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‘Out of This Furnace’
By GUY D’ASTOLFO
YOUNGSTOWN
“Out of This Furnace” tells the fictional story of a Rusyn and Slovak family whose lives were shaped by the Pittsburgh steel mills.
It’s a story of ethnic culture and the immigrant experience that could just as easily be set in Youngstown.
The play, based on the 1941 book by Thomas Bell and adapted for the stage by Andy Wolk, will get its Mahoning Valley premiere this weekend by Youngstown State University Theater.
Nancy Andersen Wolfgang, a theater instructor at YSU, is the director.
She said the play — which has caught the attention of the Mahoning Valley’s sizeable Slavic community — will be a moving experience for audiences.
“At some point, many will see their own family in it,” said Wolfgang.
The play is set in Braddock, Pa., on the Monongahela River just east of Pittsburgh, between 1888 and 1937 and follows the Dobrejcak family through three generations, from its arrival in America to the upheaval brought by the rise of labor unions and subsequent strikes.
“It shows how each generation becomes more financially secure, and how lives and relationships change, how working conditions change,” said Wolfgang.
The director said she believes the YSU production will be only the third time “Out of This Furnace” has been produced.
As a California native, Wolfgang admits that — unlike many of her students — she was not familiar with the local lore from the days when steel was king and ethnic pride was everything. But she and her cast and crew took impressive measures to recreate the era’s look and feel.
The Valley’s Carpatho-Rusyn Society was used as a resource for certain behaviors, including how Catholics of that ethnic group crossed themselves in church.
One student, Michael A. Free, visited Braddock, Pa., to research the town’s appearance. Student dramaturge Amber Palmer created a glossary of steel industry and strike terms that will be included in the program.
The stage at Ford Theater, inside Bliss Hall, will be divided in half. To the audience’s left will be interior scenes in Dobrejcak family homes. To the right will be the mill, brown and drab and dirty.
“We created an artistic version of the mill,” said Wolfgang. “It is always present, even when the action is in the house.”
This juxtaposition of the set drives home the point that the steel mill was a dominant and inescapable part of everyday life in Braddock, Pa. Workers put in 90 hours or more a week in the mill, a spirit-crushing and often crippling existence.
Adding color to the stage will be the bright hand-stitched embroidery that embellishes the women’s dresses and aprons.
“Out of This Furnace” is a rapid-moving play that starts with a flashback and quickly winds through its paces. The woman of the house changes the linens for each new scene so that the audience will know which household is being visited.
Authentic Slavic music is used to give audio realism, and mill sounds — including steam whistles — are also employed.
The cast worked on a general eastern European accent, with particular attention to the pronunciation of names, said Wolfgang. Characters age more than 30 years by adding apparel: glasses, sweaters, babushkas.
Students cast in the play include: Connor Bezeredi, Justin Brown, Josh Fleming, Claudia Gage, Aaron Gutauckas, Christopher Hager, Patrick Hobby, Kathryn Jerome, Theresa Leonard, Molly Lukehart, Zara Markman, Marie Mentzer, Emily Shipley, Eric Shonk and Mark Warchol.