Theater Latté Da in partnership with Minnesota Public Radio presents by Peter Rothstein and Dan Chouinard Mike Wangen Elizabeth R. MacNally Lighting Designer Stage Manager Rick Polenek Michael Hanisch Prop Designer Video Designer Dan Chouinard Music Director Peter Rothstein* Director Opening Night: Thursday, June 2, 2011 * Member of Stage Directors and Choreographers Society Theater Latté Da gratefully acknowledges the generous support of This activity is made possible in part by a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, through an appropriation by the Minnesota State Legislature and a grant from the This presentation of Steerage Song is supported in part by National Endowment for the Arts. the National Fund of New Musicals, a program of the National Alliance for Musical Theatre – www.namt.org the Ensemble Sasha Andreev Dennis Curley Jake Ingbar Braxton Baker Dylan Fresco Natalie Nowytski John Bitterman Jennifer Grimm Amy Stockhaus Erin Capello Jay Hornbacher the Musicians Dan Chouinard .......................................................................Accordion, Piano and Tuba Dirk Freymuth ................................................................................... Guitar and Bouzouki Laura MacKenzie ................................................................ Flutes, Pipes and Concertina Dale Mendenhall ................................................................................................ Clarinet Peter Ostroushko .............................................................................Violin and Mandolin . the Texts Broughton Brandenburg, Imported Americans, 1903 Dr. John L. Elliott, speech before Conference of the National Association of Music School Societies, New York, 1912 Steven Graham, With Poor Immigrants to America, 1914 Illustrated London News, 1850 Wallace Irwin, “Ellis Island’s Problems,” New York Globe, 1904 Frances Kellor, Out of Work: A Study of Unemployment, 1915 Emma Lazarus, “The New Colossus,” 1883 New York Telegraph, 1911 New York Times, 1888-1921 New York World, 1905, 1910 Statue of Liberty - Ellis Island Foundation, Inc., ship manifest, SS Rhynland, 1893 Edward Steiner, On the Trail of the Immigrant, 1906 Wiley & Putnam’s Emigrant Guide, Comprised of Advice and Instruction in Every Stage of the Voyage to America, 1845 Steerage Song will be performed with one intermission. ASL-Interpreted and Audio-Described Performance is Friday, June 3. Post-Show Discussions will be held Friday, June 3; Saturday, June 4; and Sunday, June 5. As a courtesy to the performers and other patrons, please check to see that all cell phones, pagers, watches, and other noise-making devices are turned off. The video and/or audio recording of this performance by any means whatsoever is strictly prohibited. Theater Latté Da 1 the Songs Part One: the Call Uncle Sam’s Farm (United States) By the Hutchinson Family to the West, to the West! (England) Words by Charles Mackay, L.L.D., Music by Henry Russell Oleana (Norway) By Ditmar Meidell Part tWO: Bidding Farewell Shikt a tiket – Send a ticket ~ Jewish Mamma Mia, Dammi Cento Lire – Mama, Please Give Me a Hundred Lire ~ Italy . Zrobił Góral Krzyz na Czole – the Mountaineer Crossed Himself ~ Poland elmegyek, elmegyek – I am Leaving ~ Hungary Fevgho Glikia – I’m Leaving now ~ Greece the Shores of amerikay ~ Ireland reisaavaisen Laulu ameriikan – Song of a Wanderer to america ~ Finland Part tHree: the Voyage Sailor’s Farewell Hymn Dall’Italia noi Siamo Partiti – When From Italy We Did take Our Leave ~ Italy Havre Ist ein Schönes Städtchen – Havre Is a Pretty City ~ Switzerland Dutaich nan Craobh – the Land of the trees ~ Scotland the emigrant’s Letter ~ Ireland tarantella Di Mirto ~ Italy Danici – to the Morning Star ~ Slovenia By Gustav Ipavec Havre Ist ein Schönes Städtchen – Havre Is a Pretty City reprise ~ Switzerland tikai Viena Dziesma – Only One Song ~ Latvia rozhinkes Mit Mandeln – raisins with almonds ~ Jewish By Abraham Goldfaden Hälsa Dem Därhemma – Greet them at Home ~ Sweden By Elith Worsing 2 Steerage Song Part FOUr: a Sonnet in the Harbor Beautiful Isle of Somewhere ~ United States Words by Jessie Brown Pounds, Music by John S. Fearis Give Me Your tired, Your Poor ~ United States Words by Emma Lazarus, Music by Irving Berlin InterMISSIOn Part FIVe: Isle of Hope, Isle of tears Uncle Sam’s Farm reprise ~ United States By the Hutchinson Family elis ayland – ellis Island ~ Jewish Heil Dir, Columbus – Hail to the Columbus ~ Germany Di Grine Kuzine – the Greenhorn Cousin ~ Jewish Words by Hyman Prizant, Music by Abe Schwartz Part SIx: the Lower east Side Dall’Italia noi Siamo Partiti – When From Italy We Did take Our Leave ~ Italy Mcnally’s row of Flats ~ United States By Edward Harrigan and David Braham Wintergarden Quadrille