Underground Railway Theater, Engine of Delight & Social Change: Third Edition 2023

By Wes Sanders and Debra Wise

Winner of the 2022 Nancy Staub Award for scholarship and academic excellence in puppetry from UNIMA, the International Puppetry Guild, this interactive, multi-media ebook is a vivid, amusing chronicle of Underground Railway Theater's (URT) touring years (1978-2001). VIDEO-EXCERPTS from several URT PRODUCTIONS ARE ACCESSIBLE TO READERS thru hyperlinks, including COLOR SHADOW-PUPPET BALLETS choreographed to classic LEONARD BERNSTEIN RECORDINGS OF "THE FIREBIRD" AND "TILL EULENSPIEGEL'S MERRY PRANKS." Penned by URT's Co-Founders, Wes Sanders and Debra Wise, this ebook is described by JULIE TAYMOR as "a testament to the unbridled experimentation and success [URT has] achieved in this rare art form. I was an early collaborator of theirs."
The book begins with the company's origins in the U.S. theater-scene of the 1970s, parachuting the reader into the middle of a rehearsal with the experimental ensemble "Kraken," with such collaborators as Julie Taymor, Bill Irwin and Herbert Blau. The book goes on to describe URT's innovative combinations of puppetry, acting and music during the troupe's touring years ––the first 25 (the company lasted 45 in all, evolving into today's Central Square Theater)––diving from time to time into detail about the company's process for devising plays and its development as a MULTICULTURAL SOCIAL JUSTICE THEATER COMPANY with each new production--including shadow-puppet collaborations with orchestras like The Boston Symphony and The Cleveland Orchestra. The text is lavishly illustrated with 100 photos and numerous videos of rehearsals, performances, puppets, posters and designs . Sidebars throughout provide colorful, often humorous, commentary from the perspectives of URT's actors, writers and producers.
The co-founders of URT describe the process by which the ensemble has used research and improvisation to devise both its wholly original actor-plays & its puppet-spectacles to classical music, picking up along the way many colorful stories, such as (1) the artist-residency in Tblisi, Georgia, when the Berlin Wall was about to be torn down and (2) field-research in a Sanctuary caravan taking Central American refugees to churches throughout the U.S. The theater-group's history is painted against the backdrop of its socio-political landscape. URT is a troupe which––in addition to its innovations in integrating puppetry and music with acting––has always engaged robustly with the issues of its times.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wes Sanders
• Release date: Jul 4, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370222414

Wes Sanders

Wes Sanders performed a variety of roles in Chicago, Boston and New York theaters––joining Equity in 1966––while completing his doctoral work in Drama at Northwestern University (Ph.D., 1969). He served as a tenured Associate Professor of Theater & English at Oberlin College, 1967-78, directing 17 productions from Euripides to Beckett.Wes resigned from Oberlin, to start Underground Railway Theater (URT) with partner Debra Wise (1978). He served as Founding Artistic Director of the troupe for 20 years––acting, directing, singing, making and performing puppets, playwriting and teaching art-residencies. The company built its own theater in 2008 (Cambridge, Mass.) and celebrated 44 years of continuous production in 2022.Wes resigned from the staff of URT in 1998 to work on climate-change full-time. He lives in Denver.

Book preview

COMMENTS AND REVIEWS OF THIS BOOK

Julie Taymor, Designer/Director of The Lion King (puppet-and-actor version) and of The Magic Flute for The Metropolitan Opera:

The Firebird of Stravinsky in union with Underground Railway Theater is a marvel of two mediums perfectly matched. Even better than ballet, this theater’s use of shadow puppetry to tell the tale without words is the ultimate way to visualize the fragility and spirituality of the story. The use of colored plexi shadow puppets with intricate painting and articulation allows for the personality of gesture and the otherworldly design of imagined characters. The firebird herself is essentially composed of light, through the use of reflective, mirrored shadows. I myself have worked with this technique early on as we—Wes, John, and Debra—all seemed to discover its potential while collaborating on The Haggadah. The holographic nature of the bending white light is able to express vulnerability and spirit better than any other puppet medium. The firebird in URT’s production soars and vibrates with life that is both intangible and emotional.

