Did you know that several of local people that were interviewed for RUST attended opening night? Jeremy Moore from the rapidian was there and spoke to them to get their reactions to the play. Below is an excerpt of the article, go to therapidian.org to read the entire article and see post-show interviews with Gary Albrecht, Marty Green and Al Berry.
Local manufacturing workers react to Austin Bunn’s “RUST”
by Jeremy Moore on Tuesday Oct 4th, 2011 in OPINION
Video interviews with Gary Albrecht formerly of Rowe International, Marty Green of GM and Al Berry of Michigan Works! following the first performance of “RUST” by Austin Bunn.
“It was a good run,” said Marty Green, former employee of the General Motors Metal Fabrication plant in Wyoming, Mich. Marty sums up much of the sentiment radiating from “RUST.” Namely, that the era of Michigan-as-titan-of-industry—of sweaty, hard-working, hard-playing autoworkers assembling cars bolt by bolt is now gone. It was a simpler era where the American Dream could be mainlined right out of high school. All you needed was a proclivity for trades, a willingness to get dirty and work hard, and maybe have family working at the plant to get you in. Austin Bunn’s “RUST,” playing till Oct. 8 at Actors’ Theatre (160 Fountain NE), seems to give the passing of that era a name, an era that is being replaced by something different: a smaller, advanced workforce capitalizing on mechanized assembly and off-shore markets.
Marty and Gary Albrecht were both featured in my prior article on the closing of the GM Metal Fabrication Plant. In interviews of Marty and Gary following the opening night of “RUST,” they accept and even embrace the change in their lives caused by massive job losses in the manufacturing industry. Al Berry of Michigan Works!, instrumental in the retraining of displaced manufacturing workers, was also interviewed. He spoke to opportunities that await many former autoworkers. Gary makes it a point to say that the plant closings and loss in manufacturing jobs in Michigan is not a tragedy; to call it a tragedy dilutes the word and is disrespectful of the real tragedies we all face. Instead, Gary, Marty and even Austin in the play seem to give into the idea that plant closings layoffs, and changing careers is the stuff of life. And it is precisely this stuff we must accept, shrug our shoulders and move on to the next adventure that awaits us. (…)
Be sure and go to therapidian.org to read the rest of the article and watch the videos!
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