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A DRAMATISTS PLAY SERVICE TITLE
Full-Length Play, Drama / 2w, 12m
Clifford Odets
One of the most celebrated and significant plays of the modern American theatre, Waiting for Lefty is a stirring examination of workers’ rights and class politics, and a call to action for those workers to unite and fight.
Waiting for Lefty is a series of scenes that blend into a powerful mosaic of the American working class. We begin in a hiring hall where a union leader (obviously on the payroll of the bosses) is trying to convince a committee of cab drivers not to strike – all while they wait for their leader (Lefty) to arrive.
Through flashback and vignette, we then visit a discouraged taxi driver in confrontation with his wife, who wants him to show some backbone and stand up to his employer; an employee promised a major promotion in exchange for spying on a fellow worker; a young cabbie and his would-be bride who lack the wherewithal to get married; and a senior doctor charged with dismissing a bright, promising intern. All together, this look at the American working class of the 1930s is considered one of the most celebrated and significant plays of mid-century American theatre.
Waiting for Lefty premiered at the Civic Repertory Theatre on 14th Street as part of a benefit performance for New Theatre magazine on 6 January 1935. It then premiered on Broadway at the Longacre Theatre on 26 March 1935 under the auspices of the Group Theatre, where Odets was a member. The Group Theatre was founded by Harold Clurman, Cheryl Crawford and Lee Strasberg. The play premiered in London in 1936 at Unity Theatre and was revived there most recently in 2013.
FATT GUNMAN JOE EDNA MILLER FAYETTE FLORENCE IRV SID CLAYTON A MAN DR. BARNES DR. BENJAMIN AGATE KELLER VOICES/OTHER MEN
New York City. 1935.
“Waiting for Lefty is soundly constructed and fiercely dramatic in the theatre, and it is also a keen preface to [Odets‘] playwriting talents.” – Brooks Atkinson, The New York Times
“It has not been announced just where and when Waiting for Lefty will be presented again, but you can rest assured that it will be... soon. A play like this does not die.” – The Morning Telegraph
“Can revolutions in small rooms still happen today? Premiering at the pinnacle of the Great Depression, Clifford Odets’ Waiting for Lefty was an overnight sensation, galvanizing a weary middle-class to take control of their destinies, and effecting a theatrical and political upheaval.” – Theatermania
Waiting for Lefty – Quintessence Theatre Trailer
Clifford Odets (1906-63) was born in Philadelphia and reared in New York City. In 1931 he was a founder of the Group Theatre in New York City. Most of his plays were produced by the Group Theatre, including Waiting For Lefty (1935), a one-act play that established his fame; A ...