{"id":18413,"date":"2019-02-19T08:42:16","date_gmt":"2019-02-19T13:42:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quantumnew.esu.edu\/insider\/?p=18413"},"modified":"2019-02-19T08:42:16","modified_gmt":"2019-02-19T13:42:16","slug":"theatre-department-to-present-sweat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/theatre-department-to-present-sweat\/","title":{"rendered":"Theatre Department to Present Sweat"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lynn Nottage\u2019s drama, Sweat<\/em>, which will be presented February 26-28 and March 1-3 at East Stroudsburg University, is one of the most compelling, gripping, and truthful portrayals of life in America at the beginning of the 21st<\/sup> century according to director Susan P. O\u2019Hearn, professor of theatre.<\/p>\n

Winner of the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for drama, Sweat<\/em> focuses on factory workers in Reading, Pennsylvania who are facing the decline of manufacturing jobs. As financial pressures mount, old friendships fracture in an environment that divides workers along social and ethnic lines and pits one group against another for what remains of the American dream.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom first moments to last, this compassionate but clear-eyed play throbs with heartfelt life, with characters as complicated as any you\u2019ll encounter at the theater today, and with a nifty ticking time bomb of a plot,\u201d noted New York Times<\/em> reviewer Charles Isherwood. \u201cThat the people onstage are middle-class or lower-middle-class folks \u2014 too rarely given ample time on American stages \u2014 makes the play all the more vital a contribution to contemporary drama.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know the characters in this play and you identify completely with their hopes, dreams and aspirations,\u201d said O\u2019Hearn. \u201cThese people are very close friends, who have worked together for years, whose children have grown up together, but because of economic and political conditions they are being pushed to the brink and everything begins to unravel.\u201d<\/p>\n

One character, Tracey, played by Marti Goodfellow, a junior majoring in theatre from Voorhees, N.J., is \u201can overworked woman who is trying to find anyone to blame for what\u2019s happening to her.\u00a0 From situations like this, it\u2019s easy to see how normal, everyday can be manipulated to find a scapegoat to blame.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brucie, played by Omar McGill, a senior majoring in theatre from Bethlehem, Pa., is \u201cloved by everyone and wants to be a leader, but he\u2019s hurting and beat down.\u201d McGill said. \u201cIn the end, he\u2019s a quitter, but Brucie doesn\u2019t want his son to follow in his footsteps so he encourages him to get out and follow his dreams.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stan, played by Sam Kashefska, a senior majoring in musical theatre from Cape Fear, N.C., is \u201cthe only person in the play who has made a change of job, though not by choice.\u00a0 He hurt his leg and had to leave the factory after 28 years. He knows that change isn\u2019t necessarily a bad thing, but sees what the system is doing to everyone else.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marcell McKenzie, a senior majoring in musical theatre from Kunkletown, Pa., plays Evan, \u201cwho also was born in Berks County, like everyone else in the play, but is not part of the factory world.\u00a0 As a parole officer, Evan has found his place and is not scrambling like the other characters.\u00a0 He understands their struggles and wants to help, but he\u2019s a professional and needs to be tough to do his job right.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople will like the characters in this play,\u201d O\u2019Hearn said, \u201cand they will be deeply affected by the drama. If you\u2019re from Pennsylvania, you\u2019ve likely experienced these in events in your lifetime or know someone who has. The play is not told as a lesson, but in a way that brings these characters alive in our hearts and minds.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sweat <\/em>will be performed in the Dale Snow Theatre of ESU\u2019s Fine and Performing Arts Center, Normal and Marguerite streets, East Stroudsburg. This play is recommended for mature high school students and adults.<\/p>\n

Curtain times for the production are 7:30 p.m. on February 26-28 and March1-2 (Tuesday through Saturday) and 2 p.m. on March 3 (Sunday). General admission is $12; senior citizens, faculty and staff (with ID) are $10; students (with ID) are $7. Because of limited seating in the intimate Dale Snow Theatre, advanced ticket purchase is strongly recommended.<\/p>\n

Tickets are available online in advance at esu.edu\/theatretickets<\/a> (credit cards only online). Remaining tickets will be available at the box office starting one hour before curtain on performance dates (cash and checks only at the box office).\u00a0For reservations or other information, please email esuarts@esu.edu<\/a> or call 570-422-3483.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lynn Nottage\u2019s drama, Sweat<\/em>, which will be presented February 26-28 and March 1-3 at ESU, is one of the most compelling, gripping, and truthful portrayals of life in America at the beginning of the 21st<\/sup> century according to director Susan P. O\u2019Hearn, professor of theatre.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":18416,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[143,42,58,69],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","category-news-release","category-slider","category-theater"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18413"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18413"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18413\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18418,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18413\/revisions\/18418"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}