Sweat

• Genre: Play
• Originally Published: 2015
• Reading Level/Interest: College/Adult
• Structure/Length: 2 acts; approx. 144 pages
• Protagonist/Central Conflict: In a bar in Reading, Pennsylvania, Tracy, Cynthia, and Jessie—three childhood friends who work at a steel factory—and a parole officer and two ex-convicts reflect on life in a steel town. Tracy is gruff and cannot stand the way Reading has changed. Cynthia has a complicated relationship with her drug-addicted husband, Brucie. Jessie is unhappy with her factory job and abuses alcohol. Through their lives, along with those of the people who interact with them, the play examines factory life, race, economy, and humanity.
• Potential Sensitivity Issues: Alcohol abuse; drug abuse; racism          

Lynn Nottage, Author

• Bio: Born in 1964; American playwright who writes about working-class people; graduated from Brown University and the Yale School of Drama; worked for Amnesty International’s press office for four years; holds honorary degrees from Juilliard and Albright College; two-time recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama (2009 for Ruined, 2017 for Sweat); the first and only woman to have won the Pulitzer for Drama twice; associate professor of playwriting at Columbia University; artist-in-residence at Park Avenue Armory
• Other Works: Crumbs from the Table of Joy (1995); Intimate Apparel (2003); Ruined (2008); By the Way, Meet Vera Stark (2011); Clyde’s (2021)
• Awards: Pulitzer Prize for Drama (2017); Obie Award (2017); Black British Theatre Award for Best Play (2019)