‘Grapes’ coming to GCT

Play will feature all-youth cast

“The Grapes of Wrath,” renowned first as a novel and then as a prize-winning motion picture, is a story of the Joad family and their flight from the dust bowl of Oklahoma. The play makes its way to Germantown Community Theatre June 24-July 3.

Desperately proud, but reduced to poverty by the loss of their farm, the Joads pile their few possessions on a battered old truck and head west for California, hoping to find work and a better life.

Led by the indomitable Ma Joad, who is determined to keep the family together at any cost, and by the volatile young Tom Joad, an ex-convict who grows increasingly impatient with the intolerance and exploitation that they encounter on their trek, the Joads must deal with death and terrible deprivation before reaching their destination — where their waning hopes are dealt a final blow by the stark realities of the Great Depression.

And yet, despite the anguish and suffering that it depicts, the play becomes in the final essence a soaring and deeply moving affirmation of the indomitability of the human spirit and of the essential goodness and strength that reside in the hearts and minds of the “common man,” throughout the world.

The sparse set and costume designs will be tackled by renowned GCT designers Justin Asher and

Ashley Kopera. The cast includes an incredible allyouth cast including Terence Moultry as Casy, Joey Echeverria as Tom Joad, Austin Russel as Pa Joad, Molly Yuan as Ma Joad, and Lizzie Dean Friend as Rose of Sharon as well as other outstanding actors and actresses representing GCT’s All Children’s Theatre programming.

Curtains open at 7 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2:30 p.m. Sundays. Tickets are $13 and $9 for anyone 17 and younger.