Photo Flash: SWEAT Begins Tonight at Arena Stage

The new drama SWEAT by Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage (Ruined; By The Way, Meet Vera Stark) comes to Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater following a critically-acclaimed debut at Oregon Shakespeare Festival as part of a co-commission between the two theaters. The play is directed by Nottage's longtime collaborator Kate Whoriskey and runs tonight, January 15, through February 21, 2016 in the Kreeger Theater. The company just kicked off rehearsals, and BroadwayWorld has photos below!

SWEAT is a result of extensive interviews conducted by Nottage and Whoriskey, who spent two years visiting and interviewing residents of Reading, Pennsylvania, which was named the nation's poorest city in 2011. Set in 2000 and 2008, the play explores America's industrial decline at the turn of the millennium with a look inside Reading, where a group of close friends shares everything: drinks, secrets and laughs. But when rumors of layoffs shake up the local steel mill, the fragile bonds of their community begin to fray and a horrific crime sends shock waves across two generations.

As previously announced, Jack Willis (Arena's Mother Courage and Her Children, President Lyndon Baines Johnson in Arena's upcoming All the Way) and Tony Award nomineeKimberly Scott (Joe Turner's Come and Gone at Arena and on Broadway) reprise their roles of Stan and Cynthia, respectively. Also reprising roles they originated for the Oregon world premiere are Kevin Kenerly as Brucie, Stephen Michael Spencer as Jason, Tramell Tillman as Chris and Tyrone Wilson as Evan.

Joining the company for the D.C. production are Tony Award nominee Johanna Day (Broadway's You Can't Take It With You, Arena's Good People) as Tracey and Reza Salazar as Oscar.

The creative team for SWEAT includes Set Designer John Lee Beatty, Costume Designer Jennifer Moeller, Lighting Designer Peter Kaczorowski, Sound Designers Michael Bodeen and Robert Milburn, Projection Designer Jeff Sugg, Fight Director U. Jonathan Toppo, Assistant Directors Molly Houlihan and Rebecca Wear, Stage Manager Kurt Halland Assistant Stage Manager Jana Llynn.

SWEAT was created through Nottage's project residency with Arena Stage, where playwrights are commissioned through the American Voices New Play Institute to develop a specific project that the theater will produce, and is a presentation of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival production through their American Revolutions: United States History Cycle, which commissions new plays sprung from moments of change in United States history.

Artistic Director Molly Smith and playwright Lynn Nottage

Reza Salazar (Oscar) and Tramell Tillman (Chris)

Kimberly Scott (Cynthia) and Director of Artistic Programming Robert Barry Fleming

Johanna Day (Tracey) and Artistic Director Molly Smith

Executive Producer Edgar Dobie and playwright Lynn Nottage

Tyrone Wilson (Evan), Tara Mallen (Jessie) and Stephen Michael Spencer (Jason)

Tara Mallen (Jessie) and Stephen Michael Spencer (Jason)

The company of SWEAT at the first rehearsal at Arena Stage