Last Friday was the opening of the 2011-2012 season for Actors’ Summit Theater in Akron. Once again, Mer and I got season tickets, and as an added bonus, Actors’ Summit threw in two vouchers to bring guests to see the first show, Woody Guthrie’s American Song. As the name implies, the show was about the life of Woody Guthrie as told through his songs. We were delighted that we could offer the free tickets to friends, and Brandon and Jen were able to come along for free. I’m always happy to share theater with Brandon since that is his passion, and then we get to talk about it later, which is much fun.

The show featured seven actors: three women and four men. Most of the actors played an instrument (including the twelve-year-old girl who played fiddle). The play was largely a review of Woody’s music, but it was held together by the narrative of his life – how he grew up in Oklahoma and experienced the dust bowl, how he went to California and saw lots of workers idle, and how he got to New York and helped out with the union movement. In between, he rambled around a lot. The acting was fine, although it is a little hard to judge acting in a musical review since there is little dramatic opportunity. The singing was excellent, and the various instruments (guitar, fiddles, bass, mandolin) were fun to watch, although someone was slightly out of tune during the first act, which detracted slightly from the music.

The set was simple – mostly made up of a stylized boxcar at the back of the stage. Most of the play happened at the front of the stage, but the train songs and scenes happened in the very-cool train car. It worked well.

As an added bonus, since it was opening night, Actors’ Summit provided finger-food desserts after the play and encouraged people to stay. We did, and so we ate and chatted with Brandon and Jen, and that saved us time and money on going out for dessert.

I was very happy to get to hear some new-to-me Woody Guthrie songs, and I got riled up about workers being mistreated, which connects me to my upbringing (Dad is a very pro-union man). It was a good play and a good time.