Woody Guthrie's American Song at Theater Alliance

There's something fitting about hearing Woody Guthrie's music outdoors, under an open summer sky, surrounded by neighbors on blankets and folding chairs. That's exactly the experience Theater Alliance has created with Woody Guthrie's American Song, now playing through August 29, 2026, at the Wharf Waterfront Park in Southwest Washington.

Conceived and adapted by Peter Glazer from Guthrie's songs and writings, with orchestrations and vocal arrangements by Jeff Waxman, the show is deliberately not a star-driven bio-musical. Instead, director Tim Seib has shaped it as a shared telling. A guitar is passed from performer to performer like a talking stick, and each member of the ensemble takes a turn stepping into Woody's shoes, singing his songs and carrying his story forward. The cast of nine - Marvin Wayne, Savina Barini, Jeremy Allen Crawford, Jordan Leah Embrack, Anne Graninger, Ixchel, Ethan J. Miller, Liam Tanner, and Faith Wang - is joined by a bass player, and together they thread their way through the audience and up onto a makeshift stage backed by red-white-and-blue painted boards. One guitar even bears the famous words Woody painted on his own: "This machine kills Fascists."

The evening traces the arc of Guthrie's remarkable life. Born in Oklahoma in 1912, he picked up songs and stories on the street before crisscrossing the country as a young man, riding freight trains, taking odd jobs from journalism to work on the Grand Coulee Dam, and befriending everyone he met along the way. He lived through the stock market crash, the Great Depression, and the Dust Bowl that drove farmers from their land, and he witnessed the rise of the unions in New York and beyond. He stood with workers, the downtrodden, and the poor, and his songs never left any doubt about which side he was on.

The program spans roughly thirty numbers, from familiar favorites like "Union Maid," "So Long, It's Been Good to Know Yuh," and "Pastures of Plenty" to the devastating "Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)," which recounts the historic crash of a plane carrying Mexican migrant workers being deported from California - a song that resonates keenly with our own times. Duets sung in lovely harmony alternate with full-ensemble arrangements, and moments of sadness, despair, and class anger give way again and again to the joy and hope of resilient people who refuse to be stopped. Audiences are encouraged to sing along, and by the time the company arrives at "This Land Is Your Land," most everyone is clapping, tapping, and joining in.

The creative team includes music directors Eily Erickson and Emily Baltzer, choreographer Siani Nicole, scenic designer Jonathan Dahm Robertson, lighting designer Minjoo Kim, sound designer Kevin Lee Alexander, and costume designer Danielle Preston. The production runs one hour and thirty-five minutes without intermission, and it embodies the mission of Theater Alliance and Artistic Director Shanara Gabrielle: bringing people together, giving voice to the marginalized, and sending audiences home thinking more deeply about our shared humanity.

Woody Guthrie's American Song plays through August 29, 2026, presented by Theater Alliance at the Wharf Waterfront Park, 515 Water St SW, Washington, DC.