She was the face of the Great Depression, and now is the subject of a new Modesto play

During the Great Depression, California’s Central Valley became home to scores of people seeking a better life.

Among them was perhaps the most recognizable face of the Great Depression, immortalized in the iconic photo “Migrant Mother,” who lived out the rest of her days in Modesto. Now that image, and the women behind it, are the subject of the new full-length play by the same name from local writer Ken White.

“Migrant Mother” debuts in full at the Prospect Theater Project on Friday, Jan. 13, and will run through Sunday, Jan. 22. The play debuted in 2014 as part of the downtown Modesto theater company’s summer one-act festival.

Modesto-based author White has written plays and screenplays before, but this will be his first produced full-length show. Prospect Theater Artistic Director Jack Souza encouraged White to flesh out his one-act show, and serves as director of the production.

“Migrant Mother” imagines what happened when Resettlement Administration photographer Dorothea Lange met and photographed Florence Owens Thompson and her children in a work camp in Nipomo in 1936. A photo Lange took of Thompson, hand to her face, staring off into the distance as her children huddle around her, has come to personify the hardscrabble existences of so many during the Depression.

Yet Thompson’s identity remained a mystery – Lange had promised not to publish her name – until a Modesto Bee reporter tracked the woman down at her home in 1978. Thompson had moved to Modesto in 1945 and lived in the city the rest of her life. She died in 1983 at 80 years old and is buried in Lakewood Memorial Park in Hughson.

White said it was reading articles about Thompson that inspired him to write “Migrant Mother.”

“I wondered about the encounter; it was supposed to be only 10 minutes long,” White said. “Her editor said afterward that many times he asked himself, ‘What was she thinking?’ So I have (Lange and Thompson) have a dialogue back and forth and think what they might be thinking about as this whole process is going on.”

Playing Lange is Modesto performer Robin Bjerke, just off her stint directing the Gallo Center Repertory Company holiday production of “Too Many Tamales.” Modesto actress Melissa Dawn, who was most recently in the Modesto Junior College’s production of “August: Osage County,” plays her photographic subject Thompson.

White said in his attempt to answer what both women were thinking, he delved into themes that remain topical to this day, from class struggle to greed, families and disenfranchisement. He also looks at the idea of framing reality.

“I hope people come away thinking that what people worried about in 1936 are things that are not that much different in 2017,” he said. “And the big concept of framing reality, that whether a photograph or YouTube video or news broadcast or newspaper article, there’s a certain point of view. That is the case with art and any kind of media.”

An exhibit by valley photographers called “Framing Reality” will be held during the show’s run. The event will feature the work of and a panel discussion by five area photographers at 5 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 18. Admission is free and the exhibit be displayed through the rest of the play’s run.

Rounding out the cast of “Migrant Mother” as Viola Thompson is young local actress Anna Mia Conley, who was recently seen in the Gallo Center Repertory Company production of “The Diary of Anne Frank.” Viola is the older daughter of Thompson who is out of frame in the famed photo. White has also included his Everyman character Doc Guitar (played here by Andrew Durr), who appears in all of his plays, as the Greek Chorus.

White said he hopes audiences come away thinking about the show’s issues, many of which still resonate today, and knowing more about Modesto.

“I think it’s really important; we continue to take a lot of heat from various media outlets and news organizations about what kind of town we are,” he said. “For me to be able to tell stories about a different side of Modesto and the valley is very important. This is an opportunity for us as an artist community to say, ‘Take a different look at Modesto. There are some really talented people here and some really interesting stories to tell.’ ”

This story was originally published January 10, 2017 at 4:06 PM with the headline "She was the face of the Great Depression, and now is the subject of a new Modesto play."