SUMMERY SOCIALS ARE IN FULL SWING 

Date: Saturday, December 18, 1999 
Page: A40 
Edition: SECOND 
Section: ENTERTAINMENT 

`VALLEY CHRISTMAS' SHOW 
OVERFLOWS WITH MERRIMENT 

by PAUL WILLISTEIN, The Morning Call 

"A Lehigh Valley Christmas '99 in Concert" went off with nary a
hitch Sunday night at Civic Theatre for the first-ever live radio
broadcast from the venerable West End Allentown venue.

The WDIY-FM broadcast of the concert by area performers and
groups from Bummer Tent Records' "A Lehigh Valley
Christmas" disc sounded excellent, as did the nearly sold-out
concert (400 of 501 seats, up from last year's 300).

The Grinch stole the show -- "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas,"
that is, as rendered by T. Roth and Zen for Primates,
accompanied by George Miller, Theatre Outlet artistic director.

Roth, in his inimitable way, set his own oddly amusing tone during
the show, remarking, "Enough with those icicle lights, already!"
Later, Roth poutingly compared his red running shoes to the shiny
patent-leather shoes of three members of the group Lucky 7.

The satiric Santa spirit was in evidence, too, when Dave Fry,
Godfrey Daniels founder and artistic director, jokingly pointed to
the New York City backdrop for Civic's "A Christmas Carole,"
with "And that's the Macungie skyline -- after the Wal-Mart goes
in."

Another show host, Alan Jennings, Community Action Committee
of the Lehigh Valley's executive director, also filled in some dead
radio space with actual chilling, and appropriately not funny,
details about the Valley homeless, reminding all where the
season's real spirit should perhaps be spent.

Set-up times between groups were problematic. It was a
challenge because there were no fewer than 19 separate acts.
The concert's first half, starting at 7:10 p.m. and concluding at
8:50 p.m., felt long at one hour and 40 minutes, but most fans
didn't seem to mind. But with the second half starting at 9:15 p.m.
and concluding at 10:35 p.m. for another one hour and 20 minutes,
it was perhaps too much of a good thing.

High on the list of outstanding performers were the duo of Bonnie
O'Donnell and Bill Hall, who harmonize beautifully, and
singer-songwriter Tom Watson, one of the newest and most
distinctive area stylists. Both came to the fore through the Steel
Festival songwriters' project, the CD of which Bummer Tent also
released.

Of the groups, Blackwater again delighted with its powerful
Celtic sound and the Jake Kaligis Band again proved to be one of
the strongest pop-rock ensembles going with John Lennon's and
Yoko Ono's "So This Is Christmas (War Is Over)."

ACCo: A Chorus Celebrating Women was uplifting, as were the
gospel jazz of James Bartley and Gerry Riddick and the harp
stylings of Rita Linck. 

If you didn't believe in St. Nick before hearing sandpaper
Santa-voiced Steve Brosky sing "Frosty the Snowman," his crusty
rendition would have melted your heart faster than the mid-March
sun.

Also on the bill: Deb Gaber and Darlene Finelli, Roland Kushner,
Malarky, and Roger Latzgo.

The flashy-attired Maureen O'Grady Irish step dancers,
accompanying Blackwater, were an especially nice touch for a
radio broadcast.

PHOTO by LISA LAKE, Special to The Morning Call
CAPTION: Singer-songwriter Tom Watson gave one of the best
performances at last Sunday's `A Lehigh Valley Christmas '99 in
Concert` in Allentown. 
 

 
Date: Sunday, December 5, 1999 
Page: F01 
Edition: SECOND 
Section: ARTS & TRAVEL 

AREA MUSICIANS' HOLIDAY SONGS 
TO FILL WDIY'S AIRWAVES 

by PAUL WILLISTEIN, The Morning Call 

Fans of the region's homegrown music scene can gather around
the radio next Sunday for a live broadcast of `A Lehigh Valley
Christmas in Concert.`

Or they can go out to Civic Theatre in Allentown for the fourth
annual concert by area singers, musicians and songwriters from
`A Lehigh Valley Christmas` compilation disc of holiday songs.

Either way, it's a historic event.

`It's absolutely a first for us,` says Scott Snyder, Civic Theatre
managing director. `It's the first live broadcast of a performance
of any sort from here -- radio or TV.` Civic Theatre opened in
1928.

The three-hour concert, in its second year at Civic, will be
broadcast at 7 p.m. next Sunday on WDIY, 88.1 FM.

It's a collaboration between Bummer Tent Records, which
produced and released this year's 17-song Christmas CD
available at area record outlets, Civic Theatre and WDIY.

`I think it's exactly the direction we should be going in when we
have the time and space. Cooperation with local artists is the
raison d'etre for the theater,` says Bill Sanders, Civic Theatre
artistic director.

The concert will mark the fourth live broadcast for WDIY and
the second live music event for the Bethlehem-based National
Public Radio-affiliated non-profit organization.

The event is believed by area radio history experts to be one of
the first live on-location concert broadcasts in some time. Service
Electric Cable TV has broadcast live concerts from Musikfest
and the Allentown Fair for many years.

`I've been here two years,` says Burr Beard, WDIY station
manager. `The Lehigh Valley Christmas concert two years ago at
the Roxy Theatre was my first exposure to local music. I was
impressed with the quality and variety in an alternative vein.

`It's unique that the Lehigh Valley has an alternative concert. To
be able to partner and to broadcast live is very good as one of our
new ventures.`

Neil Hever, WDIY program and music director, is the on-air host.
`For us, it's an experiment and a chance for us to use our
technology to reach into the community,` Hever says.

Prior to last year, the Christmas concert was held at the Roxy,
Northampton, and the defunct PA STAGE, Allentown.

`We found a home (at Civic ),` says Miriam Huertas, partner with
Mike Krisukas in Bummer Tent Records. `I think the relationship
that has been built with the whole crew over there has been a
nice marriage,` she adds.

Next Sunday's eclectic concert includes: ACCO -- A Chorus
Celebrating Women, a 30-voice female choir; Lucky 7, R&B;
Satori, chamber music; Blackwater and Malarky, Celtic; Jake
Kaligis Band, rock; James Bartley, Gerry Riddick, Darlene Finelli,
Deb Gaber, gospel; Dave Fry, folk, and Zen For Primates,
cabaret rock.

With performers and music from Bummer Tent's four Christmas
CDs, the concert will conclude with the participants doing `Go
Where I Send Thee.` The approximate three-hour concert is
expected to have one 20-minute intermission.

Emcees will be George Miller, Theatre Outlet artistic director;
Sharon Ettinger, WDIY development director; Fry, Godfrey
Daniels artistic director; Alan Jennings, Community Action
Committee of the Lehigh Valley executive director, and Sanders.

`It is such a positive event for the musicians,` says Huertas. `It's
really neat to see Dave Fry, T. Roth, people from Marlarky,
Blackwater, Lucky 7 all on stage at the same time. From the
audience perspective, it's really fun. And the musicians love it.`

Adds Krisukas, `Backstage, everybody is having as much fun as
everybody on stage. Last year, that last song, with everybody
dancing to 'Disco Inferno' by Lucky 7, was really something.`

That song wasn't popular with everyone at the concert, however.

`They (Lucky 7 ) have two Christmas songs this year, and they
will be performing them -- not 'Disco Inferno',` laughs Huertas.

Admission to the concert includes a copy of this year's Bummer
Tent Christmas CD, with performances by Bonnie O'Donnell, Bill
Hall, Roger Latzgo, Roland Kushner and Tom Watson from the
Steel Festival. Bummer Tent released `Days of Steel,` the
festival's singer-songwriter project CD.

Also on the Christmas CD is the Funny Looking Chamber
Orchestra (Mark Golin, violin; Pete Fluck, sax; Robert Routch,
French horn, Krisukas, guitar) performing `Angels We Have
Heard On High.` Zen For Primates, with T. Roth on lead vocals,
is back for `The Grinch Who Stole Christmas` (with George
Miller as The Grinch on CD and in concert).

Next Sunday's concert will be presented against the New York
City skyline set backdrop for Civic's `Christmas Carole,` which
continues through Dec. 18. Presenting a live concert with
numerous performers is a challenge, from instrument and
microphone setups, to sound levels.

`There are a lot of logistics,` says Snyder. Jeramy Boik, Civic
technical director, is production manager. Mixing the sound will
be Phil Forschelli of City Entertainment.

A dress rehearsal will be held Wednesday night when the
broadcast system will be tested. Bell Atlantic installed an ISDN
(Integrated Services Digital Network) line at the theater last
week to allow digital transmission back to the radio station.

There will be limited time to set up for the concert. Civic's 2 p.m.
matinee of `Christmas Carole` concludes at 3:30 p.m.

Beard and Hever hope to do more live broadcasts. The first live
WDIY broadcast was for `Soundcheck: For a Healthy
Community` in January, part of a two-year news and public
affairs project with Cedar Crest College. There was another live
broadcast in April.

A third live broadcast will be held 6-7 p.m. Jan. 13 in Room 33 of
the Miller Building at Cedar Crest with the topic, `Cardiac Care,`
as part of The Morning Call's `A Change of Heart` project. The
call-in includes a panel of adult health-care experts.

WDIY's first live music broadcast was of Latin jazz performer
Pancho Sanchez's two-hour concert at Musikfest in August.

`This one (Sunday's Christmas concert ) will involve interviews
and more production values,` says Beard.

WDIY's digital equipment was provided through the
`Soundcheck` project. Plans are to broadcast next Sunday's
concert in its entirety, which may preempt the Max Fox's `The
Bridge` program, which airs at 11 p.m. Sundays.

Despite the best planning, no one's quite certain what to expect
with the live concert broadcast.

`We're going to leave it up to the sound board operator at the site
to give us a good stereo feed from the board," says Hever.
`We're not going to reinvent the wheel by remixing it ourselves,
although in larger organizations it's not uncommon for it to be
remixed. We may augment the signal to make it
broadcast-friendly.`

Hever's on-air interviews have a two-fold purpose. `There will be
portions of the program that don't translate to radio. We will be
talking to members of Bummer Tent and Civic Theatre. The
purpose is to illuminate people about these organizations, not just
to fill time.`

Hever expects to broadcast from the sound booth at the back of
the Civic auditorium. A couple of microphones will be set up for
the interviews and Hever will operate the soundboard. Audrey
Kopecky, a WDIY volunteer, will operate the board at WDIY.

Sound from the concert will be encoded digitally, sent over
telephone lines and then decoded. ISDN is used for desk-top
video conferencing, high-speed modem communications and for
delivery of studio quality sound. WDIY uses a Zephyr system
purchased from a company called Telos.

`We, in fact, have used it with the BBC. We've given feeds
transatlantic,` notes Hever.

`It's not like ringing up your friend across the street,` Hever
cautions. `It's our first year doing it, so we don't know what's
going to happen.

`I mean, we're working on it, but who knows what will come out
of those speakers? But we decided to try it because we have the
equipment and want to use it to enhance our programming.`

Hever says the big broadcast has a personal incentive for him:

`I've been here (the Lehigh Valley ) a long time and one of the
reasons I've stayed is that I've seen the potential for growth in
our arts and cultural areas. This is a significant event,` says
Hever, an Orange, N.J., native and 1982 graduate of Muhlenberg
College, where he majored in theater and communications.

While WDIY will make a DAT recording of the concert, there
are no plans for rebroadcast, although that is a possibility in an
edited form. There are also no plans to broadcast the concert on
other public radio stations.

There are plans to make the Christmas concert broadcast an
annual event at Civic.

There may be other concerts presented by Bummer Tent at
Civic, including a possible mid-year WDIY fund-raiser and a
spring concert featuring a `theatrical extension` of Zen For
Primates, according to Krisukas. (Zen will perform Dec. 29 at the
Bottom Line In New York City, with Golin, editor of Details
magazine, sitting in for a few numbers.)

`We've been talking future events,` confirms Sanders.
`Logistically, it's difficult. We not only have the theater and the
movies, but we're doing staged readings and we've added a
series, 'New plays and musicals,' where we're dong the world
premiere of new works each year.

