Playwriting
“I sometimes wonder if I am a playwright/director who favors historical subjects, or a historian who uses theater as my medium.”
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The Celestials
Heart of Spain - A Musical of the Spanish Civil War
Woody Guthrie’s American Song
Foe
Michael, Margaret, Pat & Kate
O'Carolan's Farewell to Music
The Celestials
by Peter Glazer, based on the novel by Karen Shepard
(This project is currently in development.)
The Celestials transports us to 1870 as seventy-five young Chinese laborers—and unwitting strikebreakers—arrive in North Adams, Massachusetts, a bustling factory town. Charged relationships develop between the immigrants and townspeople, centering on Chinese foreman Charles Sing, factory owner Calvin Sampson, and his wife Julia, complicating an already tense situation. A tale of labor, love, immigration, and community, Peter Glazer’s theatrical adaptation of Williamstown author Karen Shepard’s mesmerizing novel, The Celestials, shines a light on a little-known, richly revealing moment in the early history of Chinese immigration in New England.
Script Preview for The Celestials
Please contact prgtheater@gmail.com for licensing and full download.
Peter and actors reading The Celestials at Tufts University with the Chinese Historical Society of New England, January 2025.
150 Years: Remembering North Adam’s Chinese Immigrants
This video premiered on June 13, 2020, the 150th anniversary of the arrival of 70 Chinese laborers in North Adams, MA, which inspired the writing of The Celestials. The video includes accounts of the history, interviews with novelist Karen Shepard, actor Elijah Guo, and descendants of Charles Sing, foreman for the Chinese workers and a central character in the novel and play, and two scenes from The Celestials. (Start screening at 20 minutes.)
Heart of Spain - A Musical of the Spanish Civil War
by Peter Glazer and Eric Bain Peltoniemi
directed by Peter Glazer
In July 1936, the Spanish army staged a coup against the democratically elected government, aided by Hitler and Mussolini. To defend the Spanish Republic against the fascist wave sweeping Europe, volunteers from over 50 countries traveled to Spain as part of the International Brigade. Heart of Spain – A Musical of the Spanish Civil War tells the story of a group of American activists who made Spain’s cause their own as members of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. The musical combines traditional and newly composed songs with archival resources and original writing.
Script Preview for Heart of Spain - A Musical of the Spanish Civil War.
Please contact prgtheater@gmail.com for licensing and full download.
Video trailer from closing performance of Heart of Spain at Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley, 2016.
REVIEWS for Heart of Spain:
Woody Guthrie’s American Song
Marin Theater Company, Mill Valley, CA 2010
Woody Guthrie's American Song is an ensemble musical theater piece adapted from the songs and writings of "America's premiere folk poet." The show uses Guthrie's prose to create narrative contexts for his music. The song "Bound for Glory" is sung in a crowded freight car heading west in the 1930s, a scene vividly described in Guthrie's autobiography. Another scene takes place in a camp for migrant workers in Redding, California in 1938, the setting for an evening of shared songs and stories. The play focusses on the importance of music in helping people find meaning in their lives.
No one actor plays Woody Guthrie - this piece is not intended to be an impersonation or traditional biography. Every member of the ensemble takes on the first-person perspective at some point in the piece. Woody believed that his words and music were best heard and expressed coming from the people around him. Woody Guthrie's American Song takes his philosophy to heart.
The script is available in two versions, one written for 5 actor/singers and 3-4 musicians, and the same material adapted for 10 actor/singers plus the band. That said, theaters have produced the show in many cast/band configurations over the years, with companies ranging in size from 6 to 20 performers.
conceived and adapted by Peter Glazer
songs and writings by Woody Guthrie
Script preview for Woody Guthrie’s American Song.
Please contact prgtheater@gmail.com for licensing and full download.
“Bound for Glory”
This is one of Woody Guthrie’s best known songs. In the musical Woody Guthrie’s American Song, it is intercut with passages from Guthrie’s autobiography. This track was recorded live at the Freight & Salvage in Berkeley 2012, as part of a run of the show celebrating Woody Guthrie’s 100th birthday.
Penobscot Theater Company, 2019 Photo by Magnus Stark
Production History 2017 – 2025
Silver City Community Theater, Silver City, NM 2025
Mendocino Theater Company, Mendocino, CA 2023 & 2024
Skidompha Public Library, Damariscotta, ME 2023
Raven Players, Healdsburg, CA 2022
Arc Stages, Pleasantville, NY 2022
Axiom Rep, Redding, CA 2021
Vashon Repertory Theatre, Vashon, WA 2021
Splinter Group Theater, Sacramento, CA 2020
PenArts, Pensacola, FL 2019
Penobscot Theater Company, Penobscot, ME. 2019
Palm Beach Dramaworks, West Palm Beach, FL 2018
Company of Fools, Ketchum, ID 2018
Heritage Theatre Festival, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, 2017.
