The Audience

You can sit there and have a universal experi- The ence, of fear, of anger, of tears, of love, and I discovered that it’s the audience, really, that is Repertory Theater doing the acting. Marlon Brando Department of Education Theater is a collaborative art form. The suc- cess of a production relies upon every member Jenny Kostreva of the ensemble performing their role expertly, Education Director from the cast and crew to the administrative [email protected] staff to the audience themselves. Come pre- (414) 290-5370 pared to make your contribution as a member of the audience. You have an active role to Andy North play, and the performers are relying on you to be respectful and attentive. Months of prepa- Education Coordinator ration, weeks of rehearsal and hours upon [email protected] hours of effort have gone towards providing (414) 290-5393 the best possible performance for you. Your A study guide for students and educators participation is what makes this process worthwhile. Inside this guide This study guide was researched and designed by the Education Department at Milwaukee Repertory Synopsis / Theater, and is intended to prepare you for your Visiting The Rep … 2 About the Author visit. It contains information that will deepen your Milwaukee Repertory Theater is housed in the Milwaukee Center at the corner of understanding of, and appreciation for, the produc- Wells and Water Streets, downtown. Our building was formerly the home of the The 3 tion. We’ve also included questions and activities Electric Railway & Light Company. This name is still carved on the wall outside. for you to explore before and after our performance

Famous Blues of You’ll enter on the Wells Street side into a 4 Musicians large, open space. Our box office will be visible on GRAFTON CITY BLUES your left as you come through the front doors. The large space is the main hub for the businesses that Paramount If you would like to schedule a classroom workshop, 6 share this building: a bank, an office tower, the Pabst Records or if we can help in any other way, please contact: Theater and the Intercontinental Hotel. If you walk Jenny Kostreva at (414) 290-5370 or into the center of this area, you’ll see an escalator to your left. You will take this Discussion escalator to the second floor, then take another left to enter the Stackner Cabaret. Questions 7 [email protected]

and Activities Andy North at (414) 290-5393 or For information on our education programs and our productions, visit our web- [email protected] site at www.milwaukeerep.com

Programs in the Education Department receive generous funding from: The Audience / 8 Study Guide written by Visiting the Rep Target Stores Andy North, Education Coordinator Richard and Ethel Herzfeld Foundation with contributions from Christina DeCheck Rockwell Automation8 Harley Davidson Editing by Kristin Crouch, Literary Director The Einhorn Family Foundation Jenny Kostreva, Education Director MPS Partnership for the Arts

