Riveting.

—Eloise Gore, Audience Member

Powerful! It is the only word I can think of to describe Sweat:
the play, the performance of the ensemble, the direction.

—Laura Kosakowsky, Audience Member

Wow, last night reminded me why I love theatre.
I was inspired and reminded of the true power of theatre when done right.

—Marc David Pinate, Producing Artistic Director, Borderlands Theater

It’s one of my favorite plays I’ve EVER seen. OutSTANDING.

—Angela Orlando, Audience Member

The plot is riveting, and the acting, direction and setting just superb.  
You'll leave with lots to think about.

—Denice Blake, Audience Member

COVID: We are committed to the safety of audience members, performers, and staff. Masks are required inside the theatre. Read more about our COVID-19 protocols and precautions.

Supporting Materials

Free “Open Talk” Video

Click here to see the video

Free Open Talk on Sweat, presented on Saturday, September 3 at 2:00 p.m.

Professor Patrick Baliani’s UA Honors College students Nic Owen and Gaby Gubka discuss playwright Lynn Nottage’s works, and describe her process of interviewing the people of Reading, PA, over the course of several years before writing Sweat. The cast also presents a scene from the play.

This open talk is supported in part by a generous gift from
Paul Winick & Ronda Lustman and the Arizona Humanities Council

In rehearsal with Sweat at The Rogue

Click here to see the video

A Sweat Trailer

A look at Sweat in action with praise from our opening weekend audience members!

Click here to see the video

Essay

Read Jerry James’ essay providing background on Pittsburgh’s history of iron smelting and steel production:

How (Not) Green Was My Valley:
The Rise and Fall of Pittsburgh Steel

Poster

View the full-sized poster for the play

Reviews

A brutal economy turns friends into foes in The Rogue Theatre’s Sweat
Review of Sweat by Chuck Graham on September 14 at Let The Show Begin! and TucsonStage.com

Cynthia Meier (Director) is Co-Founder and Managing & Associate Artistic Director for The Rogue Theatre and holds a Ph.D. in Performance Studies from the University of Arizona. She has directed 40 of The Rogue’s 85 productions to date including The Secret in the Wings, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Galileo, Bach at Leipzig, The White Snake, Hamlet, Waiting for Godot, Betrayal, Naga Mandala, and The Four of Us for which she received Arizona Daily Star Mac Award nominations as Best Director, as well as Arcadia and Richard III for which she won Mac Awards for Direction. Cynthia has created stage adaptations for The Rogue of Thornton Wilder’s The Bridge of San Luis Rey, Virginia Woolf’s The Lady in the Looking Glass & Mrs Dalloway, James Joyce’s The Dead, Kafka’s Metamorphosis, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Tales of the Jazz Age, and (along with Holly Griffith) Moby Dick. She is co-founder of Bloodhut Productions, a company performing original monologues and comedy improvisation, which toured throughout the western United States. She also directed The Seagull (featuring Ken Ruta) for Tucson Art Theatre, and she directed Talia Shire in Sister Mendelssohn and Edward Herrmann in Beloved Brahms for Chamber Music Plus Southwest. Cynthia has also been nominated for nine Mac Awards for Best Actress from the Arizona Daily Star, and in 2008, she received the Mac Award for Best Actress for her performance of Stevie in Edward Albee’s The Goat at The Rogue Theatre.

Cynthia Meier’s direction of Sweat is supported in part by generous gifts
from Pat & John Hemann and Betsey Parlato & David Zucker

DIRECTOR’S NOTES

When Lynn Nottage’s play Sweat opened in New York in 2016, Terry Teachout in The Wall Street Journal wrote this headline: “The Play That Explains Trump’s Win.”

Nottage spent two and a half years interviewing the residents of Reading, Pennsylvania, about their town, their history, and their aspirations. At the time of her interviews, Reading had a poverty rate of 41.3% and was declared the poorest small city in the nation. Nottage interviewed people of all walks of life and of every background, race, gender, and ethnicity. What she heard, she translated into this Pulitzer-Prize-winning play.