`It will add a weekend to the final theater season. It will start
after 'Proposals' in the end of June.` Civic will present Sharon
Lee Glassman's `Down Deep,` which was given a staged reading
in October.

Last year's attendance at the Christmas concert at Civic was
about 300. `Our hope is to sell it out this year,` says Huertas. `It is
an event. Everyone who goes to it has given us only really
positive feedback.`

There's also a benefit for Civic. `There will be a lot of people
coming here who probably have never been to the theater before.
So, it's a good postcard,` says Sanders.

Beard points proudly to the partnership between WDIY, Civic
and Bummer Tent. `I'm really excited about that because I love
the programming at Civic -- the theater and the films. This is a
new significant level (in ) increasing our partnership.`

`A Lehigh Valley Christmas in Concert` will be presented at 7
p.m. next Sunday at Civic Theatre, 527 N. 19th St., Allentown.
Tickets: $20, single; $30, couple (both prices include copy of `A
Lehigh Valley Christmas` CD). Tickets are expected to be
available at the door. Reserved seating for advance sales.
610-433-4436, or e-mail: mh@bummertent.com

Zen for Primates will perform at 9:30 p.m. Dec. 29 at The
Bottom Line, 15 W. 4th St., New York. 212-228-6300. An
opening act to be announced is expected to perform at 8:30 p.m.
Tickets: $30 (includes transportation and admission).
610-433-4436, or e-mail: mh@bummertent.com. The bus will
depart the Allentown Fairgrounds' west end area at 6 p.m. Dec.
29 and is expected to depart New York at about 1 a.m.

Paul Willistein is Arts Editor of The Morning Call. E-mail:
paul.willistein@mcall.co++m

---

PHOTO by UNKNOWN.
CAPTION: Musicians who contributed to `A Lehigh Valley
Christmas` will play next Sunday at Civic Theatre in Allentown. 
 

Date: Saturday, October 2, 1999 
Page: A46 
Edition: SECOND 
Section: ENTERTAINMENT 

Memo:Dave Howell is a free-lance writer.

TERRY KITCHEN 
ABLE TO RAISE CAIN ABOUT FOLK MUSIC 

by DAVE HOWELL (A free-lance story for The Morning
Call) 

Terry Kitchen, who will perform Sunday night at Bethlehem's
Godfrey Daniels does not hesitate to use the "f" word -- as in
folk. And he's adamant about his love of the music.

"Using music to make the world a better place separates folk
music from other forms," says Kitchen, 41. The Boston resident,
a Bethlehem native who once called Easton home, spoke of
"using music as a way to harness energy, to educate people, and
to make people more sensitive."

Kitchen's answer to the use of the word folk was to repeat a
quote by Leadbelly: "I ain't never heard no cow sing, so it's all
folk music to me."

Sunday's gig is a record release party for Kitchen's fifth disc,
"Blues For Cain And Abel" (Urban Campfire), and a benefit for
the Easton YMCA's Camp Skycrest. Kitchen spent six years as
a camper and three years as a counselor at the camp.

Kitchen, born Max Pokrivchak, took his performing name from a
character in the Kurt Vonnegut novel, "Bluebeard."

In a way, it's too bad that Kitchen moved. One of the songs on
his new disc is "Bethlehem." It would have been perfect for the
recent Steel Festival' Singer-Songwriter Project. BonnieO'Donnell,
festival songwriters project coordinator, will sing background vocals
for Kitchen at Godfreys. 

While "Bethlehem" is autobiographical, many tracks on the new
CD are about people Kitchen has known, or historical or Biblical
figures, as in "Martin Luther" and "Noah and the Selfish Son."

Says Kitchen, "My songs are an attempt to understand things.
(It's) the way that I try to make sense of the world.

"Many have me putting myself in the place of a character in the
song. I ask myself `What would I do?' or `How would I feel?'

"I hope that when people hear my songs they will see a little bit of
themselves in them. Seeing the world through each other's eyes
can only help us."

When he was in the first grade, Kitchen moved to Easton's
College Hill. His family still lives there.

By the fourth grade, Kitchen was writing songs, and in the fifth
began to learn guitar.

"Blues for Cain and Abel" is dedicated to John Steinbruck, pastor
of St. John's Lutheran Church in Easton, which Kitchen attended
with his family. Steinbruck left St. John's to found Luther Place, a
women's shelter, health clinic and soup kitchen in Washington,
D.C.

In junior high school, Kitchen moved with his family to Cleveland
Heights and then Findlay, Ohio. In 1976, Kitchen attended
Occidental College in Los Angeles, studying music, English and
drama. He performed there, but was unhappy with the music
scene. "There was a huge gap between rich, established bands
and people starting out," he says.

After graduation in 1981, he moved to Boston to perform in the
rock/pop group Loose Ties. Kitchen was happy with the sense of
community among musicians in Boston, and stayed there as a solo
performer after his band broke up in 1988.

As a performer, Kitchen describes himself as "a cross between
James Taylor and John Gorka, with a little bit of the Beatles
thrown in.

"In folk music there is no wall between the performer and the
audience. At a folk concert people will probably end up singing,
and will want to hear the stories behind the songs," he says.

Terry Kitchen, 7 p.m. Sunday, Godfrey Daniels, 7 E. 4th St.,
Bethlehem. $9.50; $5.50, children and seniors. 610-867-2390.
 

Date: Thursday, September 16, 1999 
Page: B05 
Edition: FOURTH 
Section: BETHLEHEM 

LIFE OF STEEL
IS HONORED WITH SONGS
FESTIVAL HOLDS MUSICAL TRIBUTE
IN FOLK TRADITION

by PAUL WILLISTEIN, The Morning Call 

The Steel Festival kept on rollin' Wednesday night at the Icehouse
on Sand Island in Bethlehem with a Singer-Songwriter Project
tribute to steel workers everywhere.

Inspired by interviews with former steel workers at the shuttered
Bethlehem plant, more than a dozen musicians gathered to mourn,
celebrate and laugh a bit. The performance will be repeated at 8
p.m. today at Touchstone Theatre, Bethlehem.

It's a hoot -- as in hootenanny -- and a Bethlehem tradition that
goes back to Illick's Mill days when folk singers protested the
latest cause. At the Icehouse, the cause was creativity, by taking
often bitter stories and making them bittersweet. Fifteen songs
from the cross-cultural project are on the just-released CD "Days
of Steel."

The songwriters did Alan Lomax and the Library of Congress
one better. They not only recorded songs, they also went out and
rustled up the primary source material and then wrote the songs.
Each song has a story, in the true folk tradition.

Tom Watson put in his nostalgic "Forty-One Cents an Hour."
Patty Foley Edgar looked at Latino immigrants with "!No Te
Vayas Ya!" (Mike Krisukas, who produced the disc, added
flavorful solos on his Contreras Spanish guitar.)

Project artistic director Bob Franke's "Little White Envelopes"
told a sobering story of layoffs. Former steel worker Bob Hrichak
introduced his "Man of Steel," saying, "I wrote this song with
many of my co-workers in mind."

Barbara Paradowski filled the barn-like structure on her "Island in
the Iron River" with a voice that brought salt to your eyes. By
contrast, spinning melodies at the keyboard like a weaver, her
"Live On" viewed the mill with child-like delight as some big
gizmo.

The two-hour concert's most dramatic moments came with two
songs not on the disc: Bill Hall's folk-rap, "Shutdown," and
songwriter project coordinator Bonnie O'Donnell's "Path to
Heaven."

Greg Cagno filled in for absent songwriter partner Christian
Bauman on "Waiting for The Fun." Roland Kushner's "The Guy
Who Keeps It Going" spoke of workers' pride, while his "Hello,
Mr. Wolle" cleverly harmonized Bethlehem steelmaking and Bach
Choir music-making.

Also from the disc: former steel worker Len Christman's wry
"Names," Hall's trenchant "Southside," Caren Leonard's soothing
"My Quiet Place," O'Donnell's chilling "Something Happened in
the Mill," and Roger Latzgo's gospel-ish "River of Steel."

The concert concluded with "Days of Steel," the CD's title song,
written and sung by Watson, joined on stage by the
singer-songwriters, and, appropriately enough, Franke playing
slide on his National Steel. A passing CSX freight horning in on
the chorus was a nice touch. 
 

Date: Wednesday, September 15, 1999 
Page: B02 
Edition: EIGHTH 
Section: REGIONAL REPORT 

SONGS OF STEEL UPLIFT

by PAUL WILLISTEIN, The Morning Call 

The steel titans who spawned the great Bach Choir of Bethlehem
have inadvertently given rise to another choir in the Steel's
namesake town: the Steel Choir.

Rather than sing the baroque master and opera, the Steel Choir
sings original material from the Steel Festival CD "Days of Steel,"
traditional labor songs and ethnic music.

On Monday night in the Holy Infancy School auditorium in
Bethlehem, the choir, directed by Beverly Morgan and with
arrangements by Ysaye M. Barnwell, presented a 90-minute
program that was emotionally uplifting for its choral, ensemble
and solo work. The 44-voice choir sings with gusto, flair and
spirit.

The choir also sang Tuesday night in Sayre Hall at the Cathedral
Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem, and will sing at 7:30 p.m.
today in St. John's Windish Lutheran Church, Bethlehem. The
concert is free with a $5 suggested donation. The festival
continues through Sunday.

The concert Monday, attended by 100, linked labor history
narrative, to "Names," by Len Christman, and "South Side" by Bill
Hall. Both songs are on the festival Singer-Songwriter Project
CD. As with many of Barnwell's beautiful arrangements, "South
Side" had counterpuntal singing.

The heritage of many workers who toiled at the former
Bethlehem plant was honored. The Tatra Slovak group (Lucille
Majewski, Mary Stofanak, Anne Labdik, Andy Krempasky) sang
charming versions of "Underneath Our Cottage Window,"
"Americky Men" and "In a Small Garden." Frank Podleiszek sang
the lovely Windish song, "Vmalom Ograsceki".

Hymns to the union, as in unionism, included "Step By Step," with
mournful harmonies and with lyrics dating to 1873; "Solidarity
Forever," with fist-raising labor salute by some choir members;
"Hallelujah, I'm a Bum," with delightful polka oom-pah-pah
chorus; "We Shall Not Be Moved"; "If I Had a Hammer";
"Unemployment Compensation Blues," with solo by Gwendolyn
Adams; "De Colores," the farm workers' union theme song sung
in Spanish; and "I'm Gonna Be an Engineer," which is about
women in the workplace.

World War II, when the Steel plant became a war machine and
homefront songs stoked the fires, was saluted with "Don't Sit
Under the Apple Tree" by sisters Geri Kery, Lois Kery and Pat
Donchez, who indeed sound like the Andrews Sisters.

The concert returned to area songwriters with the somber
"Something Happened in the Mill," by project coordinator Bonnie
O'Donnell, and the compellingly original "Days of Steel," by Tom
Watson, both from the CD.

Barnwell's "More Than a Paycheck" referred to what some
workers brought home in addition to their pay, such as exposure
to radiation, which "hits the children before they've really been
conceived."

The evening concluded with "Carry It On," a traditional song with
lyrics, "no more tears ... we're still singing," pertinent to choir and
community. 

Date: Sunday, September 12, 1999 
Page: F01 
Edition: SECOND 
Section: ARTS & TRAVEL 

STORIES IN SONG
BALLADS OF FACTORY LIFE ARE FAR FROM
RUN-OF-THE-MILL STEEL'S LAST CAST 

by PAUL WILLISTEIN, The Morning Call 

The days of steelmaking may be gone in Bethlehem, but "Days of
Steel" will live on.

The lyrics were cast from the stories of steel workers, heated by
music and vocals, poured into songs shaped by the creative
process.

Fifteen songs, inspired by the Bethlehem Steel Corp.'s Bethlehem
plant workers, are the culmination of the singer-songwriter
project, part of the Steel Festival which began last week and
continues through next Sunday.

