The Grapes of Wrath will be presented Friday-Sunday at GPS
The Girls Preparatory School theatre department, in coordination with the McCallie School, will present The Grapes of Wrath, the award-winning play based on John Steinbeck’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Friday- Sunday.
The play is set during the Great Depression and tells the story of the Joad family and the struggles they endure during that time. A poor family of tenant farmers trapped in the Dust Bowl, the Joads are driven from their Oklahoma home and set out for California, seeking jobs and a more promising future. Their story speaks to the strength of the human spirit through a dark period in our nation’s history.
The Grapes of Wrath will be presented at the Frierson Theatre on the GPS campus at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday and at a 2 p.m. matinee on Sunday. Open-seating tickets will be sold at the door for $8.
Members of the Joad family are played by GPS and McCallie students Harry Clark, Parker Grimmitt, McKenzi Marlow, Cameron Ford, and Andrew Landsbergen. Michael Maloney plays the part of Jim Casy.
Winner of the 1990 Tony Award for Best Drama, the play was adapted to the stage by Frank Galati and will be directed by GPS’s new drama teacher, Erin Joy Schmidt. Ms. Schmidt earned her master’s in fine arts in acting from the renowned Actors Studio Drama School at New School University. Most recently, she taught at the high school and university levels in Miami, where she won multiple drama awards in regional theatre. She has been a professional actress and director for 15 years.