I am delighted to see this book on the great output of Underground Railway Theater. I was an early collaborator of theirs as we each began our journey in the burgeoning field of American Puppetry, and this book is a testament to the unbridled experimentation and success they have achieved in this rare art form.

• • •

From a Review of the SECOND EDITION, March 2020

Douglas Paterson, Professor Emeritus of Theater at the University of Nebraska. Founding Director, Dakota Theater Caravan and Primary contact for Augusto Boal’s tours on the Theater of the Oppressed in the United States 1992 – 2009

Let me begin by saying: Reading through the entirety of the new online edition is almost a haunting. This small company of performers/artists managed to cross paths with a breathtaking stream of justice issues and people that in a sense summarize the years 1975 – 2000… This is a remarkable story and an exemplary body of work, even hard to believe since the achievement was so vast. Moreover, Wes Sanders and Debra Wise’s careful and at times even microscopic descriptions of productions, along with their processes, could…serve as a model for theatres that consider documenting their work in a publication.

…Given that Underground Railway Theater is in part a puppet theatre, with astonishing original 2- and 3-D puppet creations by the insufficiently-heralded David Fichter, the URT e-text offers a history with a garden of visual support that compels the eye. Since so many histories of US companies have had only photographs, the visual record prior to mid-20th century is often only in black and white. To see Fichter’s Lovelies and Grotesques in color and motion gives the reader/viewer a much more complete understanding of URT’s achievement.

…The URT bumped and curved and staggered and finally sailed a course that defines political and cultural struggle in the U.S. during the last quarter of the Twentieth Century. We do well to remember such efforts, especially when they rise to a level of thoughtful and artistic excellence, as with URT. To a certain extent the company continues to do that from the millennial turn to today, comprising forty-five years of remarkable theatre-making.

In my read of the manuscript for the writing of this review, a question began to trouble me, based on my long association with the Lakota people. The question—which concerned his description of the Bean Dance Ceremony of the Hopi—felt urgent enough that I felt I needed to broach it directly, so I asked Wes, Did you ever talk to Hopi elders about your documenting the ritual in which you participated? While much of US native people’s life and history has been recorded, albeit often erroneously, some elements are truly sacred and private; thus, I thought my question was appropriate.

Wes was struck by my question and, remarkably, immediately pursued a communication with Hopi representatives and elders. Moreover, he asked that he and I have a dialogue about this and other Cultural-Appropriation matters, with the understanding that the dialogue would be included in this second edition. He has documented the process in this edition of the book. Regrettably, Hopi elders requested that passages in both the play and the chapter on the play not be included in the e-book. What I want to highlight are several commendable aspects of these communications. First, how willingly Wes contacted the elders. I soon realized this was a vulnerable risk for him, but he didn’t hesitate. Second is Wes’ remarkable idea of having a dialogue with me about this sensitive subject. Finally, I commend Wes’ desire to include the dialogue in the e-book. Perhaps other authors have used this talking-in-mid-stream approach. I found it enlightening and want humbly to thank Wes for the opportunity to be included on an important matter for his work and for theatre generally.

…Virtually all of the descriptions [in this history] of URT work are compelling to anyone with only a passing interest in what happened in the theatre at large during those volatile times. Theatre historians themselves would do well to examine this account to appreciate the achievement.

[FOR THE ENTIRE TEXT OF PROFESSOR PATERSON’S REVIEW, PLEASE GO TO THE TABLE OF CONTENTS AND CLICK ON Popular Theatre and Political Culture]

• • •

Keith Lockhart, Conductor, Boston Pops Orchestra:

I first heard of Underground Railway Theater’s work when I came to the Cincinnati Symphony in 1990… We’ve worked together on a number of projects over the years, beginning in Cincinnati and continuing to the Chicago and Boston symphonies. From the beauty of their Firebird production, to the joy and fun of Carnival of the Animals, to the excitement of working with them and Robert Xavier Rodriguez to create The Tempest, I have been consistently amazed at their boundless creativity. To work with a theatrical group that understands music so well, in projects that define and enhance—rather than obscure—the musical experience, has been a true delight.

