Oscar and his coworker Stan (the bartender at the bar where the characters all hang out) are attacked in a demonstration. More heat. 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. Lead the Pack", How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sweat_(play)&oldid=1127802853, Short description is different from Wikidata, Wikipedia introduction cleanup from May 2022, Articles covered by WikiProject Wikify from May 2022, All articles covered by WikiProject Wikify, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 16 December 2022, at 19:00. Lynn Nottage. CYNTHIA: Ive stood on that line, same line since I was nineteen. Although such connections are often indirect, they arise through tangible realities such as corporate downsizing and non-union hiring practices. Ive got twenty-four years on the floor. Log in here. There are a group of friends that work for the steel factory. Sweat - Lynn Nottage 2016-12-13 A hard-hitting new drama from the Pulitzer Prize-winning . [8] Reviews of the play have described the characters as representing blue-collar workers who voted in Donald Trump as president. 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. Overall, I believe that this production was truly eye-opening and although many problems are discussed, the awareness raised about racial tension was the most significant. PDF downloads of all 1699 LitCharts literature guides, and of every new one we publish. o Nottage, Lynn. But when characters begin to distance themselves from the status quo and pursue different opportunities, these relationships gradually disintegrate as those left behind feel resentful of their friends new paths. The Virginia Tech School of Performing Arts will present Lynn Nottages award-winning Sweat for eight performances, opening on Nov. 9 in Squires Studio Theatre. 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. By signing up you are confirming you are 16 or over. Instant downloads of all 1699 LitChart PDFs Nottage shifts in time, switching scenes and showing events of eight years earlier. date the date you are citing the material. LitCharts Teacher Editions. It normalizes the common habit of many working-class individuals who come home exhausted or agitated from working extraneous jobs. Our summaries and analyses are written by experts, and your questions are answered by real teachers. Do you know what its like, she asks, to get up and have no place to go? For the equally tough Cynthia, work is a means of advancement and her union card is a symbol of racial acceptance. The second date is today's Their whole lives have been on the factory line. You got a problem, you tell me to my face. She bitterly tells Oscar, the busboy at the bar, that she know[s] the floor as good as Cynthia does, and Jessie confirms that Cynthias promotion has pissed off a lot of people even though she earned it fairly. publication in traditional print. One of the major plot points in this ensemble driven piece is Cynthias promotion to management at Olsteads factory. The volume covers Nottage's plays, productions, activism, and artistic collaborations to display the extraordinary breadth and depth of her work. 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. They get tax breaks or something. Our summaries and analyses are written by experts, and your questions are answered by real teachers. eNotes Editorial. New York: Theatre Communications Group, 2017. Started in 74, walked in straight outta high school. 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. Word Count: 508. Carroll, in his few scenes as the parole officer, conveys the father figure both boys need to rehabilitate. Nottage took a break from writing for nearly seven years, but in 2003, her drama Intimate Apparel, a play about an African American seamstress in turn of the century New York, won major awards including the New York Drama Critics Circle Award, the Francesca Primus Prize and the Steinberg Award. 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. The characters in Sweat have spent decades of their lives thanklessly laboring in Reading Pennsylvanias local steel and textile mills amid poor working conditions, disrespectful management, and union disputes. The play thus shows how changes in statusbeing promoted at work, reaching a higher socioeconomic class, or pursuing higher educationcan create tension and resentment among people who are all struggling to make ends meet, driving a wedge between even the closest of friends. Award-winning playwright Lynn Nottage often shines a spotlight on Black women under great duress, as in "Ruined," a Pulitzer Prize winner, or in the workplace like the evocative turn of the . She cannot stand the way Reading has been changing over the years. Job Opportunities Religion and Culture News|Reserve Officer Training Corps News|School of Education News Detailed explanations, analysis, and citation info for every important quote on LitCharts. Tracy is a middle aged white woman. Race was never the main theme in, Sweat by Lynn Nottage, but it helped move the story along and added greatly to some of the characters development. Oscar now works there as the manager, and he takes care of Stan, who we find out has suffered a traumatic brain injury as a result of the fight. But when . Peterson unleashes her actors like pinballs, bouncing off each other, intensifying until they explode in the climax. samples are real essays written by real students who kindly donate their papers to us so that To understand how we got here, Nottage takes us back to the year 2000. Scene 1 of Act 2 shows Jason and Chris returning to visit their mothers. "Sweat - Summary" eNotes Publishing New York, NY 10007 "My students can't get enough of your charts and their results have gone through the roof." Thrash rock music from the early millennium sets the mood and evokes tension. TRACEY: You want us to feel sorry for you? Stan, a middle-aged white man with a limp, bartends, and when the two women invite him to dance with them, he refuses. The latter character gets the position, but soon the company moves jobs to Mexico. 'Sweat' explores themes of race, gender, ethnicity, class, and labor relations in a deeply human way November 1, 2021 The cast of "Sweat," pictured from left: Elizabeth Crishock, Ariana Pea, and Joseph Steele (front row); Misheck Mzumara, Ashlynn Brooks, Luke Dangel, and Mark Logan (leaning on the bar); Genaro Mejia and Alex Cruz (behind the bar). As coming from a Hispanic background and having family members come from Costa Rica to America, scenes centered around Oscar were important to me. Tell me about whats been going on. Directory, News date the date you are citing the material. She believes that their city was founded by her German ancestors and that Olsteads was not for people like them. The way the content is organized, LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in. Due to a lot of anger and resentment throughout the production, there were various racial slurs that stuck out to me because of our current problem of racism in society today. TRACEY: [] I know the floor as good as Cynthia. Chris finds Cynthia living in a small, rundown, messy apartment . When backed up against the wall and left with neither income nor hope, people sink into racism almost by reflex. Last Updated on October 4, 2022, by eNotes Editorial. An immediate divide is created between Cynthia and her friends. In 2008, Chris and Jason both find themselves back at the bar to find some peace. Tracey? [] I betcha they wanted a minority. Although much of the . The plot consists of many different characters. John Earl Jelks is heartbreaking as Chris's father, a maddened drug addict who has lost the respect of his family. 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? Management's physical, intellectual, and emotional removal from workers on the factory floor allows them to ultimately outsource their jobs to Mexico (because they have so little connection to the labor that goes into these jobs, or to the human beings working them). These are only the main characters. [9] The Wall Street Journal review suggested the play "explained" Trump's win. Sweat. Refine any search. CYNTHIA: Fuck her. Our Essay Lab can help you tackle any essay assignment within seconds, whether youre studying Macbeth or the American Revolution. 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. If there are three dates, the first date is the date of the original The last date is today's Free shipping for many products! Thursday-Saturday February 23-25 at 7:30pm. 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