playbill vip

In 1978 Stephen Schwartz and his collaborators created a musical version of Studs Terkel’s WORKING.  It was their intention and commitment to represent faithfully the words of the real people whom Studs had interviewed.  The characters in WORKING are  non-fictional  characters.  Their names have been changed, but their words have not.  Even in the case of song lyrics, the writers  have  tried  to  remain as faithful as  possible to the character’s original words.  The musical celebrates the unsung working people around us who contribute to our lives, with whom we have unseen connections, and whom we so often take for granted.  And to give an accurate picture of what it meant to be working in America at that time.

Over the years, the show has evolved,  just as working in America has evolved.  In 2012 director Gordon Greenberg collaborated with Stephen Schwartz to update the book and the score to more accurately reflect what the current working world looked like.  Some monologues were replaced from new interviews and two new songs by Lin-Manuel Miranda were added to the score.

Then in 2019, the director Daniel C. Levine had the idea of “localizing” the show for a production at his theatre, ACT of CT.  This meant that he conducted interviews with local workers in his community, which were then edited and interpolated into the show, replacing other interviews that served the same basic dramatic function.  The result was an extraordinarily successful production, completely up-to-date and relevant to his community.

Now Stephen Schwartz and Daniel Levine are making this “Localized Format” available to all theatres. The production is officially set for release in September 2021 but Maine East has been given the extraordinary opportunity to present their own Localized Format before the official release becoming one of the first theatres in the country to produce this new version of WORKING.

Maine East English students from the Literature of Chicago course, who read Studs Terkel’s WORKING in class, collaborated with the Fine Arts Department and submitted many new interviews for consideration. Eventually, six were selected and have been interpolated into the show.  You will hear the voices of community members and family members sharing their personal experiences with their jobs. 

We are thrilled to be sharing these stories with you and we are especially excited to be performing live in front of an audience. It’s what makes theatre such an incredible experience - sharing our talents with an audience

Karen M. Hall

Director