Susan Lang Has Driven Home The Music Of Woody Guthrie For Sherman Players Audiences

By Shannon Hicks

SHERMAN — As is true for many teachers, summer was not completely quiet for Newtown Middle School teacher Susan Lang.

Between performing with her band at Falcon Ridge Music Festival for four days and doing some traveling, a large percentage of her time was devoted to rehearsals for Woody Guthrie’s American Song.

The third production of Sherman Players’ 2004 season, Woody Guthrie’s American Song continues on weekends through September 25. The show is made up of songs and writings by the legendary folk singer Woody Guthrie and celebrates the American experience as observed by the singer-songwriter during his travels across the country beginning in the 1930s. The production includes multimedia presentations and live music by the Danbury-based band My Dad’s Truck.

That band was formed about eight years ago, when the now-defunct Danbury Actors Repertory Theatre (D’ART) presented the same production. At that time Ms Lang was not only a member of the show’s band but also — as someone who used to do a lot of community theater — a member of its cast. Ms Lang worked with that show’s lighting director, Leif Smith, along with D’ART’s band director, Bill Wisnowski, plus a friend from her college years in creating the original core of what became My Dad’s Truck.

After forming for the D’ART production the band stayed together. While its members are different today, the band continues to perform shows across the country and as locally as Molten Java Coffeehouse in Bethel and The Bluefish in Bridgeport. They boast a repertoire of more than 200 songs, including many originals, and continue to offer improvisations of familiar songs each time they perform.

After going through some lineup changes, today’s band is made up of Ms Lang, who is primarily a singer but also adds guitarrone (a Mexican/mariachi bass), guitar and hand percussion; Mr Smith on guitar, mandolin, accordion, reeds, harmonica, hand percussion, guitarrone, and ankle bells; and Mr Wisnowski on guitar, fiddle, banjo, ukulele, harmonica, mandolin, hand percussion, guitarrone, and dulcimer. Both men also contribute vocals.

“I played one of the older women in that [Danbury] show,” Ms Lang said recently, between travels, rehearsals, and preparing for the first day of school. “The prospect of doing this show again was very exciting. It’s a wonderful show.”

The show, however, says its musical director, is not a complete biography of Guthrie.

“It doesn’t talk about his rampant socialism. It doesn’t address his marriages, either,” said Ms Lang. “But it’s all his words and that’s a neat thing about the show. It’s all him, and he had a lot to say.”

This time Ms Lang has concentrated solely on the music. As music director for The Sherman Players it was her responsibility to teach the music to the show’s actors, from the songs and their harmonies to each song’s dynamics.

“They need to know what to emphasize. They need to be able to effectively tell the stories through these songs,” she explained. Songs such as “This Land is Your Land,” “The Sinking of the Reuben James,” “Hard Travelin’” “So Long, It’s Been Good to Know You,” “Pastures of Plenty,” “Do Re Me,” “Deportee,” and “Union Maid” are all included in American Song.

Five actor-musicians play multiple roles as people Guthrie met in his travels who helped inspire his words and music. The five are Morgan Kelsey of Bethel, Peter Pecora of Kent, Jen Moncuse of Morris, Randy Watkins of New Milford, and Sandy Walker of Brookfield. Also included as youngsters are Will Pryor-Bennett of New Milford and Noelle Daley of Danbury.

“This is very much an ensemble piece, there’s no star,” explained Ms Lang. “Everybody has a lot to do.”

The show is broken into vignettes, and Ms Lang says its very representative of the words and music Guthrie left behind when he died in October 1967. The script uses Guthrie’s published and unpublished prose in presenting its story.

Newtown is in Ms Lang’s blood: She grew up here, graduating from Newtown High School in 1979. Her education continued at Western Connecticut State University, where she earned her bachelor’s degree in theater, and then at University of New Haven, where she earned her master’s in education.

Today she lives in Woodbury, but continues to work in Newtown as an eighth grade English and Social Studies teacher. She also co-directs the school’s drama productions.

Carl Knobloch II, the producer of Sherman’s production, calls Ms Lang “a fine musical talent.”

“I know that if she has something to do with a show, the music will come out right,” he added last week. “She is a fabulous talent and has a true musical ear. She can [grab hold of] the guy who is not singing his or her harmony line and she will drill it over and over until they sleep the harmony.

“I have a huge respect for her ability.”

(Performances continue weekends until September 25 at Sherman Playhouse, at the corner of Routes 37 and 39. Call 860-354-3622 for performance and ticket details, or to make reservations.)