The Alliance Theatre is hosting a weeklong Virtual Play Club focusing on the 2017 Pulitzer Prize-winning play Sweat as a catalyst for connectivity, creativity, and civic participation.
Sweat is an incisive account of changing attitudes toward labor and class in America that examines the human costs of the urgent questions we grapple with today in the Covid-19 crisis—what counts as essential labor? How does unemployment impact our mental health? How is economic mobility shaped by race and ethnicity?
Virtually gather with family and friends using the “HOST YOUR OWN PLAY CLUB” guide and explore artistic and civic issues in Sweat. Follow prompts for discussion and artistic interpretation to turn your gathering into an at-home theatre experience that you create.
Then, join us on May 1st - International Labor Day - for a conversation with Tinashe Kajese-Bolden, Director, and Pearl Cleage, award winning Atlanta-based playwright, on Sweat and the role of theatre in times of crisis. Featuring guest appearances and commentary from Atlanta theatre artists and community activists.
This script is no longer available.
Gather a group virtually and host your own event with a short play guide created by the Alliance team. Inside you will find step-by-step instructions for getting started, discussion prompts and creative theater-making activities.
May 1 at 6pm
What can theatre do at a moment of public crisis? Join us on Facebook Live for a conversation between Tinashe Kajese-Bolden and Pearl Cleage that addresses how storytelling can sustain community during a period of crisis. Kajese-Bolden and Cleage will discuss the play Sweat as a response to the 2008 economic crisis, highlighting the voices of local experts on labor and immigration advocacy, and reflect on their own journey as theater artists striving to center social issues in their work. The live conversation will feature special guests from Atlanta’s theater community responding to how arts can address pressing civic concerns in the wake of the Covid-19 crisis. Q&A to follow.
A multimedia library of commentary and insights from artists, civic leaders and community activists.
"Through our SWEAT Play Club, we’re going to wrestle and dance with the brilliant words of Lynn Nottage. Sometimes by reading in solitude, sometimes by discussing in community, sometimes by witnessing those words’ enactment. All of those parts have the potential of adding up to something that might feel a whole lot like theatre."
"Through our SWEAT Play Club, we’re going to wrestle and dance with the brilliant words of Lynn Nottage. Sometimes by reading in solitude, sometimes by discussing in community, sometimes by witnessing those words’ enactment. All of those parts have the potential of adding up to something that might feel a whole lot like theatre."
Commentary from a counselor offering tips on preserving mental well-being.
Commentary from a counselor offering tips on preserving mental well-being.