2 Discussion questions 7 Synopsis and activities

Grafton City Blues tells the story of and recorded albums for many of the musi- On the first page of the script, playwright Kevin Ramsey has printed a copy of “The Weary Blue, a bandleader who comes from a long cians that Blue’s bandmates admire. As the Blues,” a poem by Langston Hughes. The full text of this poem is available on the website line of musicians. Blue has inherited a house group unpacks the trunk, they recount the poets.org. Read this poem aloud to a partner or in a group. Why do you think Ramsey in- full of blues memorabilia from his long-lost history of and the artists father, and at the top of the show he brings who recorded there. The action continually cluded this poem in the script? What comparisons can your draw between the stories of his bandmates Harp, Queen and Professor shifts between the past and the present, with “The Weary Blues” and Grafton City Blues? into the basement to dig through the equip- band members adopting the personae of past ment for anything useful. He tells everyone to blues musicians to tell their stories and per- Write the lyrics to your own blues song in AAB format (one line sung twice, followed by a “take a peek” before they head off to rehearse form their songs. concluding line). It can be as long or as short as you like, and concern whatever subject for a wedding gig the following day. At the end of the evening, Queen you choose. Be sure to give your song an appropriate title. Queen, the group’s female vocalist, remarks, “I feel better. The blues can’t help is upset that the band has to support itself by but make you feel better.” She agrees that the Write a short biography (similar to those on pages 4 & 5) for one of the following Para- playing at weddings and bar mitzvahs. Blue band needs the wedding gig, and says that she mount recording artists: points out that this is the only way they will will sing whatever Blue wants. Blue decides get paid to play music. not to sell the mementos he has inherited, Alice Moore Blue finds a trunk labeled “Grafton since they are important to both his family’s Marshall Owens City Blues,” containing records, clothing and history and the history of the blues. He cues Cow Cow Davenport other memorabilia detailing the history of the others to join him in “Let the Good Times Rubin Lacey Paramount Records. The label was owned by Roll,” and the band plays as the lights come William Huff the Wisconsin Chair Company in Grafton, down. Jimmy Blythe The Reverend James Morris Webb Bud Shiffman Henry Brown Tommy Johnson About the Author Henry Townsend Sig Heller Playwright events for multi-ethnic urban communities. Kevin Ramsey, a As a writer, director, choreographer and pro- New Orleans ducer, he has been involved in over 100 pro- Information on these artists can be found at ParamountsHome.org or the sources below. native, says he is ductions in the past 25 years. “committed to Ramsey first heard about Paramount the historical Records while discussing Wisconsin’s history Sources and Suggested Reading examination with the staff of the Milwaukee Mayor’s office. and retelling of “I was amazed,” he said. “It was a revelation to Paramount’s Rise and Fall: A History of the Wisconsin Chair Company and its Recording the African- find out that Grafton had been a cradle for Activities by Alex van der Tuuk. C0lorado: Mainspring Press, 2003 American musical experience and its artistic blues, gospel, folk and many other musical contribution to American and world culture.” genres.” Consumed by Fire by Kevin J. Wester. Wisconsin: K.J. Wester, 1997 Grafton City Blues is Ramsey’s fourth musical Despite the massive amount of re- to originate at the Milwaukee Rep, following search involved in writing Grafton City Blues, Blues: the Basics by Dick Weissman. New York: Routledge, 2005 If These Shoes Could Talk (A Tap Dance Tale), Ramsay never actually visited the township From My Hometown, and Sam Cooke: Forever 2 until the summer of 2007. There he met An- The Blues: from to Robert Cray by7 Tony Russell. Mr. Soul. gela Mack, a local teacher and blues historian, New York: Schirmer Books, 1997 Ramsey is the founder of Urban who remarked, “I see Kevin as picking up Musical Tours (UMT), an organization de- where August Wilson left off.” Blues for Dummies by Lonnie Brooks, Cub Koda and Wayne Baker Brooks. voted to performing professional theatrical California: IDG Books, 1998 6 3 Paramount Records The Blues

