Music | Theater | Folklore
Steel Hammer
Julia Wolfe and SITI Company
Bang on a Can All-Stars
Directed by Anne Bogart
Who was John Henry? According to Johnny Cash, Bill Monroe, Pete Seeger, and Bruce Springsteen, he was a steel-driving railroad man who outperformed a steam drill before dying with his hammer in hand. But versions of the indelible American myth vary.
In this staged incarnation of her work Steel Hammer, 2015 Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Julia Wolfe teams with director Anne Bogart and SITI Company to distill the discrepancies of over 200 variants of the classic ballad and legend into a theatrical post-minimalist mountain-music hybrid. Playwrights Kia Corthron, Will Power, Carl Hancock Rux, and Regina Taylor provide additional texts as three singers and the Bang on a Can All-Stars—fortified with banjo, bones, mountain dulcimer, and other Appalachian instruments—give the folk hero a newfangled song for a new century.
Original text by Kia Corthron, Will Power, Carl Hancock Rux, and Regina Taylor
Scenic & Costume Design by James Schuette
Lighting by Brian Scott
Sound design by Andrew Cotton and Christian Frederickson
Choreography by Barney O’Hanlon
Steel Hammer the score was commissioned by Bang on a Can with generous support from Maria and Robert A. Skirnick and Carnegie Hall. The play Steel Hammer premiered with support from the National Endowment for the Arts. The dramatized stage production of Steel Hammer was commissioned by the Krannert Center and by BAM for the 2015 Next Wave Festival.
In memory of Robert W. Wilson, with gratitude for his visionary and generous support of BAM.
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SITI Company artistic director Anne Bogart, Bang on a Can co-founder and composer Julia Wolfe discuss the rich narrative of John Henry.
This six-member ensemble is known for its distinctive instrumentation and performance style.
The Pulitzer Prize winning composer is a co-founder of Bang on a Can.
The New York-based theater collective co-founded by Anne Bogart.
Anne Bogart is the artistic director and co-founder of SITI Company.
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