Video: The Story of Sweat

When playwright Lynn Nottage read an article about Reading, Pennsylvania in 2011, she wondered, "How did a city which had once been such an incredible industrial powerhouse become a city without a narrative?" Nottage made it her mission to find out. She traveled to Reading, Pennsylvania and spoke with members of the community, including the mayor, educators, factory workers, and homeless people. Along the way, she wrote Sweat, a powerfully empathetic look at people whose lives are often unexamined by traditional theatre. 

Before Sweat opened on Broadway, before the play earned Nottage her second Pulitzer Prize, and before it received Tony nominations including Best Play, the cast and crew journeyed back to the play's source. The actors traveled to Reading, Pennsylvania to perform the play in front of the very people who inspired it. In a talk-back after the performance, Nottage said to the crowd: "A lot of folks [here] are not in dialogue with each other. What I hope is that everyone can recognize the ways in which we're connected rather than the ways in which we're different."

Check out the video below for a taste of what it was like for the cast and crew to take the show back to the source. Sweat is on sale for groups through September 9, 2017, and tickets are available by visiting the show page below.