a jazz opera

FORGOTTEN

The Murder at the Ford Rouge Plant

Music and Lyrics by Steve Jones

CAST LIST

(in order of appearance)

Nurse Attendant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jana Ellingson

Ella Bradford . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Jennifer Foughner

Henry Ford . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Evan Kennedy

Lewis Bradford . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Joseph Sedillo

Foreman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ben Tiede

Allen Johnson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Senam Gbeho

Joe Cantor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Caleb Jonas

Rosie Johnson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Kira Puett

Frank Lopez . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Aaron Brosier

Father Coughlin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Kenyon DeVault

Harry Bennett . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Josh Whitney-Wise

Clara Ford . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Lindsay Weinberg

WORKERS CHORUS

Andrew Ancheta Maureen Frank Laura Miller

Jordan Bancroft Emilie Hanson Sarah Peterson

Scott Beaver Alex Jacoby Virginia Rogers

Rachel Brady Yong-Ho Kim Annika Sch ilke

Chris Engelhard Jared Lodge Claire Stoscheck

Elizabeth Everson Luis Mesa MartÌnez Carl Summers

Laura Meinke Sarah Turner

ORCHESTRA

Mike Vasich, piano Jack Phinney, bass Greg Walz-Chojnacki, drums

Additional songs and music by Maurice Sugar

PRODUCTION TEAM

Robert L. Peterson: Production Coordinator

Mike Vasich: Musical Director

Costumes: Susan Fick

Sound: Noah Silber-Coats

Poster and Program Design: Tim Rogus

Special Thanks To:

Macalester Center for Scholarship & Teaching, Jan Serie, Director

Marga Miller, Program Manager

Macalester History Department

Macalester Music Department

Macalester Theater & Dance Department

United Auto Workers Local 879, Rob McKenzie, President

Barb Kucera, www.workdayminnesota.org

Act 1

Detroit and Dearborn, Michigan: 1930's

Overture ..................................................................................Orchestra

Keep the Wheels Rolling On ..........Allen Johnson with Henry Ford and the Company

You're Gone Again/How Can I Explain ........................... Ella and Lewis Bradford

We Can Start Again.............................................................. Lewis Bradford

The Forgotten Man's Hour ...............................Allen and Rosie Johnson ,Ella and

Lewis Bradford, Joe Cantor, Frank Jackson

The Hour of Power/Cleanse Ourselves...Father Coughlin and the Hour of Power Choir

Lewis Bradford and the TroupeHenry Ford

The Ford Hunger March.............................Rosie Johnson and the Workers Chorus

You'll Be Like My Son .......................................Henry Ford and Harry Bennett

I Got a Job/I Know the Fear..............................Lewis Bradford and Harry Bennett

When You Organize.......................................Lewis Bradford and Rosie Johnson

Bradford You Are Dreamin'......................................................Allen Johnson

It's About Time.....................Lewis Bradford with Ella Bradford and Rosie Johnson

A New Beauty.....................................................................Lewis Bradford

Sit Down (by Maurice Sugar)......................Rosie Johnson and the Workers Chorus

I'm Here for You......................................................Lewis and Ella Bradford

Radio, Guns and Money......................Father Coughlin, Harry Bennett, Henry Ford

Intermission: 10 Minutes

Act 2

Detroit and Dearborn, Michigan, May-December, 1937

Shake Hands with the Devil..........................................................Clara Ford

Cleanse Ourselves (reprise).........Father Coughlin and the Hour of Power Radio Choir

Lewis Bradford and the Troupe

We Speak Louder than Machines...................Rosie Johnson and the Workers Chorus

The Stakes Are High.....................Henry Ford, Harry Bennett, and Father Coughlin

Battle of the Overpass...........................................Allen Johnson and the Troupe

I Got a Bad, Bad Feeling..........................................................Ella Bradford

I Cannot Be Silent.................................................................Lewis Bradford

Let's Take a Walk...................................................................Harry Bennett

Bradford I Have Got a Job for You.....................................................Foreman

We All Will Forget.......................Hospital Attendant, Ella Bradford, Harry Bennett

I'm Here For You (reprise)........................................................Ella Bradford

We Remember You............Rosie and Allen Johnson, Workers Chorus, Ella Bradford

EPILOGUE

After receiving more threats, the widow and her children left Detroit, never to return.

