The Way the Mountain Moved - by Idris Goodwin - Oregon Shakespeare Festival
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2018 Study Guide
The Way the Mountain Moved
by Idris Goodwin
Set model by Sara Ryung Clement
The Way the Mountain Moved
and the environment
Most characters in the play are looking
for a new place to call home, and are
willing to alter the physical environ-
ment around them in order to do it,
whether by killing off the buffalo or
“moving mountains” to construct a
train track across the entire country.
Meanwhile, the longtime inhabi-
tants of the land are watching their
environment be changed irrevocably, Edward Griffin Beckwith Idris Goodwin
and are having to decide whether to
fight, cope and hang on, or leave their The Way the Mountain Moved is Playwright Idris Goodwin was born in
homeland. a fictional story prompted and Detroit, Michigan. He went to college
inspired by the journey of the in Chicago, receiving a BA in screenwrit-
In Idris Goodwin’s play, the environ- Central Pacific survey team, sent ing at Columbia College and an MFA in
ment becames a character, fighting to chart the land between the 37th creative writing from the Art Institute
back against change. Toward the and 39th parallels from St. Louis, of Chicago. After six years as an Assis-
end of the play, the botanist, George, Missouri to San Francisco, Califor- tant Professor of Theatre at Colorado
tells us that the grass releases a gas nia. The Central Pacific survey team College, Mr. Goodwin is now the new
when it is cut. This is true, and many was led by Captain John Gunnison Producing Artistic Director of Stage
scientists believe that, even without a and included Lieutenant Edward One Family Theatre in Louisville, Ken-
nervous system or a brain, the grass is Griffin Beckwith and George tucky. According to its mission state-
in distress and is in some way feel- Stoneman, among others. Captain ment, Stage One “inspires and educates
ing pain. These emissions are always Gunnison was killed in an attack children and families by opening the
present but increase dramatically by members of the Ute nation, and doors to imagination, opportunity
when the grass is eaten by animals or Lieutenant Beckwith was forced to and empathy.”
cut by humans. We know that trees take over command of the expedi-
sense when drought is present and tion. Beckwith’s journals revealed Mr. Goodwin is best known for his
adjust their seasonal patterns accord- two interesting character traits to play How We Got On, which premiered
ingly. The earth is a living, breathing playwright Idris Goodwin: Beckwith at the Actors Theatre of Louisville
organism, and in The Way the Moun- was unhappy to be the leader of Humana Festival in 2012. Goodwin’s
tain Moved it is a character actively the expedition, but he also wrote website describes it as a “break beat
expressing its displeasure at what with great reverence and awe play,” and the Washington Post describes
Man is trying to do to it. about the beauty of the landscape it as being about “the excitement that
around them. surrounded rap culture in the ’80s.”
Before seeing/reading the play
1. Research playwright Idris Goodwin. These and other web-
sites provide information:
https://pwcenter.org/profile/idris-goodwin
https://www.americantheatre.org/2018/06/11/the-way-
idris-goodwin-moves/
2. What were the Pacific Railroad Surveys of 1853-1855? These
and other websites provide information:
https://www.pointtopointsurvey.com/2016/07/pacific-
railroad-surveys/
https://sites.google.com/a/umn.edu/the-pacific-railroad-
surveys-1853---1854/central-route
3. What is meant by the phrase “Manifest Destiny”? These
and other websites provide information:
https://www.history.com/topics/manifest-destiny
https://www.britannica.com/event/Manifest-Destiny
Martha costume rendering by Deborah M. Dryden
4. Research early Mormon history and their founders’ share or not share affect characters in the play, whether it
opinions on slavery. These and other websites provide be food and water or shelter, plans, insights, emotions,
information: time, land?
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/mormon-
church-established 5. What is the difference between the way Orson views their
www.pbs.org/mormons/timeline religion and the way Martha does? What is the difference
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mormonism_and_slavery between how Bart views it and how Hannah views it?
5. Research the Mexican-American War and the Treaty 6. How does the need to survive drive characters toward
of Guadalupe Hidalgo. This and other websites provide or away from who or what they have faith in?
information:
https://www.history.com/topics/treaty-of-guadalupe- 7. Orson says that prayer is their weapon. How is prayer a
hidalgo weapon? How are words and ideas weapons?
6. Research the Southern Paiute nation. This and other 8. Martha tells George that she and Orson are adaptable. In
websites provide information: what ways do the characters try to adapt in the play?
https://utahindians.org/archives/paiutes/history.html To what? Who is successful in adapting? Who is not?
9. Why does Bart not want Hannah to cry? What qualities
After seeing/reading the play does he think she needs to survive in the West? What is
important to Bart? What is important to Hannah? What
1. Lieutenant Smith asks Tuwuda to explain what he values,
does she hope to gain that will help her survive this world
as opposed to the values of the expedition. Who in the play
and the next?
values what they need? Who values what they want? What
is the difference between prioritizing needs vs. prioritizing
10. Who assists or shelters other people in the play, and
wants?
why? Who refuses or argues against lending aid or shelter,
and why? How are people repaid for kindnesses done to
2. Why does Tuwuda choose that moment to leave the
strangers?
expedition and return to his family? What is Smith trying
to convey to him? How is it received, and why?
11. Why does Arista choose to become an American rather
than stay a citizen of Mexico? What does he not want to
3. When does the sound first occur in the play? In that
give up? What has he lost by making this decision?
moment, what did you think the sound was? As the play
went along, in what ways did the sound change? What
12. Where are Arista’s ancestors from? What is his opinion of
clues did you get as to its meaning? By the show’s end,
Mexico’s indigenous people? Why does he want to convince
what is its significance?