and Castle Jig ~ Ireland Moyi Mamtsia Doma – My Mother Is at Home ~ Ukraine (Lemko) aja Lejber Man – I’m a Labor Man ~ Slovakia Bog Da Bie Kaj Prv Pojde – God Smite Him Who Goes First ~ Macedonia amerika-rossiya – america-russia ~ Russia By Anatoly Mogilevsky rose of the Volga ~ United States By Gus Kahn Gee, But this Is a Lonely town ~ United States By Billy Gaston Yes, We Have no Bananas ~ United States By Frank Silver and Irving Cohn Sweet Italian Love ~ United States Words by Irving Berlin, Music by Ted Snyder that Little German Band ~ United States Words by Joe McCarthy and Joe Goodwin, Music by Fred Fischer ‘twas Only an Irishman’s Dream ~ United States Words by John J. O’Brien and Al Dubin, Music by Rennie Cormack Beautiful Isle of Somewhere reprise ~ United States Words by Jessie Brown Pounds, Music by John S. Fearis Theater Latté Da 3 Creating Steerage Song It’s hard to pinpoint where ideas come from. Maybe the idea for Steerage Song came to me on a trip to Ellis Island. I found myself astounded with the enormity of the place and the enormity of the choices made by the millions who passed through its gates. Or perhaps the idea came from my frustration with our current immigration system and its lack of compassion and integrity. I desperately want this land of promise to exercise its promise. But most likely the idea came from my mother and her love of Irish song. For me, where you come from has always been linked to music, and I thank my mother for that. This Song’s for her. ~ Peter rothstein As one who counts among his favorite roles those of saloon piano player and European street accordionist, I felt no hesitation when Peter Rothstein suggested many months ago that we write a show together based on immigrant folk songs and immigrant-associated Tin Pan Alley tunes. Music was my point of entry to this research-and-writing project, but beyond the music was history and a world I knew only on its surface, from the depleted and politically unstable landscape of late-1800s Europe on through the profiteering transatlantic steamship lines and the robust squalor of New York’s Lower East Side. After walking those streets, scrolling through the miles of microfilm and shuffling the piles of music, I’m grateful to be here with you and with this cast, offering a bit of what we’ve learned. ~ Dan Chouinard special thanks We would like to thank our language consultants for their valuable contribution to the creative process: Agata Dittfurth (Polish), Elina Kala (Finnish), Eva Kish (Hungarian), Goran Alachki (Macedonian), Judith Eisner & Yiddish Theater Group, Minneapolis JCC (Yiddish), Ksenija Rener Sitar (Slovenian), Mark Sedio (Slovak), Myrianthi Aristodemou Salovich (Greek), Nancy Stenson (Scots Gaelic), Natalie Nowytski (Ukrainian), Tiziana Bales (Italian). We would also like to thank these generous individuals and impressive institutions for their research assistance: Barry Moreno and the Ellis Island Archives; Dunbrody Famine Ship Museum, New Ross, Ireland; Ellis Island Immigration Museum; Jeanie Johnston Famine Ship Museum, Dublin Ireland; Library of Congress Performing Arts Reading Room, Washington, DC; Lincoln Center Library for the Performing Arts, New York; Linnea Anderson and the Social Welfare History Archives at the University of Minnesota; Mersey Maritime Museum, Liverpool, England; Museum of the City of New York; New York Public Library; The Queenstown Story, Cobh, Ireland; Stevie Beck,The Tenement Museum, New York We would also like to thank: The Children’s Theatre Company, Chelsea Dammen at the McNally Smith College of Music, Dudley Voigt, Todd Mulloy, Abby Harkness, Kelsey Peterjohn, Omar Guevara Soto, Jennifer Patti, and Kevin Reuther The danger that we have most to fear is that we, too, will grow old as a nation, and that this constantly inflowing ~ Arthur Henry, tide Among of thenew Immigrants blood, Scribner’s will Magazine be diverted, 1901 to the ancient lands becoming young again. 4 Steerage Song a Chronology UnIteD StateS IMMIGratIOn from 1840–1924 1840 Cunard Line is founded, beginning 1892 Ellis Island replaces Castle the era of steamship lines especially Garden as a processing center designed for the transportation of for immigrants. passengers between Europe and the United States. 1894 Immigration Restriction League organized to spearhead the 1846 Crop failures in Germany and restrictionist movement for the next Holland send thousands of 25 years. dispossessed to the United States. 1914-18 World War I brings an end to the 1846-47 Irish potato famine causes mass period of mass migration to the emigration of all classes of the Irish United States. population to the United States. 1916-18 Thousands of immigrants return to 1855 Castle Garden immigrant depot Europe as soldiers for the United opens