BC Fall Production “Sweat” Captures The Reality Of The American Dream

By Oba Williams-Cantine

The Brooklyn College Theater Department’s next fall production is the play “Sweat” by Lynn Nottage, which focuses on the stories of working class Americans.

“Lynn Nottage has written this play with a love for these people whose stories haven’t really been told, and that love is so clear in the language and it’s felt in the room by the actors,” said Director Tara Christina Elliott.

At its core, “Sweat” is a story about the American experience. In the play, regular working-class citizens try to cope with the changing economic landscape, as the middle class begins to dwindle. The factory workers must do everything in their power to stay afloat and fight for what they are owed. 

“Sweat” is a 2015 play that premiered at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival that same year, and then later premiered on Broadway in 2017. It won two Pulitzer Prize awards for drama. Nottage was inspired by the way poverty shifted the narrative of the American dream. She received a heartbreaking email from a close friend where they discussed the economic hardship that they were going through while attempting to take care of their family and adjust to living below the middle class. Ultimately, Nottage’s quest brought her to the factory city of Reading, Pennsylvania, where her two-week stay as an outsider crafting a story ended up turning into a two-year experience.

“I think I’m telling a story that is difficult, and telling it with love is one of the most powerful things we can do,” Elliott said.

Elliott is a Brooklyn College alumna, writer, and recipient of the Gotham Award for her producing work on the web series “Shugs & Fats.” She is also the co-founder of Brooklyn Acts, which is a performing program that gives Brooklyn teens a platform to tell their stories.

“Even though this play is set in Redding, Pennsylvania, it is a story about inequity in America,” Elliott said. “So I think it will resonate with the Brooklyn College audiences because everybody at Brooklyn College knows what it means to fight for something, and what it means to believe in something and to go after it and to dream and to try and struggle.”

“Sweat” will run November 15-23 in the Don Buchwald Theater at BC. For more information on showtimes visit BrooklynCollegePresents.org or contact the box office at 718-951-4500.