• • •

From Puppetry and Social Context, a Review by John Bell, Director of the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry

Underground Railway Theater, Engine of Delight & Social Change is a rare and valuable chronicle of a Boston-based theater company whose combination of actors, puppets, and social content marks a formidable aspect of U.S. theater in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. [This] interactive ebook is a powerful account of that company’s origins; their years of devising, performing, and…touring politically charged theater works; and their ultimate transformation into a respected non-profit arts organization in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Underground Railway Theater grew out of Kraken, an experimental theater company at Oberlin College in the early 1970s…Kraken included Julie Taymor and Bill Irwin, as well as Sanders, then a theater director & professor and poet Linda Gregerson. Deeply influenced by the radical avant-garde concepts of Bertolt Brecht, Antonin Artaud, Jerzy Grotowski, and Peter Brook, Kraken focused on the physical and mental work of the actor not simply as a performer, but as a creator of theater. What we now call devised theater, collective creation, and environmental theater were foundations of this work, improvised in deeply intense rehearsals. [When Kraken dissolved] Sanders began to collaborate with Debra Wise (then a theater student), and the two traveled to Berlin in 1976 to experience Brecht’s work at the Berliner Ensemble. Here they met numerous German puppeteers and attended a UNIMA festival in Bielsko-Biala, Poland. They returned to Ohio in 1978 to create Underground Railway, collaborating first with a local artist on a life-size shadow puppet spectacle, and then meeting puppet visionary George Latshaw, who encouraged them to perform at the 1978 Puppeteers of America Festival at Kent State University.

I dwell on these foundational aspects of Underground Railway’s story not only because they so interestingly define the nature of theater-making in the 1970s, but because they presage the company’s work for the next forty years through the creation of over twenty-five different productions in an array of different forms—full-length theater productions; topical cabarets; shows for young audiences; shadow-puppet shows accompanying orchestral compositions; and educational workshops. All this while working as a full-time company touring the United States and Europe before settling into residence in the Boston area.

Inspired by Brecht’s theory and practice, URT’s political plays have dealt with such complex aspects of U.S. history as the Molly Maguires mineworkers’ union(sic); Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad; [the danger of] nuclear war; feminism; Central American [refugees]; ecological crises; housing and gentrification; alcoholism; and the colonialist history of Christopher Columbus. URT’s collaborations with orchestras have included works by Strauss, Saint-Saens, and Stravinsky, as well as a new symphonic treatment of Shakespeare’s Tempest with the Boston Symphony…Of particular note in the rich documentation of this work are the gorgeous puppets & designs of David Fichter, particularly his Lexan shadow-figures.

URT has not only pioneered the development of collective creation and devised theater, but, as a company dominated by white artists, has also consistently addressed diversity and representation, including Black, Latinx, and Native American artists [and subject-matter] in creation and production processes. This has involved collaborative strategies to struggle through serious issues within the company about race, gender… and cultural appropriation that, to a large extent, are only now beginning to be grappled with by the rest of the U.S. theater community. [Sanders’ and Wise’s account focuses] on improvisation and devised theater as practical and viable means of [play-]creation. In summing up the import of the company’s four-decade-long body of work, Sanders points to its innovations in audience-participation/community-involvement; the integration of puppetry and actor-theater; the balance, in artistic decisions, between the ‘vision’ of an individual director and the contributions of collaborators; and the ramifications of approaching theater as a ‘window on the world,’ starting from a strong commitment to racial diversity and social equality.

Although Underground Railway Theater started in the heady days of 70s experiments, largely inspired by… European theater innovators, Sanders’ and Wise’s ebook shows how the company has transformed such theories into practices that work not only in U.S. contexts, but also led to the company’s development as a solid, rooted, and deeply respected cultural institution in Boston, one which now proudly defines itself as the creator of accessible theater of great beauty and social content. This is much to learn about puppetry and theater here!

