I’ve heard Oprah Winfrey say to her audiences: “Choose a career you love and you will never have to work a day in your life.”
As I’ve mentioned in previous columns, when I netted my first full-time newspaper reporter position in September 1993, my annual salary was $14,500, along with insurance and benefits.
Twenty-five years later, I still feel fortunate that I work in a field I love. Ink is in my blood.
When Chicago writer and advocate of the working class Studs Terkel published his bestselling 1974 book “Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do,” I’m sure he hoped it would still be topical nearly half a century later. And it is.
The book was adapted for the stage resulting in an original Tony-nominated musical that opened on Broadway in 1978 and was revived by Broadway in Chicago for a Windy City return run in 2011 at the Broadway Playhouse at Water Tower Place.
Alas, among the more than 30 careers portrayed in the musical, journalist is not one of the occupations highlighted.
The original musical, which has since been tweaked to make it more current, used to feature a corner newsboy who even got his own song, “Neat to Be a Newsboy.” But that song and character were removed some years ago.
I crossed paths with Terkel throughout the years, including talking with him at some length at fellow scribe and friend Irv “Kup” Kupcinet’s 90th birthday party in 2002. Terkel, who died at age 96 in 2008, believed in celebrating the working class and telling their stories. It’s one of the reasons the Pulitzer Prize winner Terkel, who also hosted a popular Chicago radio show, insisted on riding on CTA buses and trains elbow-to-elbow with the masses rather than taking taxi cabs.
Director Steve Scott, of Michigan City, whose theater landscape for decades was usually Chicago’s Goodman Theatre, has directed a new powerhouse production of “Working” at Dunes Summer Theatre in Michigan City, where he directed “Spitfire Grill” in 2018.
When “Working,” the stage creation of Stephen Schwartz and Nina Faso, was revised and updated in 2012, some new songs were added by Lin-Manuel Miranda of “Hamilton” fame.
This new run of “Working,” which continues until Sept. 8 at Dunes Summer Theatre, has Scott teamed with musical director Andrew Flasch, of Valparaiso, and the pay-off of polished directing and on-target performances assures packed audiences and job security for this cast of 10.
This show is extra special for Dunes Summer Theatre because Jeffrey Baumgartner, Dunes Summer Theatre producing artistic director and also a starring member of the cast, tells me Terkel performed on stage at Dunes Summer Theatre in a production of “Of Mice and Men” in the 1950s.
In addition to Baumgartner, the rest of the “Working” cast includes Corydon Melgoza, of Los Angeles; Dori Erwin Collins, of Fort Wayne; Eileen Long, of Furnessville, Indiana, Nick Stockwell, of Boulder, Colorado; and Jenna Fawcett, Lynnette Li, Max DeTogne and Alexandria Neyhart, all of Chicago.
From the duties of a housewife and the “oldest known profession” of prostitutes, to teachers, flight attendants, firefighters and even a tribute to retired life, “Working” opens audiences’ eyes about how much time we spend working and why what we do matters.
Highlights of the 90-minute musical include the company number “Brother Trucker,” written by songwriter James Taylor and performed perfectly by DeTogne, who later, gets to don the duds of a UPS driver for another segment. Eileen Long’s turn as a publicist and Nick Stockwell as an office executive in a high-rise are also other ovation moments, as is the musical’s finale for the full company, titled “See That Building.”
“Working” runs through Sept. 8 at Dunes Summer Theatre, 288 Shady Oak Drive in Michigan City are 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sundays. Tickets are $20 and $18 for students and seniors at
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