Once upon a time, theater Director Susie Tanner, steelworkers, & Bruce Springsteen teamed up to spread the devastating truth about steel plant shutdowns across the US. This is their story.

BIO

Susan “Susie” Franklin Tanner has worked as a Theatre Artist since 1973. In 1983 she received a California Arts Council Artist in Communities grant to create TheatreWorkers Project. As the founder and director, she has led the company in the development of 16 documentary plays including Lady Beth: the Steelworkers' Play that toured 16 cities, co-sponsored by Bruce Springsteen and was profiled in the PBS documentary “A Steel Life Drama”. In 1982, Tanner was honored to share her work on a production of Brecht's A Man's A Man with members of the Berliner Ensemble. She was a member of the Living Stage Company/Arena Stage in D.C. for 6 years, performing and/or teaching workshops for at-risk and underserved children, teens and adults. Her work with the company included workshop/performances in prisons and treatment centers. In Los Angeles, her community-based work has included creating theatre with steelworkers, shipbuilders, critical care nurses, Latino immigrants workers, formerly incarcerated men and women, and youth. Since 2016, Susie has led teams of artists in theatre, writing and movement workshops for formerly incarcerated and those on work release through CAC and California Humanities grants. In January 2019 Susie and her artist teams will bring this work to California State Prison, Lancaster through a CAC Arts in Corrections contract.

She is a member of the SAG-AFTRA Radio Play Committee, for which she has directed 5 live radio performances. As a member of Ensemble Studio Theatre/LA, she has directed numerous staged readings and the critically acclaimed production of “To Serve Butter” for the 2016 One Act Festival, and has provided ongoing opportunities for young artists to work side by side with professionals. Producing/Directing credits include “The Luckiest Girl” and “No Word in Guyanese for Me”, staged at the Atwater Village Theatre, “Lake Titicaca” for the 2016 Short + Sweet Hollywood one act festival, “ISAAK”, which tours schools on an Actor’s Equity Theatre for Young Audiences contract, and "Fathers & Sons".

Susie was an adjunct professor of Theatre for Social Change at Woodbury University for two years. In 2014-15, she collaborated with Woodbury on a project with La Colmenita, the Cuban national children’s theatre, and has collaborated with Mt. St. Mary’s University to implement the Theatre Intervention Project, serving severely depressed and recovering low income women from South Central LA. Teaching Artist positions include/have included LACHSA, Sequoyah School, Mark Taper Forum Saturday Conservatory, College of the Canyons, UCLA Extension, CSULA/EOP, LACC Theatre Academy, College of the Canyons, LAUSD and PUSD.

Grants and awards include: 2011 Bravo Award and CTG JP Morgan Chase Fellowships, a 2014 National Artist Teacher Fellowship and the LA County Federation of Labor Union Label Award for cultural work within the labor movement. Susie has been funded by the California Arts Council for nine consecutive years and her company, TheatreWorkers Project, has recently been awarded an LAUSD Arts Community Network contract to being theatre productions and classes to underserved middle and high schools. for her eighth consecutive

Notable Mentions

TheaterWorkers Project: (TWP) is dedicated to providing opportunities for members of underserved and unheard communities to tell their stories through the medium of theatre and to providing classical and contemporary theatre experiences that reflect and illuminate the human condition.

Lady Beth: the steelworkers play This play that launched TheatreWorkers Project, told the stories of former steelworkers after the closing of the Bethlehem steel plant in Vernon, CA. In 1986, co-sponsored by Bruce Springsteen, Lady Beth toured 16 U.S. cities.

“A Steel Life Drama”: A PBS documentary on the making of Lady Beth: the Steelworkers' Play that toured 16 cities, co-sponsored by Bruce Springsteen and was profiled in the PBS documentary “A Steel Life Drama”.

Hollywood 10: The Hollywood were 10 motion-picture producers, directors, and screenwriters who appeared before the House Un-American Activities Committee in October 1947 who refused to answer questions regarding their possible communist affiliations, and, after spending time in prison for contempt of Congress, were mostly blacklisted by the Hollywood studios.  