The precursor to all modern sound ess. As a result, Paramount developed a repu- Blues music was music to a mainstream audi- recording equipment was the phonograph, a tation for producing low-quality recordings born on the Mississippi ence. In 1920, Mamie Smith’s device for storing sound as a set of grooves cut that “sounded like they had been recorded Delta after the Civil War. It recordings of “Crazy Blues” and into a cylinder (or, later, onto a disc). Phono- on your front porch,” as one biographer put has its roots in the work “It’s Right Here For You” sold graphs had their heyday in the 1910s, before it. The equipment used was so poor that an songs and spirituals of plan- 75,000 copies within their first the age of radio. Between 1914 and 1917, over original Paramount recording sounded worse tation slaves, combining the month of release and opened the 150 new companies were formed to sell phono- than a reproduction of an album from Co- free-form lyrical patterns of doors for other blues artists. graphs or related merchandise. In Grafton, lumbia, Victor or Edison. For this and other the former with the expres- Companies were eager to exploit Wisconsin, a phonograph cabinet manufac- reasons, Paramount’s early success was un- sive vocalization of the lat- the new “” market, so turer called the Wisconsin Chair Company sustainable. ter. Unlike its predecessors, called because the album’s were attempted to get ahead of the competition by By 1928, the entire phonograph in- however, blues music is purchased almost exclusively by opening their own record-producing facility, dustry was in trouble. Radios were becoming intensely personal. Where black consumers. Artists such as called the New York Recording Laboratories. more and more popular as sound quality work songs and spirituals , and Originally, the NYRL existed as a improved. The release of The Singer in were born from a yearning made marketing ploy - customers who bought a 1927 heralded the arrival of the “talkies,” mo- for solidarity, the blues fulfilled the need for names for themselves during the 1920s boom. phonograph cabinet from the WCC would tion pictures with synchronized sound. The self-expression. Freed slaves were being inte- As record sales slumped during the receive five or ten free discs from Paramount, rise in popularity of motion pictures trig- grated into a society that placed high value on Great Depression, the blues migrated north the company’s own re- gered a further decline in phonograph sales, individuality, thanks to the influence of self- to cities like Detroit and Chicago. The urban cord label. It wasn’t long, as it was much cheaper to purchase a cinema determinists like Horatio Alger, who taught blues were born, combining aspects of many however, before those ticket than a blues recording. Sales of blues that each person is in control of his or her own regional styles into a more sophisticated, who ran the recording and jazz records were diminishing across the destiny. As a result, blues songs reflect the polished sound. studio noticed the poten- board, as the public’s taste shifted to upbeat individual’s ability to overcome hard luck and From the 1940s onward, urban blues tial market among the big band tunes. When the stock market adversity. influenced the development of many new local Ozaukee County crashed in 1929, it was the last in a long line The original lyrical form of a blues musical styles through its use of the 12-bar immigrants. The region of misfortunes leading to the demise of Para- verse consisted of a single line repeated four (AAB) style and the use of the blues scale. For was populated by Ger- mount. times, recalling the call-and-response roots of example, the ladder mans, Poles and Swedes, all of whom were Although the New York Recording the genre. This later evolved into the AAB of thirds is a melodic eager to hear traditional music from their Laboratory continued to cut records through form commonly used today, consisting of an structure common in homelands. Lacking the resources to compete the first years of the Great Depression, sales introductory line, which is repeated once, and rock and roll songs for talent with larger labels like Columbia and of those records had dropped dramatically. a concluding line. Blues musicians make use of like The Beatles’ “A Victor, Paramount shifted its focus to exploit Recording ceased altogether in 1932, and the the blue scale, where notes are sung or Hard Day’s Night” these niche markets. NYRL disbanded in December of the follow- played or at a lower or flatter pitch than those and The Who’s “My In 1922, Paramount launched a new ing year. Most of the company’s metal mas- of the major scale, producing an expressive, Generation,” that was record series targeted specifically at black ters (original recordings of each song) were melancholy sound. built on the frame- Americans, which they called their “race” line. sold as scrap metal, making Paramount re- The use of the word “blue” to de- work of the blues For the next six years the Paramount label was leases exceptionally rare and valuable to scribe low spirits dates back as far as the 14th scale. Elvis Presley’s the foremost producer of black jazz and blues modern collectors. The Wisconsin Chair century. The phrase “the blues” is a shortening famous “Hound Dog” records, launching the careers of Jelly Roll Company remained afloat for twenty more of “the blue devils,” demons who were popu- follows a strict AAB Morton, Louis Armstrong and , years thanks to Roosevelt’s New Deal, but the larly thought to cause depression. The musical structure, since it was among others. NYRL never returned. style was officially named in 1912, with the originally recorded as Despite the success of these artists, Nowadays, the remnants of the publication of Hart Wand’s “Dallas Blues”, a blues single by Big the New York Recording Laboratories refused WCC are mostly underwater. In 2001, the though the term had been unofficially used by Mama Thornton. to invest money in new recording equipment6 Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources blues musicians for years prior. 3 Jazz, rock and roll, and techniques. After all, they were selling ordered the dam in Grafton to be destroyed, The success of “Dallas Blues,” along rockabilly, folk and plenty of records with their existing equip- concealing the ruins of the Wisconsin Chair with the simultaneously released “Memphis country all share varying degrees of blues ment; there was little to be gained commer- Company and its recording studio beneath Blues” and “Baby Seals’ Blues,” brought blues influence. cially by upgrading their manufacturing proc- the surface of the Milwaukee River. 4 5 Famous Blues Musicians