Although Sweat begins in the year 2008, most of the play takes place as a flashback to the year 2000—the year of the Bush/Gore election, the year that Attorney General Janet Reno reassured the public that “American schools are safe places,” and the year of a record 617-point drop in the Dow Jones as the tech bubble burst. Thousands of manufacturing jobs and factories have been relocated to Mexico and unemployment in the U.S. soars.

Sweat has nine characters: four Black, four White, and one Latino. They were all born in Reading in Berks County, Pennsylvania, and most have spent much of their lives working at the same factory, Olstead’s. But when economic upheaval comes in the year 2000 (due in part to the North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement—NAFTA), their lives and relationships unravel. Racial divisions fracture along expected lines and, instead of drawing together, the community disintegrates.

Lynn Nottage puts a face on the suffering caused by national politics and economic trends. Each character in the play tells his or her own story in gatherings at a neighborhood bar. Working on this play, I’ve come to love these characters with all their flaws and misunderstandings. I’m aware that I now look at my fellow Tucsonans—especially those furthest from my comfortable surroundings—with new eyes.

I hope this play does the same for you.

—Cynthia Meier, Director
director@TheRogueTheatre.org

Playwright

Lynn Nottage (born November 2, 1964) is an American playwright whose work often focuses on the experience of working-class people, particularly working-class people who are Black. She has received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama twice: in 2009 for her play Ruined, and in 2017 for her play Sweat. She was the first (and remains the only) woman to have won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama two times. Nottage is also the recipient of a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship. She is currently an associate professor of playwriting at Columbia University and an artist-in-residence at the Park Avenue Armory.

Cast

in order of appearance

Chelsea Bowdren (Jessie) is thrilled to be joining the Rogue ensemble this year. Chelsea appeared last season as Miss Killman in Mrs Dalloway, Jenny/Miss Forsythe in Death of a Salesman and Maria in Twelfth Night. Her Rogue Theatre stage debut was many years ago, as Rosalind in Immortal Longings. Chelsea received her BFA in Acting from the University of Arizona and performed in Taming of the Shrew, Diary of Anne Frank, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Medea, & Titus Andronicus as a member of Arizona Repertory Theatre. As always, for Archer & Eloise.

Chelsea Bowdren’s performance is supported in part by
generous gifts from Sally Krusing and Susan Tiss

Victor Bowleg (Evan) is thrilled to be making his Rogue Theatre debut. Recently he served as the dramaturg for both The Sound of Cracking Bones (Teatro Dignidad) and The Dogs of Rwanda (Tucson Labyrinth Project). He has appeared in Emmett, Down in My Heart (TADA); Inspecting Carol (St. Francis Theater); Hokey Pokey (Gavin Kayner/Old Pueblo Playwrights); America Hurrah (Studio Connections); A Raisin in the Sun (ATC); U/S in To Kill a Mockingbird (ATC); Inspecting Carol (Live Theater Workshop); The King of the Kosher Grocers (Catalina Players); Guys & Dolls (Redondo Music Theatre); Guantanamo (Borderlands Theater); and Stop Kiss (Live Theater Workshop). Staged readings include Strange Fruit; Magic People; and Bang, Bang, Dead (Old Pueblo Playwrights); Cato: A Tragedy (University of Arizona Freedom Center); The Last Red Book, (Café Bohemia/Arizona Theatre Company); and To Kill a Mockingbird (ATC). He is a graduate of both the University of Louisville and the University of Cincinnati. He has also been trained in both Theater of the Oppressed and Playback Theater. He currently serves as the Racial Justice Center Manager at the YWCA of Southern Arizona via the MacArthur Grant Foundation.

Victor Bowleg’s performance is supported in part by
a generous gift from Bill Krauss & Kate McMillan

Lucas Gonzales (Oscar) is excited to return to The Rogue stage after last appearing as Stanley in Death of a Salesman. He is a Tucson native and University of Arizona graduate and completely ecstatic to be performing with The Rogue Theatre again! Over the last decade, he has also been seen at Beowulf Alley Theatre and the Roadrunner Theatre along with several local films from students and professionals based right here in town. His other focus is being an emcee/DJ at countless venues across Tucson, sparking everything from open mic nights to karaoke shows in an effort to bring out the artistry of whoever dares to try. Enjoy the show! We’ve all made it this far, so continue to be safe. For Mom and Erik.

