"If democracy were to be given any meaning, if it were to go beyond the limits of capitalism and nationalism, this would not come -- if history were any guide -- from the top. It would come though citizens' movements, educating, organizing, agitating, striking, boycotting, demonstrating, threatening those in power with disruption of the stability they needed." Howard Zinn, A People's History of The United States
Theatre West Presents a Chestnuts Production WAITING FOR LEFTY
by Clifford Odets
A PLAY FOR OUR TIMES
Produced and Directed
by Charlie Mount
With
David Baer, Charles Baird, Heather Alyse Becker, Walter Beery, Elizabeth Bradshaw, Adam Conger, Roger Cruz, Alan Freeman, Jason Galloway, Anthony Gruppuso, Paul Gunning, Daniel Keough, Donald Moore, Alan Schack, Sandra Tucker and Kristin Wiegand
Set by Jeff Rack - Lights by Yancey Dunham - Sound by Charlie Mount - Stage Manager Rita Cofield - TW Executive Director John Galloglly
Listen to an interview with "Waiting For Lefty" director Charlie Mount on KPFK's show "Uprising" with host Sonali Kolhatkar. Included is an excerpt from the show with "Lefty" cast members Paul Gunning and Kristin Wiegand.
ABOUT WAITING FOR LEFTY
Unite and fight. Sixty-five years later, the message still resounds in a California in economic danger. It’s no coincidence that Theatre West is opening this show on Labor Day weekend.
“Waiting For Lefty” takes place at a union meeting of New York taxi drivers, where the cabbies contemplate a strike. As they wait for Lefty Costello, their elected Chairman, they share their stories, and explain how they became cabbies, and what brought them to the meeting. We meet Joe, whose wife threatens to leave him unless he stands up for himself; Miller, a lab assistant asked by his boss to help produce poison gas for the military; Syd and Florrie, a young couple who want to marry but have come to realize that no future exists for them. A company spy is uncovered at the meeting. A doctor is fired because she's a Jew. A young actor is bluntly schooled about value of commerce over art. As they wait for Lefty's leadership the cabbie's shared anger and frustration moves them -- thrilling -- to action. Not just for better wages, but for a better country.
Odets (1906-1963) left behind a legacy of classics for the stage (“Awake and Sing!,” “Clash by Night,” “Rocket to the Moon,” “The Country Girl,” “The Big Knife,” “Golden Boy,” “The Flowering Peach”) and screen (“The Sweet Smell of Success,” “Wild in the Country,” the latter starring Elvis Presley as a troubled youth). The contention between the hard worker and the exploitive boss was a recurring theme in Odets’ work.
“Waiting For Lefty” (1935) was Clifford Odets' first-produced play. It was presented on Broadway by the Group Theatre, a company devoted to honing the talents of its actors and dedicated to developing new works for the American stage…..much like Theatre West.
ABOUT CHESTNUTS
“Waiting For Lefty” is a classic, and is a Chestnuts production. Chestnuts is the division of the theatre devoted to keeping alive important classics of theatrical literature. Chestnuts was founded by Charlie Mount, who produces and directs the current show. He recently scored two major hits at Theatre West, directing “Gaslight” (for Chestnuts) and “Acting: The First Six Lessons” (Beau and Emily Bridges’ new adaptation of Richard Boleslavsky’s book).
SEPT 3 thru OCT 10, 2010 Fri and Sat at 8pm, Sun at 2pm
All Tickets on Opening Night (with Reception) Will Be $27
General - $22
Premium (First Four Rows) - $25
Seniors - $17
Veterans (with ID) - $17
Current Military (with ID) - $11
Students (25 and under with ID) - $5
KCRW Members (with ID) - $18
Thanks To The Lloyd E. Rigler - Lawrence E. Deutsch Foundation and The Robert Gore Rifkind Foundation
In this RSA Animate, radical social theorist David Harvey asks if it is time to look beyond capitalism towards a new social order that would allow us to live within a system that really could be responsible, just, and humane?
