Plays / Chronology / More About The Open Road Anthology The America that I see is an America that tells you to keep moving, to move on to something better, to get on the road and keep going, to stop only briefly to refuel your car and yourself but then to keep pushing toward the place that is closer to where you should be, or could be, if only you would keep going. America says move, move on, don’t sit still . . . in other words, America is the road. —Robert Sullivan, Cross Country From Lewis and Clark’s exploration of the Louisiana Purchase, to newspaper editor Samuel Bowles’ attempt to reunify the country by publishing accounts of his travels around the country in 1865, to the dawn of the Eisenhower interstate system in 1956, the open road has beckoned to generations of Americans. Leaving has become a way of life, sea to shining sea. The call of the open road reverberates throughout the nation: in the wind in our hair and promise of new life around the corner, as well as in the legacy of lands taken, communities divided and increasingly guarded borders within which Americans drive. For this year ’sdramatic anthology, we’ve invited seven writers (and a band!) to examine how America’s yearning for unfettered freedom resonates today and where it rings hollow. Comic, thought-provoking and full of great music, The Open Road Anthology will be performed by Actors Theatre’s 2006-07 Apprentice Company. —Adrien-Alice Hansel