• • •

From a Review of the Third Edition, August 2023:

Carol Sterling, Fulbright Program specialist in Educational puppetry; UNIMA-USA Distinguished Luminary of Puppetry in Education 2023; President’s Award in Educational Puppetry, Puppeteers of America 2012:

As an educational puppeteer for 55 years plus, I’ve long been enchanted by the achievements of Underground Railway Theater (URT). Now Wes Sanders and Debra Wise, co-founders of the company, have documented their work in an ebook which has special relevance for educators in theater, puppetry, art, music, dance, and creative writing, especially at the high school, college, and post-graduate levels. It is also an excellent resource for puppetry- and theater-companies interested in social change and/or integrating puppetry with classical music.

URT has long sought to challenge audiences by suggesting new ways of looking at reality. The hypertext links in this ebook turn the reader into an audience-member who witnesses more than 25 video-clips of live performance, including what happens backstage. [In addition to the videos] more than 100 photos of the company in action are included in the ebook, along with their magnificently-designed puppets, masks, scenery, costumes, and posters.

This wonderful ebook is a testament to URT’s legacy of unwavering commitment to artistic and theatrical excellence, encouraging others to blaze their own trails in creating work that inspires and educates for positive change.

• • •

Bill Irwin, Actor, Clown, Vaudevillian, co-creator of the Broadway shows FOOL MOON and OLD HATS:

Wes Sanders has chronicled the roots of his company’s work, and a part of the story is the work of KRAKEN at Oberlin in the 1970s. They were noble and silly times, the ‘70s—Wes catches both. The craft of physical story-telling—the many crafts we examined—and our immersion in physical experimentation—these were formative in my life like perhaps nothing else.

I think back to the hours in an old gymnasium at Oberlin with, sometimes, a yearning to return. Also with the rueful chuckle and the elder’s shake of the head. Did we know what to do with the performance trance-states, and wild body-imagery we found with Herb Blau back then? This book will appeal to theatre enthusiasts and historians—and maybe to young people generating new work together right now.

• • •

David Chandler, Actor:

To have founded, managed, and created productions for a progressive puppet and actor theater requires extraordinary fortitude and vision, not to say hutzpah. But then to write so compelling a history of this miraculous enterprise…well, hats off to Wes Sanders. He has not only described the inner workings of the Underground Railway Theater company with clarity and self-deprecating wit, but has managed as well to render vividly and honestly a canvas of the alternative theatre scene, the politics of five decades, and the day-to-day challenge of just stayin’ alive for a small company. Sanders’ description of the collaboration with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in creating from scratch a shadow-puppet production of Shakespeare’s The Tempest perfectly captures the thrill-ride exhilaration and terror of mounting—with one rehearsal—a world premiere. This is a marvelous chronicle, both analytical and heartfelt, of a brave, inspired crew of artists resolute in their determination to tell it like it is.

• • •

Jane Lazarre, author of The Mother Knot, Beyond the Whiteness of Whiteness: Memoir of a White Mother of Black Sons, and Inheritance, a Novel:

When I saw a performance of my memoir about motherhood, The Mother Knot, I was stunned and greatly moved. It was a combination of seeing my words expressed in the voice of a wonderful actor, Debra Wise, as if they were her words, and yet my own words still, brought to new and even more vivid life by a woman with a trained and powerful voice. She brings to life the young mother in my memoir as only good theater can do. I am very grateful for this tribute to my work and for the wonderful theater which the Underground Railway has created over so many years.

• • •

Andrew Periale, Editor of Puppetry International:

A fascinating story and an entertaining read! Underground Railway Theater is one of the most interesting and long-lived small ensemble theaters to come out of the early seventies. The company [has] produced many shows employing both puppetry and acting to address society’s challenges. Many technical innovations [have come out] of URT’s work, as well as out of their long-running collaboration with MIT and their numerous commissions from such major orchestras as the Boston Symphony.

