It's been the subject of an Oscar-winning documentary and history books. It's studied in law and labor relations classes. Now the 1985 meatpackers' union strike that convulsed the company town of Austin, Minn., will be revisited in a new play.
"Spamtown, USA" will premiere at the Children's Theatre Company in February 2020. The drama aims to offer perspectives that were missing from coverage of the 10-month strike — those of young people whose childhoods were deeply affected by the labor battle.
"I was really concerned about talking with four categories of adults who were children during the P-9 strike," said playwright Philip Dawkins, who conducted interviews in Austin and elsewhere to research "Spamtown."
Dawkins took care to capture voices of "kids who had parents who were strikers, kids whose parents crossed the picket lines, kids from Hormel corporate and kids who did not have family members working for Hormel but who were impacted growing up in the town.
"What is it like to be a young person in a world where adults have delineated everything into black or white, right and wrong?" Dawkins said. "That is the question for this play about the '80s. But it feels to me like life in the U.S. in 2019."
"Spamtown" will be staged Feb. 16-April 5, 2020, by Will Davis, Chicago's high-profile and proudly trans director. It is one of two premieres in CTC's just-announced 2019-20 season.
The other is British director Greg Banks' two-person adaptation of "Snow White," to be headlined by virtuosic Twin Cities actors Joy Dolo and Dean Holt. The theater describes this new "Snow White" (Sept. 29-Dec. 8) as a witty, knock-knock version that questions "the storybook notion of love with a delightful twist."
Other works in the 2019-20 lineup reach well beyond Minnesota, with theater springing from Ethiopia, Jamaica and Canada.
