Penn State McKeesport and Rivers of Steel National Heritage partner on folklife play

Penn State McKeesport and Rivers of Steel National Heritage partner on folklife play

There's reality TV and then there's plain reality -- the stories of grandfathers and grandmothers, brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles who worked in the steel industry and grew up in the mill towns that line the Mon Valley.

Rivers of Steel National Heritage Area and Penn State McKeesport have collaborated to produce, "Blood, Sweat and Steel," a play that dramatizes the lives of Mon Valley residents, where shared industrial and cultural experiences shaped communities and traditions.

Professors Jay Breckenridge and Coni Koepfinger of Penn State McKeesport Theatre Arts Department worked with their theatre arts students to craft the stories of local residents into a collage of scenes depicting several eras. The Penn State students collected some stories from taped oral histories in the Rivers of Steel archives but most from story circles organized by Rivers of Steel. Members of the story groups included Betty Esper, Marlene "Pumpkin" Robinson, Mike and Mary Solomon, Cecilia Sarocky, Pat French, George Czakoszi, Ed Salaj, and Ray Henderson, Roxanne Daykon, Melanie Brletic, Arlene Fath and Matilda Belan, all current or former residents of the Mon Valley communities of Homestead, West Homestead, Braddock, Munhall, Pitcairn and McKeesport.

The story circles proved to be the heart of the folk life play process. They provided the students with an opportunity to meet one-on-one with retired steel workers and longtime mill town residents to learn first hand about working in the mills and what it was like growing up in a steel town.

After meeting with the story circles, the students scripted a two-act play depicting vignettes of life in a mill town during steel's heyday. A Steel Valley version of forbidden love, tales of favorite steel workers' haunts, such as Passafume's, and dances at local ethnic clubs portray the courage, compassion, common sense and clowning of another generation. "The students in the theatre arts class were inspired by the stories that the local residents told and motivated to write the scripts that captured at least snapshots of their creative and colorful lives in this region," said Breckenridge, associate professor of theatre arts and co-director of the production at Penn State McKeesport.

"The residents of the Mon Valley are a precious resource, and, for more than a decade now, Rivers of Steel has been hard at work conserving and preserving their stories and life experiences for future generations," said Augie Carlino, chief executive and president of Rivers of Steel National Heritage Area. "Rivers of Steel is delighted to be able to partner with Penn State McKeesport in a project that springs from our oral history collections and community networks."

"Blood, Sweat and Steel" will be performed at 7:30 p.m. April 21 to 23 in the Ostermayer Room in the Student Community Center at Penn State McKeesport. Tickets are $3 and will be on sale at the door.