The musical “Revolution(s),” which recently concluded its premiere run at the Goodman Theater, in Chicago, comes with an impressive and à propos pedigree. The score was pulled from the songbook of Tom Morello, best known as the guitarist for Rage Against the Machine, Audioslave and many other projects. The book is by Zayd Ayers Dohrn, a playwright who carries quite the legacy: His parents, Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, were leaders of the far-left Weather Underground in the early 1970s. It is not a coincidence that the musical is about two generations of radical activists: a couple we see in 1989 and their two sons, whom we meet in 2016.

In this episode, Dohrn, who is the director of the MFA program in Writing for Screen and Stage at Northwestern University, talks about the inspiration for the show, what it was like to do this particular story in Chicago when the city was facing militarized federal forces, and how he approaches political theater.

Some sources:

Elisabeth’s interview with Tom Morello (gift link).

Zayd’s award-winning podcast series about his family, the Weather Underground and the Black Panthers: “Mother Country Radicals” — Elisabeth says it’s basically an audio thriller.

Thanks to Christian Huygen for our theme music.

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