Find related themes, quotes, symbols, characters, and more. As the months of 2000 pass, the relationships that create the foundation of Sweat begin to unravel and we come to see the events that led Chris and Jason, two best buds with exuberance for their future, to wind up in prison. If there are three dates, the first date is the date of the original Lynn Nottage, originally born and raised in Brooklyn, New York produced the award-winning play, Sweat. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Well-Read Black Girl: Finding Our Stories, Discovering Ourselves at the best online prices at eBay! Jason finds that Tracey has a significant pill addiction. She witnessed these strong spoken women growing up, and wanted to do the same herself. Nottage shifts in time, switching scenes and showing events of eight years earlier. To get a high-quality original essay, click here. He finds out through his Latino network that the plant is hiring, which the owners have hidden from the other workers. The bartender in the play is Stan. CYNTHIA: I didnt expect you to understand, babe. Source: www.asolorep.org. I hope that they will ask really tough conversations, not just of themselves but of the legislators and the people who are in power, she said. They're like having in-class notes for every discussion!, This is absolutely THE best teacher resource I have ever purchased. L ynn Nottage's Sweat is a play set in 2000 and 2008 that explores the tension in a group of friends in the midst of layoffs at a factory in Reading, Pennsylvania. Sweat examines the changing lives of factory workers in Reading, Pennsylvania, between the years of 2000 and 2008. New York: Theatre Communications Group, 2017. They both work at the factory and worry that they will be laid off. Directed by Kate Whoriskey (who also directed the earlier productions), the cast featured Carlo Alban (Oscar), James Colby (Stan), Khris Davis (Chris), Johanna Day (Tracey), John Earl Jelks (Brucie), Will Pullen (Jason), Miriam Shor (Jessie), Lance Coadie Williams (Evan), and Michelle Wilson (Cynthia). Director Lisa Peterson uses television screens to document major world events that led to the collapse of the American factory system, such as the financial crisis and bailout of 2008 and the election of George W. Bush in 2000, so that the audience can travel back to a precarious time not very different from 2018. American playwright lynn nottage won the 2017 pulitzer prize for drama for. The sense of personal betrayal is exacerbated when it is left to Cynthia to reveal that the firm plans to ask everyone to take a 60% pay cut to save the plant. Although much of the . . It highlights serious problems in society such as racism, economic strain, drug abuse, and toxic relationships. Oscar reiterates how he was born here as well, yet Tracey was too blinded by the difference in ethnicity to see her wrongdoing. eNotes.com, Inc. Teachers and parents! Note: All essays placed on IvyMoose.com are written by students who kindly donate their papers to us. I cant think of any recent play that tells us so much, and so vividly, about the state of the union. If you are an individual with a disability and desire an accommodation, please contactSusan Sanders prior to the event. The collection contains chapters on each of her major works . Sweat was a meaningful production as there are many important themes to take away from the story. [1] The Los Angeles Times also states, "The play seemed to analytically grasp what too many political pundits had missed: the seething anger that turned a reliable blue state such as Pennsylvania red". [] Im not prejudice, I say, you are who you are, you know? She loves to hang out at the bar with her friends and she has a gruff kind of humor. Struggling with distance learning? Instant PDF downloads. you can use them for inspiration and simplify your student life. Link to iframe content: https://www.youtube.com/embed/YcReO9WfWeQ, Lynn Nottage has given us an extraordinary story of a community of individuals whose stories we dont get to hear, never mind embody, very often, said Susanna Rinehart, an associate professor of performance, who is directing the play at Virginia Tech. Cynthia gets the promotion, and Tracey wonders if its just because Cynthia is Black. Tracey and Jessie view Cynthia as a traitor. We are left hoping the characters will attempt to make amends as we see the effects of the conflict. It won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. . The play was produced Off-Broadway in 2016 and on Broadway in 2017. Race and class in the workplace: Nottage explores the. This review of Lynn Nottage's "Sweat," which opened on Broadway Sunday with the same cast, first appeared in November with the opening of the original Public Theater production. JASON: Shit, I just kinda thought wed retire and open a franchise together. My students love how organized the handouts are and enjoy tracking the themes as a class., Requesting a new guide requires a free LitCharts account. Download the entire Sweat study guide as a printable PDF! The action takes place in a fictional bar in Reading, Pennsylvania. by Lynn Nottage. This specific scene supports how the usage of alcohol as a prop was continually utilized as a coping mechanism for many characters. In the Character list, Nottage describes him as "African-American, forties" (vii). Start your 48-hour free trial to get access to more than 30,000 additional guides and more than 350,000 Homework Help questions answered by our experts. The play alternates between the same characters in 2000 and 2008, a plot structure that allows the audience to see how these choice pan out over timeand the shame and guilt that characters feel in response to their actions, even eight years later. Portia is stiff as Cynthia, talking at the characters instead of speaking her peace. This is shown in many of the bar scenes. 