McCarthyism, "witch hunts": The term originally referred to the controversial practices and policies of U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy, and has its origins in the period in the United States known as the Second Red Scare, lasting from the late 1940s through the 1950s.[3] It was characterized by heightened political repression and persecution of left-wing individuals, and a campaign spreading fear of alleged communist and socialist influence on American institutions and of espionage by Soviet agents.[3] Stage Theater

Bob Alexander / Living Stage Theater was a theatre for social change founded in 1966 by Robert A. Alexander (1929–2008). He served as the artistic director until 1995. Located in Washington, D.C., this professional improvisational theater offered participatory workshops to children, youth, teachers, parents, and community members. Living Stage’s main philosophy was based in the belief that every one is born an artist and the act of creation is the ultimate act of self-affirmation. The company's mission was to transform individuals and communities through creative empowerment. Actors Guild 

Bethlehem Steel mill in Vernon, California. Bethlehem Steel's roots trace to an iron-making company organized in 1857 in Bethlehem, which was later named the Bethlehem Iron Company.Bethlehem Steel survived the earliest declines in American steel industry beginning in the 1970s. In 1982, however, the company suspended most of its steelmaking operations after posting a loss of $1.5 billion, attributable to increased foreign competition, rising labor and pensions costs, and other factors. At its heights in the late 1970's The Bethlehem steel mill in Vernon, California, near Long Beach, employed over 2000 men and women.

California Arts Council, Artists in Communities: Closed in 2020, this CAC program provided funds to artists as vehicles for community vitality. Artists in Communities grants support sustained artistic residencies in community settings. Applicant organizations, partners, and community members must support the vision of the artist(s) to produce creative projects that are relevant and responsive to their community. Theater Works. 

Manazar Gamboa was a Chicano poet and playwright who had spent much of his early years in prison. This collection consists of his plays, poems, and writing notes. It also includes research material on Chavez Ravine, the neighborhood where he grew up, which was demolished to make way for Dodger Stadium. Union

Bruce Springsteen: is an American singer, songwriter, and musician. He has released 20 studio albums, most of which feature his backing band, the E Street Band. Originally from the Jersey Shore, he is one of the originators of the heartland rock style of music, combining mainstream rock musical style with narrative songs about working class American life. During a career that has spanned six decades, Springsteen has become known for his poetic, socially conscious lyrics and energetic stage performances, sometimes lasting up to four hours.[1] He has been nicknamed "The Boss".[2] Coinman

Ensemble Studio Theater/LA:EST/LA is the West Coast offshoot of The Ensemble Studio Theatre in New York, the renowned membership company founded by Curt Dempster in 1968.Founded in 1979, EST/LA has grown from salons in people’s homes to full productions of critically acclaimed plays that have been recognized with Backstage Garland awards, Stage Raw awards, LA Weekly Awards, Ovation Recommendations, a GLAAD Media Award and other accolades

Congressman Silvio Conte: was an American lawyer and politician. He was a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives for 16 terms, representing the 1st Congressional District of Massachusetts from January 3, 1959, until his death in Bethesda, Maryland in 1991. He strongly supported legislation to protect the environment, as well as federal funding of medical and scientific research.

Susie Tanner: TheaterWorkers

[00:00:12] Bill Cleveland: That's Susie Tanner, a theater director, and good troublemaker who, when it comes to the way we sometimes treat workers, and immigrants, and the incarcerated in this country, is disturbed, in fact, enough to make something out of it.

[00:01:14] BC: Using this bread, baking metaphor. Susie Tanner explains the creative process she used in the early days of the TheaterWorkers workshop to draw out the memories and emotions of steelworkers and shipbuilders to mold a play. Her talk of assembling the tools of the trade and kneading and forming dough is striking not only for its matter of fact language, but for the subtle issues and attitudes that lie behind the words. Tanner has worked all her life to knead and meld her artistic work, economic needs, and political beliefs. This depth of experience and commitment shows in both the story she shares and the extraordinary work she and her creative partners have brought to the stage.

This is change the story. Change the world, my name is Bill Cleveland.

Part One: TheaterWorkers

[00:03:00] ST: I was young and, um, passionate and the company was my heart and my soul. And, Bob Alexander was my mentor, and he's actually been the inspiration for hundreds and hundreds of actors all over the country. And Bob trained us not only to be improvisational theater actors, but also to be teaching artists. And that's really the first time that I ever had an experience being a teaching artist. That's everything that I do now in my life and that I have done over the years stems from my training from Living Stage.

During this time, Tanner kept trying to resolve the same old problem that artists have always had;” not kneading the dough”, but, “needing the dough.” It seemed that all the lucrative jobs were short on artistic innovation or social commitment, and the interesting gigs, we're just short of funds. After visiting East Germany with an artist delegation in 1982, however, Tanner returned to the United States, determined to find a way to combine her artistic life and her political beliefs in a way that would provide a living wage.

So I came back with this renewed commitment to making my life mean something. That I was gonna find a way to get out of this morass of having to be schizophrenic, like having to be political on one side and fight to do Neil Simon comedy, which I didn't even want to do on the other. No offense to Neil.

In the early 1980s, more than 300 factories closed in Los Angeles county alone, including this At the height of its productivity, three shifts a day, turned out wire bolts, concrete, reinforcing bars, auto parts, and special steel used in making bombs. Because of this, the mill had been tremendously profitable at the time of the war in Vietnam, but competition from imports and a lack of modernization combined to put it out of business. When this happened around 2000 workers lost their jobs including many who had put in 20 or 30 years and were forced into early retirement.

