Last Chance: ‘Woody Guthrie’s American Song’ at The Wharf
By • August 20, 2026 0 408
“Nobody knows the exact number of songs written by Woody,” wrote radio host and oral historian Studs Terkel of Woody Guthrie. “Take a thousand, a good, round, conservative figure. The odds are better than even that there are more, many more, written on the spot, any old spot: the wayside inn, the gas station, the greasy spoon, the ma and pa tavern, the hamburger heaven, the subway bench, the jungle camp, the friendly davenport; been-here-and-gone pieces.”
For a lively sampling of the Dust Bowl Troubadour’s music and words, head to Waterfront Park at The Wharf for one of the six remaining performances at 7:15 p.m. of “Woody Guthrie’s American Song,” presented by Theater Alliance. The dates: tonight, Thursday, Aug. 20; Friday, Aug. 21; Saturday, Aug. 22; Sunday, Aug. 23; Thursday, Aug. 27; Friday, Aug. 28; and Saturday, Aug. 29.
In what Theater Alliance calls “Radical Hospitality in Action,” every ticket is “Name Your Own Price,” plus a $6 processing fee.
Of the songs performed in the show, accompanying scenes from Guthrie’s wide-ranging life, director Tim Seib’s favorite is “Ludlow Massacre.” Written in 1944, the song deals with an attack by the Colorado National Guard and private security officers on a tent colony of striking coal miners and their families in April of 1914, leaving more than 20 dead, including women and children. The so-called Colorado Coalfield War ended after President Woodrow Wilson — Guthrie’s namesake — sent in federal troops.
“I think it’s such a haunting melody and striking storytelling,” said Seib. “The song is a shining example of what we hoped our show would do: embed a sense of awareness about a people or a story you may not have heard much about and make you curious while instilling strong feelings.”
“Woody Guthrie’s American Song,” which had its premiere at a New Hampshire festival in 1988, was conceived and adapted by Yale-trained director, playwright and UC Berkeley professor (now emeritus) Peter Glazer, with orchestrations and vocal arrangements by Jeff Waxman.
Asked what the waterfront setting brings to the show, Seib responded: “Playing the show outdoors added a visceral component to the storytelling that, while subtle, I still find thrilling. It gave an actor speaking about migrant workers following the sun across this great land the ability to trace the actual path of the setting sun with her hand while she spoke.”
He continued: “We knew there would likely be a steady breeze, so fabric catching that breeze felt like a logical choice, which inspired some of the fabric elements in the scenic design — referencing a tattered American flag and ribbons left in memorial to those we have lost in the fight for justice — as well as the larger pieces of fabric used in the storytelling of the train sequence, the Ludlow Massacre and the jungle camp tent community. Crickets and cicadas also became a welcome white-noise underscoring of the scenes.
“So much of Woody’s material is rooted in the earth. It just worked.”
Born on July 14, 1912, in Okemah, Oklahoma, Guthrie is mainly known these days, if at all, as the composer of “This Land Is Your Land” and as the father of Arlo, of “Alice’s Restaurant” fame (who will turn 80 next year on July 10). His “Dust Bowl Ballads” album was released in 1940, with “Columbia River Ballads” — about the Bonneville and Grand Coulee dam projects in Oregon and Washington state, respectively — following in 1949. A few years later, he wrote a song about the current president’s exploitative landlord father, “Old Man Trump.”
Guthrie was a “fellow traveler,” a Communist sympathizer who wrote a column in hillbilly dialect, “Woody Sez,” for the People’s World newspaper. On his guitar was pasted the declaration: “This machine kills fascists.” Guthrie served in the U.S. Merchant Marine in 1943-44, married three times, had seven children in addition to Arlo and died in 1967 of congenital Huntington’s disease at Creedmoor Psychiatric Center in Queens, aged 55.
An inspiration for the 1960s folk music revival, Guthrie had a profound, personal influence on Pete Seeger and Bob Dylan.
The Theater Alliance show is the first that Seib has directed in the D.C. area, where he relocated in 2025 after 18 years in New York. “I’m blown away by the power of the theater scene in the DMV and am excited to now call it my creative home,” he said.
Led by Executive Artistic Director Shanara Gabrielle, Theater Alliance, which normally performs at 340 Maple Drive SW — a block from the Waterfront Metro on the Green Line — is in the midst of a campaign to build a 9,000-square-foot “Arts & Community Hub” at that location. Along with back-of-the-house facilities and a community/education space, the new building is to contain a 140-seat black box theater and a 60-seat proscenium theater and cinema.
Theater Alliance was founded in 1993 and became a professional company in 2001. Its prior homes were the H Street Playhouse and, beginning in 2013, the Anacostia Playhouse. The company’s Hothouse New Play Development Series provides resources and space to emerging D.C.-based writers.
Three-show subscription packages for Theater Alliance’s 2026-27 season, which begins in November, are available for purchase online.
Woody Guthrie’s American Song
Through Aug. 29
Waterfront Park at The Wharf, 515 Water St. SW
