The Audience You can sit there and have a universal experi- The Milwaukee 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 Blues 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 Paramount Records 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 Edmonia Henderson Playwright events for multi-ethnic urban communities. Blind Blake 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 Robert Johnson 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 “race record” 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 Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey and Originally, the NYRL existed as a improved.