Skip James (1902-1969) Ma Rainey (1886-1939)

Neremiah Curtis “Skip” James left home at the age of fourteen to Gertrude Pridgett was born into a family of performers and ap- search for his father, who had abandoned the family ten years peared onstage for the first time at the age of fourteen. At sixteen, before. He spent most of his teenage years as a drifter, supporting she married vaudevillian Pa Rainey and, naturally, became “Ma” himself through a combination of backbreaking labor and crime. Rainey. The two toured the country with several different vaude- Skip wrote his first song, “Illinois Blues,” about his frustration at ville troupes, performing a song-and-dance double act and gaining the direction his life had taken. The song caught the attention of great fame throughout the south. In 1923 Ma signed a contract with Henry Stuckey, a talented local guitarist who became a mentor to Paramount Records and recorded over 100 songs with the label over Skip. Together, the two musicians pioneered the “Bentonia the next five years, including the famous “Ma Rainey’s Black Bot- School of Blues,” a sophisticated style of blues guitar which relied tom.” She was forced to retire from performing e Great Depression heavily on the use of minor chords. and spent her later years as a theater manager. Ma Rainey was in- ducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990.

Charlie Patton (1891-1934) (1902-1988) Charlie Patton was the originator of the Delta Blues, a rhythmic Eddie James “Son” House became a Baptist preacher at the age of style favored by the bluesmen who wandered the Mississippi Delta 15. Five years later he was expelled from the Church due to an at the turn of the century. Patton was one of the earliest blues mu- affair with a woman ten years his senior. Fascinated by the blues sicians, and his habits of excessive drinking, smoking, and woman- and seeking to reinvent himself, Son taught himself to play the izing became the model for the blues lifestyle. He also pioneered guitar, and used the story of his rise and fall within the Church as methods of showmanship that would later be adopted by rock mu- the subject of his first song “Preachin’ the Blues.” Son is famous sicians, leaping around the stage and playing his guitar behind his for his passionate, spellbinding style of performance, and has back, over his head or between his knees. Nowadays Patton is more been described as “the very incarnation of the blues.” The handful famous for his influence on later musicians like Howlin’ Wolf and of songs he recorded with Paramount Records in 1930 are consid- Robert Johnson than for his own recordings, which are nearly in- ered masterpieces of the genre, and influenced later performers comprehensible due to poor recording equipment and the natural like Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters. harshness of Patton’s voice.

Bessie Smith (189?-1937) (1893-1929) Blind Lemon Jefferson Bessie Smith began her career with the Rabbit Foot Minstrels, a touring vaudeville troupe. Though Smith had a powerful Lemon Henry Jefferson was blind either at birth or shortly there- voice, the company already employed Ma Rainey and had no after. His unpredictable, improvisational style made him ex- need for another songstress, so Smith was hired as a dancer. tremely popular and nearly inimitable. Lemon began his career Rainey mentored the young performer for three years, after as a gospel singer under the name “Deacon L.J. Bates,” but his which Bessie left the troupe to begin her solo career. Her first blues recordings, under his real name, proved far more popular. album, a double recording of “Gulf Coast Blues” and “Down He recorded over 100 songs (on 43 records) for the Paramount Hearted Blues,” sold more than 750,000 copies, making her label, making him one of the company’s most valuable assets. the second highest-selling blues musician of 1923. Bessie re- Lemon is credited4 with inventing the Texas blues, a “swinging” 5 corded over 150 songs over the next ten years, and her success blues style heavily dependent on guitar licks and riffs. as a recording artist and a singer on the vaudeville circuit made her the most highly-paid black performer of the 1920s.