Going' West—Staged Reading Series (2018)
CREATED BY / MICHAEL GORMAN
April 2018— La MaMa Galleria, New York City
A staged reading of Michael Gorman's original 1987 play. Going' West
A rundown off-campus college apartment shared by two roommates turns into a campsite straight out of a classic Hollywood western, complete with its own Walter Brennan-like camp cook. Goin' West is a 21st century cross-country adventure of the imagination reminiscent of the original western migration and settlement of America.
An abandoned school bus, both real and imaginary, is a the center of a debate between the two roommates, who can't agree on whether they should recover the bus, quit college and head west. The struggle that ensues between them is both profound and wildly comic as the mythical camp cook emerges from the celluloid past to keep the peace between the two headstrong leaders. Unearthed along the trail, as the roommates fight to determine whether to stay or go, are the thorny issues of student debt and the value of education, literature-versus-storytelling, the catastrophic clash between Native American and Anglo culture, the power of dreams, and the questions of what the ideal of "America" really means. In the words of Langston Hughes, "Oh, let America be again. The land that has never been and yet must be."
April 2018— La MaMa Galleria, New York City
A staged reading of Michael Gorman's original 1987 play. Going' West
A rundown off-campus college apartment shared by two roommates turns into a campsite straight out of a classic Hollywood western, complete with its own Walter Brennan-like camp cook. Goin' West is a 21st century cross-country adventure of the imagination reminiscent of the original western migration and settlement of America.
An abandoned school bus, both real and imaginary, is a the center of a debate between the two roommates, who can't agree on whether they should recover the bus, quit college and head west. The struggle that ensues between them is both profound and wildly comic as the mythical camp cook emerges from the celluloid past to keep the peace between the two headstrong leaders. Unearthed along the trail, as the roommates fight to determine whether to stay or go, are the thorny issues of student debt and the value of education, literature-versus-storytelling, the catastrophic clash between Native American and Anglo culture, the power of dreams, and the questions of what the ideal of "America" really means. In the words of Langston Hughes, "Oh, let America be again. The land that has never been and yet must be."