As she got to know these people, visiting them at their Union Hall, helping out at their food bank and dating one former steel worker, Frank (whom she would later marry), Tanner realized that their story had great poetry and drama. It was the perfect vehicle for an idea she’d been nurturing—a “labor theater” made up of actors that were real working people, performing plays they had developed themselves, building on their own experiences. This idea came to life. When a friend gave her a copy of a California arts council grant application.

So LA Theater Works called us in to talk to us about what was working, what could be improved. Cause they were writing their new grant. And I sat there and I didn't realize that I could write A grant myself. I'd never written a grant in my life. Um, and I decided to write a California Arts Council, Artists in Communities grant to work with these unemployed steelworkers.

Part Two: Lady Beth

[00:08:32] ST: The first workshop. The first guy there was that guy, Monte, there in the beret. He was really the original member and he was sort of the grandfather of the Local…and had worked there for—I don’t remember how many years—thirty something years, since he was a kid. And I told him what I was going to do. He didn’t understand a thing that I was saying but he said, ‘I’ll help you.’ He was actually one of the few people (in the workshop group) who had seen a play…so he kind of got it, but he didn’t really get it. But he said, “Susan, I’ll help you.”

[00:09:28] ST: Again, that sense of panic when you start with an unknown quantity and you just have to pull out your tools out of your back pocket and see what can be made of it. The first day of workshops for the former steelworkers, Monte and three other men showed up. Tanner came “with a stack of books: Bertholt Brecht, Shakespeare, all these poets.…I’m going to introduce these guys to the poems and stories and plays and I’m going to let them know that there are great writers in the world who wrote about everyday subjects.

Bethlehem Steel Mill, which was closing and soon would be torn down, was “Lady Beth.” They spoke of it as if it were their mother or their lover, and it was dying. The group attended the last auction, which was “like a funeral,” then came back and wrote about it. They went and watched the mill being torn down and wrote poems about it. The pouring out of emotion, and the telling of stories about the hard work in the better days, became a grieving process.

ST: But this was not a group of professional actors or eager young writers with stage training and long resumes. This was a group of guys mostly in their sixties, some in their late fifties, or forties and most of their bodies were just like a wreck. and I found that my tools of movement and improvisational techniques had to be custom fitted. It wasn't like a typical workshop where you could come in and say, Okay, everybody, take your shoes off. Lie on the floor.

The first writing workshop coincided with a visit from Bruce Springsteen, who planned to sit in on the session and lend some moral support to the project. Tanner played a Springsteen song Down Bound Train to help explain how sometimes writers attached human emotions or attributes to an inanimate object in their telling of a story. Then she handed out, fill in the blank forms where each man had to describe himself. As a tool or a machine.

ST: Nobody had figured out what I was doing. I really didn't know either, but I made it up as I went along and it. One man said that he was a crane, “multi-colored rusty dust, huge, powerful.” Another described himself as “a human machine, brown and satisfied.” Springsteen, imagined himself as a “silver metal flake guitar surrounded by crowds and hysterical women.” In some way, Springsteen’s, participation in the workshop spurred and validated the men's own creative efforts.

BC: After this auspicious start, the writing grew in sophistication and power. Over a period of months, the collaboration finally produced enough dramatic material to begin to form it into a play. Tanner strongly believed though that it wasn't enough to just show a work with a worthy message. She felt that the play should be as polished and professional as any piece produced through more conventional channels.

But, the first attempt by an outside playwright to synthesize the material was a disaster. The resulting play was too “set,” denying the negative and dark side of the material, and romanticizing the mill. It was this ridiculous fantasy about what they would've done to stop the plant from closing. It was a flat out, terrible play.

It had a lot of interesting statistics and images that were eventually incorporated into the piece, but Tanner says that had had only one note: It was morose. It was “why me?” Together, the group realized that the play as it stood, had not progressed through the entire spectrum of grieving. After a while they found another playwright, Rob Sullivan, who was able to create a final version of their work, one that incorporated the history of the mill and the personal stories of the steelworkers described its closure voice, the men's grief, and finally forged an acceptance of their loss.

Their message was as simple as it was direct. They wanted the audience to know that at one time they in their mill had been proud and productive and that they had built this country and that they had been thrown out and forgotten. Here's how it began.

[00:16:00] Susan Tanner: This is the story of six men from the Bethlehem Steel Plant in Vernon CA.