Sixty-five years later, there are grandchildren and great-grandchildren and others who know Lewis's story and kept it alive. Lewis Bradford is not forgotten.

In 1941, after years of struggle, the United Auto Workers was on the verge of winning a contract at the Ford Motor Company. margin-right:.15in; margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:-9.0pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:center'>

Principal Characters

Ella Bradford...................................................................wife of Lewis Bradford

Allen Johnson................... radio announcer at WXYZ who is also an unemployed worker

Henry Ford...............................................................industrialist; husband of Clara Ford

Lewis Bradford................former minister; becomes an organizer at the River Rouge Plant

Rosie Johnson..................unemployed woman, becomes a union organizer; wife of Allen

Father Charles Coughlin...........................the "radio Priest" who used his broadcasts and

publications to further anti-Semitism and fascism in the 1930's

Harry Bennett............................................................................................Ford's "enforcer"

Clara Ford...........................................................................wife of Henry Ford

Program Notes

Telling labor's history in this culture is an uphill battle. Our communities lack historic markers and monuments, our school curriculum does not require students to learn the origins of the eight hour day or minimum wage, let alone how unions were created, and our television programs and movies render workers invisible or make caricatures out of them.

Bob Peterson and I, with the support of Macalester's Center for Scholarship and Teaching, designed a new course, "Telling Labor's Story Through Music," as a way to combine our expertises and offer students a different portal through which to view the history of working men and women. We also collaborated with UAW Local 879, its president, and a group of its rank-and-file members, who helped us to understand the challenges of mass production work today. In addition to learning labor stories themselves, the students in this class have become story tellers themselves by participating in diverse ways in the production of "Forgotten."

This remarkable musical is an attempt to tell an important part of labor's history. In telling the story of one "forgotten" man, Lewis Bradford, it connects us with the lives of the 100,000 workers who struggled to unionize the Rouge and the eight million women and men who joined unions in the depths of the Great Depression. While it reminds us of just how much of our history has been "forgotten" it also demonstrates how creatively and effectively we can recover and tell these stories.

Peter Rachleff, Professor of History

A NOTE FROM THE COMPOSER

It has been thrilling to watch Macalester students put this show together. Thanks to the students, and to the faculty leaders of this project, Bob Peterson and Peter Rachleff.

This work also involved several individuals who have shaped it over the past three years. My brother Peter Jones is the genealogist in the family and wrote the first Lewis Bradford song. He sums up in three minutes a story that took me ninety minutes to tell. Elise Bryant, theater director and labor educator, shared stories of growing up in Detroit and of her father's work at the Rouge plant, and has a vision for the labor movement that I find inspiring and life-changing. Charlie Micallef of the Machinists Union made sure that the Lewis Bradford story did not fade away. And thanks to Dave Elsila, retired editor of the international magazine of the United Auto Workers Union, whose devotion to honoring those who have worked for social justice over the years, has lit the way. Dr. Sue Schurman, President of the National Labor College believed in the work and help get it on its feet, and also acted in the first production in Silver Spring, MD. The grandchildren of Lewis and Ella Bradford helped greatly in sharing family stories, including Ella-Kari Loftfield, Kate Bates, Lewis Conn, Michael Kelsay, and Lewis and Ella's son-in-law, Bob Loftfield. Thanks also to other family, including Donna Messersmith Jones, Dorothy Jones, Jinny Jones, Phil Jones, and Holly Syrrakos.

A special thanks to those individuals who agreed to be interviewed who were there in Detroit in the 1930's, and whose stories found their way into the lyrics: Mary Brett Daniels, Victor Reuther, Willard Hunter, Joe and Millie Glazer, and Frank Sladen.