Lynn Nottage's SWEAT Opens Tonight at The Public Theater

The extended New York Premiere of SWEAT by Lynn Nottage officially opens tonight, November 3, at The Public Theater.

Directed by Kate Whoriskey, SWEAT began performances on Tuesday, October 18 and was originally scheduled to run through Sunday, November 20. It will now run through Sunday, December 4, 2016.

The complete cast of SWEAT features Carlo Albán (Oscar), James Colby (Stan), Khris Davis(Chris), JohAnna Day (Tracey), John Earl Jelks (Brucie), Will Pullen (Jason), Miriam Shor(Jessie), Lance Coadie Williams (Evan), and Michelle Wilson (Cynthia).

The Public presents the New York premiere of SWEAT by the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright of Ruined, Lynn Nottage. With warm humor and tremendous heart, Sweat tells the story of a group of friends who have spent their lives sharing drinks, secrets and laughs while working together on the line of a factory floor. But when layoffs and picket lines begin to chip away at their trust, the friends find themselves pitted against each other in the hard fight to stay afloat. Kate Whoriskey directs this stunning new play about the collision of race, class, family and friendship, and the tragic, unintended costs of community without opportunity.

SWEAT features scenic design by John Lee Beatty, costume design by Jennifer Moeller, lighting design by Peter Kaczorowski, original music and sound design by Rob Milburn and Michael Bodeen, and projection design by Jeff Sugg.

Public Theater Member and Partner tickets can be accessed now by calling (212) 967-7555, www.publictheater.org, or in person at the Taub Box Office at The Public Theater at 425 Lafayette Street. Single tickets will be available on Tuesday, August 23. Member tickets are priced at $60 and single tickets start at $85. Post-show talkbacks with the creative team are scheduled to take place immediately following the performances on Wednesday, November 9 and Wednesday, November 16.The Library at The Public is open nightly for food and drinks, beginning at 5:00 p.m., and Joe's Pub at The Public continues to offer some of the best music in the city.

Lynn Nottage (Playwright) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and screenwriter whose plays have been produced widely in the U.S. and throughout the world. Most recently, her play Sweat (Susan Smith Blackburn Award) premiered at OSF and Arena Stage, and will open at The Public this Fall. Her other plays include, By The Way, Meet Vera Stark (Lilly Award, Drama Desk nom.); Ruined (Pulitzer Prize, OBIE, Lortel, NY Drama Critics' Circle, Audelco, Drama Desk, and OCC Award); Intimate Apparel (American Theatre Critics and NYDCC Awards); Fabulation, or The Re-Education of Undine (OBIE); Crumbs from the Table of Joy; Las Meninas; Mud, River, Stone;Por'knockers; and POOF!. She recently developed her play Intimate Apparel into a new opera with composer Ricky Ian Gordon commissioned by MET/LCT. She is co-founder of Market Road Films, whose recent projects include The Notorious Mr. Bout, First to Fall andAmerican Warlord, in addition to original projects for HBO, Showtime, and Harpo. Nottage is the recipient of a PEN/Laura Pels Master Dramatist Award, Doris Duke Artist Award, American Academy of Arts and Letters Award, MacArthur "Genius Grant" Fellowship, Steinberg "Mimi" Distinguished Playwright Award, Dramatists Guild Hull-Warriner Award, the inaugural Horton Foote Prize, Lilly Award, Helen Hayes Award, Lee Reynolds Award, and Jewish World Watch iWitness Award. Her other honors include the National Black Theatre Fest's August Wilson Playwriting Award, a Guggenheim Grant, PEN/Laura Pels Award, Lucille Lortel Fellowship and Visiting Research Fellowship at Princeton University. She is a graduate oF Brown University and the Yale School of Drama, and is an Associate Professor at Columbia School of the Arts. Member of the Dramatists Guild.

Kate Whoriskey (Director)'s New York credits include The Public's Ping Pong and Manahatta at Public Studio, Tales from Red Viennaand Ruined at MTC (Drama Desk, Lucille Lortel nominations), The Miracle Worker (Broadway's Circle in the Square), How I Learned to Drive(Second Stage), The Piano Teacher (Vineyard Theatre), Oroonoko (Theatre for A New Audience), world premieres of Fabulation and Inked Baby (Playwrights Horizons), and Massacre at the Labyrinth Theatre. Internationally she has directed Magdalena at the Chatelet Theatre in Paris and Teatro Municipal de Sao Paolo. Regionally she has directed at The Goodman, The Geffen, American Repertory Theatre, The Shakespeare Theatre, The Huntington, South Coast Rep, Baltimore Center Stage, Sundance Theatre Lab, New York Stage and Film, among others.

The Public Theater, under the leadership of Artistic Director Oskar Eustis and Executive Director Patrick Willingham, is the only theater in New York that produces Shakespeare, the classics, musicals, contemporary and experimental pieces in equal measure. Celebrating his 10th anniversary season at The Public, Eustis has created new community-based initiatives designed to engage audiences like Public Lab, Public Studio, Public Forum, Public Works, and a remount of the Mobile Unit. The Public continues the work of its visionary founder, Joe Papp, by acting as an advocate for the theater as an essential cultural force, and leading and framing dialogue on some of the most important issues of our day. Creating theater for one of the largest and most diverse audience bases in New York City for nearly 60 years, today the Company engages audiences in a variety of venues-including its landmark downtown home at Astor Place, which houses five theaters and Joe's Pub; the Delacorte Theater in Central Park, home to free Shakespeare in the Park; and the Mobile Unit, which tours Shakespearean productions for underserved audiences throughout New York City's five boroughs. The Public's wide range of programming includes free Shakespeare in the Park, the bedrock of the Company's dedication to making theater accessible to all; Public Works, an expanding initiative that is designed to cultivate new connections and new models of engagement with artists, audiences and the community each year; and audience and artist development initiatives that range from Emerging Writers Group and to the Public Forum series. The Public is located on property owned by the City of New York and receives annual support from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs; and in October 2012 the landmark building downtown at Astor Place was revitalized to physically manifest the Company's core mission of sparking new dialogues and increasing accessibility for artists and audiences, by dramatically opening up the building to the street and community, and transforming the lobby into a public piazza for artists, students, and audiences. The Public is currently represented on Broadway by the Tony Award-winning Fun Home and Lin-Manuel Miranda's acclaimed American musical Hamilton. The Public has received 59 Tony Awards, 168 Obie Awards, 53 Drama Desk Awards, 54 Lortel Awards, 32 Outer Critics Circle Awards, 13 New York Drama Critics Awards, and five Pulitzer Prizes. For more, visit www.publictheater.org.

Photo Credit: Joan Marcus