Interview with David Luton.

David Luton has spent almost two decades portraying legendary American folk singer Woody Guthrie, devising and starring in the internationally acclaimed Woody Sez: The Life & Music of Woody Guthrie. Created with the support of the Guthrie estate and built from Guthrie's songs, letters, diaries and autobiographical writings, the award-winning production returns to the Edinburgh Fringe this summer. Ahead of the show's run, David discusses Woody Guthrie's extraordinary legacy, the enduring power of protest music, creating a theatrical celebration of one of America's greatest songwriters, and why Guthrie's words still resonate so powerfully today.

What first inspired you to devote so much of your career to telling Woody Guthrie's story?

My first inspiration was his music, and I’ve come to feel that his life story - along with his songs - can serve as a wonderful missive of sorts to people all over the world about our better selves.

Why do you think Guthrie remains such an important figure in music history?

I suppose it could be described as a ripple effect - his songs’ social justice themes began to influence others almost immediately: Pete Seeger, Josh White, The Weavers - who influenced the next generation: The Kingston Trio, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and Phil Ochs - on down to Bruce Springsteen, Tom Morello, The Dropkick Murphys, and Jesse Wells’ viral YouTubes today.

Having played Woody for nearly twenty years, what have you discovered about him that continues to surprise you?

I’m continually surprised at the conscience and the real wisdom within his greatest songs and writings that reach out from his own life to all his listeners. He finds a way, through introspection, to cry out for hissincere dream of community and understanding in defiance of those ‘causes’, institutions - and people - that seek to divide us. The production draws on Guthrie's songs, letters, diaries and autobiographical writings.

How did you approach weaving all of those elements into one theatrical experience?

I began from a template: Millard Lampell, one of The Almanac Singers, had put together a tribute concert for Woody in 1956. It had a cast of about 40, including dancing children (Woody’s second wife, Marjorie was a dancer and a teacher). It was composed from Woody’s writings and about a dozen songs (handled by Lampell, Burl Ives, Pete Seeger and many more). Woody’s former manager, the late Harold Leventhal, had published Millard’s script in the ‘50s as a Community Sing: “California to the New York Island”. In the early 2000s, Mr. Leventhal encouraged me to use the concert script, as a jumping-off point for a musical about Woody’s life. My approach was to put together a group of collaborators Helen Jean Russell, Darcie Deaville, Andy Teirstein (the original cast, along with myself) and Nick Corley, our original Director, to expand on the

basic concept to create a theatrical, musical “autobiography” for the stage.

What was it like creating the show with the support of the Guthrie estate?

It has been - and continues to be - a great experience! Not only Woody’s Manager, Harold Leventhal, but Woody’s late sister, Mary Jo Guthrie Edgmon, his daughter, Nora, his grandchildren, Anna and Cole have become wonderful friends. The connection has also led to our work for the Huntington’s Disease Association all around the world (hda.org.uk)

Why do you think Woody Sez continues to connect with audiences across different countries and generations?

The easy answer might be the universality of his ideas, but though they are universal, they’re also sharply specific and ‘contextually adaptable’. Much like his Oklahoman predecessor, Will Rogers, whom Woody greatly admired (his first son was named Will Rogers Guthrie), Woody put things into the kind of perspective that folks saw as their own, often with brilliant humor. Artists from Bob Dylan to Bruce Springsteen have cited Guthrie as an influence.

What made his songwriting so revolutionary?

I’m sure Woody would have cited his own influences, too: Joe Hill, Leadbelly, Aunt Molly Jackson and many more. What sets his songs apart is what we try to show in our play: he saw himself in other people’s shoes, and he wrote and sang out of a sincere desire to advocate for the common folks. He made mistakes in his life, sometimes he was arrogant or just angry, he certainly exaggerated and embellished many of his personal stories, but he wrote from his heart and he stuck to his guns.

How important is live music to the storytelling within Woody Sez?

Woody and his music are inseparable to me - our show uses “The Ballad of Tom Joad” as its through-line and backbone, reminding the audience as the show progresses that Guthrie saw himself in

Steinbeck’s hero, along with every displaced and downtrodden “Dust Bowl Refugee” - “Woody Sez” strives to weave the music and the life together, each to illuminate, deepen and draw out the other.

As both a musician and an actor, how do those two disciplines complement each other in this show?

Acting a song is essentially the same as acting a scene or a speech. Playing an instrument allows for a second “circle of concentration” (as my Drama School teachers called it) within each moment. When staged, directed and executed well, the two can be mutually compelling,

What has portraying Woody Guthrie taught you about storytelling, music and humanity?

Reading “Bound For Glory”, Woody’s autobiography, when I was 16 or 17 years old, I was struck by how much his style reminded me of my own family’s story-telling habits and peculiarities. He was said to be a voracious reader, and he seemed to have learned a lot from authors like Chaucer and Mark Twain, and Kahlil Gibran and Confucius. “Bound For Glory” is, for me, a precursor to Jack Kerouac and even - years later - Hunter Thompson. Woody is a genius at leaving the subject, yet holding on just enough so that his thread is never lost - a lot like a skillful improvised Jazz solo, or a break in a Bluegrass song... the riff may dive away from the melody, but it comes back with renewed, even enhanced vigor when the moment is right.

Telling Woody’s story and singing hissongs has taught me a good deal about him and about humanity. He wrote a lot of songs in the first person, often about things that he had never done or actually experienced. Through those songs, he wanted to “live” others’ lives, their hopes and dreams and needs and wants. And first off, I learned that he’s pretty dad-gum good at vicarious telling of other’s stories as though they were his own!

Second, it’s taught me that Woody believed that we all have to do that - that we should “live” each other’s lives because that moves us all towards the “better world a-comin’” that he saw through his own painful, restless, wonderful and adventurous life, by feeling and understanding a “communalism” that can shape our world, with its fundamental unselfishness and mutual respect.

Woody said: “Folk music ain’t nothin’ but singing what’s wrong and how to make it right”. I think it might be a little bit of what is best in humanity.

Finally, what are you most looking forward to about bringing Woody Sez back to the Edinburgh Fringe?

I’m very much looking forward to seeing as many shows as I can, and to playing as much music as possible, and I’m looking forward to seeing some old friends, and being back in Scotland!

A huge thank you to David Luton for taking the time to speak with me. Woody Sez: The Life & Music of Woody Guthrie plays at Underbelly Cowbarn, Bristo Square from 5th–30th August (excluding 17th & 24th August) as part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Tickets and further information are available via: https://underbellyedinburgh.co.uk/event/woody-sez