Lucas Gonzales’ performance is supported in part by
a generous gift from Shawn Burke

Lance Guzman (Chris) is happy to be joining The Rogue for Sweat. He previously appeared as Lord Lance in As You Like It, in the chorus of The Oresteia and as Fedallah in Moby Dick. He has also appeared in the Scoundrel and Scamp productions of Salome, Mr. Burns, Blood Wedding, The Little Prince, It Is Magic and most recently in Citizen. He graduated from the University of Arizona with a BA in Theatre Arts, trained in the Phil Bennet Theatre Lab and has worked with various theaters in Tucson including The Scoundrel & Scamp and Winding Road Theatre.

Lance Guzman’s performance is supported in part by
a generous gift from Kristi Lewis

Hunter Hnat (Jason) is grateful to be in his fifth season as a member of The Rogue Resident Acting Ensemble. You may have seen him in previous Rogue productions as Inner Septimus in Mrs Dalloway, M in Passage, Happy in Death of a Salesman, Sebastian in Twelfth Night, Robert in The Awakening, Le Beau/Sylvius in As You Like It, Brenden in The Weir, Orestes in The Oresteia, Lord Byron/Frankenstein in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Rodolpho in A View from the Bridge, Ray Dooley in The Beauty Queen of Leenane, Flask in Moby Dick, Edmund Tyrone in Long Day’s Journey Into Night, the Mechanic in Middletown, Ezekiel Cheever in The Crucible, Ensemble in The Secret in the Wings, Claudio in Much Ado About Nothing, Christopher in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Andrea in Galileo, Oswald in King Lear, Steindorff in Bach at Leipzig, and Ensemble for A House of Pomegranates. Other credits include Salomé (Scoundrel & Scamp), U/S in Romeo and Juliet (Arizona Theatre Company), and How the House Burned Down (Live Theatre Workshop). He is a U of A alumnus with his BFA in Musical Theatre, class of 2015. Enjoy the show!

Hunter Hnat’s performance is supported in part by generous gifts
from Marianne Leedy and Kathy Ortega & Larry Johnson

Cynthia Jeffery (Tracey) has been a resident of both Hawaii and Arizona for 35+ years. This is her sixth production with The Rogue Theatre; the first being The New Electric Ballroom (Breda) followed by Richard III (Queen Elizabeth), The Lady in the Looking Glass (Narrator), the staged reading of No Exit (Inez) and Mrs Dalloway (Clarissa Dalloway). In Hawaii, Cynthia co-owned and operated Wide Eyed Theatre and co-produced three videos on Teen Crime Prevention with the Maui County Prosecutor’s Office. She has worked as a DJ for K-Hawaii’s Rock N’ Roll and earned 4 Tiki Awards for Best Actress in The Hilo Community Player’s A Streetcar Named Desire (Blanche), Macbeth (Lady Macbeth), Crimes of the Heart (Meg) and Beyond Therapy (Prudence). In Tucson, she received Carmen Awards for The Little Foxes (Regina) and The Big Meal (Woman #1) and won LTW’s Best Performance recognition for The Glass Menagerie (Amanda). Cynthia also received MAC nominations for Relatively Speaking (Sheila), No Exit (Inez), The Subject was Roses (Nettie), The Little Foxes (Regina), and The Big Meal (Woman #1). Her performance credits include Collected Stories (Ruth), The Birthday Party (Meg), Humble Boy (Flora), The Beauty Queen of Leenane (Mag), Gloria: A Life (Gloria Steinem), The Busy World is Hushed (Hannah), A Kid Like Jake (Judy), An Empty Plate in the Café du Grand Beouf (Miss Berger) and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Big Mama). Film credits include Lost River: Lincoln’s Secret Weapon, The Greening of Eritrea, Spin, Animal Planet’s I Shouldn’t be Alive, Finley Wade, Dead West, Survive, and The 3 O’clock.