A concert to celebrate "Days of Steel" will be held Thursday
night at Touchstone Theatre, Bethlehem.

Artistic director for the project is Bob Franke, nationally-known
folksinger who gathered songwriters from the Lehigh Valley
region.

The project began two years ago with auditions and continued
with workshops led by Franke. Project coordinator is Bonnie
O'Donnell, Bethlehem singer-songwriter.

On the CD are songs by, in addition to Franke and O'Donnell:
Tom Watson, Patti Foley Edgar, Bob Hrichak, Barbara
Paradowski, Christian Bauman, Len Christman, Bill Hall, Caren
Leonard, Roland Kushner, and Roger Latzgo.

Mike Krisukas produced the disc, released on Allentown's
Bummer Tent Records. Executive producer is Miriam Huertas,
Krisukas' partner.

Here are some of the stories behind the stories told by "Days of
Steel":

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 

BONNIE O'DONNELL

"The songwriters project was sort of the last component of the
(Steel) festival," says O'Donnell.

`There were a number of people involved with the idea at
Touchstone Theatre. Mark McKenna (Touchstone artistic
director) had asked me who might be a good person to be the
(singer-songwriters project) artistic director because he knew I
was involved in the folk community.

"I had mentioned Bob Franke, who had done a similar historical
project, a gathering of songs based on an eco farming community
in Marblehead, Mass."

O'Donnell had taken songwriting courses from Franke at The
Swannanoa Gathering near Ashville, N.C., an annual songwriters'
camp, and they became friends.

About 25 songwriters auditioned at Godfrey Daniels two years
ago. Thirteen were chosen. Two dropped out. "I think they
realized the scope of the project. It's basically been a two-year
commitment," says O'Donnell. Franke held five workshops, and
songwriters met on their own.

Early on, Franke asked each songwriter to interview another and
return the next day with a song about that person. "It was really a
process of learning how to interview and then to take apart the
pieces and write a song about it," says O'Donnell.

Steel workers were interviewed from a Touchstone list. Two
songwriters, Len Christman and Bob Hrichak, are former steel
workers.

"There are a number of us, as well, who have retired steel
workers in our families," says O'Donnell. Her father, Charles
Holsinger, and uncle, Chester Ellenberger, worked at Bethlehem
Steel's Johnstown plant.

O'Donnell interviewed Bernadette Crockett, who was at
Bethlehem's Coke Works for more than a decade. "She talked
about the effects of working in the mill and about being one of the
first women to work there."

O'Donnell also interviewed Paul Yerger, who worked various
jobs at the Steel for more than 22 years.

"A lot of people talked about the kinds of injuries steel workers
were susceptible to, particularly before a lot of safety measures
were put in place," says O'Donnell, who took notes but did not
tape the interviews.

"It was factory-line work with dangerous kinds of materials. It
was easy to get distracted, lose your place and slip. And those
kinds of things happened all the time.

"It just wasn't a real safe place to work. I live not far from the
monument (by Ben Marcune) that was put up in the Rose Garden
(on Bethlehem's West Side), in part, for injured workers. So I
have a lot of interest in the topic."

O'Donnell's song on "Days of Steel" is "Something Happened in
the Mill." In an even tone, she sings carefully chosen lyrics:

"No one knows just what went on that afternoon
but my Joe he won't be going back real soon."

O'Donnell says her song is fictitious and there's nobody named
Joe. "But there are a lot of people with a lot of different names
who got injured. Those stories are all over the place if you start
listening to people.

"It didn't come easy. It's a tough song. I really wanted to do
justice to a lot of families whose pain I listened to. I spent some
time making sure the words were exactly what I wanted to say.

"It's interesting writing songs like this from assignment. It's kind
of nerve-wracking. There are certain things laid out," says
O'Donnell, a child therapist in an area psychiatric hospital.

"Some of us don't work too well with that kind of pressure and
timeline. We don't have the freedom to make things up as we
please. That was part of the comical struggle for us as well,
trying to balance that out."

O'Donnell has one song on the disc (most have one; three
songwriters each have two songs). She and the others wrote
several, critiqued over the course of a year.

Not only were songs created. Says O'Donnell:

"The other part that was created in the meetings was building a
sense of community. We've been through a lot based on what we
heard, and we formed bonds between us.

"The CD really represents us well. And it really shows a variety
of steel workers' family stories," says O'Donnell, a Bethlehem
resident who in July '98 released her debut CD of originals, "You
Come Walking In," produced by Anne Hills.

Not all on the CD perform regularly. Says O'Donnell, "That's
been a plus as well. They've brought a really nice flavor. There
are several who perform regularly. Some who perform
infrequently. And some who don't perform at all and don't intend
to. They got interested because of the topic."

O'Donnell hasn't played her song for the former steel workers
she interviewed. Patty Foley Edgar played her song, "!No Te
Vayas Ya!," for her source, Delia Rivera Diaz, last Monday night
at WDIY-FM for a live broadcast. "It was an emotional
experience," says O'Donnell.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

BOB FRANKE

Bob Franke's friend Bonnie O'Donnell brought him to perform at
Touchstone Theatre, Bethlehem, two years ago. The
Boston-based folksinger, who has taught for six years at The
Swannanoa Gathering in North Carolina where he met O'Donnell,
has performed for many years at Godfrey Daniels, Bethlehem.

"I had heard about it (the songwriters project) from Bonnie. It
was terribly exciting for me. I had done various pieces, but I
hadn't combined all of it," says Franke.

Among the six CDs by Franke, who has performed for 34 years
at coffeehouses, colleges and festivals, is his most recent, '97's
"Long Roads, Short Visits" (Daring Records) and two that
foreshadowed the Bethlehem project.

"Brief Histories" (Flying Fish) in '89 was an arts-grant funded
collection of his songs based on research about Salem, Mass.

"Marblehead Grows" was commissioned by Marblehead Eco
Farm, Marblehead, Mass., to tell the story of community
supported agriculture, where people buy shares in a harvest to
minimize the farmer's risk. Franke interviewed farmers and those
whose ancestors had farmed.

Detroit native Franke worked for a college summer in the Jones
& Laughlin Steel plant in Warren, Mich.

"When we actually set out to do the auditions, I had the sense that
there were a lot of great songwriters there (in the Lehigh Valley)
and there are.

"I was weighting heavily the folks who had had actual experience
in the Steel. I was looking for steel worker songwriters and I got
a few great ones.

"And then I was looking for people who I thought would work
well together who would be able to commit to a certain amount of
group process."

Franke's quarterly songwriting workshops began in June '98.

"The second workshop was the real breakthrough. That was the
one in which people interviewed one another, and had the
experience of not only interviewing but being interviewed and had
the sense of their story being told by someone else.

"I think, more than anything else, that trained people in respect
and compassion for the stories of the folks they were going to be
telling. Also, sort of incidentally, it was a great way of forming a
fine group spirit."

Franke's "Days of Steel" song, "Little White Envelopes," is based
on a passage in former Bethlehem Globe-Times editor and
Pulitzer Prize winner John Strohmeyer's book, "Crisis in
Bethlehem," which was on the songwriters' reading list, along
with "Memoirs of a Steelworker" by David Kuchta:

"Little white envelopes, row on row,

Under portraits of Grace and Schwab

The envelopes are "layoff envelopes."

"They (the workers) were given the envelopes and told not to
open them when they got them, but to open them when they got
back to their offices or work areas. They didn't want a mob
scene," says Franke.

Franke's impressed with the "Days of Steel" songwriters' work:

"On one level, I was amazed. But then on another level, I had
every confidence that they would be as good as they are.

"I'm honored to be a part of it. And I'm honored to gain a number
of new friends in Bethlehem. I'm terribly proud of what these
songwriters have accomplished."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

MIKE KRISUKAS, MIRIAM HUERTAS

"They (the CDs songwriters) cover so many different
perspectives. You kind of think that it would be a singular topic,
but it is not," says Mike Krisukas, "Days of Steel" producer.

"We got together one night and everybody just passed the guitar
around at Bonnie's (O'Donnell) house and played their songs.

"The songs just knocked me out. Pure songwriting. Just
gut-wrenching, touching songs. Just really capturing the essence
of it -- all of them. We were just sitting there crying.

"Tom Watson -- he just came out of nowhere. This guy is this
Woody Guthrie type character --the old Dustbowl songwriting.
He's kind of uncomfortable on stage, but he has this great whiny
Dylanesque voice.

"Everybody knew that his song (`Days of Steel') really captured
what this project was. Everybody just nodded their heads and
said, `He got it. It's the opening track.'

"With (`Days of Steel'), it might not be world-class performers,
but the songs are great songs. And that's what the
singer-songwriter project is all about."

Krisukas, well-known Valley musician-composer-producer who
founded the cabaret rock band Zen for Primates, and who
founded Bummer Tent Records with Miriam Huertas, wasn't
familiar with many performers on "Days of Steel." Explains
Huertas:

"We got a chance to interact with a whole circle of people that
Mike (Krisukas) was not involved with, the folk circle."

Says Krisukas, "`It was just a scene that I wasn't a part of. The
excitement is always dealing with some people we haven't dealt
with, like the (annual Bummer Tent) Christmas CD."

"Some (of the songwriters) will be featured on this year's
Christmas CD," adds Huertas.

The fourth annual "Lehigh Valley Christmas" CD is expected to
be released in December. The CD release concert returns to
Civic Theatre, Allentown, for a first-time live broadcast on
WDIY-FM.

Bummer Tent plans to release its 11th CD, by area Celtic band,
Blackwater, led by brother and sister, Sean and Fiona Hennessy.

Krisukas is working on material for Zen for Primates' third disc,
set for release next spring, following its '98 release, "Blessed are
the Sheepherders."

"Days of Steel" was recorded at Bummer Tent Studios,
Allentown. It was mastered at Red Rock Recording, Saylorsburg.
There have been 2,000 copies pressed.

It will be available at Steel Festival events. Following the festival,
it will be sold at area stores and via the Internet (amazon.com and
bummertent.com).

The disc was recorded over four months, beginning in March.
Songwriters accompanied themselves on guitar or piano. Krisukas
added bass parts and additional guitar. On several tracks, Jodi
Beder, a member of Zen for Primates, added cello and Virginia
Melin added violin.

Krisukas, originally from Easton, didn't have family members who
worked at the Bethlehem plant, but says, "Just knowing people as
we all have, I was well aware of its influence on the community."

Says Huertas, who had several family members who worked in
the plant:

"Four of my five brothers-in-law worked at the Steel, some as
recently as the final shutdown at the Coke Works. One is quite ill,
which we attribute to his work at the Coke Works. He got
disability from Steel.

"That's why I love what Patty Foley Edgar did (`!No Te Vayas
Ya!'), because it's about this Puerto Rican family coming here
and leaving the family behind, which, for me, obviously, is
important.

"It didn't happen to my immediate family because my dad didn't
work at the Steel, but it happened to so many Latino families."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

BARBARA PARADOWSKI

"I'm sort of getting back into it. This is sort of my mid-life coming
out party. I hadn't played in about 15 years," says Barbara
Paradowski of East Stroudsburg.

She met Bob Franke in the late '70s on the upstate New York
college coffeehouse circuit. Fast forward two decades to
Touchstone Theatre, where Franke performed. He introduced her
to Bonnie O'Donnell.

"I said `yes' without knowing what it really entailed," Paradowski
recalls. "But I thought it would get me back into writing.

"I had never been involved in a songwriting workshop," she notes.
"For me, it opened up a whole new, wonderful group of people
who I've gotten to know. A door opened to a new adventure."
She read books and excerpts from Franke's recommended list.

She contacted Ishmael Garcia, who worked in the Coke Works.
Accompanied by Patty Foley Edgar, she met with him and six
other former steel workers at the Puerto Rican Beneficial Society
in Bethlehem.

"He was so nice," remembers Paradowski. Garcia's niece Delia
Rivera Diaz was there. Edgar based her song, "!No Te Vayas
Ya!," on Diaz's story.

