Thursday, June 22, 2017

New from TCG Books: "Sweat" by Lynn Nottage, Winner of the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Drama

Sweat
Lynn Nottage
Theatre Communications Group  

Lynn Nottage

NEW YORK, NY – Theatre Communications Group (TCG) is pleased to announce the publication of Sweat by Lynn Nottage. Sweat was first performed at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in 2015 before playing at the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. In the fall of 2016 the play received its Off-Broadway premiere at the Public Theater before transferring to Broadway in the spring of 2017.

Sweat brims with the kind of ripe, richly imagined life associated with the work of the great August Wilson…From first moments to last, this compassionate but clear-eyed play throbs with heartfelt life…That the people onstage are middle-class or lower-middle-class folks—too rarely given ample time on American stages—makes the play all the more vital a contribution to contemporary drama.”
–Charles Isherwood, New York Times

Lynn Nottage has written one of her most exquisitely devastating tragedies to date. In one of the poorest cities in America, Reading, Pennsylvania, a group of down-and-out factory workers struggle to keep their present lives in balance, ignorant of the financial devastation looming in their near future. Based on Nottage’s extensive research and interviews with residents of Reading, Sweat is a topical reflection of the present and poignant outcome of America’s economic decline.

Sweat is a passionate and necessary drama, a masterful depiction of the forces that divide and conquer us. It communicates its points with minimal fuss and maximum grit. Along with the rage, despair, and violence, there’s humor and abundant humanity. Prophetic before the 2016 election, the piece now reads as a cautionary tale of what happens when you don’t know how to resist.”
–David Cote, Time Out New York

Lynn Nottage is the recipient of two Pulitzer Prize Awards for Drama for Sweat and Ruined. She is the first woman playwright to be honored twice. Her other plays include Intimate Apparel; By the Way, Meet Vera Stark; Fabulation, or the Re-Education of Undine; Crumbs from the Table of Joy; and Las Meninas.

For over 50 years, Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for the American theatre, has existed to strengthen, nurture and promote the professional not-for-profit American theatre. TCG’s constituency has grown from a handful of groundbreaking theatres to nearly 700 Member Theatres and Affiliate organizations and more than 12,000 individuals nationwide. TCG offers its members networking and knowledge-building opportunities through conferences, events, research and communications; awards grants, approximately $2 million per year, to theatre companies and individual artists; advocates on the federal level; and serves as the U.S. Center of the International Theatre Institute, connecting its constituents to the global theatre community. TCG is North America’s largest independent trade publisher of dramatic literature, with 15 Pulitzer Prizes for Best Play on the TCG booklist. It also publishes the award-winning American Theatre magazine and ARTSEARCH®, the essential source for a career in the arts. In all of its endeavors, TCG seeks to increase the organizational efficiency of its member theatres, cultivate and celebrate the artistic talent and achievements of the field and promote a larger public understanding of, and appreciation for, the theatre. www.tcg.org.

Comment by email:
Wonderful, thank you, Bill!  [Gus Schulenburg]

No comments: