Small Town America Hits Broadway, Cities Can’t Get Enough

Sweat is based on 3 years of interviews. The play delves into the intimate lives of white Pennsylvania factory workers who are quickly realizing they no longer have an in on the ‘American Dream’. And now it’s won the Pulitzer Prize for drama.

It’s a play that shines some much-needed light on small-town stories. And it shows the importance they have in shaping American culture not just during election years, but constantly.

“I hold onto Werner Herzog’s notion that the job of the artist is to keep your eyes open when everyone else’s are shut. Sometimes what you see is beautiful and sometimes it’s ugly, and the artist shouldn’t be afraid to hold that mirror,” she told the LA Times.

And we shouldn’t be afraid to take a look. So let’s go.

 

A scene from Sweat. (Photo: Joan Marcus / Slate)

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