Cynthia Jeffrey’s performance is supported in part by
a generous gift from Clay Shirk

Carley Elizabeth Preston (Cynthia) was last seen on The Rogue stage as Lucrezia in Mrs. Dalloway. Now in her fourth season as a member of The Rogue Theatre’s Resident Acting Ensemble, Carley has also appeared as B in Passage, Olivia in Twelfth Night, Adele in The Awakening, Rosalind in As You Like It, Valerie in The Weir, Beatrice Carbone in A View from the Bridge, Mrs. Bradman in Blithe Spirit, and as Tituba in The Crucible. Carley received her BFA from the University of Arizona where she was a member of the Arizona Repertory Theatre. Some of her other stage credits include Time Stands Still (Mac Award for Best Actress), Molly Sweeney, Enchanted April, The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe (Live Theatre Workshop), Mrs. Mannerly (Mac Award Nominee for Best Actress), Boston Marriage, By the Bog of Cats, Miracle on 34th Street (Mac Award Nominee for Best Actress), Kimberly Akimbo, and Good People. Carley is also the Diversity Specialist for The Rogue. She would like to thank this wonderful community for supporting live theatre in Tucson, the OG Quaranteam, and the loves of her life, Jerrad and their fur babies Loki Björn Hiddleston and Freyja Laveau for supporting her theatre habit!

Carley Elizabeth Preston’s performance is supported in part by generous gifts
from Katherine Jacobson and Eloise Gore & Allen Hile

Steve Waite (Brucie) is thrilled to be working on his first production with The Rogue Theater. Steve is a graduate of Oberlin College where he acted in several small theater performances while studying the natural sciences. Having never lost his love for dramatic performance, he returns to the stage after a three-decade absence. Steve promises not to make his next return quite so long, smile.

Steve Waite’s performance is supported in part by
a generous gift from John & Diane Wilson

Matt Walley (Stan) is a member of The Rogue Theatre Resident Acting Ensemble and was most recently seen as Stubb in Moby Dick, Dr. Bradman in Blithe Spirit, Thomas Putnam in The Crucible, Mr. Walley in The Secret in the Wings, Dogberry in Much Ado About Nothing, Roger in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Matti in Galileo, Edmund in King Lear and Uncle John in The Grapes of Wrath. He has enjoyed previous roles at The Rogue in Bach at Leipzig, Macbeth, Richard III, Journey to the West, The Winter’s Tale, Shipwrecked!, As I Lay Dying and Major Barbara. He also co-created and performed in Oaf at The Scoundrel and Scamp Theatre. He received an MFA from Dell’Arte International.

Matt Walley’s performance is supported in part by generous gifts from
Denice Blake & John Blackwell and Peggy Houghton & Paul Garner

Russell Ronnebaum (Music Director) serves as The Rogue Theatre’s Director of Music and Resident Composer. He holds a Master of Music degree in collaborative piano from the University of Arizona where he studied under Dr. Paula Fan. He currently serves as the assistant director of music at St. Mark the Evangelist Catholic Church in Oro Valley, as well as the staff accompanist for the Tucson Masterworks Chorale. As a classically trained pianist, Russell has performed with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra, the American Wind Symphony Orchestra, Artifact Dance Company, Arizona Repertory Theatre, and as a concerto soloist with the Tucson Masterworks Chorale. Russell made his Carnegie Hall debut in 2016 performing the music of composer Dan Forrest. Past credits include The Rogue’s recent productions of Mrs Dalloway, Passage, Death of a Salesman, Twelfth Night, The Awakening, As You Like It, The Weir, The Oresteia, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, A View from the Bridge, The Beauty Queen of Leenane, Moby Dick, Blithe Spirit, Long Day’s Journey Into Night, Much Ado About Nothing and The Secret in the Wings (Vocal Director). Russell also composes the music for Rogue Radio, a radio play series produced in partnership with Arizona Public Media, NPR 89.1 FM. Recent composition commissions and premieres include music for live theatre, strings, voice, choir, and piano. Recordings, videos, sheet music, and upcoming concert dates can be found at www.RRonnebaum.com.

