Walker Evans is played by actor Josh Aaron McCabe Gwendolyn Rice's play, "A Thousand Words." Submitted photos by Nick Berard for the Milwaukee Chamber Theatre
Walker Evans, an early 20th-century photographer who documented the Great Depression for the Farm Security Administration, is the subject of Madison-based playwright Gwendolyn Rice’s ”A Thousand Words,” playing at the Milwaukee Chamber Theatre through March 11, 2012. Actor Josh Aaron McCabe plays Evans in the production.
A media release provided by the theater explains that “Rice originally conceived ‘A Thousand Words’ after reading a small article in the newspaper about the discovery of a cache of Evans’ photos in a Key West, Fla., bar. ‘This story fascinated me,’ [Rice said]. ‘Unfamiliar with the photographer Walker Evans, or his work, I started researching him and studying his remarkably evocative pictures. He eventually became a main character in the play.’”
Tickets range from $31-36. Performances are held at the Broadway Theatre Center’s Studio Theatre, 158 North Broadway in Milwaukee’s Historic Third Ward. More details and preview video clips are available at: http://www.chamber-theatre.com/performance/2011-2012/a-thousand-words.aspx
Shirley Hughes (Molly Rhode) and Walker Evans (Josh Aaron McCabe) in "A Thousand Words."