A few of Dalton Trumbo's letters featured in RED, WHITE, AND BLACKLISTED, May 13-15 in Fort Collins.

Last edited Tue May 10, 2022, 03:49 PM - Edit history (1)

You may have seen Bryan Cranston as Dalton Trumbo in the recent film TRUMBO. If so, you know alas how timely Trumbo’s story is to this nation’s current predicament.

To create the play TRUMBO: RED, WHITE, AND BLACKLISTED, Christopher Trumbo delved into his father’s trove of brilliant letters, wide-ranging in their impact, and touching upon all manner of subjects, some humorous, some deadly serious.

We are performing it, May 13-15, 2022, at Bas Bleu in Fort Collins, a Readers’ Theatre production.

The narrator, whom I play, is Christopher recalling the impact of the Red Scare and the blacklist upon his family and bridging from one masterful letter written by his father to the next.

Just some of the letters our Trumbo, played by Michael Robinson, brings vividly to life:

# To an ex-friend who now champions the blacklist but claims “continuing affection” for Trumbo
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# To a school principal who has done nothing to stop the brutal hazing of Mitzi, his eight-year-old daughter, during her third-grade year.

# To a fellow novelist, tongue in cheek, assuring him of an intense critical focus on his rough draft, designed to lovingly destroy both him and his book in the process.

# To a grieving mother of a young man, too soon dead, who fronted for Trumbo on a script and who met Trumbo as a fellow war correspondent during World War II.

# To Christopher, off to college, about his dad’s youth as a guilt-ridden masturbator, enclosing a copy of Albert Ellis’s SEX WITHOUT GUILT, a way to engage at long last in “cheerful self-pollution.” This letter is a hoot and a holler!

# From Bas Bleu’s webpage:
"When legendary screenwriter Dalton Trumbo stood up to the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1947, he was thrown in prison and blacklisted as one of the “Hollywood Ten.” Based on his brilliant and razor-sharp letters to friends, former friends, and family, TRUMBO reveals how the author of Spartacus, Roman Holiday, and Exodus took on Congress, Hollywood, and the Red Scare — and won."

Tickets here:
https://basbleu.org/trumbo-red-white-and-blacklisted/