World Premiere: LAST WEST: Roadsongs for Dorothea Lange
November & December 2025 | Sonoma Valley Museum of Art
Sold out - sign up here for updates

“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

In fall 2025, poet and playwright Tess Taylor premiered Last West: Roadsongs for Dorothea Lange, a groundbreaking immersive theater piece at the intersection of poetry, exhibition, projection art and performance, to a sold out run at the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art. Drawing from Taylor’s decade of research re-tracing Depression era photographer Dorothea Lange’s paths across California, Last West is a powerful, multi-vocal performance that brings Lange’s iconic photographs—and the stories behind them—to life. Directed by Ciera Eis, with a stunning visual backdrop of Lange photos designed by Ryan Yu, and supported by Carnegie Mellon’s prestigous ColLABo grant, Last West explores how Lange’s images of migrancy, internment, environmental crisis, and everyday survival sound against the issues everyday Americans face today.

Echoing Lange’s belief in art as witness and civic repair, Last West is a poetic act of looking—at the past, at the present, and through the lens of an iconic American artist—at the paradoxes of her time and our own.

The play is currently sold out, but we’ll travel to the Oakland Museum in Fall 2026. Sign up here for updates!

BUY TICKETS

Support last west