be done in this town without Bob Nelson playing Pa Joad.''
Aston brings a believable stoic warmth to her interpretation of a midwestern farm wife, he said.
Charlie and Marty Terry, who recently retired from managing the Norfolk agency Talent Connection, are portraying Granma and Grampa Joad.
Terry Jernigan brings to the role of Tom Joad his training in the Suzuki theater method, which stresses physicality. ``He's in touch with Tom's restraint, even in the face of amazing emotional trauma and breakthrough,'' Hanna said.
There is a moment when Tom Joad finds his dearest friend lying dead before him. A traditional American actor would move in and try to embrace the body, Hanna said.
``But Terry knows exactly how far to go, theatrically, and stop still. And pull back. He can stop on a dime, like a BMW. And that's when it is so powerful.''
During the Depression, Steinbeck saw from his northern California home how migrant workers poured into the surrounding farming regions, and he saw their suffering. ``The Grapes of Wrath'' - the title phrase pulled from ``The Battle Hymn of the Republic'' - emerged from his outrage.
Steinbeck died in 1968. His widow, Elaine, never allowed a stage adaptation of the book, until she met with Steppenwolf's Frank Galati in the mid-1980s. ``I trusted Frank Galati and Steppenwolf completely,'' Elaine Steinbeck told The New York Times in 1990.
Though she and her husband loved the film version, she said the story's focus was altered. Since it was a star vehicle for Henry Fonda, the movie centered on Tom Joad.
Whereas, the novel focused more on Ma Joad. ``And Frank has restored that emphasis,'' she said.
The novel's astonishing ending - quite different from the film's - also is restored in the play. The Joad's daughter, Rosasharn, breast feeds a starving man. She has milk to spare, since her child was just born dead.
There is nothing remotely erotic about this scene. Rosasharn shares the milk of human kindness, which is about all she has to give at that moment.
``The moment is sacramental,'' Galati said in 1990. ``It's a simple act of profound mystery. It is an act of nourishing: the moment, the man, the world.
``The book is full of food imagery - think of the title - and it is a story of starvation and nourishment.
``In a sense,'' Galati continued, ``we're all starving in 1990, and the specter of suffering is as ghastly today as it was 50 years ago.
``It's not just the legions of the homeless, the anesthetized and the brutalized - but it's that as a nation, we're fat and rich, yet we're starving for spiritual food.'' ILLUSTRATION: CONNIE HANNA
Terry Jernigan, front, portrays Tom Joad. Background from left are
Edwin Castillo (Al), Carrie Newell (Rose of Sharon) and Bob Nelson
(Pa).
Steinbeck's 1939 novel follows the Joad family as they flee
Oklahoma's dust bowl for the promise of California.
Jane Darwell as Ma Joad and Henry Fonda as Tom in the 1940 film
version, directed by John Ford.
ABOUT THE PLAY
What: John Steinbeck's ``The Grapes of Wrath,'' adapted for the
stage by Frank Galati. Performed by University Players.
Where: ODU's University Theater, 4600 Hampton Blvd., Norfolk
When: 8 p.m. today; 3 p.m. Sunday and Oct. 22. Continues Tuesday
through next Saturday at 8 p.m.
How much: Tickets are $8. Discounts available.
Call: 683-5305
CONNIE HANNA
Bob Nelson portrays Pa Joad in ``The Grapes of Wrath,'' which
premiered regionally at ODU on Friday.
KEYWORDS: INTERVIEW by CNB