Playbill
AMERICAN PAGEANT:
A Decalogue on the Divided Soul of the
United States of America
By Michael King
A Resistance Theater Production to Raise Funds for Common Power and the Northwest African American Museum
Presented at STG @ Kerry Hall
Seattle, Washington
7:30 p.m., January 20, 2025
About “American Pageant”
In the Spring of 2024, I was asked by the Global Works Theater Company to write a show. to be presented as part of Global Works’ second annual “Festival of Theater“ at 12th Avenue Arts in Seattle, Washington, January 2025. The idea was for “something” focusing on American history, to be performed on Inauguration Day.
“American Pageant” is the result. A “pageant” is an old form of theater, traditionally employed to present an “instructive commentary” on a period of history in the life of a political community, performed on a date of celebration by that community. I did not know that I would end up writing a pageant, but that is what happened.
“American Pageant” focuses on what I call the division between “the light” and “the dark” in “the American soul.” The light originates with the Declaration of Independence, and its embrace of equality of rights for all, as the founding truth of the American Revolution. The dark originates further back, with the enslavement of black Africans and the doctrine of White Supremacy constructed to justify that enslavement. Using an historical panorama stretching from 1619 to the present, “American Pageant” explores the struggle between the ideals of the Declaration, which are the foundation of American Democracy, and its authoritarian nemesis White Supremacy (which over time has grown to encompass complementary systems of suppression based on patriarchy and heteronormativity, all repeatedly justified as somehow mandated by the teachings of Christianity, and buttressed by a systematic falsification of American history).
Using dramatic scenes involving historical and imagined figures, frequently supplemented with song, “American Pageant” follows this struggle through a panorama that begins with the establishment of American slavery in the 1600s. We see the American Revolution, and the conflict between the lofty ideals of the Declaration and the tyrannical fact of the slave systems found in every one of the 13 Colonies that joined in rebellion against England. We see the subsequent evasion of this paradox in the establishment of the Constitution. We see the waxing of Slaver power based on the spread of the “white gold” cotton to the Mississippi and beyond, and the eventual overthrow of that power in a bloody civil war that should be known as the “War of the Slaver Rebellion.” We see the ensuing attempt to establish a multi-racial democracy through the political program known as “Reconstruction,” and its overthrow by a resurgent White Supremacism, with the subsequent establishment of an American system of white apartheid (with “Jim Crow” in the former Confederate States, and “Sundownism” and other forms of oppression everywhere else). We see how the most terrible war in human history paradoxically opened the door to a systematic challenge to that apartheid, eventually unleashing democratic forces that would lead to the launching of a “Second Reconstruction” in the 1960s—an effort at liberation extending beyond race and color to encompass those suppressed based on their gender or sexual orientation. Finally, we see the backlash against that liberation and the resurgence of American authoritarianism that, under the second presidency of Donald Trump, has become an outright fascist regime bent on taking us back into the dark tunnels of tyranny, and this time keeping us there for good.
“American Pageant” is, ultimately, a call to resist that resurgence, and to defend social as well as political democracy. I hope that message resonates with everyone who sees this show.
Michael King
CAST (in order of appearance)
The actor’s name appears on the left, and the roles they play appear on the right (the latter in the order in which the actor first plays a part).
Angie Bolton Black Narrator, Sally Hemmings, Older Woman, Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Billie Holiday, Marion Anderson, Mildred Jeter
Michael King White Narrator, Benjamin Franklin, President Harry S Truman, Lee Atwater, Unidentified Anti-Trans Influencer
Bob De Dea Governor George Yeardley, First Planter, Northern Financier, Marine Corps Commandant Alexander Vandergrift, James Baker, Stephen Miller
Chris Nicoll Abraham Piersey, Samuel Adams, Roger Sherman, Second Planter, Senator James Hammond, Justice Henry Billings Brown, Chief of the Army Air Corps Hap Arnold, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, James Dodson
Marten King Patrick Henry, Charles Coatsworth Pinckney, William Lloyd Garrison, Alexander Stephens, Justice John Marshall Harlan, White Mob Leader, Army Chief of Staff George C. Marshall, Clark Clifford, John Adams
*Chad Kelderman Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Solomon Calhoon, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, President John F. Kennedy, Richard Loving, Secretary of “War” Pete Hegseth
Andre Williams Young Man, “Double V” Letter Writer, Donald Harris
Alexander Hatch Frederick Douglass, Walter White
Augie Urschel James Otis, John Brown, Lincoln Supporter Cheer Leader, Nathan Bedford Forrest, Chief of Naval Operations Ernest King, John Tanton
Jacqueline Beatty Eleanor Roosevelt, Abigail Adams, Standing Woman, Phyllis Schlafly
Shraddha Deodhar-Oak Personal Secretary, Shyamala Gopalan Harris, Seated Woman
Dr. Raymond Tymas-Jones Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
*Appearing by permission of Actors Equity Association, the union for professional actors and stage managers
Production & Design Team
Directed by Michael King
Musical Direction by Mark Rabe
Technical Direction by Keehn Thomsen
Visual Direction by Theodore Deacon
Lighting Operations and Audio by STG @ Kerry Hall; Livestreaming by the Elite Collective
Cover Art by John Engerman
“American Pageant” is presented in ten acts, with an introductory Prologue and an Intermission between Act 4 and Act 5.