This is an e-book that exploits the form well. Through informal and entertaining sidebars by collaborators, as well as hypertext links, readers can learn more about URT’s influences, source-material and so on. Links to video-excerpts from Underground’s productions offer readers a taste of what the plays felt like in live performance. —from a review in The Puppetry Journal (March, 2019)

• • •

Nancy Staub, Membre d’honneur, Union Internationale de la Marionette; Scientific Advisor to the World Encyclopedia of Puppetry Arts; Director, 1980 World Puppetry Festival at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts:

Wes Sanders and Debra Wise have collaborated with many other performers, designers, and musicians to amaze, delight, and inspire their audiences. They have shared their passion for puppetry for more than 40 years, contributing significantly to the development of the actor-puppet relationship. There are many video-excerpts in this e-book which bring the productions back to life, enhancing a fascinating and humorous chronicle of the Underground Railway Theater journey. I enjoyed reminders of poignant times I shared as a spectator along the way. —from a review of the First Edition of this e-book in Puppetry International (March, 2019)

• • •

Michael O’Connor, Actor / Writer:

Congratulations on bringing out this second edition. And congratulations on writing this voluminous, colorful history in the first place. Congratulations most of all on founding, developing, and sustaining such a distinctive company over decades, a huge accomplishment. I enjoyed learning about your early adventures in doing research in Europe, your investigations into the Molly Maguires, your work with classical orchestras and community groups, and the nuts and bolts of producing such a variety of theatrical projects. I particularly enjoyed reading about and seeing the excerpts from Sanctuary: The Spirit of Harriet Tubman and Are You Ready, Sister?—a beautiful use of shadow-puppetry that seemed especially well-suited to the world of these pieces, with its evocation of the silhouette-cutouts of the 18th and 19th century and the resonances it stirred—cultural associations about blackness itself. The designs of the puppets seem to only get better as the time progresses from The Creation of the World to The Tempest. (Or is it just that the technical quality of the videos improved so we can see them better)?

The scope of URT’s work is impressive, as is the scope of learning you exhibit in telling about it, and the social engagement of the work gives it soul and dimension. Bravo to your focus on nuclear issues, the sanctuary movement, homelessness, and environmental justice, and to your dedication to examining how larger forces affected the internal workings of the company itself. It’s a heartening example of artistic and political faith. (August, 2019).

UNDERGROUND RAILWAY THEATER, ENGINE OF DELIGHT & SOCIAL CHANGE

WHICH ARE YOU, ESTEEMED READER?

(How to navigate this e-book)

This narrative is addressed to two overlapping audiences: those for whom theater is an ongoing love-interest, and those for whom it is also a field of dreams and action. It is the story of two theater-artists who cultivated a mom and pop garden for growing plays, until it grew into an international touring caravan, and—after 25 years—a resident theater company, with many pratfalls and victories along the way. Theater practitioners and scholars among our readers may find the story interesting as an example of that movement toward experiment in American Theater which started in the 1950s, when another mom and pop venture, The Living Theater, started applying Brecht’s and Artaud’s theories in their politically and artistically radical productions. The harnessing of progressive politics to artistic experimentation gained momentum in 1959 with the advent of The San Francisco Mime Troupe, then flowered fully in the late 1960s, with the inspiration of Jerzy Grotowski’s Polish Laboratory Theater and Peter Brook’s experiments both in England and New York, though neither of these latter practitioners produced work with the political edge of their American predecessors. The movement produced the first examples on this continent (to this writer’s knowledge) of what are now called devised plays—those created by collaborations of actors and writers, in which improvisation is the main engine for creating both the plays’ scripts and their realization in production.

Although Underground Railway Theater (URT) has its own somewhat unusual identity—born as it was from an improbable ménage a trois of psychophysical playmaking, puppetry and the epic theater of Brecht—it is, like the rest of these companies, representative of that major stream of American theater-making over the last four-and-a-half decades which also produced The Open Theater, The Bread and Puppet Theater, The Wooster Group, Mabou Mines and In the Heart of the Beast Mask & Puppet Theater, to name just a few of the best-known ensembles creating and performing plays of this kind. URT’s work is similar to its fellows in pursuing innovation and quality in its productions, but it is different from these other ensembles in prioritizing the collaboration between different races and ethnicities in both its content & its casting. It is also unusual among experimental ensembles for having evolved into a regional, community-based residential theater. URT is based in Central Square, Cambridge (Massachusetts), still eating up track after 43 years.

