Time Changes Everything

PRESS RELEASE

Time Changes Everything, a tale of two could-have-been meetings between Oklahoma music icons Bob Wills and Woody Guthrie, played to a sold-out house a few months ago at the Tulsa Performing Arts Center Trust’s SummerStage Festival.
That’s the good news. The downside was that scores of people who tried to get tickets were unable to.
Now, thanks to the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame, fans of Wills and Guthrie – and the Red Dirt Rangers, who perform in the second part of the evening – have another chance. Time Changes Everything returns for one show only on Friday, Oct. 16 at the Tulsa Jazz Depot, 111 E. First Street. As was the case with the premiere, the event includes a presentation of the play plus a concert from the Red Dirt Rangers.
“Even before we could get the first production under our belts, we were getting calls and emails wanting to know when we were doing it again,” says John Wooley, the play’s producer, who co-wrote the script with Thomas Conner. “We wanted to wait for the right time and the right place, and the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame really came through for us. The Jazz Depot is a historic place, and we think it’s a perfect venue for a show that draws so deeply from Oklahoma’s musical history.”
In two compelling scenes, Time Changes Everything catches the two musical giants on their way up, and again after their respective careers have peaked, bringing to fascinating life the attitudes they held, especially when it comes to what their music could – and should – do.
Red Dirt Rangers Brad Piccolo and John Cooper portray the two legends, and then join their band for the concert. The long-lived Rangers are widely recognized as one of the first and most influential acts in the musical movement known as Red Dirt, which blends the happy abandon of Bob Wills’ music with the social consciousness of Woody Guthrie’s. After the Rangers take the stage, patrons will be able to hear for themselves the deep influence of Guthrie and Wills on Red Dirt music.
Playwrights Conner and Wooley first got the idea for Time Changes Everything as during their days as Tulsa World entertainment writers. Conner, currently music editor of the Chicago Sun-Times, studied Woody Guthrie with Guthrie’s daughter, Nora, while on a fellowship to Columbia University. Wooley, now a freelance writer and host of the weekly Swing on This show on NPR affiliate KWGS, has spent decades studying Wills and his music, becoming acquainted with dozens of his sidemen and family members. Director Vern Stefanic is a veteran journalist, theatrical director and nationally recognized playwright who has staged over 100 productions for a variety of theatrical companies. One of the leading lights of the Tulsa theater scene for decades, he brings to the staging a profound sense of what makes Oklahoma and its artists unique.
General admission tickets for the 7:30 p.m. Oct. 16 staging of Time Changes Everything are $15, with a limited amount of table seating available at $30 per person. Beverages and snacks will be available.
For tickets, call the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame at (918) 281-8609 or visit the website at www.okjazz.org
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Interviews with the actors, director, and playwrights are available, and can be arranged by contacting John Wooley, (918) 342-0339 or pedrocriqui@gmail.com