In Rehearsal
The student cast of Woody Guthrie’s American Song at UC Berkeley sings the Jungle Camp sequence, which includes the songs “Worried Man” and “I Ain’t Gonna be Treated This Way,” and speeches from Guthrie’s autobiography Bound for Glory. It is set in a camp for migrant workers in Redding, California in 1938. This cellphone video was recorded on the stage of Durham Studio Theater in October, 2012.
The Freight & Salvage Woody Guthrie All Stars
Produced by Peter Glazer, curated by Peter Glazer and Suzy Thompson, narrated by Peter Glazer
Freight & Salvage Coffeehouse, Berkeley, CA, April 2018
featuring the cast of Woody Guthrie’s American Song and Special Guests Ray Bierl, Rick
Dougherty, Jenner Fox, Evie Ladin, Laurie Lewis & Tom Rozum, Lucinda Rodriguez &
Fabiola Trujillo
In 2018, The Freight in Berkeley, California, a world-famous venue for traditional music,
honored Woody Guthrie’s music and memory with an event featuring popular Freight
artists and the cast of Woody Guthrie’s American Song all singing Woody’s songs.
Woody Guthrie’s American Song In Concert
Woody Guthrie’s 100th Birthday Celebration
Produced and Directed by Peter Glazer
Freight & Salvage Coffeehouse, Berkeley, CA 2012, revived 2014
In 2014, The Freight celebrated Woody Guthrie’s hundredth birthday with a run of
Woody Guthrie’s American Song in Concert. The spectacular results led to a recording:
Woody Guthrie’s American Song – Live from the Freight & Salvage Coffeehouse.
Foe
adapted by Peter Glazer from the novel by J. M. Coetzee
directed by Peter Glazer
Foe is a stage adaptation of Nobel Prize winner J.M. Coetzee’s 1986 novel. Coetzee reimagines Daniel DeFoe’s Robinson Crusoe from an anti-apartheid perspective. In Foe, Friday comes to the island after escaping from a slave ship, his tongue removed so he couldn’t speak of his experience. The story of Cruso and Friday is told through the eyes of castaway Susan Barton, washed ashore on their island years after they arrive. When the trio are rescued, Susan becomes responsible for the mute Friday and for their entire saga when Cruso dies on the trip back to England. There, she seeks out author Daniel [De]Foe in hopes that he will share their true story. Foe has other ideas.
World Premiere Zellerbach Playhouse, UC Berkeley, 2003
Script Preview for Foe
Adapted by Peter Glazer from the novel by J. M. Coetzee
Please contact prgtheater@gmail.com for licensing and full download.
Michael, Margeret, Pat & Kate - A Musical Reminiscence
by Michel Smith and Peter Glazer
Victory Gardens Theater, 1994
Michael, Margaret, Pat & Kate - A Musical Reminiscence is an award-winning musical theater piece performed by the celebrated Chicago-based singer-songwriter Michael Smith supported by a 4-piece band, written by Smith and Peter Glazer and directed by Glazer. Inspired by a photograph of Michael with his three younger sisters, Smith shares his life story, beginning with his Catholic upbringing, and how a family tragedy during Michael's senior year in high school changed everything. The Wall Street Journal called MMP&K "an irresistibly evocative musical theater piece." The Chicago Tribune wrote: "Spinning tales steeped in the intimacy of an album, [MMP&K] regales us with memories so heartfelt and detailed they turn universal." The show won Chicago's Joseph Jefferson Award for best new work.
Michael Smith and Peter Glazer, 1984.
Photo: Suzanne Plunkett
O'Carolan's Farewell to Music
by Patrick Ball and Peter Glazer
O'Carolan's Farewell to Music, performed by Celtic Harper Patrick Ball and written by Patrick Ball and Peter Glazer, tells the story of the beloved Irish composer and harper Turlough O'Carolan (1670-1738). Interspersed with performances of fourteen of Carolan’s tunes played on the rare wire-strung harp, the play tells the harper’s story through the character of poet and fellow harper, Charles MacCabe, Carolan’s life-long friend and traveling companion. Through MacCabe’s eyes and Carolan’s music, we are drawn into this storm-tossed chapter of Irish history. The play, charged with Irish wit and pathos, demonstrates the power of friendship and the vital role of the artist in troubled times.
Spreckels Performing Arts Center, Rohnert Park, CA, January 2010
(below) Photo credit: Gene Abravaya