The firing of the fuse for this e-book history—to borrow a phrase from the well-made play of the 19th Century—was a program of The Theatre Communications Group (TCG), called New Generations: Future Leaders. TCG provided a grant to enable the current Artistic Director of Underground Railway Theater—Debra Wise—to prepare a promising young theater-artist whom she was mentoring so that this young woman could serve someday as director of her own theater company. The mentoring process led Debra to reflect on the importance of passing on one’s legacy so that young professionals might stand on the shoulders of those who had come before. And what better wordsmith for forging that legacy into words and pictures than her co-founder, now retired, who had both the time and passion for the job?

But is the past described here any guide to the present or future, you may ask, since circumstances have changed so much since the late 1970s, when Underground Railway started devising plays? Public funding, for example—never plentiful compared to the state subsidies for the arts in Europe or Canada—diminished dramatically in this country during URT’s first 25 years. On the other hand, the power of digital media and the availability of Big Data now provide opportunities—some of them we little dreamed of in the Carter, Reagan, and Clinton eras—for communicating with potential audiences and measuring trends. Who knows, it may be that diminishing funding and expanding technology effectively cancel one another out in today’s performance-marketplace.

Aesthetically speaking, Underground Railway mixed actors with puppets during the touring years—the puppets ranging from tiny to gigantic, from realistic to not-so-realistic. In this specific respect—the role of puppetry in North American Theater—the cultural environment has now improved immensely since the ‘70s. In 1976, if one wanted to study puppetry as we did—in order to perform it not only for children but also for adults—one needed to go to Europe, as we did, or Asia, as Julie Taymor did, to find working models. If one was interested in puppetry, not only in itself, but as part of a palette for making actor-theater more expressive and less chained to the conventions of realism, there were few models to be found in the U.S. Peter Schumann’s Bread and Puppet Theater had done some visually exciting and socially impactful anti-war work in New York during the Vietnam era, and Jim Henson’s Muppets were certainly a giant leap forward from Howdy Doody, but puppetry was still largely ignored in the U.S. by theaters whose work was created for adult audiences.

That has now changed utterly. At this writing, War Horse, a wildly successful production for all ages with both a long run on Broadway and international tours behind it, features as its centerpiece life-sized horse-puppets, performed by a team of 6 puppeteers. Mabou Mines has used puppetry since the ‘80s as a legitimate medium of the avant-garde in such productions as Lee Breuer’s version of Beckett’s The Lost Ones, in New York. Most importantly, Julie Taymor’s work, whether it be the puppet-and-singer version of The Magic Flute which has become the production of that opera in the Metropolitan Opera’s repertoire, or her puppet-and-mask version of The Lion King, long a hit on Broadway (and continually touring the country to this day), has made puppetry a familiar presence on the American stage. In short, audience-receptivity to puppetry as an adult as well as a children’s medium has made the present a much better time to undertake a mix of puppets, acting and music in this country than it was in 1978, when we threw our caps into the ring.

If one were thinking of starting a theater today, whether for actors, puppets—or some combination of the two, as we did—some things would be harder, some easier. The start-up of an artistic institution is always risky and is bound to be a struggle at any time or place, with temporary poverty likely (if you are trying to make a living at your art), but we found the challenge exciting enough to take on, and rewarding enough—both as an adventure and as a way of life—to persevere in it for many years.

In putting together this account of Underground Railway Theater during its first 25 years—when it was mostly a touring enterprise— I have had in mind both general and professional readers at all times. Sidebars are scattered throughout the narrative—featuring anecdotes, explorations in greater depth of background or theory, and, for the reader’s especial delight, commentaries from our collaborating artists (writers, actors, directors, producers) whom we have invited to provide voices and perspectives complementary to our own. In addition to twists and turns which may give the reader occasion to chuckle—usually at our expense—there is a good deal of reflection in this narrative about the art of making theater and surviving at it; about its role as a way of engaging with the world rather than simply escaping into fantasy. When the issues addressed in our productions are back in the headlines today—as is the case with the danger of nuclear war, the new sanctuary movement and gender / racial stereotypes (to name a few)—I have drawn the parallels and contrasts explicitly. It is unfortunate how relevant many of our plays on social issues still are.