"Bob had given us some notes on what to listen to. I really didn't
know much about the steel industry," says Paradowski, who took
notes but didn't tape the interview. Franke had urged them to
listen for "something to stick out.

"When you're listening to things that are foreign to you, not a lot
sticks out," Paradowski laughs. "They were talking about the
pollution controls, protective equipment for the workers and
technical things.

"But I got a sense of their camaraderie. They moved their culture
from Puerto Rico and they had all these little communities in
Bethlehem. At first they didn't have any Spanish grocery stores
and restaurants, and gradually they had more of that after more
of them had came over."

Paradowski was given a tour of the social club. She noticed a
picture on the wall of San Juan, with turquoise-colored water.

"Part of that is in the song," she says, referring to "Island in the
River" "The opening line refers to the picture on the wall (at the
Beneficial Society)," she says:

"A crunch of seashells on an aqua coastline."

A tour of the plant by Bette Kovach, Bethlehem Steel director of
media relations, elicited this lyric:

"the star, our guardian angel."

It refers, not to the Star of Bethlehem atop South Mountain, but a
Christmas decoration star on one of the buildings at the plant. The
"guardian angel" is the steel industry, the Bethlehem plant, itself,
she explains. "I tried to fit things in the song that they said."

"The edges of the streets hang thick with language
with brotherhood that bulges at the seams
a bit uneasy they grow
the trust we brought with us from Puerto Rico."

The word "uneasy" is how others look at the Latino tradition of
street corners socializing -- loitering to some, says Paradowski. "I
guess they were getting arrested every weekend. Then later, the
police got to know they weren't dangerous" The chorus invokes
the line:

"Protect us with your love"

"It's a prayer," she notes. "I take it they came here with nothing
and they would do anything to get a job."

About the song's title, "Island in the River," Paradowski says,
"They had come from the island of Puerto Rico, and it's sort of
like they had made their own little cultural island up here in
Bethlehem."

"Bless our island in this iron river"

The "iron river" is the Lehigh River, on whose banks the
sprawling Bethlehem plant was built. "This was a big risk for
them," says Paradowski about those emigrating from Puerto Rico
to work at the Steel. "Some of them didn't have their families over
right away."

Paradowski has another song, "Live On," on "Days of Steel." The
song was inspired by the plant tour. "Everything just seemed big.
Where the blast furnaces are, it seemed like something out of
`Star Wars,' " she says.

"Live On" tells the story of Eric, Bethlehem plant graffiti artist
extraordinaire:

"hovered on high planks, this dangerous pose

it's like kilroy was here"

"Eric was the most prolific of the graffiti artists. They didn't know
who he was, but figured he must have been on the night shift and
had access to a rig.

"At first I wasn't going to write a song about Eric because I
thought someone else was going to. But then I got kind of
desperate," she laughs. "Of course, it isn't all true, because it's
from Eric's point of view, of what he might have been thinking."

On the plant tour, says Paradowski, "The welfare room really
stuck out, the colors, the whole setup. When we went in there,
nothing was cleaned up. There were old shoes. It seemed like
people were there yesterday.

"I have relatives who worked in Bethlehem Steel's Lackawanna
plant in Buffalo. My great uncle Paul was a crane operator.
Uncle Sam was in the open hearth. I called him up. Uncle Sam
sent me some of his remembrances.

"One of the things he said was about the narrow gauge railroad
track. `Mention this in your song.' I wasn't sure how I was going
to do that.

"For the chorus, I called up Len (Christman) to see if he
remembered any of the other names. He said he didn't, but he did
remember Eric's name. And then while I was on the phone with
Len, he was telling me what he remembered -- and then I just
sort of put it all together."

"The smells, the noise, the heat and cold
the rails and the dirt and the fire
the narrow gauge track.
and the welfare baskets
and eric live on."

" `Live On` is largely made up but I wanted to stay true to the
impressions. That's one of the things Bob (Franke) told us to do,
to be truthful. I really felt a sense of responsibility. I thought about
that with the steel songs. People in the community are going to
hear them."

Paradowski moved from upstate New York in '81 to East
Stroudsburg, where she teaches aneighth grade class. She moved
there to be closer to New York City where she's performed at
Gerdes' Folk City. Paradowski says the singer-songwriter project
has encouraged her to get back into singing and songwriting.

"That's where I'm headed," she says enthusiastically. "I can't let it
go. It's part of me. I don't even care if anybody hears it. I just
gotta do it for myself. I think I was doing it for the wrong reasons
before."

Of the singer-songwriter project she says wistfully, "It's been two
years in the making. In some ways, it will be sad when it's over."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

LEN CHRISTMAN

Len Christman, who worked at the Bethlehem plant for 39 years,
says of his songwriting, "I was sort of a late-bloomer. Most of my
growing up I was playing a lot of baseball in the Allentown City A
League and squadron baseball and football in the Air Force."

Christman, Allentown Central Catholic Class of '54, was the last
chief clerk of the Drop Forge when it closed in '89. He spent his
last six years at the Steel as a clerk in the Basic Oxygen Furnace
before it closed in December '95. He retired in February '96.

An article in The Morning Call and encouragement from his wife,
Karen, got Christman involved with the singer-songwriter project.
Christman already had a published song, "Holiday Time Is Near."
Written in '89, it's included in a Warner Brothers song compilation
book.

Christman wrote six songs as part of the workshop. "Names,"
included on "Days of Steel," was one of these.

"My wife just said, `Why don't you just do it on the nicknames?'

" `Names' came from my own experiences as a retiree, plus
talking with Jim Robertson, who worked 10 years in the plant and
then worked in the media section, and Bill Gaughan, a retired
general foreman at the ingot mold foundry":

"There's Whiskey Bill, and Irish Stu

Holy Joe, Goosey John, and Shorty Lou"

"They knew each other very well. Everybody watched each
other's back. It's just that people clown around a little bit, and they
got nicknames. And they called each other by their nicknames
when they greeted each other.

"I bet if you ask them today, `Do you remember a certain fellow
who worked beside you, they'd say, `Oh, yeah, Shorty.'

Christman estimates he worked on "Names" for about two
weeks.

"That song was the easiest and quickest to put together. As
happens when you write, some songs just go together quickly.
Others that you work on long and hard, you're not ever satisfied
with it. It's just the way it is."

Through the project, Touchstone asked Christman to be in last
year's "Christmas City Follies," where he sang his "My Christmas
Wish." From that, he learned about tryouts for "Steelbound." He's
in the steel workers chorus. He's also in the Steel Choir.

"It's been a constant talking about keeping the singer-songwriter
group together, to write other songs, and to keep the choir
together.

"I'm not a seasoned performer like many members of the group.
They do it as a norm. It's a little tougher for us to perform 'cause
we don't have it perfected enough. But I wouldn't shy away from
it.

"It was a lot of fun," Christman says. "It was a bit exasperating at
times. I think the group worked well together. It's going to be a
blast getting together for these concerts."

Christman is philosophical about his days at the Steel:

"I can't say anything negative. It supplied me with a place to work
and a living for practically my whole life.

"When you're working for a large corporation, you've got to take
the bad with the good. I enjoyed my career there. We had a good
crew, especially at the Drop Forge. It was just great.

"You go from the Brass Age to the Iron Age and the Steel Age.
Who knows what's next? I think they'll come up with something
to replace steel.

"The thing that I like with the (Steel) festival is that for future
generations it's going to be part of the history of the country and
the world. At least by making an industrial museum, that will let
the legacy live on.

"And that's what I take out of the festival and what they're doing.
That's why I'm so involved in it. There's nothing I can do about
what happened. I least I can be part of it. It's sad, but ... " his
voice trails off.

"Actually, sometimes it's a little hard going back to the play
(`Steelbound') practice and seeing what it is. Both my last
departments are flat."

"Days of Steel," 2, 7 p.m. today, Godfrey Daniels, 7 E. 4th St.,
Bethlehem; 8 p.m. Wednesday, Ice House, Sand Island,
Bethlehem; 8 p.m. Thursday, Touchstone Theatre, 321 E. 4th St.,
Bethlehem. Most of the songwriters are expected at each
two-hour (with intermission) concert. Tickets: $8, advance; $10,
door. 1-877-STEELFEST.

The disc, $15, is available at Steel Festival events.

PHOTO by DOUGLAS BENEDICT, The Morning Call
CAPTION: Barbara Paradowski, in Welfare Room at Bethlehem
Steel, wrote `Live On' from the inspiration of hundreds of steel
workers who once showered and changed after their shifts in the
mill.

PHOTO by MICHAEL KUBEL, Special to The Morning Call
CAPTION: Former steel worker Len Christman finds art imitates
his life as he acts in `Steelbound,' Touchstone Theatre's drama
based on the end of an industry giant. 
 

Date: Sunday, September 5, 1999 
Page: F01 
Edition: SECOND 
Section: ARTS & TRAVEL 

FESTIVAL ARRANGER 
BUILDS VOCAL COMMUNITY 
STEEL'S LAST CAST

by GEOFF GEHMAN, The Morning Call 

The Steelworkers' Chorus is rehearsing a number for the play
"Steelbound," and Ysaye Barnwell is urging the men to be less
like a chorus and more like steel workers. "Making Steel" has
enough passion, suggests the arranger, but not enough precision.
To make them a truer ensemble, she paints words, many a choir
director's favorite tool.

"You are the machinery in this mill," Barnwell tells the males
sitting in the Touchstone Theatre Cafe, two blocks from
Bethlehem Steel Corp.'s closed plant. "You are a well-oiled
machine: all the parts are talking to one another. You're working
together: you don't need a foreperson."

Analogy over, Barnwell goes for the vernacular. "OK, guys," says
the singer named after the violinist Eugene Ysaye (pronounced
EE-say), "make me some steel."

What follows is a work song with a militial march. Led by a
veteran of the Army Reserves, the men shout out steps of steel
making. After about 20 minutes of baking and pouring,
punctuating ("Hey whoa now!") and hyphenating ("ox-y-gen"),
they're closer to being a lean, mean regiment. The improvement
pleases Barnwell, who began the rehearsal with no idea how
"Making Steel" would sound.

Barnwell is building a vocal community, doing for the Steel
Festival what she does for the a cappella quintet Sweet Honey in
the Rock, what she does for her community workshops in
African-American singing techniques. Whether scoring words by
"Steelbound" playwright Alison Carey, or arranging five songs by
the festival's dozen singer/songwriters, or adapting originals and
traditionals for the festival choir, she's spreading the notion that
good work and good health are keyed by great listening.

Barnwell admits she had to learn she's ideal for the job. Yes, she
is a violinist with graduate degrees in speech pathology and public
health. Yes, she's collaborated with dance companies and on a
dramatic musical about Martin Luther King Jr. Yes, she promotes
human rights. But before being hired by Touchstone, she had
never created songs from scratch with strangers. Before coming
to Bethlehem, the closest she came to steel production was in
Pittsburgh, where she received a doctorate in cranio-facial
studies. Every day, she'd cross the street to class; every day her
lab coat would be coated with U.S. Steel fallout.

After two months of arranging and four visits to Bethlehem,
Barnwell understands the festival expands all her passions. It
enables the resident of Washington, D.C., to work on work songs,
which she's adored ever since she heard Tennessee Ernie Ford's
recording of "Sixteen Tons." During an interview in a Bethlehem
hotel room, she acts a few lines. She puffs her cheeks, lowers her
lyrical contralto to basso profundo, marches into an invisible mine
to the troubling confession, "I owe my soul to the company store."

In her own material Barnwell sings of work's value. For a
post-doctoral thesis in public health, she studied songs of textile
workers and coal miners. She found not only accurate
descriptions of 48 occupations, but vivid diagnoses of
labor-related ailments. She filtered these discoveries into "More
than a Paycheck," which appears on Sweet Honey's
25th-anniversary recording and in Barnwell's arrangement for the
Steel Festival Choir. For their pay, she writes, workers get
disease (silicosis, brown lung) and "dis-ease" (alcoholism, heart
attacks caused by high blood pressure). Their families are also
infected.

