American Century: Part I is a non-linear musical in which the Irondale Ensemble explores original songs, music and a variety of acting styles to examine art and culture during the emergence of the United States as a world power; straddling the events and impacts of the Great Depression, World War II and its social and political outcomes, The Civil Rights Movement, McCarthyism and the progression of liberalism during the 20th century.
Using seven key great American plays as source material, the evening-length immersive work investigates how world events changed theater and how theater changed the ways the world was experienced and viewed by its audiences. The plays: The Verge by Susan Glaspell (1921), The Front Page by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur (1928), Machinal by Sophie Treadwell (1928), A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams (1947), The Crucible by Arthur Miller (1953), Long Day’s Journey into Night by Eugene O’Neill (1956) and A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry (1959).
The journey through these works and their central lessons amplify the growth of American theater and the evolution of American social and political culture, from vaudeville to the dressed-up melodramas, to an era that is seen as one of the greatest in the three thousand years of western theater making. The Irondale Ensemble, celebrating 40 years, composes its own origin story of how this period of time has influenced how we see the world today and experience the theatre of today, without apology or retreat.