Phyllis that Indians killed her family and took her son?
4. What is the outcome of Orson and Martha’s argument
13. Many characters in the play talk about having vision or
about what to share with George? How does choosing to
seeing visions. What type of vision or visions do Martha and
Orson believe in? Arista? George? Lieutenant Smith? Kusavi?
How does God or spirituality fit into each character’s views 22. What do you think Kusavi means by telling Martha to
and actions? “fight on”? Fight for what? Against what or whom?
14. George says that science is not the antithesis of spiri- 23. Why does Arista shoot George?
tuality. In what ways can they be similar? In what ways are
they different? 24. Smith recalls George talking about the way the moun-
tain moved, referring to “every crease, dip, shatter, shard,”
15. Which characters in the play are pragmatists? Which all the slow forces of geology and “all that constant chaos.”
characters are dreamers? In what ways do these differing What other meanings might the title have? What is its
qualities support and balance each other? In what ways do significance? In what other ways has or will the mountain
they create conflict between characters? move, or be moved?
16. In your opinion, why does Hannah help Kusavi to remain 25. Why does the play end with two characters that we
undetected by Bart? What communication goes on silently have barely met or heard from before? What point might
between them? playwright Idris Goodwin be trying to make by giving them
the last say?
17. Why does George need to believe that Fort Cain is still
there? Why does Arista need to believe that it is gone? What Protestant Churches and Slavery
does Fort Cain represent to each of them?
In the play, Martha and Orson see their religion’s attitude
18. With the exception of the Native American characters, toward their race differently, and both quote scripture from
no one in the play knows exactly where they are or where the Book of Mormon to support their views. In Martha’s
they are going next. What does it mean metaphorically that opinion, Mormonism sees black people as “the cursed
all of these characters are lost? children of Ham.” This is not a belief unique to Mormons;
it comes from an idea that started in other Protestant
19. Several characters mention the need to keep moving denominations.
forward, even though they don’t know where or what for-
ward means. Which characters succeed in moving forward? In order to justify slavery, some southern ministers in the
Which do not? Who shows resiliency? Who does not? U.S. had developed a theory linking black Africans back to
the supposed “mark of Cain,” the belief that part of God’s
20. Refer to your research on Mormon attitudes to slavery. curse on Cain was to mark him and his descendants with
If Cain is the first instance of one human killing another, dark skin for the crime of murdering his brother Abel.
of brother killing brother, and if he and his descendants According to this idea, the curse survived the great flood
were cursed by God for the act, then why do you think play- because Noah’s son Ham was married to a black descendant
wright Idris Goodwin named the U.S. Army fort in the play of Cain. For a while, Joseph Smith espoused this idea. Even-
Fort Cain? tually, though, his views became more strongly abolitionist,
and he appears to have allowed ordination of black min-
21. George is willing to pray with Orson even though he isters. The injunction against a black Mormon man being
does not believe in the God he is talking to. Who is the one ordained, which Martha mentions in the play, came after
character who refuses to pray, and why? Smith’s death and was not lifted until 1978. In 2013 the idea
that black skin was a curse from God was finally officially
discredited by the Mormon leadership.
There is no scriptural basis in the Bible for the belief that
there was any physical mark on Cain’s descendants. In
Genesis Chapter 4, verses 11 and 12, God says to Cain “Now
you are under a curse and driven from the ground . . . you
will be a restless wanderer on the earth.”
When Martha references the Book of Mormon describing
the “cursed children of Ham,” Orson’s response is to also
quote Mormon scripture. “Does not the book also say ‘revile
no more against them because of the darkness of their
skins,’ and it also states in our doctrines and covenants ‘It
is not right that any man should be in bondage to one
another.’ Our own leader spoke against slavery as an
institution.” To which Martha responds “Joseph Smith did
but this Brigham Young says we should be treated kindly
but remain slaves!”
Arista costume rendering by Deborah M. Dryden
American Revolutions: the United States History Cycle
The Way the Mountain Moved is a world premiere commissioned and developed by the Oregon
Shakespeare Festival as part of a twenty-year program called American Revolutions: the United States
History Cycle. Begun in 2008, the History Cycle is a program to commission and develop 37 new plays on
subjects related to moments of change in American history. The number 37 was chosen because that is
the number of the official Shakespeare canon, so OSF is matching that output with this program.
Not all 37 plays are being presented at OSF; some are being commissioned and developed here but
opening in other theatres around the country. Many of the plays are co-commissions with other theatres.
To date, OSF has produced nine American Revolutions plays, counting The Way the Mountain Moved. We
began in 2010 with American Night: The Ballad of Juan Jose by Culture Clash. That was followed by Ghost
Light in 2011, and both Party People and All the Way in 2012. All the Way transferred to Broadway with
OSF’s director and design team, and won the 2014 Tony Award for best new play on Broadway that sea-
son. In 2013, OSF’s American Revolutions play was The Liquid Plain, followed by The Great Society in 2014,
Sweat in 2015 and Roe in 2016.
Next season OSF will present a production of Indecent by Paula Vogel. Co-commissioned by OSF and Yale
Repertory Theatre, Indecent had its world premiere at Yale Rep in 2015. Last year the Broadway production
of Indecent earned director Rebecca Taichman the Tony Award for Best Direction. Our production next
season will mark the first time that an American Revolutions commission has opened at another theatre
and then circled its way back home to OSF.
George costume rendering by Deborah M. Dryden Helen costume rendering by Deborah M. Dryden
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