THE B-SIDE:
“Negro Folklore from Texas State Prisons”
A Record Album Interpretation
Watch more of Zbigniew Bzymek’s videos from our work on THE B-SIDE »
THE B-SIDE is based on the 1965 LP “Negro Folklore from Texas State Prisons,” which features work songs, blues, spirituals, preaching, and toasts from inmates in Texas’ then-segregated agricultural prison farms. The album was brought to The Wooster Group by performer Eric Berryman after he saw the Group’s previous record album interpretation EARLY SHAKER SPIRITUALS. In THE B-SIDE, Berryman plays the album and transmits the material live, by channeling, via an in-ear receiver, the voices of the men on the record. Accompanying him are Jasper McGruder and Philip Moore. Berryman also provides context from the book Wake Up Dead Man: Hard Labor and Southern Blues by Bruce Jackson, the folklorist who recorded the album at the prison in 1964 and is now a SUNY Distinguished Professor at the University at Buffalo.
Production Credits
THE B-SIDE:
“Negro Folklore from Texas State Prisons”
A Record Album Interpretation
With Eric Berryman, Jasper McGruder, Philip Moore
Director: Kate Valk
Production Design: Elizabeth LeCompte
Lighting Design: Ryan Seelig
Sound Design: Eric Sluyter
Video Design: Robert Wuss
Costume Design: Enver Chakartash
Musical Director: Gareth Hobbs
Stage Manager: Erin Mullin
Video Engineer: Wladimiro Woyno (REDCAT & St. Ann’s Warehouse 2019), Irfan Brkovic (Philadelphia 2019)
Videographer: Zbigniew Bzymek
Tour Lighting: David Sexton (Taipei & Gwangju 2017, Philadelphia 2019, Austin 2022), Evan Anderson (Haarlem, Ludwigsburg, Barcelona 2022)
Lighting Board Operator: Emerey Reyes (St. Ann’s Warehouse 2019)
Technical Fellow: Danasia Miller (St. Ann’s Warehouse 2019)
Set Building: Joseph Silovsky Studios
Technical Director: Jacob Bigelow (REDCAT & St. Ann’s Warehouse 2019)
Production Manager: Bona Lee
Thanks to Ruud van den Akker, Antonia Belt, Diane Christian, and Jennifer Tipton.
Based on Negro Folklore From Texas State Prisons (Elektra 1965), an LP recorded, edited, and anonotated by Bruce Jackson, featuring performances by Johnnie Adams, W.D. “Alec” Alexander, Virgil Asbury, John Bell, Douglas Cannon, James A. Champion, William Evans, John Gibson, James Hampton, James W. Hobbs, Louis “Bacon & Porkchop” Houston, Johnny Jackson, Floyd James, Lemon Jefferson, Jesse “G.I. Jazz” Hendricks, James Johnson, Joseph “Chinaman” Johnson, C.B. “Snuffy” Kimble, Henry Landers, L.Z. Lee, Clem A. Martin, Leroy Martindell, Mack Maze, D.J. Miller, Houston Page, Marshall Phillips, Johnnie H. Robinson, Arthur “Lightning” Sherrod, Albert Spencer, Lee Curtis Tyler, David Walker, Jesse Lee Warren, Venesty Weles, George White, Morgan White, Matt Williams, and Eddie Ray Zachary.
Film footage from Afro-American Worksongs in a Texas Prison, by Pete, Toshi and Dan Seeger, and Bruce Jackson, 1966.
This piece is made possible by: the Princess Grace Foundation-USA, which awarded Mr. Berryman a 2016-17 honorarium in theater; the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, which awarded Ms. Valk a fellowship in 2016; the Persephone Gift; and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.
Production History
2016 January 27-30, February 16-18, March 9, 14, 23, 30, April 6, 13, 27: Rehearsals of THE B-SIDE at The Performing Garage
2016 August 8-26: Rehearsals of THE B-SIDE at The Performing Garage
2016 October 20-November 8: Rehearsals of THE B-SIDE at The Performing Garage
2016 November 9-19: Work-in-progress showings of THE B-SIDE at The Performing Garage
2017 September 8-10: Performances at the Wellspring Theatre, Taipei Arts Festival, Taiwan
2017 September 23-24: Performances at the Asia Culture Center, Gwangju, Republic of Korea
Performances in Taipei and Gwangju were supported by Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation through USArtists International in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the Howard Gilman Foundation.
2017 October 25-November 19: Performances of THE B-SIDE at The Performing Garage
2018 February 8-11: Performances of THE B-SIDE at the Creative Arts Initiative, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, New York
2019 January 30-Feb 3: Performances of THE B-SIDE at the Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater in Los Angeles, California
2019 March 1-31: Performances of THE B-SIDE at St. Ann’s Warehouse, Brooklyn
2019 September 5-8: Performances of THE B-SIDE at FringeArts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
2022 January 26-29: Performances of THE B-SIDE at McCullough Theatre, Texas Performing Arts, University of Texas, Austin
2022 June 20-22: Rehearsals of THE B-SIDE at 22 Wooster St
2022 June 30-July 2: Performances of THE B-SIDE at Schuur theater as part of Koorbiënnale/The Big Sing, Haarlem, The Netherlands
2022 July 7-8: Performances of THE B-SIDE at Schauspiel Stuttgart as part of Ludwigsburg Schlossfestspiele, Stuttgart, Germany
2022 July 13-15: Performances of THE B-SIDE at Teatre Lliure Montjuïc as part of Grec Festival de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
Performances in Haarlem, Stuttgart, and Barcelona were supported by Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation through USArtists International in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the Howard Gilman Foundation.
