The Grapes of Wrath THE CAST
(in order of vocal appearance) ROSASHARN, TOM’S PREGNANT SISTER
PETE FOWLER, A TRACTOR OPERATOR / RAGGED MAN, A CROPPER / BILL, A VIGILANTE
Deanna Breiwick
Michael Miller*+
MA JOAD, FAMILY MATRIARCH
JOE, A DEPUTY / PUMP GUY 1
Katharine Goeldner
Evan Bravos*+
PA JOAD, A TENANT FARMER
FRED, A DEPUTY / PUMP GUY 2
Levi Hernandez
Samuel Weiser+
UNCLE JOHN, PA’S BROTHER
HANK, A DEPUTY / LOU, A STRIKER
Robert Orth
Matthew Dalen*+
CONNIE RIVERS, ROSASHARN’S HUSBAND
SENATOR, OKLAHOMA POLITICIAN
Andrew Lovato*
RUTHIE, THE YOUNGER SISTER
Hannah Dishman*+
WINFIELD, THE YOUNGEST BROTHER
Devin A. Best *
NOAH JOAD, TOM’S SLOW-WITTED BROTHER / PRISON GUARD
Hugh Russell
AL JOAD, TOM’S YOUNGER BROTHER
MULEY’S WIFE
Megan Callahan*+ GRANMA, PA AND JOHN’S MOTHER
MaryAnn McCormick° MAN IN SUIT, REPOSSESSES FARMS / INSPECTOR, AN AGRICULTURAL OFFICER
TOM JOAD, A RELEASED PRISONER
Tobias Greenhalgh
°
JIM CASY, A LAPSED PREACHER p
°
MULEY GRAVES, EVICTED FARMER / GRAMPA, PA AND JOHN’S FATHER / GEORGE ENDICOTT, CALIFORNIA FARM OWNER / CONTRACTOR OF MIGRANT WORKERS / PATROL GUARD
Dennis Petersen*
The action takes place in the Dust Bowl of Oklahoma, various stops on the way to California, and migrant worker camps in California.
Robert Stahley*+ DEPUTY
Rafael Helbig-Kostka+ CABIN MISTRESS AT HOOPER RANCH
Simona Genga*+ JAKE, A STRIKER
* Opera Theatre main season debut
p
Former Richard Gaddes Festival Artist
f Richard Gaddes Festival Artist
°+ Former Gerdine Young Artist Gerdine Young Artist
Philippe L’Esperance*+ SOPRANO
Erica Petrocelli *+ BOY IN BARN
Nathaniel Mahone* SYNOPSIS
Prologue
TRAFFIC COP / PEACH CHECKER
Dust Bowl migrants recall the devastation of their native Oklahoma lands, brought about by drought and the Great Depression.
A TRUCKER / JIM, A STRIKER
Jeff Byrnes*+ PUMP GUY 3
Matthew Swensen*+ MAE, A WAITRESS
Jennifer Panaraf° VAL, A COOK
Alexander McKissick*+ BILL, A TRUCKER / COMMISSARY CLERK OF HOOPER RANCH STORE
Benjamin Dickerson+
90
CROPPER HUSBAND / WASHROOM GUARD AT HOOPER RANCH / GEORGE, A VIGILANTE
Nicolette Book*+
CONSTABLE, ENFORCES EVICTIONS / JOE, A TRUCKER
Phillip Lopez*+ p
Oklahoma croppers, protesters, migrant workers, bankers, truckers, and camp residents.
Alex Rosen*+
Dominik Belavy*+
Michael Dayf°
Geoffrey Agpalo
Daevyd Pepper*+
CROPPER WOMAN, HOOVERVILLE SQUATTER
Act One Tom Joad is paroled after serving four years for manslaughter. Walking home he meets an old friend, Jim Casy. Tom invites Jim home to meet his family, but the family has been evicted by the bank. The Joads plan to move to California, where it is rumored there is work. Tom agrees to go with them, even though it means breaking his parole. Tom’s younger brother Al buys a beat-up truck for the 2,000-mile journey. But Granma and Grampa are disturbed by leaving their land — as is Ma, who laments the loss of the family’s home. The Joad family sets off down Route 66. They meet other travelers with handbills advertising farm jobs. The migrants are ridiculed as “Okies” by suspicious townspeople. One ragged man warns them there is no work left in California, and that the handbills are lies printed by ranchers to attract enough labor to keep wages low. Undiscouraged, Tom’s pregnant sister Rosasharn and her husband Connie dream of the car and house they will buy one day. Grampa dies during the night, unable to survive away from the land of his birth. The family buries him and then continues down the highway. At a highway diner, Pa tries to buy a dime’s worth of bread; he cannot afford the entire loaf. The waitress refuses to sell it to him, but relents when she sees the two youngest Joad kids, Ruthie and Winfield. As the family crosses the Mojave Desert, Rosasharn and Connie make love unseen in the back of the truck as Ma sits by Granma’s side to comfort her. At dawn, the family is amazed to see a valley of green California farmlands before them. They have made it to the Promised Land. Then Ma reveals that Granma has died during the crossing. Gazing out at an uncertain future, the family asks California to keep its promise.