A drunken Jessie is passed out at a table while Tracey and Cynthia dance; theyre clearly close with each other and with Stan, the bartender with whom they engage in flirtatious banter. Actors Ensemble of Berkeley is delighted to acknowledge the Berkeley Civic Arts Program and Civic Arts Commission's support in the form of a grant of $8,000.00 awarded in 2017. More trouble comes when rumors of layoffs begin swirling, and Cynthia finds herself caught between her duties as a manager and her sympathy with her friends in the union. It aint his fault. A few days later, Chris goes to the bar, where Oscar is now the manager. Lynn Nottage, Tracey is outside the bar smoking. STAN: Look. You'll be able to access your notes and highlights, make requests, and get updates on new titles. MONOLOGUE: Sweat - YouTube Generations dictated by the factory floor and the whims of American capitalism: A scene from Sweat, Lynn Nottages new drama, in a production at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Sweat moves fluidly between these passages (and others set elsewhere but at the same time) and scenes from eight years before, when the bulk of the action takes place. Time commitment: Up to 15 hours directed rehearsing (max 5 rehearsals), 4-8 . Mary Mara, left, as Tracey, and Portia as Cynthia in "Sweat," Lynn Nottage's Pulitzer Prize-winning drama at the Mark Taper Forum about a factory town in Pennsylvania. Our, "Sooo much more helpful thanSparkNotes. Also, a thank you to Theatre Bay Area for a grant of $2,500.00. Tracey brings up an overseer job opportunity at Olsteads and the rumor that management intends to promote someone off the factory floor. Management is for them. If you don't have a resume, just put down whatever experience you feel might be applicable. Review: Lynn Nottage's 'Sweat' Examines Lives Unraveling by Industry's Lynn Nottage explains how a broken city gets a turn onstage in her play "Sweat.". Tracey, a middle-aged white woman who works at the local Olstead's Steel Tubing plant, is adamant that German immigrants like her grandparents built Reading from the ground up and made it what it is today. The plays final scene returns to 2008. Chris and Jason are clearly apologetic but cant yet bring themselves to verbalize what theyre thinking. Sweat (Play) Monologues | StageAgent -Graham S. The timeline below shows where the character Tracey appears in, is playing on a jukebox as a rowdy celebration winds down. Thus, the play foreshadows the human toll of the factorys forthcoming lay-offs. Shes is upset that Cynthia seems to be ignoring her and sucking up to management. Sweat Act 1, Scene 6 Summary & Analysis | LitCharts CHRIS: Cmon. Jason (Stephen Michael Spencer), with white-supremacist tattoos etched into his face and neck, reacts with sullen anger to questions about his prospects. Oscar responds that he doesnt owe anything to people like Cynthia, Tracey, and Jessie because they never acknowledge his humanity: If they dont see me, I dont need to see them" (92). Hugging. It makes mewhatever. Just as Oscar goes to take some beer crates to the back, Oscar walks back in, looking uncomfortably at, Olsteads isnt Oscars faulthes only trying to make a living just like they are. Well. Talk to Olstead, his cronies. Jason asks where his mom is, but Jessie doesnt know; Jason reassures her that, Berks County, Pennsylvania, experiences a 111-percent rise in power shutoffs. In a moment of pain and frustration over their changing lives, Jason confronts Oscar at the bar. Filming yourself from a hand-held camera will be fine. Federal TaxID#946139640, since 04-1967. Cmon. Cynthia understands, but she asks Tracey not to make things about race, and she promises to let everyone know if she hears anything about the rumored layoffs. Chris agreeshe doesnt want to end up like Brucie. Were a team, you cant leave!! Jason and Chris speak separately to their parole officer, Evan. Thats when Ms. Nottages characters, and the cast members who embody them, emerge in their full tragic humanity. He advises them to take any concessions that are offered to prevent a lockout from happening. In Reading, Pennsylvania a group of factory workers are living their lives. Lynn Nottage's Sweat gives us characters filled with the good and the bad and asks us to reflect on our own views and the views of . Make sure to leave suggestions for other plays youd like to see on the blog and Ill see you at the next post! Afterward, they go to the barwhere Jessie is once again passed out at a tableand excitedly tell Stan about it, but Stan isnt impressed. But, a chaotic fight ensues. Lynn Nottage Monologues | StageAgent Then, Chris reveals that hes been accepted to Albright Colleges teaching program, which shocks Jasonthey both work on the floor at Olsteads, and Jason always assumed they would retire and open a business together. Creating notes and highlights requires a free LitCharts account. document.getElementById('cloak8a2f2e70f3ae0d82a8dceea5de10147e').innerHTML = ''; Cynthia receives the promotion, and her change in status generates tension between her and Tracey. The play is set both on the eve and in the twilight of George W. Bushs presidency. And while its trajectory is dark, even devastating, Sweat is damn funny, too: Ms. Nottage