World Premiere: LAST WEST: Roadsongs for Dorothea Lange
November & December 2025 | Sonoma Valley Museum of Art
“No country has ever closely scrutinized itself visually….I know what we could make of it if people only thought we could dare look at ourselves.” - Dorothea Lange
This fall, poet and playwright Tess Taylor unveils Last West: Roadsongs for Dorothea Lange, a groundbreaking immersive theater piece premiering at the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art. Drawing from Taylor’s decade of research retracing Lange’s path across California, Last West is a powerful, multi-voiced performance that brings Lange’s iconic photographs—and the stories behind them—vividly to life.
Projected across the walls of a museum gallery, Lange’s images of migrancy, environmental crisis, and everyday survival become the backdrop for five actors whose voices weave together history, memory, and poetry. This performance honors the 90th anniversary of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), echoing Lange’s belief in art as witness and civic repair.
Adapted from Taylor’s acclaimed 2020 book, published in conjunction with MoMA’s Dorothea Lange: Words & Pictures exhibition, Last West is brought to life by director Ciera Eis, media designer Ryan Yu, and a visionary production team supported by Carnegie Mellon’s ColLABo grant.
Last West is a poetic act of looking—at the past, at the present, and at the uneasy American paradox Lange captured so hauntingly with her lens.
All performances include entry to the SVMA exhibition Last West: Dorothea Lange’s California Revisited.
TICKETING INFORMATION
General Tickets: $32
"World Premiere" Tickets: $52 (Exhibition sponsors attend free)
Student Matinee Tickets: FREE (by advanced arrangements w/SVMA Education Department)
