Thoreau at Home | Theatre Series

Saturday, October 14, 2023
7:30 PM 9:30 PM 19:30 21:30

Whidbey Island Center for the Arts PO Box 52 | 565 Camano Avenue Langley, WA 98260 (map)

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Written by poet and novelist David Wagoner, it takes us on an immersive, lyrical journey with the influential American naturalist Henry David Thoreau through the environment he grew to think of and care for as his home. Thoreau at Home is performed by Todd Jefferson Moore and directed by Richard E.T. White, with music and sound design by Peter Richards and stage management by Emily Grierson.

Working from Thoreau’s journals, David Wagoner has crafted a vivid portrait of encounters with birds, animals, plants, and weather among the remarkably varied landscapes around Concord, Massachusetts. Thoreau believed that cities were saved, not by the good men in them, but by the forests and swamps around them. He recognized the dangers of an exclusively commercial America and tried to show in all his words and actions, in the whole flavor of his life, a richer alternative.

This play–so timely as we wrestle with the effect the human race has had on the natural world–shows us Thoreau shortly before his early death yet still active in mind and heart, planning the fullest life he could imagine, and finding wonderment in the smallest details of the landscape he called home. Following his path, we are invited to reconsider our own relationship to nature through his clear, informed vision.

Evening tickets available:
WICA Star: $45
Standard: $30
by request to box office: $20

Matinee tickets available:
WICA Star: $35
Standard: $25
by request to box office: $20

Tickets

THE PROTAGONIST

HENRY DAVID THOREAU (1817-1862) is best known for Walden, his record of two years spent striving to create a model of simplified existence in the woods, and for Civil Disobedience, which proved to be an inspiration for Gandhi, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and other advocates for social change.

THE PLAYWRIGHT

DAVID WAGONER (1926-2021), one of the Northwest’s pre-eminent poets/chroniclers, is the author of 24 collections of poetry and 10 novels. He taught writing for many years at the University of Washington. His play FIRST CLASS, about his mentor and friend Theordore Roethke, was presented by ACT Theatre in 2007, starring John Aylward. This presentation of Thoreau at Home is produced by permission of the author’s representative, Robin Seyfried.

PERFORMER/PRODUCER

TODD JEFFERSON MOORE (he/him) is a Seattle-based actor/writer. As an actor, Moore has performed for many Northwest theaters including Seattle Repertory Theatre, ACT, Intiman, Seattle Shakespeare and Seattle Children's Theatre. He has written a number of plays for children, including Children’s Crusade 1939, Day at the Beach, and Kenny’s Window at Seattle Children's Theatre. His adult documentary plays include The Killing Jar; The Professor, the Puppet and the Execution; and The Last Best Place. His one-person multi-character documentary play, In the Heart of the Wood, was a 1994 American Theatre Critics Nominee. Todd is a recipient of the Arts Network Outstanding Artist Award for Washington State and Theatre Puget Sound's Gregory A. Falls Award for Sustained Achievement in Theater.

DIRECTOR/PRODUCER

RICHARD E.T. WHITE (he/him) retired in 2021 after 26 years as chair of Theater at Cornish College of the Arts. He has directed at Seattle’s ACT, Intiman and Seattle Repertory Theatres, as well as the Berkeley Repertory Theatre, American Conservatory Theater, Chicago’s Wisdom Bridge and Northlight Theatres, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, Arizona Theatre Company, and Theatre Company Subaru in Tokyo. Richard has earned ten Bay Area Theater Critics’ Circle Awards and eight D rama-Logue Awards for Direction. His production of Red at Seattle Rep received a Gregory award nomination for Outstanding Direction.

SOUND DESIGNER/COMPOSER

PETER RICHARDS (he/him), one third of Seattle rock band Dude York (as well as a multi-instrumentalist composer of concept albums under his own name), is overjoyed to be sound-designing Thoreau At Home. He has previously created sound designs for Annex Theater, Cornish College of the Arts, and Whitman College, as well as touring this and other countries with Dude York in the last decade.

STAGE MANAGER

EMILY GRIERSON (they/them) is a Seattle-based stage manager originally from Rochester, NY. Their most recent credits include Cabaret with Cornish College of the Arts and Mxbeth, a touring Shakespeare production based in rural western New York.

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