Local News

Albion River Bridge update and Guthrie’s American Song, playing at the Mendocino Theater Company

Mendocino County Public Broadcasting | By Elise Cox

Published August 16, 2024 at 11:51 AM PDT

Byron Greene in the role of folksinger on the stage — Byron Greene in the role of folksinger

August 16, 2024 —
1 - Albion residents responded to a Caltrans call for community comment on a draft environmental impact report at a meeting Tuesday night at the Whitesboro Grange in Albion with a demand that Caltrans include the rehabilitation option in the EIR. “For a good ten years plus, Caltrans has been talking about this being a rehabilitation or a replacement program,” said Jim Heid, a member of Albion Bridge Stewards, a local group that has carried out its own studies of the bridge’s structural integrity. “All of a sudden the words rehab, rehabilitate, and rehabilitation disappeared from the project description.”
2 -What does a white male folk singer born in 1912 in Oklahoma have in common with a 23-year-old Mexican American female educator born in 2001 in Fort Bragg? Only the things that matter most: resilience, respect, the ability to remember, and a steadfast belief in the power of song. Listen to our interview with Maria Ramos, who plays multiple roles in Woody Guthrie’s American Song, playing at the Mendocino Theater Company through August 25.

What does a white male folk singer born in 1912 in Oklahoma have in common with a 23-year-old Mexican American educator born in 2001 in Fort Bragg? Not a lot. Only the things that matter most: resilience, respect, the ability to remember, and a steadfast belief in the power of song to inspire, to strengthen, and to heal. Listen to our interview with Maria Ramos, who plays multiple roles in the Woody Guthrie’s American Song, playing at the Mendocino Theater Company through August 25.

Maria Ramos knew very little about Woody Guthrie when she landed the roles of daughter, hobo girl, and bowery girl in Mendocino Theater Company's production of Woody Guthrie's American Song. Maria knew that Guthrie was an American musical icon, of course, and that he wrote "This Land is Your Land," but she was surprised by how much his songs, written in the 1930s and 1940s, reflected the stories of her family and by how much the words touched her heart when she sang them.

The show is playing through August 25. I caught up with Maria just before the show began on Saturday night.