"No one talks about the boredom in a hazardous work
environment," claims Barnwell. "Lose your attention and see what
happens to your balance, see what happens to your hand. No one
talks about the stress. You work in any office, and everything
goes wonderfully, but the stress makes you drink every night and
you abuse your wife and kids."

Barnwell gravitates to the occupational-health issues in
"Steelbound." Chained to a 24-1/2-ton ladle in Bethlehem Steel's
skeletal Iron Foundry, Prometheus (portrayed by Touchstone
founder Bill George), a prematurely retired steelworker, rails
about unsafe conditions, white-collar lies, the devastation of losing
a job performed too well. His voice echoed last month as
Barnwell led rehearsals of her music with the play's three
choruses.

The day begins with the Young People's Chorus. A half-dozen
youngsters practice three numbers for Barnwell and Beverly
Morgan, the festival's music director. Two tunes -- a syncopated,
racing vow of defiance and a rap about Bethlehem Steel as an
ethnic melting pot --are what Barnwell calls "attitude stuff." They
allow kids to overcome wobbly pitch with funky phrasing, shyness
with the power of being in a gang.

Barnwell's personality is commanding. Her regal jewelry includes
a battalion of bangles and a waterfall of African earrings. Staring
over trapezoidal glasses, she could drill steel. Every part she
sings, she looms. Her hands weave, too. No wonder she helped
deaf patients understand chicken pox, X-rays and other medical
concepts. No wonder she introduced sign language to Sweet
Honey concerts.

Friendly advice reminds that Barnwell has served a children's
medical center and "Sesame Street." When pitches scatter, she
says, playfully, "Y'all lost your melody." When two boys improvise
moves for the rap, she applauds. When Prometheus finally loses
his chains, she insists, everyone will want to get jiggy.

In the next session the youngsters join the Steelworkers' and
Women's choruses in the play's finale, a call-and-response urging
a newly free Prometheus to join the celebration. Barnwell
explains why she made "Calling Prometheus" a kind of ring shout.
The one-word call and single-phrase response are easy to
perform. Simplicity is essential for 50-plus amateurs singing,
without a conductor, in the Iron Foundry, a massive, open-arched
space with mauling acoustics. Tidal rhythms and a slow-motion
crescendo invite spectators to join in. Hopefully, everyone will link
heaven to earth, everyone will "bring down the spirit."

Tonight, the spirit is slightly shackled. Barnwell instructs the
singers to close their eyes. The less sight, she knows, the better
the hearing. Later, she tells them to form a standing ring. The
more sight, she knows, the better the communication.

The tips work. The sopranos, altos and tenors answer the
baritones' lead more energetically. Previously stiff singers swivel,
lean, prod. Before, they were frozen to their part, what Barnwell
calls sharp focus. Now, they're warming to the overall sound, the
temperamental soft focus.

"I'm saying the joy here is being able to listen to the soft focus,"
Barnwell explains later. "When everyone is doing it properly,
that's nirvana."

Two choirs leave the room, leaving the Steelworkers' Chorus to
practice "Making Steel" for the first time. Barnwell has been so
busy touring with Sweet Honey, so busy working on a new
CD-ROM and a new songbook, that she hasn't figured out a
score. She decides to riff.

"How many of you were in the Army?" she asks. About eight
hands shoot up. "What did you sing?" Hank Vereen, who has
spent 22 years in the Army Reserves, answers by shouting,
"Count off!" Immediately, his colleagues join ranks in a marching
cadence. 

"It was a brilliant moment, if I must say so myself," Barnwell says
the next day. "I believe in intuition. Things will work if you give
them space to work."

Indeed, Barnwell accepts two suggestions. A former steelworker
corrects the heat of making steel. Chanting "2,000" rather than
"2,400" is easier on the tongue. A military veteran says "Whoa
now!" would sound better with an extra word. "Hey whoa now!"
swings harder.

The changes fit Vereen like custom fatigues. Leading a work
gang suits an actor who performs karaoke, a staff sergeant who
directs his Reserve unit on five-mile hikes. "That's when the fun
comes in," explains Vereen, a customer-service representative for
the Fogelsville branch of the American Association of Retired
Persons. "When you're marching five miles, you can think of all
kinds of things to say."

For the evening's final group, Barnwell shoots Zen-arrow advice.
The Women's Chorus is working overtime on a nine-line song
stating that the solidarity of steelworkers is more precious than
jewels. If they can't break Prometheus' chains, these sirens vow
to share his prison of "steely gray.'`

The prettiness is there, but not the resolve. The chord supporting
the chain-breaking sentence, says Barnwell, "should have the
potential to break the chains."

The next day Barnwell discusses the need for the festival to
break chains. With the Bethlehem plant destined to become Beth
Works, an industrial museum and entertainment complex, it's
important to remember the importance of human software.

"The bridges have been built. The buildings have been built,"
Barnwell points out. "And now we're living in these buildings with
all this new technology. And that technology doesn't include the
hard labor stuff anymore. We've moved beyond that. I mean,
who's going to say, `I built the Internet?' The structures that will
be built from now on will have no concrete structure. They're not
firm, solid."

Shortly after, Barnwell shows how technology can benefit
humanity, and vice versa. On her laptop she pulls up her
software-scored choral arrangement of a composition from the
singer/songwriter project. She's especially keen on Bonnie
O'Donnell's mournful, poignant "Something Happened at the Mill,"
which the author laughingly calls "the razor song of the bunch."
Soon, Barnwell is humming and tapping, cording to the chords,
demonstrating that music concerning health can be healthy.

Barnwell can testify to music building communities. In a
supermarket parking lot she was stopped by a man running
toward her, yelling: "Hey wait a minute, hey wait a minute!" I
know you: didn't you write that song?" He was speaking of
"Would You Harbor Me?," Barnwell's call for tolerance for
Czech and Haitian, spy and heretic. The stranger wanted to thank
her for writing about him, a victim of Agent Orange.
 

2 PHOTOS by DOUGLAS BENEDICT, The Morning Call
CAPTION: Arranging for the Steel Festival was a labor of love
for Ysaye Barnwell. 
 

Sunday, September 5, 1999 
Page: F10 
Edition: SECOND 
Section: ARTS & TRAVEL 

LABOR MOVEMENT PLAY'S
INSPIRATION CAME
FROM FRENCH THEATER EXPERT STEEL'S
LAST CAST

by PAUL WILLISTEIN, The Morning Call 

The genesis of "Steelbound" and the Steel Festival began with an
enthusiastic, childlike Frenchman who had nothing to do with
steelmaking, but everything to do with theater-making.

In 1994, Touchstone Theatre's and Lehigh University's Theater of
Creation Festival brought Jacques Lecoq to Bethlehem.

"A comment by Lecoq became the inspiration for the Steel
Festival," says Mark McKenna, Touchstone artistic director and a
member of the "Steelbound" cast.

Previously, in Paris, Lecoq mentored Touchstone's McKenna,
Jennie Gilrain and Cora Hook.

Touchstone Theatre, founded in 1981 (formerly People's Theatre
Company, and the Lehigh University Improvisational Street
Theatre, founded in '72 by the late LU professor John Pearson)
has been housed since '87 in the former 1875 Protection
Firehouse, Fourth and Polk streets, Bethlehem -- just two blocks
from the Bethlehem Plant gate.

Lecoq, who died in January in his 80s, was one of the fathers of
movement theater, the stagework Touchstone espouses.

Lecoq, Marcel Marceau and Ettienne Decroux were disciples of
Jacques Coupaux, who took a holistic approach to stagecraft and
revitalized theater in France from the 1920s-'40s.

"They thought that most stage acting was false," says McKenna.
"There was no art to it. Coupaux's theater company was only
actor and audience. It was all about movement. There was no
scenery and no costumes."

Lecoq's work with Touchstone and at the Creation Festival
"absolutely informed the way we looked at the Steel Festival,"
says McKenna. At Creation, Lecoq taught master classes to 40
theater teachers from the United States and Canada. Seven
troupes each presented a work over two weeks. Touchstone
staged "Don't Drop Grandma."

Lecoq was given a tour of the Steel plant. Afterward, he met
with Touchstone folks at the Bridgeworks restaurant at Fourth
and New streets.

"He was talking about how incredible it (the plant) was," recalls
McKenna, who toured the plant's Basic Oxygen Furnace 10
years ago to research his role as a disgruntled steelworker in
Touchstone cofounder and playwright Bridget George's "How Far
to Bethlehem," which was about three South Side women and
their search for the true meaning of Christmas.

Continues McKenna, "We started to tell Lecoq that the steel mill
was closing down and it looked bleak for steelmaking in
Bethlehem, and that the face of the city was going to be different.
This was before any of us had heard about Beth Works or the
Smithsonian museum (plan).

"We got into this conversation about how striking it would be to
walk down the streets of Bethlehem 10 years from now and not
have any awareness of what had transpired there, when people
from from all over the world had come to work at Steel.

"And then Lecoq just said, `It's necessary to do a Greek play in
there (the Steel plant) with a chorus that chants.' That just hit
something.

"Since I had been at Touchstone (McKenna joined in '86),
whenever you pass that mill, it's almost organic. It's metal, but
(songwriter) John Gorka talks about it being like a dinosaur.
People who would come through Touchstone would say, `You
have to do something with that.' It's very inspiring artistically and
architecturally.

"But the leap that happened with Lecoq's comment was that a
way of life and craftsmanship was totally ending, and that people
have to be recognized in almost a ritual way and that in theater
only the scale of Greek drama is the match for that type of (steel)
work. The hero in a Greek drama is a match for the steelworker."

Lecoq's movement-based theater utilized Greek drama, clowning,
and commedia dell'arte. "He's the person responsible for
revitalizing Greek drama, which happened back in the '50s and
'60s, in terms of how he taught people," says McKenna.

"In most plays, a chorus is a guy or three guys. At his school,
you're working with 30 people, speaking and moving as one.

"All these different styles Lecoq investigated are about the
gesture. With his observation, it really clicked for us that we had
a style in Greek drama and working with a chorus that might be
able to address both ritualistically and dramatically the story that
is happening here (in Bethlehem)," says McKenna.

One week after Lecoq's Bridgeworks exhortation, Gilrain
submitted a 1-1/2-page description of a festival with a Greek play
to be presented at the Steel plant site in collaboration with
steelworkers.

Renowned storyteller Jay O'Callahan, whose work Touchstone
presented, would tell the story of Bethlehem Steel and the people
who worked there. Bethlehem native Deborah Sacarakis, Lehigh
University director of outreach who helped produce the Creation
Festival and whose father was a steelworker, joined the project.

Notes Sacarakis, "One of the best times I had was driving Jay
O'Callahan around the South Side and then listening to him talk to
my father, John, about Steel."

Area songwriter Bonnie O'Donnell brought in Boston's Bob
Franke to lead a songwriters' workshop of original tunes based on
steelworkers' reminiscences.

Also coming on board: Ken Smith, then Bethlehem's mayor;
Stephen G. Donches, Bethlehem Steel vice president, public
affairs, and Jim Kostecky, Bethlehem Steel director of community
relations.

Donches is on the board of the National Museum of Industrial
History, an affiliate of The Smithsonian Institution, and is the
museum's president and chief executive officer.

Then Touchstone board member Ed Riccio showed members of
the troupe the Iron Foundry, which at the time was a working
operation. "That was the space we dreamed of," says McKenna.

Throughout '94 and into '95, the Steel Fest group began talking
with steelworkers, including Bruce Hagenbach, Larry Brandon,
Guillermo Lopez Jr. and Bruce Ward (his film, "The Inside View,"
a 45-minute documentary of conversations with fellow riggers,
premiered at the South Side's monthly First Friday this past
Friday.

Recalls McKenna, "Some of the first guys we talked to about this
idea (proved to be) a real test. Is there a need for it? Would it be
meaningful for people to celebrate the story of Steel? At first it
was `Ah, there's not much to talk about.'

"But then when we pushed a little bit and stayed to listen, there
were these incredible stories of camaraderie, of danger, of
amazing improvisation and ingenuity.

