First Class by David Waggoner

Theodore Roethke is perhaps the Northwest's most anthologized poet, and is considered the founding father of the Northwest School of poetry. He taught at the University of Washington at intervals from 1947 until his death in 1963 at the Bloedel Reserve and helped launch a generation of talented student poets into the top ranks of American and Northwest poetry: Carolyn Kizer, James Wright, Tess Gallagher, Richard Hugo, and David Wagoner, among them. First Class premiered at Seattle’s ACT Theatre in 2007.  

In his introduction to the play, David Wagoner wrote: “Most of the teaching methods of artists in all categories have gone unrecorded. We know very little about what great painters and great composers, for instance, said to their pupils. In First Class I've tried to re-create the atmosphere of one of Roethke's poetry workshops, working mostly from my memories of him and a number of examples of the kinds of poems and opinions he admired, some of the near rituals he used both on students and himself, some of his unique spirit, and some of the hectic ways Time and Place would leap over each other for him as if he were in charge of both.”

First Class will be performed during April 2009, National Poetry Month, at the Bainbridge Library, Poulsbo Library, Port Orchard Library, and for students at Bainbridge High School. The role of Theodore Roethke is performed by Seattle-area actor Ken Grantham, who has acted professionally for theatre, screen, and television for over thirty years. The play is directed by actress/director Kimberly King, who most recently starred at Seattle's ACT Theatre in Becky’s New Car by Steven Dietz.

First Class is sponsored by the Kitsap Regional Library System, with funding support from the Bainbridge Island Arts and Humanities Fund, administered by the Bainbridge Island Arts and Humanities Council.

April 13
6:30 p.m.
Poulsbo Branch Library
Free.

April 18 & 19
7:30 p.m.
Bainbridge Branch Library
Presented by Island Theatre
Free.
April 28
7:00 p.m.
Port Orchard Branch Library
Free.

 
    “This is a poetry workshop, God help us,” begins First Class, a one-act, one-actor playreading by U.W. Professor Emeritus and poet David Wagoner that portrays his teacher and mentor, the poet Theodore Roethke. Set in one of Roethke’s legendary poetry workshop, the 75-minute production stars Seattle-area actor Ken Grantham.

    Theodore Roethke is perhaps the Northwest's most anthologized poet, and is considered the founding father of the Northwest School of poetry. He taught at the University of Washington at intervals from 1947 until his death in 1963 at the Bloedel Reserve and helped launch a generation of talented student poets into the top ranks of American and Northwest poetry: Carolyn Kizer, James Wright, Tess Gallagher, Richard Hugo, and David Wagoner, among them. First Class premiered at Seattle’s ACT Theatre in 2007. 

    In his introduction to the play, David Wagoner wrote: “Most of the teaching methods of artists in all categories have gone unrecorded. We know very little about what great painters and great composers, for instance, said to their pupils. In First Class I've tried to re-create the atmosphere of one of Roethke's poetry workshops, working mostly from my memories of him and a number of examples of the kinds of poems and opinions he admired, some of the near rituals he used both on students and himself, some of his unique spirit, and some of the hectic ways Time and Place would leap over each other for him as if he were in charge of both.”

    In the process, the audience is swept into not only the exhilarating milieu of Roethke’s classroom, but also the terrible landscape of mental illness that clouded most of his life. The poet suffered from bipolar disorder, and when he was manic, he would call people such the University of Washington president, the mayor of Seattle, or the governor, and try to give them advice.

    First Class will be performed during April 2009, National Poetry Month, at three branches of the Kitsap Regional Library: Bainbridge Library, Poulsbo Library, Port Orchard Library, and for students at Bainbridge High School. The role of Theodore Roethke is performed by Seattle-area actor Ken Grantham, who has acted professionally for theatre, screen, and television for over thirty years. The playreading is directed by actress/director Kimberly King, who most recently starred in the ACT Theatre production of Becky’s New Car.

    Playwright David Wagoner has published fourteen books of poetry and ten novels. He is also the editor of Straw for the Fire: From the Notebooks of Theodore Roethke, 1943-63 (1972). Wagoner has received an American Academy of Arts and Letters award, the Sherwood Anderson Award, the Fels Prize, the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, the Eunice Tjetjens Memorial and English-Speaking Union prizes from Poetry magazine, and fellowships from the Ford Foundation, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. A former Chancellor of The Academy of American Poets, he was the editor of Poetry Northwest from 1966 until its last issue in 2002. He lives in Bothell, Washington, and is a professor emeritus at the University of Washington where he teaches poetry, fiction, and playwriting.

    First Class is sponsored by the Kitsap Regional Library System, with funding support from the Bainbridge Island Arts and Humanities Fund, administered by the Bainbridge Island Arts and Humanities Council.

Image of Ken Grantham as Theodore Roethke: Photo by Ned Thorne