Goin' West (1989)
WRITTEN BY / MICHAEL GORMAN
PERFORMED BY / THE FABULOUS GIGGIN' BROTHERS.
1989 Tour
This early work by Gorman was written when he was a student at Clark University. The play was performed by Gorman and "The fabulous Giggin' Brothers", and was toured to Universities and art centers across Massachusetts including: Clark University, UMASS Amherst, and North Hampton Center For The Arts.
SYNOPSIS: 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."
PERFORMED BY / THE FABULOUS GIGGIN' BROTHERS.
1989 Tour
This early work by Gorman was written when he was a student at Clark University. The play was performed by Gorman and "The fabulous Giggin' Brothers", and was toured to Universities and art centers across Massachusetts including: Clark University, UMASS Amherst, and North Hampton Center For The Arts.
SYNOPSIS: 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."