Concert Celebrates Studs Terkel’s Life, Work

by James Parks, Dec 4, 2009

Studs Terkel passed away in October 2008.

The life and times of the late labor activist and author Studs Terkel will be celebrated Monday at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., with a concert-style reading of “Will the Circle Be Unbroken? Reflections of Death, Rebirth, and Hunger for a Faith.” Director Derek Goldman adapted the stage celebration from Terkel’s award-winning book of the same name.

The concert begins at 8 p.m. on Dec. 7 in Gaston Hall on the Georgetown campus. Click here for more information.

Terkel, who passed away last year at age 96, was renowned for his compilations of oral interviews with famous and mostly not-so-famous Americans. He talked with thousands of people about their experiences on the job, serving their country in World War II, their perceptions of race and, most recently, the challenges of growing old and facing death. One of his most famous books is Working, in which more than 100 Americans share their hopes, dreams and daily struggles on the job.

Directed by Goldman and Joseph Megel, this celebration of Terkel’s life and work features several well-known actors, including Academy Award nominee David Strathairn, Theodore Bikel and several Tony Award nominees and Helen Hayes Award winners.

In this adaptation of Terkel’s book, the subjects range from everyday citizens to recognizable figures such as author Kurt Vonnegut, actress Uta Hagen, musician Doc Watson and Terkel himself.

Goldman says after he read “Will the Circle Be Unbroken,” he approached Studs about developing a stage adaptation.

I feel blessed that he not only consented, but played a generous and active role in shaping the piece. Like so much of Studs’ work, the book is about many things—faith, family, work, justice, race, war, health and our mortal bodies. But he and I bonded especially over the ways it is about music and the deeply intertwined relationship between death and artistic expression.

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