March 31, 2008

Contact:   Bill Giduz

by Rachel Andoga

“Don’t wait for Lefty! He might never come…” So advises a character in the final minutes of Clifford Odets' play, Waiting for Lefty, the latest production by Davidson College’s Theatre Department. Lefty’s dubious arrival aside, what are the characters in the play waiting for? “I suppose you could say that they’re trying to figure out what to do, that they’re waiting for news that will make their lives more tolerable,” said Professor of Theatre Sharon Green, who’s directing the production.

Performances of Waiting for Lefty are April 2-3 at 7:30 p.m., April 4-5 at 8 p.m., and April 6 at 2 p.m., all in the Duke Family Performance Hall. Tickets are $15 for general admission, $11 for seniors, and $6 for students. There is special two-for-one pricing for the April 2 and April 6 shows. For reservations and ticket information, call 704-894-2135 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays, or order online at www.davidson.edu/tickets.

Josh Carson '09 and Suzanne Lenz '09 play Joe and Edna, a down-on-their-luck couple, in Davidson's production of Waiting for Lefty.

In a series of related vignettes, Waiting for Lefty focuses on a meeting of taxi drivers attempting to plan a labor strike during the Great Depression. The play opened on January 6, 1935, to an audience that recognized the story of sacrifice, survival, poverty, and hope that was being told on stage. The New York Times hailed that original production as "one of the most thorough, trenchant jobs in the school of revolutionary drama...soundly constructed and fiercely dramatic in the theatre."

Director Sharon Green describes that first performance of Waiting for Lefty as “legendary” in the history of American theatre. “Just as much for what happened offstage as on,” she explained. “Audience members recognized themselves and their lives in Odets’ words. When the workers debate whether or not to go out on strike, audience members understood that their own lives were on the line, too. By the play’s end, the audience was up on their feet, stomping and chanting with the actors ‘Strike! Strike! Strike!’”

As rousing as that chorus might be, a strike in the midst of an economic depression was a dangerous concept. Waiting for Lefty dramatizes that fact especially well through the relationship of Joe and Edna, a married couple under financial pressure from Joe’s job as a cab driver.

Josh Carson ’09, who plays Joe opposite fellow junior Suzanne Lenz’s Edna, describes Joe as a taxi driver who has “seen the worst of it on the front lines.” Carson calls Joe’s decision to support the strike “a key moment of realization.” Carson said, “Going into the play, he’s come to accept the conditions he works in and tries to be as optimistic as he can. Until Edna inspires him, he never seriously considered standing up for better wages and working conditions.”

Green added, “What are you willing to compromise or sacrifice to make enough money to survive? This question haunts all of the decisions these characters must make. It’s not the difference between being comfortable and being wealthy. It’s the difference between surviving and not surviving. Survival and sacrifice are key to all the choices the characters make in the play. When an opportunity arises to make a few bucks, the characters have to decide what they’re willing to sacrifice for that opportunity. Are people willing to trade their integrity for money when they’re hungry and poor? Where do you draw that line?”

Although the play is set during the Great Depression, both Green and her cast note its continued relevancy. “In the midst of the run-up to a Presidential election, a financial crisis catalyzed by lending institutions’ coercive business practices, and a real struggle to maintain affordable housing for working families, the words of this play still ring true,” said Green.

Carson added, “Even though we’ve progressed tremendously as a country since Lefty was written, I think there are Americans today who could still identify with a few of these characters.”

One way Green and her cast are attempting to recreate the magic of that inspirational first show is through the creation of a theatrical environment that softens the contrast between stage and auditorium, and implicates the audience in the action on stage. Professor of Theatre Joe Gardner, who designed the sets, has taken the idea of the Union Hall in which the characters meet and extended it into the audience.

Additionally, live folk music has been incorporated throughout the show. Graham Smith on guitar, Chris Marsicano on the washboard, and Anna Marie Smith and Nina Hawley on harmonica play old and new folks tunes that speak to the struggles that Odets depicts.

Davidson is a highly selective independent liberal arts college for 1,700 students. Since its establishment in 1837 by Presbyterians, the college has graduated 23 Rhodes Scholars and is consistently regarded as one of the top liberal arts colleges in the country.

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Posted By: Rachel Andoga