TheatreVCU to tell great American story

Theater preview

Rainbow Bracey

Assistant Spectrum Editor

TheatreVCU in collaboration with Barksdale Theatre will present “The Grapes of Wrath,” the Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Frank Galati. Grapes of Wrath will open at the Barksdale Theatre Friday.

The theater department has lent its students to fulfill many of the leading roles in the ensemble cast. The play, adapted from a John Steinbeck novel of the same name, explores the turbulent times of the Dust Bowl in the early 1930s.
Steinbeck’s story is considered a great American classic, and according to theater department faculty and director Tawnya Pettiford-Wates, the theatrical performance demands a great deal of reverence from VCU’s thespians. Her challenge was to construct this physical manifestation in a way that didn’t suffer in transition from the page to the stage.

“ ‘The Grapes of Wrath’ is one of the most revered and richly American

stories ever written,” Pettiford-Wates said. “In bringing it to the stage, one has taken on a tremendous challenge—how to take something so large and give it a theatrical quality.”

The opportunity for theater students to work outside the traditional college environment raised the standard for many. Theater pedagogy graduate student Joseph Carlson, who plays Tom Joad, explained how his colleagues adjusted to the professional setting.

“(The students have acted) like champs. Everyone has been really professional, arriving early, warming up, putting in extra hours when needed—real class.”

Theater performance major Charley Raintree, who plays Reverend Casy, said it was his first time in a play based on a great American classic but that he was deepened with the adaptation itself.

“Frank Galati did an incredible job of translating the story. Dr. T. has made it totally theatrical and the set is very suggestive,” Raintree said. “It’s just gorgeous and haunting.”

Pettiford-Wates’ care with the story was respected, according to her cast.

“She’s really focused on the story of this family and these people and the human spirit trying to triumph in the face of adversity,” Carlson said.

So why see “Grapes of Wrath” if it has been done so many times over?

“At its core, ‘The Grapes of Wrath’ is an intensely human story of tragedy and triumph that should touch us all. We see ourselves—that is what good writing does,” Pettiford-Wates said. “All we need is a bare stage, our imagination and a committed group of artists—that we certainly have and it has been my privilege too.”

TheatreVCU and Barksdale Theatre present: “The Grapes of Wrath” by Frank Galati adapted from the novel by John Steinbeck. Play runs through March 21. $10-$39. Barksdale Theatre, 1601 Willow Lawn Drive. 282-2620.