[00:16:15] Lloyd Andres: Lloyd R. Andres head packer-checker, telecon control man, and burner in the 10 inch mill for 19 years. Badge number 632151

[00:16:30] Richard Carter: Richard Carter, crane operator and floor man, electric furnace for 24 years, badge number 541129.

[00:16:48] Cruz Montemeyor: Cruz Montemayor, Pit boss in the electric furnace department for 37 years. My payroll badge number was 541193.

[00:17:10] BC: In march of 1986. These six men, and Tanner as narrator shared the story of their long love affair with their Lady Beth on the stage of Los Angeles Ensemble Studio Theater (EST/LA) with music by John Coinman, and Bruce Springsteen's, My Hometown.

It was a story that had germinated in the soil of America's post-war promise.

[00:17:52] Richard Carter: It was up two dollars and ten cents an hour, when I started working there in 1961.

[00:18:03] BC: It was a story of long hours, heat, soaking sweat, and grit.

[00:18:23] Richard Carter: I remember the smoke, Frank. I would be up there operating my crane. I couldn't even see the floor, so I would just get down. The foreman would come over and ask me what was wrong. I looked at him through all this smoke, like he had to be crazy. I said, “If you wanna do it, you do it. Me, I'm not killing anybody today.”

[00:18:54] Frank Curtis: But you'd get used to it.

[00:18:58] Frank Curtis: Yeah, well what I mean is, you'd never get used to it, but you gotta get used to it cuz that's the job..

[00:19:10] Cruz Montemayor: No longer will you hear the might roar of the electric furnaces, as they were clearing their throats prior to spitting out the hot steel, they made this country great. What one used to be they bread and butter for 2000 men and women,

[00:19:27] Lloyd Andres: I had lots of guys ask me, “When is the plan gonna reopen Lloyd,” or “Chief?” That's what they called me. My answer would be, “Never,” and the faces would drop.

[00:19:50] All: Damn this devil.

[00:19:55] Tony Garcia: We all shook hands as if to say so long, but not goodbye. But yet it was goodbye to some. For, we will no longer see each other this last few years we have to live.

[00:20:10] BC: After its inaugural run at the Ensemble Theater, Susan and her steelworker fellow travelers were shocked to find that lady Beth was more than just a sad and fading memory. She was also a hit. This unexpected success inspired the Theater Worker team to consider an even more audacious next act: a national tour to communities around the country where other steel mills had closed down. Once more, the group turned for help to Bruce Springsteen who put up the money for a 16-city trip, which included a performance in Asbury park, New Jersey. His hometown.

[00:21:24] Audience: Yeah.

[00:21:33] Susan Tanner: Besides donating money, which is great and which is an extremely. He's given a piece of himself to this project and we love him for it.

[00:22:01] Silvio Conte: It'll really move people. Uh, it, it, it, it shows, uh, how, uh, inhumane it is, uh, with these plant closing, throwing people out in the street without any notice whatsoever.

He'd been running a program for dislocated steelworkers in his state and knew intimately the sense of helplessness and loss of dignity that widespread unemployment had produced among his friends and constituents. So, he decided, “So what if nobody believes that union members would never go to a play?” He would schedule a performance of Lady Beth at the State Convention of the Minnesota AFL CIO in front of 1000 union delegates.

Here's Lady Beth steelworker/actor, Frank Curtis, describing the importance of bringing their story to a wider audience.

I mean, the average person takes for granted that you go down, you buy a car and you drive it. You forget that there were assembly workers making that car. You drive over a bridge and you forget that there were iron workers making that bridge and the sense of, you know, sense of some form of patriotism for your own immediate country, men and women, with just that recognition that, you know, all these plants are closing.

[00:24:22] John Coinman:

We went together for 23 years.

Sometimes I'd see you on the weekends and the holiday

and we never had an argument

but that's when you told me to leave.

Well, I dunno what happened, but if it's something I said or done wrong. But I'm really sorry

and it feels so good to be with you one more time,

and I'm so proud of you.

And you're still beautiful Bethlehem Steel.

Oh, I’d love to hug you. Why are you so cold?

Yes, I’d love to hug you, Why you so cold?

BC: That's it for another episode of Change the Story / Change the World. If you liked the historic TheaterWorkers story we just shared please tune in a week or so for a bonus episode where Susie Tanner takes her theater work into the complicated world of citizens who have returned to life on earth after incarceration.

Change the Story / Change the World is a production of the Center for the Study of Art & Community. It's written and hosted by me, Bill Cleveland. Our theme and soundscape are by the stupendously talented Judy Munson. Our text editing is by Andre Nnebe, our sound effects come from freesound.com and our inspiration rises up from the spectral and lurking presence of Uke235. If you have any comments to share or suggestions for guests, drop us a line at CSAC@ artandcommunity.com. Until next time, stay well, do good, and spread the good word.