Those interested primarily in puppetry may find the orchestral collaborations and plays for young people the most interesting, though puppetry plays a substantial role in the adult repertoire as well. If the text is read straight through, the reader will notice that certain themes recur, being developed incrementally and delivering a payoff in the final section, called Discoveries. At the same time, the smorgasbord-approach of a more selective reading-style has been provided for: chapters on each production have been designed to stand alone, rewarding the sampler and what follows here are some possible menus (the navigation-tools in an e-book make the kind of hopping around which I describe here easy: just enter the phrase Table of Contents in the search-window; when that takes you back to the Table of Contents, click on the chapter you want to visit next, and voila, you are there):

A reader primarily interested in URT’s work with puppetry and music might find it rewarding, for example, after reading about Candela Pavane, to leap forward next to the chapter on Stravinsky’s Firebird with major orchestras and then to the final chapter, which details our commission from the Boston Symphony for a new orchestral version of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, with original music and state-of-the-art shadow-and-mirror-puppetry, the capstone of URT’s 25 years of collaboration with the BSO. We used the same medium—life-sized color rod-puppets—for all 3 productions, but the changes in this medium from 1978 to 2001 make for an interesting 22-year case-study in the evolution of a puppet-style. Both videos include backstage footage.

Those readers primarily interested in the socio-political dimension of URT’s work may be most interested in how we have used the cabaret-form, starting with The Anything Can Happen Roadshow, then leaping forward to the 2 eco-cabarets, The Christopher Columbus Follies and InTOXICating. Warning: Cathy Cevoli was the primary playwright for all 3 of these cabarets and her humor is merciless.

Two final suggestions for those who prefer to stroll through the bazaar by theme rather than by chronology: the struggles for equality by women and people of color are addressed in many ways during this narrative. The issue of women’s roles is taken up first in Mothers & Whores; next in Washed-Up Middle-Aged Women; and finally in the 3 years of the Women on Top Festival. The ongoing challenges—as well as the achievements—of African-Americans, Latinx and Native Americans in our history are taken up first in The Vision of Dreaming Branch; they continue in our adult- and school-plays about Harriet Tubman—Sanctuary: The Spirit of Harriet Tubman and Are You Ready, My Sister? The next stop on this route might be Home Is Where, then on to The Christopher Columbus Follies, InTOXICating, Twisted Figures and How Do You Spell Hope?

As a whole this is a historical narrative which addresses not only what we did—including photo, audio, and video samples—but also how and why we did it—including (gasp) the mistakes we made. In other words, we have invited the reader deeply into the process of our artistic work, while at the same time describing the evolution of our educational projects. The stages of URT’s developing a sustainable organizational structure are outlined for those interested in how a small ensemble can survive by doing theater art, even when a larger institution (a university, say) is not providing an umbrella against the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.

The video-excerpts accessible through hyperlinks are the primary reason for choosing to put this account together as an e-book. The videos provide performance-samples of several productions. NOTA BENE: The link to each production is provided in a photo-caption which begins MONTAGE OF VIDEO EXCERPTS and features a thumbnail freeze-frame from the video).

How to play the video-excerpts in each chapter that has them:

Find the MONTAGE OF VIDEO EXCERPTS caption in the chapters where a video is available. Touch/click the arrowhead-symbol or the provided link. That will take you to the Vimeo platform, where you will be asked for a password. Enter URT [case-sensitive] on the left and touch/click submit on the right.

If, while playing, the video freezes, our video-editor suggests clicking the gear-symbol in the lower right corner and choosing a lower-resolution video-playing option. If your internet speed turns out to not be capable of playing 1080p well, you can choose a lower-resolution video-playing option such as 729p or 480p.

Many of the videos were recorded on tape, sometimes by amateurs in conditions well short of ideal, so the quality is uneven. After all, who knew at the time that some tedious fellow would get it into his head to write a book about what we were doing—and besides, who had money for professional videographers? When some of this footage was captured, we could barely afford bulbs for the lights. The sound-quality is challenging in places, so I have sometimes asked our video-editor to provide subtitles. All in all, though the technical quality of many of the videos is good, the reader will probably get the most out of the excerpts if s/he approaches them as an archaeologist on a dig rather than as a consumer at a movie.