Purchase of the Jukebox is supported in part
by a generous gift from Kay Crofoot

Designers and Production Staff

Deanna Fitzgerald (Lighting Design) is a member of United Scenic Artists whose lighting design credits include theatre, dance, opera, circus-themed, puppets, architectural lighting and more. She is a yoga and meditation teacher, and conducts classes and workshops focused on using these and other "quietive" practices to aid creative process. Deanna is the author of The Heart of Light, published in January 2022. At the University of Arizona, she is the Vice-Dean for the College of Fine Arts and a Professor in the School of Theatre, Film, and Television. She serves on the Western Region Exam Committee of United Scenic Artists, the Boards of Directors for URTA (University Resident Theatre Association) and USITT (United States Institute of Theatre Technology), and as a general editor for the Theatre Design and Technology magazine. 
Deanna has been smitten with her Rogue family since 2014 when she designed their extraordinary creation, Jerusalem, and has since designed a couple dozen Rogue productions, including some of these favorites of hers: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Penelope, The Secret in the Wings, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Beauty Queen of Leenane, Celia A Slave, Tales from the Jazz Age, and The Picture of Dorian Gray. She is grateful for every moment she gets to spend making things with The Rogue, and for the very talented co-LD Shannon Wallace and ME Peter Bleasby whose collaborations make it possible for her do that.

Deanna Fitzgerald’s lighting design is supported in part by
a generous gift from an anonymous donor

Shannon Wallace (Production Stage Manager, Associate Lighting Designer) first came to The Rogue in 2015 to stage manage The Picture of Dorian Gray, and now serves as their Production Stage Manager and Operations Manager. Her stage management credits at The Rogue include: The Picture of Dorian Gray, The Bridge of San Luis Rey, Angels in America, Uncle Vanya, Penelope, Macbeth, A House of Pomegranates, Celia, A Slave, Bach at Leipzig, The Grapes of Wrath, Three Tall Women, King Lear, Galileo, Curious Incident, Much Ado About Nothing, Secret in the Wings, The Crucible, A View from the Bridge, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, The Oresteia, The Weir, As You Like It, The Awakening and Mrs Dalloway. She also served as Production Stage Manager for Twelfth Night, Death of a Salesman, and Passage. She graduated from the University of Arizona with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, focusing on both stage management and lighting design. During her time in school she worked on over 25 productions with Arizona Repertory Theatre. She has also worked for Arizona Theatre Company, the Oklahoma City Philharmonic, and the Contemporary American Theatre Festival. She spent a year living in Chicago and worked as the Operations Assistant for Mudlark Theater Company. She is grateful to be working full-time as a theater artist in her hometown and would like to thank her parents & her bunnies for their unconditional love.

Christopher Pankratz (Stage Manager, Property Master) is honored to be both an actor and a member of the production staff at The Rogue. Christopher previously stage managed Death of a Salesman, and he has performed at The Rogue in The Grapes of Wrath, King Lear, Much Ado About Nothing, The Crucible, Moby Dick, A View from the Bridge, As You Like It, and The Awakening. In 2019, he directed An Enemy of the People for the John and Joyce Ambruster Play-Reading Series. Christopher has written and produced several plays at Flowing Wells High School including Black Friday, Frankenstein, Cuando Soñamos, Spinning Tales The Musical, Leave It to the Snakes, Cuando Mentimos, Cuckoo, Cuando Perdonamos, The Snow Queen, You Can’t Make Wine from Raisins, and two newly-published plays: The Longest Day of April and The Story Seller’s Tale. Christopher would like to thank his colleagues, family, and friends for their support and inspiration.

Christopher Pankratz’s stage management is supported in
part by a generous gift from Sally Krusing

Brent Gibbs (Fight Choreographer) teaches acting and stage combat at the University of Arizona’s School of Theatre Arts where he also served as the previous Artistic Director for the Arizona Repertory Theatre. He is a member of Actors’ Equity Association and Screen Actors Guild. For nine years Brent served as the director, fight director and production stage manager for one of the nation’s largest Outdoor Dramas, Tecumseh. He has gained recognition as an Advanced Actor/Combatant by the Society of British Fight Directors, Fight Directors Canada and The Society of American Fight Directors where he also holds the rank of Certified Teacher and Fight Director. He has taught combat master classes around the United States and Europe at various schools including The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. For several summers he taught stage combat workshops at the International Theatre School Festival in Amsterdam.

