Laura Penn

The American Cycle
In 2004, INTIMAN launched The American Cycle, a unique initiative that includes five classic American stories over five years, collaborative partnerships, and community and education initiatives for multigenerational audiences. The American Cycle is an opportunity for INTIMAN audiences and our larger community to engage in a long-term conversation exploring, through the prism of artists and in a local context, how we came to be who we are and who we might become. Guided by a Community Committee of civic leaders, the initiative brings our region a wide range of free public programs that explore the local resonance of themes and ideas generated by the works on stage. These programs include community readings, humanities forums, an original creative response to each season’s play created by local high school students, and additional arts education programming for multigenerational audiences. A Core Audience also works with INTIMAN to make connections between arts participation and civic engagement.

The 2005 production of The American Cycle is John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, in a Tony Award-winning adaptation by Frank Galati and directed by Linda Hartzell, Artistic Director of Seattle Children’s Theatre. The production will run October 7-November 13, 2005. The American Cycle launched in 2004 with Thornton Wilder’s Our Town and will continue in future seasons with Richard Wright’s Native Son (2006), Robert Penn Warren’s All the King’s Men (2007, rights pending) and Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird (2008).

The goals of The American Cycle are to Produce Great Art, Cultivate Curiosity, Advocate for Literacy, Encourage an Informed Citizenry, and Understand Interconnectedness. The initiative was developed with the guidance of an Advisory Committee and in partnership with numerous organizations in our region, including the World Affairs Council, Museum of History and Industry, Seattle Arts & Lectures, Seattle Public Library, Town Hall Seattle, Seattle Public Schools, Seattle Center, Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center, University of Washington, Bellevue Community College, Seattle Central Community College and Leadership Tomorrow. The American Cycle is sponsored in part by The Boeing Company, Microsoft Corporation and Washington Mutual, with additional support provided by the National Endowment for the Arts, The Hearst Foundation, Inc. and The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation.

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