"It was almost an oral history. These (Steel plant) jobs were
handed down through generations by showing. It's not all in the
employee manual.

"We knew that we were on the right track and not just inspired
artists with an idea that doesn't have any relevance."

Bette Kovach, Bethlehem Steel director of media relations, joined
the Touchstone board and talked with hundreds of people and got
them in touch with the thespians. Augustine Ripa, Lehigh
University professor of theater, suggested staging Aeschylus'
Greek tragedy, "Prometheus Bound."

In 1996, the Steel Festival nearly came to a grinding halt. Explains
McKenna, "One of the most fascinating parts for us was when
we invited steelworkers to come down to Touchstone for a
reading of `Prometheus Bound.' We wanted them to get all
excited about the metaphor we saw between a steelworker and
Prometheus."

About 40 to 50 steelworkers attended the sitdown reading, a
typical process for most theaters but not Touchstone, which
creates plays from movement.

"The reaction was very cool," McKenna admits. "The connection
wasn't there. My initial reaction was, `OK, don't get concerned.'
They got the connection, but it was `This is a Greek play and so
what?'

"I thought, `Well, they're just seeing a reading. They're not seeing
the visual drama. We're a movement company. Our main
expression is not through words. And then we thought twice
about it."

Attending the reading was Ysaye Barnwell, from Sweet Honey in
the Rock who had joined the project as a composer, and Hook,
who lived in Bethlehem and grew up by the sounds of the mill.
"We talked some more about it," says McKenna. "We said, `This
is really a sign. Either we have to find another play or we have to
find another approach.' "

That's when Touchstone thought of Cornerstone Theater, one of
a network of about a dozen small, community-based professional
ensembles.

McKenna called Bill Rauch, Cornerstone artistic director. The
idea was to adapt "Prometheus Bound," based on steelworkers'
experiences in the Bethlehem plant.

"In 10 minutes, he was behind the project," says McKenna,
recalling that Barnwell made a similar quick commitment to
another cold call of his.

"And that's how we knew we really had something. All we had to
do was talk about it and the light and the excitement would go up
in everybody's eyes," says McKenna.

It was decided Cornerstone playwright Alison Carey would script
the "Prometheus Bound" adaptation. Rauch would direct.
Cornerstone's designer Lynn Jefferies would design the set. The
Touchstone ensemble would act alongside a community cast.
Gilrain would be movement director.

Before beginning to write the script, Carey visited Bethlehem and
stayed with residents for several weeks, interviewing
steelworkers. Back in Los Angeles, she wrote the first draft
(there'd be three more). Play readings were held in '97 and '98
before steelworkers, Steel management and members of the
community. "There was this constant writing and revising with the
people whose story we're telling," says McKenna.

Auditions for "Steelbound" were held over five days in January at
eight sites in Bethlehem, Easton and Allentown. Callbacks were
next. Says McKenna, "What happened, which was an
unprecedented thing for Cornerstone, is that 90 percent of those
who auditioned came back." Cast members range in age from 8
to 80.

In "Prometheus Bound," seven principal characters visit
Prometheus, who is chained to a rock by Zeus as punishment
because he gave fire to man. The daughters of Oceanus, God of
the oceans, visit Prometheus.

In Carey's "Steelbound," instead of one Greek chorus, there are
four: steelworkers, wives and daughters, youths, and
festival-goers. Oceanus has become Turner, a Steel plant
supervisor. Hephestas, god of iron, has been trinitized into Heffy,
Festa and Uz, nicknames for three steelworkers. Io, daughter of
Oceaus, has become Penny.

"Originally, in the play she (Penny) was called Lehigh, for the
river. But everybody thought she was a Lehigh student," laughs
McKenna.

In "Steelbound," Penny is a daughter of a steelworker. A
computer expert, she's in an accident and suffers brain damage.
To restore her memory, she returns to her hometown.

Hermes, messenger to Zeus, has become Herman the historian,
played by McKenna.

Involvement in "Steelbound" spread across the Lehigh Valley.
The cast includes Equity Artist Devon Allen, head of the acting
program at Muhlenberg College and its experimental troupe in
residence, Our Shoes Are Red, who portrays a character named
Indifference. Music director is Beverly Morgan, Moravian
College adjunct professor.

The collaboration extended to Charlie Martin, Bethlehem Steel
facilities engineer; Bob Brown, Bethlehem Steel director of plant
security; Charlie Brown, Bethlehem director of parks and
recreation, and Brandenburg employees, who placed the ladle and
H-beam.

The ground at the foundry had to be prepared, which meant
moving rubble and filling pits. "We had to negotiate with
Bethlehem Steel to find a happy medium, as compared to a total,
paved-over place and the way the Iron Foundry actually was,"
offers McKenna. "We wanted to preserve the sense of an
abandoned space, but yet were able to make it safe for the
public."

Adds McKenna, "It was great when Bill (Rauch) said that in the
Samuel French (play publishers') version (of "Steelbound"), the
props list will include one 27-1/2-ton steel ladle."

The authenticity also includes using a steel H-beam as a prop.

Points out McKenna, "So many of the ideas of how we do things
in this play came from the steelworkers. We had this idea of
making an I-beam out of wood. As artists, we said we can
imagine that, but the steelworkers said we'd get laughed at. Then
we asked Bethlehem Steel if we could we get a real one."

"Steelbound" rehearsals were held monthly from January through
July, and six days a week since Aug. 2. They've been on site at
the foundry since Aug. 21.

Rehearsals have been emotionally intense. "Almost every
rehearsal, somebody cries," says McKenna.

Capacity for "Steelbound" is expected to be 300 per performance,
with seats borrowed from Sand Island's Ice House, another
performance space carved from a former industrial building.
Shows start at 7 p.m. and should conclude at 8:30 p.m. because
the lighting designer wanted to work with the sunset. Latecomers
won't be seated.

Says McKenna, "A very important part of the whole experience
is that, after the performance, there will be a discussion. For
safety reasons, people can't hang around the foundry. There will
be a post-performance reception with refreshments each night at
Touchstone, hosted by different South Side groups."

McKenna says "Steelbound" has invigorated Touchstone.

"The best part for all of us working on this has been working with
the people of the community. Your role as an artist is to be a
good listener. We're learning so much about something I never
imagined before."

He hopes the Steel Festival has a lasting community impact.

"What I'm looking for during the two weeks of the festival, for
people who attend, is `What do they talk about? How does the
festival provoke their memories of what was, and make them look
at the future differently? And how does it make them appreciate
their own creativity?' "
 

PHOTO by DOUGLAS BENEDICT, The Morning Call
CAPTION: Director Mark McKenna outside Touchstone
Theatre, Bethlehem, where post-`Steelbound' discussions will be
held. 
 

Date: Sunday, July 25, 1999 
Page: E07 
Edition: SECOND 
Section: ACCENT (SUNDAY MAGAZINE) 
Column: ABOUT THE COUNTY: BETHLEHEM 

KICKOFF FUND-RAISING PARTY 
CAPTURES EXCITEMENT 
FOR UPCOMING STEEL FESTIVAL

by TINA BRADFORD (A free-lance story for The Morning
Call) 

Touchstone Theater held a lively kickoff party to launch its
fund-raising campaign for the Steel Festival, an arts festival slated
for Sept. 9 to 19 in Bethlehem.

The early June kick-off party, held at the Allentown Art Museum,
captured the excitement of the upcoming fest for more than 100
supporters and guests.

The museum was chosen as the party site because it is home to
"The Steel Worker" (nicknamed "The Puddler"), an 8-foot-tall
bronze sculpture chosen as the marketing image for Touchstone's
Steel Festival.

The sculpture became part of the evening merriment with a toast.
Peter Blume, director of the Allentown Art Museum, gave a
history of "The Steel Worker."

Created by French artist Jean Leon Gerome in 1904, the
sculpture once adorned the stately exterior of industrialist Charles
Schwab's Riverside Drive mansion in New York City. The
Allentown Art Museum received the sculpture in 1982 as a gift
from Bethlehem Steel Corp.

Attending the kick-off for Touchstone was John Saraceno,
fund-raising chairman and board member, who unveiled a
commemorative poster depicting an image of "The Steel Worker"
amidst a collage of steel industry red hot heat.

Also at the fete were board members Mary Meilinger, Hal Black,
Bette Kovach, Paul Pierpont, Holly Sachdev and Dave Williams.
Board members Barbara Fraust and Ethel Drayton-Craig
organized the event.

The Steel Festival will include performances of "Steelbound," a
play about the steel industry and Bethlehem Steel Corp., and
featuring a cast of more than 70. About a third of the cast are
folks who worked for Bethlehem Steel or are relatives of
steelworkers.

Former United Steel Workers of America President Pete
DePetro was at the fund-raiser, as were former steelworkers Joe
Wilfinger, Jerry Werkheiser and Tom Petro. Professional actor
Bill George, who plays the lead in "Steelbound," attended with his
wife, Bridget, who is a member of the Bach Choir.

Also attending the launch party were Bob Wilkins, Frank Baker,
Steel Foundation Executive Jim Kostecky, Mark McKenna, a
cast member, Linny Fowler, Diane LaBelle, Banana Factory
program director, Maggie Szabo, Bethlehem councilwoman, Linda
Eberling and Ellen Johnson, artists, and Touchstone staffer, Deni
Thurman-Eyer.

"Steelbound" will be presented in the historic stone foundry at
Bethlehem Steel headquarters on Third Street in Bethlehem.

"The acoustics are fabulous there, plus the site offers a view of
the former blast furnaces and a real sense of history," says
Thurman-Eyer.

Posters of "The Steel Worker" are available from Touchstone.
For more information about volunteer and fund-raising
opportunities for the Steel Festival, call Touchstone Theater at
867-1689. Tickets for the performance are on sale.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Other fund-raising news from Touchstone includes its highly
successful concert by acclaimed singer and songwriter John
Gorka at the Ice House.

The concert, a near sell-out, helped raise several thousand dollars
for Touchstone and co-sponsor, Godfrey Daniel's.

Gorka, whose career has been on a steady rise with several
albums to his name, got his start at Godfrey Daniel's open mike
nights. He put a spin on the fund-raiser by purchasing tickets for
local art. 

Following Gorka's lead were Diane and Paul Davison, Ella
Schoomer, Barbara and Chuck Fraust, Micki Katz, Madeline
Iacurto, Bette Kovach, Clay Morgan and Hal and Allison Black.

Opening for Gorka were area song writers and Steel Festival
participants Len Christman, Patty Foley-Edgar, Roland Kushner,
Carol Leonard, Barbara Pardowski and Tom Watson. Also
performing was folk artist Bob Franke and Bonnie O'Donnell.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Don't forget, two more weeks are remaining for the Friday
Evening in the Sculpture Garden concert series in Bethlehem.

From 6 to 8 p.m. Friday , acoustic raconteur Tom Walz will join
Hot Flash, the all-women a cappella group. On Aug. 6,
Touchstone Theater's play, "Stories of Steel," and classic guitarist
John Wesley Dickson will spin the final show. The free concerts
are sponsored by The Bethlehem Fine Arts Commission and
Musikfest.

PHOTO courtesy Allentown Art Museum
CAPTION: `The Steel Worker,` a bronze sculpture by French
artist Jean Leon Gerome, once in Bethlehem Steel founder
Charles Schwab's home, stands at the Allentown Art Museum. 
 

Date: Friday, June 18, 1999 
Page: D08 
Edition: FIFTH 
Section: WEEKEND MAGAZINE 

EASTON'S CANAL FEST FEATURES CLASSIC CARS, 
SWING MUSIC

by DENNIS ZEHNER, The Morning Call 

What do classic cars, canal boats, and swing music have in
common?

If your dad likes all three, he's in luck for Father's Day. The 21st
Annual Canal Festival in Easton's Hugh Moore Park, from 11
a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday, will feature all of them.

The classic cars, provided by the Lehigh Valley Region of the
Antique Automobile Club, will be displayed on the grounds of the
park throughout the day. Classic cars are more than 20 years old.
Antique cars are more than 25 years old.