1 Mar. THEMEGUIDE KNOW BEFORE THE SHOW o Playwright Lynn Nottage was born in Brooklyn in 1964 and was educated at Brown University and the Yale School of Drama. -Graham S. Below you will find the important quotes in, Would not have made it through AP Literature without the printable PDFs. Emilio Sosa's costumes reflect the clothing one would wear to unwind after a day sweating on the line. Their fathers and grandfathers, spouses, and everyone else in this small Pennsylvania town have grown up working on the plant floor, including Tracey and Cynthia's respective sons, Jason and Chris. Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play, "Pulitzer Prize winner on 'Sweat,' her Broadway play about Trump's America: 'Being poor is one of the hardest jobs in the world', "Who are these Trump voters? Nottage said her dream is that audience members, after seeing the play, will be inspired to sit down and talk to someone with whom theyve never had a conversation. Lynn Nottage's Sweat is an unusual and rewarding play, depicting social reality not often seen in the American theater. Tracey and Jessie grow bitter. To combat this constant strain and underappreciation, the members of Readings working-class community depend upon tight-knit relationships with one another as a means of stress relief, support, and fulfillment. The New Yorker said the play was "the first theatrical landmark of the Trump era". [8] Reviews of the play have described the characters as representing blue-collar workers who voted in Donald Trump as president. [5] Nottage herself even spoke at the strike, which is what made her realize she had to do more. The play portrays a meeting between a parole officer and two ex-convicts, and three women who were childhood friends and had worked in the same factory. [3], The play also examines the disintegration of a friendship, after two of the women one white, one black apply for the same management job. The second is the date of Teacher Editions with classroom activities for all 1699 titles we cover. Synopsis for SWEAT: SWEAT is a 2015 play by American playwright Lynn Nottage. Though the play is brimming with these rich themes, the execution does not always succeed. Stan is severely injured, and the youths are arrested, convicted, and incarcerated. The original text plus a side-by-side modern translation of. However, several close relationships are challenged as characters try to pursue new opportunities and escape the very, Sweat takes place in Reading, Pennsylvania, a Rust Belt city whose predominantly white and largely working-class population is deeply affected by the early-2000s decline in the manufacturing industry. The play portrays a meeting between a parole officer and two ex-convicts, and three women who were childhood friends and had worked in the same factory. The BMCC Theatre Department invites you to enjoy the performance of SWEAT by Lynn Nottage, directed by Diane Dowling. In a sense, Reading represents a broader diminishment of the American middle class, a sector of the population whose once-reliable sources of worksuch as in factories and millshave been in decline in recent years. Nov. 14 at 2 p.m. They built this town. Tell me about whats been going on. Personally, this part of the play resonated with my feelings towards the racial violence we experience today. You dont know what its been like to walk in my shoes. Jump-start your essay with our outlining tool to make sure you have all the main points of your essay covered. AHRM NewsASPECT News|Awards and Honors|Bookshelf|Communication News|English News|History News Event Calendar Jason, in particular, is notably altered by his time in prison, where he becomes a white supremacist. Lynn Nottage. Everyone tries to stay positive, but as the strike goes on, they begin to get desperate. Nottage addresses the theme of social status, specifically in how the characters lives and relationships are shaped based on job position, socio-economic class, and education. Content Warning: Strong language, drug references, some suggested violence, If you have any questions, contact Emma Ruopp ateruopp@bmcc.cuny.edu, Borough of Manhattan Community College TRACEY: [] I know the floor as good as Cynthia. We see how the plant uses ethnicity to divide workers in the case of Oscar, who is Latino. Word Count: 508. Of the performances, Coleman and Hochman remarkably deviate from sullen and washed-out in their 2008 scenes, to rambunctious, youthful, and optimistic in 2000. Working with this diverse cast of student actors to climb inside this story has been a gift. Saturday-Sunday February 25 & 26 at 2pm . Characters such as Jessie use alcohol to cope with their problems to the point of being out of control, which was an important symbol specifically used by Jessica Hightower, Scenic and Properties designer of Sweat. Download sweat by lynn nottage full audiobooks book details author : Free book, audiobook, reender book sweat by lynn nottage full book,full ebook full download. Any subject. I also hope that they will understand the power of art and be more willing to engage with storytelling.. The resonance and relevance is immediate, as we rehearsed throughout what has come to be called Striketober 2021. [5] She has compared her time talking to former steelworkers in Reading with the occasion when she stayed in the town