Photo courtesy of Paul McComas
Megan Corse as Rose of Sharon - Grapes of Wrath
Megan Corse as Rose of Sharon from 'Grapes of Wrath'
John Steinbeck was one of America’s bestselling novelists of the 1930s and ‘40s. His writing cast a bright light on the country and its people. Reading Steinbeck was a perennial assignment in high school literature classes but he remains best known from the moving film adaptation of The Grapes of Wrath. Steinbeck’s story of migrants fleeing the environmental catastrophe of the Dust Bowl, and their unfriendly reception in many places, seems especially prescient at this moment.
Photo by Phil Circle
Megan Corse and Paul McComas
Megan Corse and Paul McComas
Wisconsin natives Megan Corse and Paul McComas will conduct dramatic readings at Marquette University from four Steinbeck novels: Of Mice and Men, The Grapes of Wrath, Cannery Row, East of Eden; and his nonfiction Travels with Charley: In Search of America. The presentation will include a live performance of Bruce Springsteen’s Steinbeck-inspired protest song “The Ghost of Tom Joad,” a screening of the short film Crooks: 8 Minutes 46 Seconds “which I adapted from Of Mice and Men and made in partnership with my L.A. actor friend Darryl Alan Reed in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd,” McComas says, along with a reading of Steinbeck's stinging admonishment of Sen. Joe McCarthy” whose ghost is stirring in America.
“Every element of the program, including the post-show audience talkback, is geared toward upholding Steinbeck's key message: We are our sisters' keepers, we are our brothers' keepers, and this is what makes life worth living. As such, the show is also a full-throated, timelier-than-ever rebuke to America's amoral-at-best felon-in-chief, and to the dystrumpian/trumpocalyptic future that people of good faith nationwide are coalescing to prevent—before it's too late,” McComas continues.
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Image courtesy of Paul McComas
John Steinbeck: Scribe of Social Conscience Poster
A poster for 'John Steinbeck: Scribe of Social Conscience' at Marquette University
Has the importance of Steinbeck’s novels only grown given recent political events? During the 15 years when McComas presented this material in a variety of settings and formats, “the Tea Party spawned MAGA, and national leadership has bounced back and forth between conscientious and, as now, conscienceless and unconscionable,” he says. “Steinbeck's work may or may not be ‘more important today than ever before,’ but I could make a good argument that, in this regard, November 2025 is deadlocked with November 1929 and the years that followed. I'm honored to serve as an ambassador for this brilliant artist-humanitarian who unfailingly modeled radical empathy; collective action large and small; and, simply—to use a word from which we can no longer afford to shy away—love.
Corse and McComas’ “John Steinbeck: Scribe of Social Conscience” takes place 7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 11 at the Marquette Alumni Memorial Union with a Q&A after the show; and, during a MU peacemaking class that is open to the public, 10 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 12 at Marquette Varsity Theater. The event is sponsored by the Marquette University Center for Peacemaking.
Admission is free but donations will be accepted for Scaling Wellness in Milwaukee, the National Alliance on Mental Illness S.E. Wisconsin and 4th Dimension Sobriety.
