You Can’t Get to Heaven Through the USA

“You can’t get to heaven through the USA!” is what Swedish ministers told their flocks to keep them from uprooting to America. This dramatic comedy movingly reconstructs the lives of Swedish and Italian immigrants at the beginning of the 20th Century. MORE New customs and a new language force an emotional balance between the lure of a new world and the love of an old one. Based on oral histories, neighborhood newspapers, and clergy diaries, the play focuses on a Swedish pastor and an Italian priest as they reflect on their struggle to adjust themselves and their congregations to a new land. A pre-show features classic emigrant folk songs that look back to the old country.  Repeated Minnesota revivals of the six-character play preceded a national tour commemorating 350 years of Swedish settlement in the USA with stops in Michigan, Missouri, North Dakota, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Iowa, California and New York.