PROLOGUE
Act 1—“The Divided American Soul”
Act 2—“A Revolution of Paradoxes”
Act 3—“An Empire of Cotton”
Act 4—“The Fall of the House of Dixie”
INTERMISSION
Act 5—“An American Tragedy”: Overthrow of the First Reconstruction and the Horror of American Apartheid
Act 6—“A Turning of the Tide?” The Second World War and Another Chance for the Declaration of Independence
Act 7—“Holding Strongly to the Truth”: The Civil Rights Movement and the Launching of the Second Reconstruction
Act 8—Liberation for All*
Act 9—“Backlash”
Act 10—“In the balance…”**
*Featuring “Do I Dare to Dream of You,” music and lyrics by John Engerman
**Featuring “We are the Storm,” music and lyrics by Bob De Dea
“This Land is Your Land”
Although “This Land is Your Land” is such an American musical icon that it does not need an introduction, I believe sharing some of its history helps to explain why it is featured in American Pageant.
“This Land is Your Land” is by American folk singer Woody Guthrie. Its lyrics were written in 1940 in critical response to Irving Berlin's "God Bless America". The melody is based on a Carter Family tune called "When the World's on Fire". Guthrie had tired of hearing Kate Smith singing "God Bless America" over and over on the radio, and as a sarcastic riposte he called his song "God Blessed America for Me" before renaming it "This Land Is Your Land". (I note at this point that American Pageant does not share Guthrie’s critical view of “God Bless America,” but I nonetheless am sharing the fact of his viewpoint because honesty about history is a central value of tonight’s show.)
Guthrie was a fervent Isolationist when he wrote “This Land is Your Land,” and once he finished it he put it aside and did nothing with it—not so much as a single performance!until 1944, by which time Guthrie’s view of American involvement in the Second World War had dramatically changed. Thus began the journey of “This Land is Your Land,” from just another folk tune by a well-known American folk singer to its status today as one of the great songs about America. In 1989, a 1947 release on the Asch record label was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. In 2002, "This Land Is Your Land" was one of 50 recordings chosen by the Library of Congress to be added to the National Recording Registry. In 2021, it was listed at No. 229 on Rolling Stone's "Top 500 Greatest Songs of All Time".
Here are two of the song’s verses, and I would bet just about everyone in the audience tonight has sung each of them, and more than once!
When the sun came shining, and I was strolling,
With the wheat fields waving, and the dust clouds rolling,
A voice was chanting as the fog was lifting,
This land was made for you and me!
This land is your land, this land is my land!
From California to the New York Island!
From the Redwood Forest to the Gulf Stream waters,
This land was made for you and me!
This land was made for you and me!
Spoiler Alert! Keep your playbill handy, and after the Intermission turn it to this page and keep it turned there. You will need that page, unless of course you have the song memorized!
Michael King
A Special Thanks
On behalf of the Cast and the Production and Design Team of American Pageant, Resistance Theater offers thanks to the following individuals, for their contribution to making this show possible:
Dan Schmitt, Nancy Neraas, Goodwin Deacon, and all of the staff at STG @ Kerry Hall led by their Team Leader for our show, Crystal Magana. And…
To Help our Beneficiary Organizations
To help you support our beneficiary organizations, here are two QR codes. Just aim your phone’s camera, and fire away!
For Common Power
For Northwest African American Museum
Thank you for joining us this evening, and for supporting our beneficiary resistance organizations!
For more information about Resistance Theater, please visit our website: www.resistancetheater.com