Music used in our production of “The Grapes of Wrath”...

Opening scene; “As I go down in the river to pray...”  This song is a country song and is a good song to open the play as it sets the scene of a Southern American play. The music is quite slow and therefore shows how life and people in Southern American were quite slow and laid back. The movement that we did to this piece of music reflected the slow melody. We were in the fields and looking after the crops. In the background we had a picture of men with hay on there backs, then as the music ended the scene changed as did the picture, to the image you see in this picture of newspapers. The headlines saying about the Dust bowl!

The next piece of music was “I feel like travailing on”. My character, Ma sung this as the whole family got in the truck ready to go to California. The lyrics “my heavenly home is bright and fair” shows how Ma is hopeful of the road to come.

Opening scene

"I feel like travailing on"