Albina Morris of Palmer Township, secretary for the club, says it
hopes to bring at least 20 cars to the festival, including two -- a
1965 Chevrolet Corvair and a 1950 Chevrolet sedan -- owned by
her husband, Harry. None of the cars to be featured is a hot rod.

Nancy Boccadoro, Canal Festival chair for the National Canal
Museum, says the car show and demonstrations of gas and steam
engines were added to the festival's standards in order to attract
fathers and their families to the event.

"These are things that are male-oriented," Boccadoro said.
"These are things guys like to look at."

But Harry Morris, a former president of the car club chapter,
says interest in classic cars is not just a guy thing.

"A lot of women are interested in it, especially the sportier looking
cars like the Corvair," he said. "The women go crazy for them,
even more than the men."

Swing music was added this year, Boccadoro says, for two
reasons. The first is the resurgent popularity of the style, as
evidenced by the popularity of such acts as the Brian Setzer
Orchestra and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy. In the past, the music at
the festival has concentrated on a country and folk sound,
Boccadoro said.

The second reason is the fact that swing music had its first
heyday in the 1920s and '30s, just before trains began to supplant
canal boats for commerce and transportation.

"That's sort of the tail end of the canal era," Boccadoro said.
"And it marks a part of history that's very important to Easton."

The biggest swing-style act scheduled to perform is the group
The Dukes of Destiny, from Philadelphia. The Dukes will
perform on the east stage from 12:30 to 1:15 p.m. and from 1:45
p.m. to 2:30 p.m.

Between the Dukes' sets, the Lehigh Valley Swing Dance
Society will give demonstrations on the east stage.

Dukes lead singer and manager Steve Brown says his group
seeks to create its own blend of blues, soul and swing music. He
says it will perform some of its own music along with covers of
such acts as Ray Charles, Muddy Waters and Sam and Dave.

"It's hard to categorize us," Brown said. "We try to develop music
in order to have our own identity."

The eight-member band has made two albums on its own label,
Hermit Records. The band's self-titled debut in 1991 got good
radio play on alternative stations in the Philadelphia area. The
Dukes are promoting their second album, House of Forbidden
Love, which they released last year.

The group came together in the Germantown section of
Philadelphia in 1984, as a group of friends, mostly students at
Temple University, who lived in neighboring houses and played in
separate bands, came together.

"We spent our free time jamming," Brown explained. "And then
the jams started sounding pretty good."

The band got its name from a match box advertising a
correspondence school that said, "Be the captain of your own
destiny." When "The Captains of Destiny" didn't sound quite right,
the Dukes of Destiny were born.

The Dukes have been a mainstay for the Philadelphia Swing
Dance Society. Another recent appearance was at the Pocono
Blues Festival. They have also played with acts such as Buddy
Guy and the Allman Brothers.

Other acts that will perform include the Easton Municipal Band
and the quintet Mainstreet Brass, based in the Lehigh Valley.

Another new attraction is the Venturing Crew of 1776, a troop of
historical re-enactors run by the Boy Scouts Explorers program,
who will perform throughout the day.

Festival staples such as crafts, history exhibits, mule-driven rides
on the canal boat, folk and country music, and a juried art show
will appear again.

"The purpose is to showcase Easton and to bring people to the
park," said Susan McDonough, development director for the
museum. "We want to have something for everyone."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Festival schedule

Following is the schedule for Sunday's Canal Festival in Easton.
Admission $5 per car for on-site parking. A free shuttle bus will
take people from the east and west sites.
Hugh Moore Park

(All events are 11 a.m.-6 p.m.)

- Classic Car Show by Lehigh Valley Region of the Antique
Automobile Club of America
- Josiah White II canal boat rides featuring music by Roy Justice
and Roger Latzgo
- History demonstrations by the Venturing Crew of 1776
- Juried arts and crafts show
- Pony rides and food

East Stage
- 11 a.m. to noon -- Easton Municipal Band
- 12:30-1:15 p.m. -- The Dukes of Destiny
- 1:15-1:45 p.m. -- Lehigh Valley Swing Dance Society
- 1:45-2:30 p.m. -- The Dukes of Destiny
- 2:30-4 p.m. -- Mainstreet Brass
- 4:15-5 p.m. -- Dave Fry

West Stage
- 11 a.m. to noon -- Ray Owen
- Noon to 1 p.m. -- Jay Smar
- 1:15-2 p.m. -- Dave Fry
- 2-3:30 p.m. -- Andrew Roblin
- 3:30-4:30 p.m. -- Bonnie O'Donnell
- 4:45-5:45 p.m. -- L.A. Williams and Kris Kehr

PHOTO by ED KOSKEY, The Morning Call
CAPTION: Harry Morris of Palmer Township with three of his
antique cars he will display at the Canal Festival in Hugh Moore
Park, Easton, Sunday. 
 

Date: Sunday, June 13, 1999 
Page: E09 
Edition: SECOND 
Section: ACCENT (SUNDAY MAGAZINE) 
Column: ABOUT THE COUNTY: BETHLEHEM 

SUMMERY SOCIALS ARE IN FULL SWING

by TINA BRADFORD (A free-lance story for The Morning
Call) 

From proms and graduation parties to neighborhood picnics and
art happenings, warm weather socials have been de rigueur day
or night.

What's a Memorial Day bash without remembering our country's
veterans and giving thanks to God for our freedom? That's the
impetus behind the annual day of fun for neighborhood picnic
co-hosts Brigitte and Brian Bortz, and Susan and Dave Strawn of
West Bethlehem.

"Every year, we start at noon by thanking God and remembering
our veterans. Then, it's time for hot dogs, hamburgers, games, and
kids running around all day with squirt guns," says Brigitte, a
founder of the neighborly picnic that has grown from 40 guests to
125 in just three years.

Held in the adjoining backyards of the Strawns' and the Bortz',
Bridget recalls how the event got started.

"Our family was going to have a Memorial Day picnic and so
were the Strawns, so we thought, why not combine our efforts,
expand the boundaries, and get to know everyone better," recalls
Brigitte.

The idea worked. And this year, the picnic not only attracted
close neighbors, friends and family, but also new ones from
church, job and music circles.

Part of the revelry included a three-grill station, a food and
beverage station, an area for volleyball and yard games, plus
three tents for shade and dining.

The festivity is also about music. Tunes ranged from praise and
worship songs to jazz, ballads, and rock provided by Tom Horn,
Brian Bortz and Wayne Maura.

"We have great neighbors. So its nice to get to know their
extended families and friends better too," adds Brigitte, a nurse in
the delivery room at St. Luke's Hospital.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

On June 4, the warm night air attracted a record crowd to First
Friday, the monthly celebration of the visual and performing arts.

Not only is the number of exhibits and participants growing, but so
is the diversity of the folks who come out to see what's new along
Third and Fourth Streets, plus the historic district of town.

Some of the folks seen taking in the "Garden and Galleries"
themed night were harpsichord craftsman Willard Martin, his wife
Julienne and children, Sofia and Nicholas, fashion designer Marla
Duran, Cheryl Dougan and son, Renzo Viscardi, artist Paul
Harryn, Charles Lyman, Valerie Livingston, Laurie Hahn, Jeff
Parks, Ruth Sigmon, Diane Jacoby, Dianne LaBelle, Janet
Belletti, Lynn White Blanchard and Helene Whitaker.

Clarence the Clown provided lots of fun at Cafe on Third, while
Joe Keppel kept the night lively at New Street BridgeWorks.

From the Banana Factory, where classical painter Ann Elizabeth
Schlegel, and stained glass artisans Linny Fowler and Octavio
Pena were featured artists, to the Kemerer Museum, Moravian
Book Shop and Bethlehem Sculpture Garden, folks were out to
soak up the arts in a summery, social fashion.

At the Sculpture Garden, 60 people were present to hear the free
concert by Dave Fry and Friends of Godfrey's. Also performing
were Bonnie O'Donnell, Bill Hall and Tom Walz. Annie Prince,
who is back from a business trip to Ireland, was hostess of the
concert.

"It was a fabulous turn out especially for the first concert of the
season," says Prince, noting that from 6 to 8 p.m. every Friday, a
free concert will be held at the Sculpture Garden through Aug. 6.
The Sculpture Garden is located on Church Street just east of
City Hall. 
 

Date: Saturday, April 24, 1999 
Page: A58 
Edition: SECOND 
Section: ENTERTAINMENT 

Memo:Dave Howell is a free-lance writer.

SMALL CROWD, 
BUT GOOD CHEER AT THE ICE HOUSE

by DAVE HOWELL (A free-lance story for The Morning
Call) 

Maybe people just didn't want to hear songs about people losing
their jobs with Bethlehem Steel, or maybe they just didn't want to
hear acoustic music. Whatever the reason, a crowd of only 75
showed up last weekend at Bethlehem's Ice House to see the
singer/songwriters who will participate in September's "Steel
Festival: The Art of an Industry."

That's too bad, because the show, designed to raise money to help
finance a compact disc of material by songwriters participating in
the festival, turned out to be one of the most cheerful Bethlehem
has seen in quite a while.

Emcee Moe Jerrand announced that at the last minute the
songwriters elected not to limit their performances to songs about
the Valley's steel industry. Anyone who expected doleful tunes
about the proletariat instead received performances like Len
Chrisman's, imitating Jimmy Durante singing "Young At Heart."

Either singing alone or accompanied by one of the other singers,
the songwriters revealed their range and versatility:

* Caren Leonard and Bonnie O'Donnell both showcased operatic
sopranos, Leonard on children's songs and O'Donnell about love
that is both happy and conflicted.

* Bill Hall played songs that celebrated love with exquisite chord
changes.

* Roland Kushner did a song about Mexican steel workers
adjusting to a new world.

* Barb Paradowski added cabaret influenced tunes that managed
to be both sardonic and gentle.

* Patti Foley Edgar sang about memories of relatives who
worked at the Steel.

* Roger Latzgo performed a song based on the children's classic,
"The Little Prince."

Although there were many worthwhile offerings, Tom Watson's
moving "Days of Steel," stood out in the two-hour show.

The performers themselves encouraged Watson to sing this at the
end of a question-and-answer session because they agreed it best
answered the audience's question: "What was it like to stand in
the now abandoned steel mills?"

PHOTO by LISA LAKE, Special to The Morning Call
CAPTION: Len Chrisman was part of the show last weekend in
Bethlehem designed to raise money to help finance a compact
disc of material by singer-songwriters participating in September's
`Steel Festival: The Art of an Industry.' 
 

Date: Sunday, March 7, 1999 
Page: E01 
Edition: SECOND 
Section: ACCENT (SUNDAY MAGAZINE) 

VOICES OF STEEL
FORMER BETHLEHEM PLANT WORKERS HELP TO
FORGE FESTIVAL FROM MEMORIES

by GEOFF GEHMAN, The Morning Call 

Last month, during the first rehearsal of a play, more than 70
performers were asked to remember Bethlehem Steel Corp. in a
single sentence. Some remembered the blast-furnace flame, the
other Star of Bethlehem. Some remembered the strangely
comforting noise of forging, an industrial lullaby. Some
remembered the stillness of a closed plant that makes sleep
harder.

Peter De Pietro put his 33-plus years at the Steel into a slogan.
Whether operating a crane, driving a truck or handling grievances,
he witnessed courage and creativity under harsh conditions. His
pride led him to lobby for stronger federal restrictions on imported
steel. His pride led him to write down the phrase, printed on
T-shirts and mugs: "Steelworkers: Strong as Steel."

All these memories are linked in "Steel Bound," the play
rehearsed by De Pietro and 15 former Bethlehem Steel
employees. The protagonist is Prometheus, the mythic Greek hero
turned unemployed steelworker. Instead of being chained to a
rock for giving fire to humanity, he's yoked to an outdated
submarine car at a dead plant. His solitary prison is visited by four
choruses, a steelworker's child, a scout for an on-site museum of
industrial history. With statistics and free verse, anger and black
humor, Prometheus insists he built America so well, he made
himself obsolete.