In most of the text, you will be stuck with my voice, but Debra takes over whenever the discussion moves to a production she initiated and largely carried into performance. She is also, for the most part, the one of us describing the growth of URT as a not-for-profit company, since she was in those years both the most involved and the most capable in the administrative dimension of the work. I have indicated when you are hearing her voice, but the descriptions in the organizational sections, like the artistic choices in many of our productions, are sometimes too much a combined effort to warrant distinguishing our voices. We have edited aloud together what you are reading, each of us correcting the other from time to time about what really happened at such-and-such time and place. In one case, Debra recalled a pageant I was sure I had missed, until we unearthed the relevant photos from the archives, and guess who was standing there, looking ridiculous in a three-cornered hat.

When the word [SIDEBAR] appears, it will be attached to a heading which describes a stop where you might want to disembark for a closer look before continuing. On river-boat journeys, it is always rewarding to get off the boat and have a meal with a family who live along the river. To make such a stop on this voyage:

1. Click on the word [SIDEBAR] itself, not on the heading that accompanies it. That will take you to the text of the sidebar at the end of the book.

2. When finished, touch / click the phrase [return to main text] and you will be returned to where you left off in the main narrative.

In addition to fascinating commentaries from URT collaborators, you will find—in some of the sidebars— summaries of the stories on which many of the productions are based. These are included not only for their intrinsic interest but to provide a context for making sense of the video-excerpts.

One more suggestion for e-book-ease:

3. For a more granular search of the text than the Table of Contents provides, you can, click/touch the bottom of the screen and a bar will usually appear which allows you to inch forward or back in the narrative; this is also true of the videos.

A NOTE ON THE SECOND AND THIRD EDITIONS

Since the publication of the First Edition of this e-book in 2017, discussion centering on the issue of Cultural Appropriation has heated up considerably, both in the media and in the communities of social conscience Underground Railway Theater participates in. There may be some readers who are predisposed to be skeptical about a white-led theater company presuming to tell the stories of Harriet Tubman, the Great Pueblo Revolt of the Hopi and an Orisha creation-myth native to West Africa, to cite just 3 subjects of our performances over the last 40-some years.

Taking these questions seriously in the thorough-going revision of this book for the Second Edition, I have invited a progressive theater colleague—Doug Paterson— who has a long and very committed relationship with the Lakota nation, to join me in—literally—a Dialogue within the pages of this book, inviting him to ask questions, make challenges and comment fully on the choices Debra and I have made in the treatment of our subject-matter. The reader will find this Dialogue in two parts of the narrative, the first in the chapter on The Vision of Dreaming Branch; the second in the chapter on The Christopher Columbus Follies: An Eco-Cabaret. To go directly to these discussions, enter Dialogue in the Q slot at the top right corner of your screen and hit enter or return. If this kind of Dialogue seems unusual in a non-fiction book, it is. Chalk it up to the enthusiasm that progressive theater-directors share for participatory democracy. If you wish to comment on the discussion yourself, please use the email listed below to reach us.

The challenges that arose from trying to authentically tell the stories of Africans, African-Americans and Latinx characters are amply described in the chapters about the 8 plays in which those stories are told.

I have asked Professor Paterson to write a review of the Second Edition. Excerpts from this review can be found in Comments and a Review of this Book section at the front of the book, while the full text of the review can be accessed using the Table of Contents, by clicking on the title Popular Theatre and Political Culture.

Welcome aboard,

Wes Sanders, URT Founding Artistic Director (retired)

Summer, 2023

Your feedback is welcome at

[e-mail].

I.

PRE-HISTORY, WHEN UNDERGROUND RAILWAY THEATER WAS BUT A GLEAM IN THE DISTANCE

Kraken

Spring, 1974. An experimental theater ensemble in residence at Oberlin College, directed by the late Herbert Blau, was struggling to give birth to a theater-piece about the Donner Party, an ill-fated wagon-train of California-bound Midwestern farmers who were overtaken by a massive October snowstorm just east of the Sierra Nevada. Some of the would-be settlers in this party tried to wait out the winter in cabins at the foot of the mountains, devouring—in order to survive— those who had died; the rest struck out west across the mountains, where most perished. A handful of the women made it to California—among them Eliza Donner—who lived to tell the harrowing tale