Kim Adams, Gina Houston, Molly Evensky, Philip Olsen
Written by Naomi Wallace
Directed by Corey Atkins
March 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9 @ 8:00 PM
March 4 @ 2:00 PM
B. Iden Payne Theatre
Tickets: $16 adults, $13 UT faculty & staff, $10 students available at the TPA Ticket Office, online at www.texasperformingarts.org or by phone at 477-6060. Get Tickets.
Community Engagement Events:
Short Pre-show talks will be held one hour before every performance in Winship room 2.112. These will give background on the playwright, the style of the play, and ways in which many of the issues in the play relate to issues in our own communities.
Following the 2:00 PM March 4 matinee performance, join local leaders and experts in the field for a special panel discussion. Find out how you can be a part of ending oppressive labor practices, discuss pressing issues such as factory raids and immigration, and learn about sustainable alternatives to exploitative industries.
Media and Resources:
- Cast List
- Costume Renderings by Kimberly Beverett
- Director Information
- Outreach
- Playwright Information
- Press and Reviews
- Scene Renderings by Sarah Davidson
- Supplemental Resources
- Synopsis
Synopsis:
The Jungle, Upton Sinclair's classic tale of life (and death) in the American slaughterhouse, was first published 100 years ago. Though we might think we've moved beyond the astonishing circumstances Sinclair exposed, Fast Food Nation and other contemporary sources are proof that we have not. And more than ever, it's not the animals who suffer most.
Inspired by events surrounding a strike at the Fischer Meat Packing plant in Louisville, KY, in 1993, Naomi Wallace's Slaughter City examines the history-and herstory-of the more-often-than-not abusive relationship between those who perform labor and those who profit from it. While The Jungle is brutally realistic, Slaughter City is a play steeped in elements of magic and myth, poetic symbolism and small miracles which stand as oases in an epic expanse of blood, concrete, and steel. Beyond the grim walls of the packinghouse lies a world of magical snow showers, Sunday fishing trips and mysterious visions of past lives. But it is inside the purgatory of the packinghouse that the play's characters remain-unless they can break the chains that keep them trapped inside the cycle of abuse.
Wallace's story jumps from the Triangle Shirtwaist Company fire in 1911 to a modern meatpacking plant in "Slaughter City, U.S.A." At the heart of the story are three laborers, Roach, Maggot and Brandon, all caught between the utopian vision of solidarity offered by their union, Local 229, and the reality of the backbreaking work they perform in order to survive. Their reality-and that of the play, as well-is challenged by the appearance of Cod, a "scab" (someone who crosses a picket line) who wants to become a part of the union. The struggle for dominance-between love and lust, black and white, gender, class and even time-move down the line and are eviscerated before the audience's eyes in a play that is unapologetically political, and undeniably human.
Playwright: Naomi Wallace
Slaughter City Playwright, Naomi Wallace
Naomi Wallace's work has been produced in both the United Kingdom, Europe and the United States. Her plays include One Flea Spare, In the Heart of America, Slaughter City, The Inland Sea and The Trestle at Pope Lick Creek. Her work has received the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, the Kesselring Prize, the Fellowship of Southern Writers Drama Award, and an Obie. She is also a recipient of the MacArthur "Genius" Fellowship. Her award-winning film Lawn Dogs is available on DVD. She is presently working on a commission for Actor's Theatre of Louisville and Clean Break of London.
Her new play THINGS OF DRY HOURS received its world premiere at the Pittsburg Public in 2004, and will be produced next spring by the Manchester Royal Exchange and the Gate Theatre of London. It will receive its New York premiere at New York Theatre Workshop in January 2008.
Director: Corey Atkins, third year M.F.A. in Directing student
Director, Corey Atkins
Corey Atkins is a third year student in the M.F.A. Directing program at the University of Texas at Austin. UT productions include the new plays Aisle 7, by Kendall Lynch, and Umbrella by L. Pontius (both UT MFA playwrights), as well as María Irene Fornés' The Conduct of Life. He received an Austin Critics Table Award nomination for "Best Direction, Drama" for his work on Aisle 7. Also at UT, Corey has worked with visiting CalArts MFA playwright Alana Macias de Kirkham on a workshop of her thesis play, The Silver Circus, and is the Assistant to the Producers for the 2007 University Co-op presents the Cohen New Works Festival. In April of 2007 he will direct the premiere American reading of Naomi Wallace's newest play, Between This Breath and You, as part of the festival. Locally, Corey was Assistant Director and dramaturg on the world premiere of Steven Tomlinson's acclaimed American Fiesta at the State Theatre in October of 2005. His work across the country includes assisting Michael Bloom on David Lindsay-Abaire's Rabbit Hole at Cleveland Play House, and serving as a Directing and Dramaturgy intern at Portland Stage Company for the 2002-03 season, where he assisted Artistic Director Anita Stewart on an original adaptation of A Christmas Carol, and Paul Mullins on Sam Shepherd's True West. Corey earned his BA in Theatre Studies/Spanish from Weber State University in Ogden, Utah, where he co-directed a production of Jean Claude Van Itallie's The Serpent, which was chosen from over 1,200 collegiate productions to perform at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. as a finalist in the 2000 Kennedy Center/American College Theatre Festival.
Supplemental Resources:
Press and Reviews:
- 3/9/07 Austin Chronicle Review
- 3/9/07 XL Review
- 1/4/08 Austin Chronicle: Top 10…2007
Slaughter City seems to be a part of the national unconscious. The meatpacking industry has received quite a bit of news lately, especially with the Swift Meatpacking Co. raids here in Texas.
Read more about the meatpacking industry in these articles:
- 1/2/07 New York Times: 100 Years Later, the Food Industry Is Still "The Jungle"
- 1/8/07 National Public Radio: Former Workers File Suit Over Illegal Hiring
Cast:
Role |
Actor |
|---|---|
Cod |
Kim Adams |
Ensemble |
Nicole Barnes |
Maggot |
Molly Evensky |
Textile Worker |
Liann Herder |
Brandon |
Philip Olsen |
Tuck |
Rodney Richardson |
Ensemble |
Sofia Ruiz |
Sausage Man |
Jim Hancock |
Roach |
Gina Houston |
Baquin |
Trey Thompson |
Ensemble |
Chase Van Haselen |
Ensemble |
Julian Castillo |