"Steel Bound" is a cornerstone of the Steel Festival, this
September's creative forum on life after Bethlehem Steel. A choir
and 11 songwriters, a professional storyteller and a member of
Sweet Honey in the Rock are preparing a spectacle near and at a
plant where spectacle was routine, before it becomes a museum,
a recreational/industrial complex, a relic.

"We're trying to stop time and really look at the experience of
Bethlehem Steel," says Mark McKenna, artistic director of
Touchstone Theatre, a producer of "Steel Bound" and the festival.
"Not to throw blame, or to answer any questions, but to recognize
what has past. We're going to remind people what a vital
community this was -- this is -- this will be. We're asking: What's
your part in all this, now that the parts are missing?"

"I'm in this play not only to make sure it's realistic, but to be part
of it," says De Pietro, whose only other theatrical character was
the High Priest in the Bethlehem Live Christmas Pageant. "That's
where I grew up, at the Steel. Gee, I think I was there more than
I was at home at times. With this play, it's just like coming back
home again."

The festival was conceived during another homecoming. In 1994
Touchstone and Lehigh University sponsored a festival starring
former students of Jacques Lecoq, legendary for teaching the
body to morph. While touring the Bethlehem Steel plant, Lecoq
envisioned a Greek chorus merging with massive, other-worldly
spaces. It was a logical proposal, for Lecoq, who died in January,
instructed students to wear neutral masks, play animalistic
choruses, become entire cities -- anything to master their inner
clown.

Jennie Gilrain, a graduate of Lecoq's Paris academy and then a
Touchstone ensemble member, raised the bar, proposing a play
with community involvement. She got an early start by teaching a
course at Lehigh University in which plays were based on
interviews with steelworkers. Augustine Ripa, a Lehigh theater
professor who has directed at Touchstone, suggested Aeschylus'
"Prometheus Bound" as a foundation script.

It was at a 1997 reading that Touchstone leaders realized the
foundation was shaky. According to McKenna, the first version
of the modern "Prometheus Bound" was too metaphorical, too
remote. "It didn't touch people. It was foreign," recalls McKenna,
who graduated from Lecoq's school with Gilrain, his wife. "It was
another time, another place. A man is chained to a rock. Who
cares?"

To help make a myth real, Touchstone consulted an ensemble
that specializes in localizing classics. For 13 years members of the
Cornerstone Theater Company have roamed the country, settling
in towns for months, adapting and performing with residents. In
racially divided Mississippi they staged "Romeo and Juliet" with
an integrated cast. In West Virginia they tailored Chekhov's "The
Three Sisters" for a town in economic transition, where coal was
shipped to Bethlehem Steel.

Cornerstone accepted Touchstone's challenge. According to
founding artistic director Bill Rauch, the California company has
long longed to produce in an industrial place, having workshopped
in an Ohio town where locomotives are manufactured.
Touchstone accepted that "Steel Bound" would be directed by
Rauch; written by Alison Carey, a Cornerstone founding
ensemble member, and designed by Cornerstone's Lynn Jeffries.
The Bethlehem group also accepted Cornerstone's method of
spreading major roles among professionals and non-professionals.

Carey researched "Steel Bound" by interviewing members of
Bethlehem Steel's three tiers: laborers, middle managers,
executives. Her script describes a golden history turned to rust.
The corporation that framed the Hoover Dam, and armed two
world wars, was undermined by everything from excessive
salaries to substandard equipment to expensive fines for pollution.
A plant that employed generations, that set clocks, that essentially
ran the city, now hosts three graveyard shifts.

Carey's Prometheus is a switchboard for history and perspective.
He describes the recipe for making steel, the 2,547 chemical
reactions, "all of them more or less out of control, all of them
necessary." He insists that if the Liberty Bell had been made of
steel instead of iron, it wouldn't have cracked. He's asked, by a
chorus, whether he has taken his anger to outplacement
counselors. He jokes about saving his energy by handing out
photocopied declarations to an endless parade of visitors.

And he refuses to be a freak show for tourists. "Think for one
minute," Prometheus tells Hermes, a naive historian-in-training,
"what it feels like to be turned into history while you're still alive."

Last October "Steel Bound" was read for spectators who lived
Prometheus' dilemma. In the audience at United Steelworkers of
America headquarters in Bethlehem were a dozen or so former
employees of Bethlehem Steel. Most were above the age of 60;
some started at the plant in the 1930s, working for 38 cents an
hour, before unionization. Two veterans were represented by
daughters. The father of Magdalena Szabo, a member of
Bethlehem City Council, began at the Steel at age 14. Wandalyn
Enix, whose father toiled 43 years, some as a union organizer,
was on hand to take notes for her book, "Is There Any Room in
the Inn?," a three-century history of African Americans in
Bethlehem.

The reading branched into a kind of town meeting. Steelworkers
praised Carey for tangible details, like epoxies that caused
three-day headaches. They made minor corrections: parking lots,
for example, didn't always exist. One veteran requested less
material about the plant and more about the plant's impact. Szabo
recommended more information about the wives and daughters
who cooked, washed and generally kept a messy life orderly.

Some responses exposed the delicate task of performing an
industrial galaxy. A retired switchboard operator wondered why
the Irish were excluded from a litany of 14 ethnic groups. Carey
said she simply forgot. To compensate, she requested more
stories of ancestors coming to America to the Steel.

The same spectator complained about Prometheus calling his
colleagues "the hardest bunch of lazy bums I ever saw." Carey
explained the comment was a compliment, not a slur. In fact, it
came from a steelworker. The same interviewee added, more
favorably: "There's no one worked at the Steel who went home
with clean hands every night."

Details sparked details. Two retired steelworkers recalled the
days of toilets, or "hoppers," without privacy. A master welder
remembered he wore boots soled with truck tires, to protect his
feet from metal fired to 3,200 degrees. No matter how hard
Szabo's father scrubbed, he still dirtied bedsheets.

For McKenna, the session confirmed at least two facts. One,
Touchstone and Cornerstone are on the right track. "It's been
validating to hear, `Wow, you've got a tough job,' as opposed to:
`What the hell are you people trying to do?' " And, two, with a
little prompting, most steelworkers enjoy straightening the record.

"There's a humility among steelworkers that is really present,
almost across the board," claims McKenna. "They are men of
steel, in a way, because they put themselves on the line. They
were told, `This is the job, and this is how you do it,' yet they
taught themselves to survive. They handed down the tricks of the
trade."

Other secrets have passed to the festival's songwriters. The 11
composers are directed by Bob Franke, a full-time musician who
supervised a musical history of communal agriculture in
Marblehead, Mass. They're coordinated by Bonnie O'Donnell, a
part-time musician and full-time therapist for a children's
psychiatric hospital. The group includes two former steelworkers,
an ex-carpenter and a professional musician. All have scored
stories of steel.

Roland Kushner, a business professor and management
consultant, interviewed his late father-in-law, who worked at
Bethlehem Steel for 41 years. He's writing a song concerning
"Little Mexico," one of many ethnic neighborhoods for
steelworkers, and a song describing the Bach Choir of Bethlehem
as a kind of demilitarized zone for a bickering worker and his
foreman. For the first time Kushner is fully exploiting his musical
pedigree: managing musician Stan Rogers; serving as Musikfest's
first program director; advising Godfrey Daniels, the Bethlehem
listening club.

Leonard H. Christman is writing from his experience as chief
clerk of Bethlehem Steel's drop forge department. In one song he
profiles Jim Robertson, who directed the corporation's media
section. In another number he describes the Steel as a true
melting pot, where differences of race and status were blurred to
build a restless nation. It's called "Dedicated Men One and All."

"R.O.I." is Christman's account of the battle that helped close the
drop forge department in 1989. He writes of executives
demanding greater "return on investment" and middle managers
like himself demanding better equipment and more time to
increase R.O.I. The calypso tune ends with: "My story is done
now, and orders are few,/ No new equipment, what else is
new/My shop is gone now, this is goodbye/We could not find
more R.O.I."

"The rank-and-file got along fairly well with middle managers,"
says Christman, an Allentonian who has authored published
Christmas songs. "It was the executives they were battling
against. They were getting the big bucks and, in the
rank-and-file's mind, doing nothing, while they were out in all
kinds of weather, and busting their butt. Middle management got
the yelling and the screaming from both ends."

From Robertson, Christman discovered the Steel's paternal past,
when the corporation sponsored a band and soccer teams. From
a pioneer female worker, Bonnie O'Donnell discovered the
constantly shifting schedules that forced employees to miss their
children's soccer games. The Bethlehemite could see the toll on
her interviewee: the arthritis; the slipped disk.

McKenna calls the Steel Festival a grass-roots examination of a
"simple and faithful" life. "It's not all about tourism. It's not all
about fancy shops. It's about neighborhoods, it's about
communities. The people in this city had their hands on the
Golden Gate Bridge and the U.S. Supreme Court (building). We
know this is an important story; all we have to do is hear it."

McKenna believes that a greater number of voices will better
capture the Steel's diversity. In addition to "Steel Bound" and the
songwriting project, the festival will include a visual-arts
exhibition, a choir, and the tentatively titled "Stirring the Pot," Jay
O'Callahan's program of solo storytelling. In October, at
Touchstone, O'Callahan previewed a tale centered on the family
of steelworker John Waldony. Composing the play's music and
arranging the choir's numbers is Ysaye Barnwell, a member of
Sweet Honey in the Rock, the collective of lyrical activists.
Barnwell's song "More Than a Paycheck" features the words of
coal miners, who earned diseases with their salaries.

The preferred location for "Steel Bound" is Bethlehem Steel's
Iron Foundry. The gargantuan building, closed since 1995, has an
inspiring view of the Lehigh River and the blast furnaces.
According to Bette Kovach, Bethlehem Steel's director of media
relations, the site needs tracks for the submarine car that will bind
Bill George, the Touchstone co-founder who's playing
Prometheus.

After a recent rehearsal of "Steel Bound," De Pietro and other
steelworkers suggested another site: a Bethlehem Steel welfare
room. "That's where we met before shifts and after shifts," says
De Pietro, a three-term president of Local 2600 who edits the
newsletter of the Steelworkers Press Association. "By the time
you showered, you knew everyone's business. It was a hub of
brotherhood, so to speak."

"Now, some of the (clothing) baskets are down, some are up,"
adds De Pietro. "There's dust and cobwebs. Dirty clothes.
Helmets. Boots and what-not. It's very eerie; it's like walking into
a ghost town."

De Pietro is looking forward to "singing and jumping around --
they call it dancing, you know." He's looking forward to leading
the "Steel Bound" chorus as he led Local 2600. For him, it's a
chance to strike a blow for steelworkers, to remind the
Smithsonian Institution to make the National Museum of Industrial
History more than a repository for quarantined machines. Like
Prometheus, he wants to hear loud, lively voices; like Prometheus,
he refuses to be a specimen.

"I can relate to that, being laid off," says De Pietro, who is
studying to drive a forklift, something he did at the Steel, illegally.
"Being with one company for 33-1/2 years, it's almost like family.
We thought we were a family, even though, at times, we didn't
see eye to eye. I can relate to feeling like you've lost your
family."
 

2 PHOTOS by MICHAEL KUBEL, Special to The Morning Call
CAPTION: Mark McKenna (left), artistic director of Touchstone
Theatre, directs a rehearsal of `Steel Bound,' which is produced
by Touchstone and the Cornerstone Theater Company.

CAPTION: Peter De Pietro, whose 33-plus years at Bethlehem
Steel Corp. included three terms as president of Local 2600,
rehearses as the leader of the Steelworkers Chorus in `Steel
Bound,' a cornerstone of the Steel Festival planned for
September.
 

2 PHOTOS by DOUGLAS BENEDICT, The Morning Call
CAPTION: Linda Baas, a theater director and teacher, leads the
Festival Chorus, one of four choruses in `Steel Bound.'

CAPTION: Jennie Gilrain directs a `Steel Bound' audition. The
former Touchstone Theatre ensemble member taught a Lehigh
University course in which student based plays on interviews with
steelworkers.