The Red Skies Music Ensemble's "...historical and musical probing of the real story of Katie Casey is one of the most exciting and rewarding projects I've encountered in ages.  It's guaranteed to stimulate your mind and tap your feet."   Lee Lowenfish, author of the award-winning baseball biography "Branch Rickey: Baseball's Ferocious Gentleman" and former editor-publisher of Lee Low's New York Jazz Newsletter.

"Take Me Out to the 
Ball Game:" The Story of Katie Casey, Suffrage       and Our National Pastime


Verse 1
Katie Casey was base ball mad,
Had the fever and had it bad;
Just to root for the home town crew,  
ev'ry sou Katie blew.
On a Saturday, her young beau
called to see if she'd like to go,
To see a show but Miss Kate said "No, I'll tell you what you can do: 
Chorus
Take Me Out to the Ball Game...

Katie Casey’s reply was a refrain that would be echoed by generations of baseball fans, most of them unaware of the social significance of the song's rarely-heard opening verse. 

Co-created by George Boziwick and Trudy Williams with vivid narration, a dozen songs, theater, and archival images, "Take Me Out to the Ball Game:" The Story of Katie Casey, Suffrage and Our National Pastime is about more than just a "baseball song". 
Shine On Harvest Moon
Norworth/Bayes  (1908)
Gee It's a Wonderful Game  Ring Lardner/"Doc" White (1910)
The song's lyrics provide a little known, fascinating connection between baseball, music, suffrage, social activism and vaudeville.  

​Against the background of the tune's Irish-American heroine and her love of baseball, this engaging program traces and animates the social and musical interactions by which the song's chorus grew into one of America's most popular refrains, a lyric that continues to offer symbolic social meaning to all who sing it. 

   Take Me Out to the Ball Game 
Norworth/Von Tilzer (1908)

      Special guest at 2012 program:  Ed Alstrom                    New York Yankees Organist 
Take Your Girl to the Ball Game  Cohan and Jerome & Schwartz (1908)
Program versions were performed
in 2012 and 2017 at the Lincoln Center Public Program series of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. Music selections provided here were recorded live at
the 2012 performance.
2012 Performance Musicians photo: Kevin Yatarola
Performance photos: Janice Wood Wetzel
Ensemble 2017 performance:
Co-creator, Curator, Music Director: George Boziwick
Co-creator, Artistic Director: Trudy Williams
Guest Musical Director: Sean Mahony
Technical Coordinator: Mark Russo
Cast
Narrator: George Boziwick
Katie Casey: Laura Hankin
Sean: Sean Mahony
Ida B. Wells: Pier Morton
Elihu Root: Jonathan Sonneborn
Suffrage Song Leader: Heidi Hackney
Musicians
Vocals: Laura Hankin; Sean Mahoney
Piano: Sara Banleigh
Clarinet: Matthew Snyder
Trombone: Sean Mahony
Mandolin, guitar: Rob Meador
Banjo: Don Meade
Harmonica: George Boziwick
Bass: Trudy Williams
Percussion: Phil Forbes
---------------------------
2012 Performance:
Katie Casey: Sigali Hamberger
Banjo: Leah Wells
Copyright 2017 Red Skies Music and Trudy Williams