THE AMERICAN CENTURY: PART THREE
Coming during the 2002-2003 Season

STUDS TERKEL’S
AMERICAN DREAMS:LOST AND FOUND

“Studs Terkel has captured the melody of America.”

In the 2002-2003 Season, The Acting Company will present an original adaptation of Pulitzer Prize winning author Studs Terkel’s group portrait of our nation, American Dreams: Lost and Found. Called by the New York Times “the best of Terkel’s works...a stirring, hopeful book,” this is the quintessential example of this author’s ability to capture the voices of Americans from all walks of life. From an embittered winner of the Miss U.S.A. pageant who sees the con behind the dream of success, to the businessman enamoured of success, to farm kids dreaming of the city, city boys determined to get out, the Boston Brahmin and the KKK, a 19 year old Puerto Rican bell-hop who dreams of flying, and many others, these interviews show the simple dreams and grand aspirations of all of us. Each of Terkel’s real-life stories defies our stereotyped expectations, and locates the humanity underneath the skin of his subjects. Whether the goal is to run a small-town newspaper, own a piece of land, build a fourth televison network, or become the best bodybuilder in the world, Terkel has managed to glean highly dramatic, funny, and powerful tales from each of his encounters. This Acting Company premiere will feature original music surrounding and connecting Terkel’s stories and a multi-racial cast representing a cross section of American society.

American Dreams: Lost and Found continues The Acting Company’s highly successful program to commission, develop and produce new plays based on great American literature - The American Century. Following our soaring and powerful productions of Willa Cather’s O Pioneers! (2000) and Mark Twain’s Pudd’nhead Wilson (2001), the 2002 installment in The American Century brings to the stage the work of one of our most powerful contemporary American writers. As in years past, our American Century production will be joined in touring repertory by one of Shakespeare’s timeless masterpieces, As You Like It.

Studs Terkel is the author of eight books of oral history, including the Pulitzer-Prize winning The Good War, as well as a memoir, Talking to Myself, and the just-published Will the Circle Be Unbroken. His daily radio show on WFMT in Chicago was carried on stations throughout the world until last year, when he moved to the Chicago Historical Society to begin archiving his massive collection of interviews. Some of his other books include Hard Times: An Oral History of the Great American Depression, and Race: How Blacks and Whites Think and Feel about the American Obsession.