knows well that the natural reactions to the assaults of life faced by these particular people are a savage sense of humor, and, more damagingly, a swan dive into the comforts of alcohol and drugs. A month after this, Olsteads workers have rejected the deal they were offered, and the lockout goes forward. He tells Evan about how he recently saw Jason: the two men had hugged on the street despite their heightened emotions and Jasons offensive tattoos. The way the content is organized, Would not have made it through AP Literature without the printable PDFs. (LogOut/ In the bar, Stan and Oscar look on as. Though Cynthia and Tracey make light of such rumors, Stan is adamant that because of NAFTA, steel workers jobs could easily be outsourced to Mexico. The breakup of Jessies marriage has driven her to imbibe more than usual, although Tracey doesnt feel too sympathetic, having weathered her own failed marriage. (including. Still, Cynthia and Tracey, who both have over 20 years of experience on the warehouse floor, are both set on applying. The plot of Sweat shifts between the present year of 2008 and an extended flashback to the year 2000. 4) New to auditioning? Teachers and parents! Sweat is located in Reading, Pennsylvania, one of Americas poorest cities with a poverty rate of over 40%. Chris tries to break it up, but Oscar headbutts him, and, Would not have made it through AP Literature without the printable PDFs. Chris shares that Jason is out too, and Cynthia angrily reflects that Jason is the one who got Chris into trouble. Its the year 2000 in Reading, Pennsylvania and a group of friends go to work at the steel mill and then decompress at the bar like theyve been doing for over 20 years. In February, at the same bar, Jason, Chris, and Stan have a playful conversation about the motorcycle Jason wants to buy and about Chriss new girlfriend while Oscar listens in. There is little doubt that when the rage festering among them fully erupts, no one will emerge unscarred. I believe the arts should be fun and I just want to help my fellow theatre lovers in the neverending quest to find the perfect monologue! TRACEY: Yeah? The characters in this play dont have money or options and the walls are closing in fast, so for the SWEAT monologues were looking for raw yet vulnerable portrayals. Its searing and human. Want new monologue material three days a week? Welcome to the Actors Ensemble of Berkeley website! Jason panics and goes to leave, but he stops when Stan enters to wipe down tables. Brucie and the other employees refuse to give into concessions on their retirement benefits. However, we pay actors a small stipend for expenses and a portion of performance donations in accordance with AB5. CYNTHIA: [] let me tell you something, once he started messing with that dope, I dont recognize the man. There will always be someone wholl step in, unless we say NO! The production team was the same as the Public Theater's, with the following change made to the cast: JESSIE .. Alison Wright 5 She is upset that her friend. From first moments to last, this compassionate but cleareyed play throbs with heartfelt life, with characters as complicated as any youll encounter at the theater today, and with a nifty ticking time bomb of a plot. It was a gift. But Chris has his heart set on following his own pathits just something he has to do. Tracey Character Analysis in Sweat | LitCharts Couldnt handle the stress. New York, NY, Escape To Margaritaville Sweat Summary and Study Guide | SuperSummary He struggles even with this basic task, and it is clear that Oscar employs him out of empathy, the desire to give Stan a sense of purpose. In the bar, Stan and Oscar stand by as Tracey, Chris, Jason, and Jessie angrily demand Cynthia to tell them whats going on. You got a problem, you tell me to my face. But to get to the heart of the matter: Sweat opens with scenes set in 2008, depicting a parole officer (Tyrone Wilson) in meetings with two ex-convicts, imprisoned for their involvement in the same crime, who have come through the system with deeply divergent results. She is upset that her friend But this much-trafficked watering hole also exerts a dangerous gravitational force, the kind that holds people in place when they should be moving on. Sweat, the Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Lynn Nottage, gives stellar examples of successful characterization. Certainly I found myself squirming in my seat as I watched the forces of fate, or, to be more specific, the mechanics of 21st-century American capitalism, bear down on these characters with the brutal power of a jackhammer smashing through concrete. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Design a site like this with WordPress.com, Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window), The Assembled Parties by RichardGreenberg, Follow The Monologue Blog on WordPress.com. JASON: Shit, I just kinda thought wed retire and open a franchise together. I got eyes. Sweat is the first, properly muscular play of the Trump era, directly addressing the political and cultural bedrock of his presidency: Nottage has already won the 2016 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize.
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