LAST WEST: Roadsongs for Dorothea Lange

by Tess Taylor

Sonoma Valley Museum of Art

LAST WEST: Roadsongs for Dorothea Lange is a poetry, collage, exhibition, and play created from the source material LAST WEST written by Tess Taylor for the MoMA’s words and pictures gallery in 2020. The piece follows the journey of famous photogragher Dorothea Lange who took over 40,000 negatives and quotes from the American people while journeying across the United States during the 1930’s-40’s. In 2018, a poet who followed in her footsteps to look where she looked.

Last West explores how Lange’s images of migrancy, internment, environmental crisis, and everyday survival sound against the issues Americans face today.

Cast

POET: Val Sinkler and Alejandra Wahl
LANGE: Valerie Fachman
WOMAN: Keiko Shimosato Carreiro
MAN: Kenneth Watkins
CHILD: Chloë Parmelee

Creative Team

Director: Ciera Eis
Producer: Maggie Whitaker

Scenic Designer: Randy Wong-Westbrooke
Costume Designer: Maggie Whitaker
Lighting Designer and Technical Director: Maxx Kurzunski
Sound Designer: Sara Witsch
Stage Manager & Props Designer: Rylee Grace Cagle
Stage Manager: K’Zhane McGill

Photos by Phoenix Alexandrea

PREVIOUS DEVELOPMENT:
ColLABo at Carnegie Mellon University 2025
Magic Theatre – Developmental Reading 2022

PRESS
ALTA JOURNAL- https://www.altaonline.com/culture/a69255339/dorothea-lange-last-west-roadsongs/