Bob Dylan, The Early Years

This is a short musical play featuring the songs of Bob Dylan and two by his early influence, Woody Guthrie. Each song is introduced by a short skit ad features many of the important characters in Dylan's early years, approximately 1959-1966. The play begins in Minneapolis where Dylan is getting his feet wet at the local drop-ins and coffeehouses. Then he travels to New York City in search of his hero Woody Guthrie. Dylan immediately become a fixture of the Greenwich Village folk music/beat poetry scene. The play introduces his 3 main loves of that period, Suze Rotolo, Joan Baez, and his wife Sara Dylan. He befriends Billy Houston, Alan Lomax, Richard Farina, and Allen Ginsberg. Three journalists have roles in this play, Robert Shelton, David Hipple and Nora Ephron. The music could be performed by folk artists playing solo or by a full chorus singing the songs. All the music is fairly familiar and bound to be well-received. If course, a short play cannot cover all the events of his life or the complexity of his thought. It is meant to be an introduction to his biography and some of his songs. He is the top writer of his generation and his songs will live forever.