of Mansfield in the English Midlands and interviewed workers during the 1984 miners' strike. Order original paper now and save your time! Thursday-Saturday February 23-25 at 7:30pm. In Sweat, Tracey was adamant that Cynthia only got the promotion because she's black and that Oscar could only get a job at the Warehouse out of pity. These are only the main characters. They are best friends and joke around together. What statements does this play Sweatmake about racism and racial tension in the United States? T he main themes in Sweat are race and class in the workplace, the effect of work life on the family, and economies and individuals. [1] It won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Get professional help and free up your time for more important things. Moving up the corporate ladder results in a loss of friendships and social exclusion. Nottage has said that she was particularly influenced by a New York Times article reporting on the city specifically, and by the Occupy Wall Street movement more generally. They are released in 2008. (including. With the opening focused on Chris and Jason, but the bulk of the play resting on their mothers, the audience investment from one set of characters to another feels destabilizing. People of color are being persecuted by individuals in power because of the color of their skin, leaving them in fear for their life. "Sweat," Lynn Nottage's 2017 Pulitzer Prize-winning drama set in a faltering factory town in Pennsylvania, magnificently answers the call for more far-ranging American playwriting. Club members can see a different show every night of the week. Similarly, O'Keefe plays the barkeep as one-note and frequently flubs lines. Human Resources Jessie, another worker at the factory, is not so happy with how her life has turned out and has some problems with alcohol abuse. Although Cynthia breaks the rules by warning Tracey, Jessie, Chris, and Jason that a lockout is imminent, they begin to see her as a betrayer rather than a trusted member of their inner circle due to her position of authority over them. Lynn Nottages 2015 play Sweat centers on the events in the lives of several people who all work at the same factory, Olsteads, and are facing layoffs and downsizing. The latter character gets the position, but soon the company moves jobs to Mexico. They all work together and love to hang out at the local bar. You got a problem, you tell me to my face. [4] The play was produced off-Broadway in 2016, and on-Broadway in 2017. Reading, Pennsylvania is an industrial town with an emphasis on blue collar jobs. CYNTHIA: More money. Not wanting to give up what theyve worked for, the floor workers vote against the deal and end up getting shut out. The 2008 sequences also shine a spotlight on Chris and Jason's mysterious crime without revealing that incident until the end, leaving the audience waiting for the other shoe to drop instead of being able to focus on the complex relationships Nottage builds and the reflection of America in civil strife. When Cynthia is promoted from shop floor worker to manager and her coworker and friend Tracey is not, their friendship suffers, and others make accusations of racially based preference, as Cynthia is Black and Tracey is white. Human Development News|Languages and Literatures News|Philosophy News|Political Science News This showed me how the production was truly pointing out the racism that lies in our economy still today, whether its the advantages white men hold or the wages gaps between races and genders. Call me selfish, I dont care, call me whatever you need to call me, but remember, one of us has to be left standing to fight. Give to BMCC Doheny Library: PS3564.O795 S94 2017 o Nottage, Lynn. She is on and off with her husband, Brucie, who is addicted to drugs. date the date you are citing the material. Religion and Culture News|Reserve Officer Training Corps News|School of Education News CYNTHIA: Ive stood on that line, same line since I was nineteen. Tracey and Jessie grow bitter as their job security is threatened and their wages cut, while their friend Cynthia receives a promotion. From the creators of SparkNotes, something better. Try it today! In Lynette Lintons production, Frankie Bradshaws impressive design sets the watering hole against a background of rusting girders. "Sweat - Summary" eNotes Publishing The playwright shows how owners manipulate individual efforts to advance in order to destroy solidarity and instead foster suspicions, mistrust, and rifts between friends. The ramifications of humanity's anger hangs over the play, yet Nottage hints at the power of forgiveness and redemption. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, The Circuit: Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child, Fabulation, or The Re-Education of Undine. ", "Lynn Nottage's Sweat Will Transfer to Broadway", "Lynn Nottages 'Sweat' to transfer to West End from Donmar Warehouse", "Olivier Awards 2019: Full list of nominations", "Shortlist for first Black British Theatre Awards 2019 announced", "Maggie Smith wins best actress award for role as Goebbels' secretary", "Lily Allen, Grayson Perry and Danny Boyle join prestigious list of artists hoping to scoop awards as nominations unveiled for The South Bank Sky Arts Awards 2019", "The Stage Debut Awards 2019 winners announced | WhatsOnStage", " 'Hello, Dolly! Are, you tell me to my face O'Keefe plays the barkeep as one-note and frequently lines! The collection contains chapters on each of her major works of her major works the deal end! 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