Amy Novelli (Scenic Artist) is originally from Ohio and Pennsylvania. She received her Cum Laude BFA from the Columbus (Ohio) College of Art & Design in 1987 and her MFA from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh in 1994. Novelli’s scenic art career began in New York City at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade Studio. Charge Scenic Artist for the Arizona Theatre Company 2010–2014, Amy also painted several sets for Arizona Opera and UA Opera, and presently paints for The Rogue Theatre and until COVID at the Arizona Broadway Theatre in Peoria (Phoenix). Amy created monstrous Halloween decor for Hotel Congress for 20 years, and was lead painter for Marshal-Fields 1998 award winning Easter Window display “Alice in Wonderland”. She supervised four public art projects in the Tucson area with high school youth and won commissions to design and paint five large scale outdoor murals across the country as well as at the Biosphere II and La Posada Hotel on Oracle Blvd. She has taught at the University of Arizona and Pima Community College. Novelli’s fine art work has been exhibited at several Tucson Galleries and in May-August 2020 she had a one woman show at the Tucson International Airport. Amy Novelli has been living in Tucson since 1996. When not painting, Novelli trains rescue horses and dogs and enjoys riding wilderness trails all over the western states.

Amy Novelli’s scenic painting is supported in part by
a generous gift from Marianne Leedy

Peter Bleasby (Master Electrician) lit his first show at 13. Professionally, he was with BBC Television for several years, and was an assistant to the UK lighting designer Richard Pilbrow during the inaugural production of the National Theatre (Hamlet, directed by Olivier.) Although his career was in architectural lighting, he maintained some theatre lighting involvement on both sides of the Atlantic. In 2009, he volunteered for the Rogue’s initial season at the Historic Y. He has been master electrician at the Rogue for every show from 2013 to the present, supporting our lighting designers Deanna Fitzgerald, Don Fox, and Josh Hemmo. He devised the system that enables lights to be quickly re-arranged, allowing more time for the creative process. Elsewhere in Tucson, he directed the technical and logistical aspects of fundraisers for the Southern Arizona AIDS Foundation, including the fashion show Moda Provocateur.

Susan Collinet (House Manager) earned her Bachelor of Arts Degree in Creative Writing and English Literature from the University of Arizona in 2008. Decades before returning to college as a non-traditional student, Susan spent twenty years in amateur theater, mostly on the East coast, as well as in Brussels, Belgium in the American Theater of Brussels, and the Theatre de Chenois in Waterloo. She has worked in such positions as a volunteer bi-lingual guide in the Children’s Museum of Brussels, the Bursar of a Naturopathic Medical school in Tempe, Arizona, an entrepreneur with two “Susan’s of Scottsdale” hotel gift shops in Scottsdale, Arizona, and as the volunteer assistant Director of Development of the Arizona Aids Project in Phoenix. Susan continues to work on collections of poetry and non-fiction. Her writing has won awards from Sandscript Magazine, the John Hearst Poetry Contest, the Salem College for Women’s Center for Writing, and was published in a Norton Anthology ofStudent’s Writing. In addition to being House Manager, Susan serves on the Board of Directors for the Rogue.

Thomas Wentzel (Box Office Manager, Program, Website) is a Scientific Programmer for the National Solar Observatory and holds a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Arizona. Previously he has worked as a Data Manager for several prevention programs in the Arizona Cancer Center and the Mel and Enid Zuckerman Arizona College of Public Health. He has served on the Board of the Tucson Men’s Cooperative, editing its newsletter for five years, and on the Executive Committee of Sons of Orpheus—The Male Choir of Tucson. He has sung with Furry Day Singers, Sons of Orpheus, AwenRising and Arizona Repertory Singers, and has performed with Tucson Art Theatre in Viktor Slavkin’s Cerceau and Clifford Odets’ Waiting for Lefty. Thomas has designed and built The Rogue Theatre Web site (with great assistance from Bill Sandel and Bryan Falcón in creating the 2020 Website update), and serves as Webmaster and Business Manager. He has also served on The Rogue’s Board of Directors since the founding of the theatre.

Our Thanks

Performance Schedule

Performance run time of Sweat is two hours and twenty minutes, including one ten-minute intermission.