PENDLETON – The College Community Theater production of “The Grapes of Wrath” opens at 8 p.m. Friday, March 5, at Pioneer Theater on the Blue Mountain Community College Pendleton campus.

A 1929 Model A truck dominates center stage in many scenes of “Grapes of Wrath.” Built from vintage car parts by Chuck May the truck has an authentic, but aged look.

Patrick Tangredi directs the cast of 14 men and 11 women. The production chronicles the flight of the Joad family from the dust bowl of Oklahoma to the bountiful crops and plentiful jobs that were believed to be in California. The drama and music – live musicians play portable period instruments at the side of the stage – blend to reveal the struggles and courage of ordinary people striving to preserve their humanity in spite of many hazards and desperate odds. Through it all, their indomitable spirit survives.

Merledene Harrison, costumer for the Frank Galati adaptation of the 1939 novel that won John Steinbeck a Pulitzer Prize, brings a unique point-of-view to the play. At age 6, she made the six-month journey from Nebraska to Oregon with her parents and two sisters in 1935.

“Everything we owned was piled inside or tied onto the running boards of our model A two-door sedan,” Harrison said. “I remember everything.

“Girls almost always wore flour sack dresses with cloth belts that tied in back,” she said. “Most had small calico-like printed flowers on the tightly woven cotton. They had ‘little Dutch boy’ haircuts or long braids. … Men and boys wore their hair trimmed short with hand clippers up to a bowl or crock put over their head. They always parted their hair, not necessarily in the middle, and used hair oil or cream. ‘Wild Root’ was a popular brand name.”

Estate sales, the Community Bargain Counter and the Salvation Army thrift store have been good sources, she added.

“People usually save the good stuff and not the old, worn-out stuff that we need. We’re still looking for a hat and some boots.”

Clothing was tailored to fit unlike today’s dropped shoulder seams and loose-fitting slacks. “I prefer new construction,” she said, but patterns for 1930s-era clothing are difficult to find.

“It’s fun to watch the kids,” she said. “They are like peacocks when they get these clothes on that fit. They love the suspenders although they resisted them at first.”

The Joads and others in the play were too poor to afford silk, so all their clothes are either cotton or wool. A couple of costume-pieces have a bit of polyester, but generally synthetics are not appropriate because the necklines or sleeves or something is cut a little differently, Harrison said.

Harrison has provided costumes for several plays over the last 20 or so years, she said including “The Music Man,” and “Man of la Mancha.”

Playbill

What: “Grapes of Wrath”

When: 8 p.m. Friday, March 5, Saturday, March 6 and Thursday, March 11; Friday, March 12 and Saturday, March 13 and at 3 p.m. Sunday, March 7

Where: Pioneer Theater on the Blue Mountain Community College Pendleton campus

Who: College Community Theater

Tickets: Adults $8, Students and Seniors $5 at the box office: 278-5953