Sweat

When producing a play, one of the most important questions to ask is, “Why perform this play here and now?” Sweat premiered at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in 2015 to an audience that was gearing up toward the 2016 US presidential election, in which blue-collar workers in the Rust Belt were a significant demographic. What do you think audiences were meant to take away from the play in 2015? Use these questions to formulate your discussion.

• How does the play depict these blue-collar workers?
• What are their struggles? Why are they struggling?
• In what ways are they sympathetic and unsympathetic?
• Who is the typical audience on Broadway, and why might Nottage have wanted to present this play to them? How would the play speak to audiences today in your town?

Teaching Suggestion: The play humanizes blue-collar workers in Middle America, who were a key demographic in the outcome of the 2016 election, and one of the challenges of this discussion will likely be steering students away from political debate. Ideally, this conversation will focus on what Nottage is doing by humanizing these characters, and how that speaks to specific audiences. You might also ask students why they think this play was deemed significant enough to win a Pulitzer Prize.