The Curse of the Starving Class Community Note includes chapter-by-chapter summary and analysis, character list, theme list, historical context, author biography and quizzes written by community members like you. He advises Wesley to do the same. He remembers a time he was castrating sheep and appeased an eagle by throwing testicles up on a tin roof where the bird could get them. Sign up today to unlock amazing theatre resources and opportunities. He is uninterested in the other crimes that Wesley and Ella accuse Taylor and Ellis of, stating that he is only there to tell Ella about Emma. ELLA ( after a while) You shouldn't be doing that. Kissel, Howard, Review of Curse of the Starving Class, in Womens Wear Daily, March 3, 1978. The drama is here to create an impact: whereas the realistic story of the family appeals to our minds and emotions, the symbols affect us on a subconscious level. The citation above will include either 2 or 3 dates. Once she is arrested she says that she gains her freedom by offering sexual bribes to the sheriff. Ellis says that Weston must have sent Emma down there and takes back his $1,500 and runs off to his club, swearing he will get revenge on Weston. As she is falling asleep, and Weston is talking to her about the benefits of sleeping on the hard table, Wesley walks into the kitchen, naked, and takes the lamb outside. nada! Vol. Ella warns Emma that swimming during her period could kill her. Taylor, a land developer, is courting Ella. Vol. 2023 eNotes.com, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Ella finally enters and says that she is going on a business luncheon with Taylor. Ellis represents the greed and controlling nature of business owners and the tendency of these people to take unfair advantage of each other and people below them. I could hear stock cars squealing down the street. Later, when Weston enters and finds only the lamb at home, he naturally begins a conversation. Sam Shepard: Yes, Yes, Yes. Esquire 93 (February, 1980): 79-86. The play presents a seemingly bizarre family and a series of events involving the sale of its home, but actually pointing to the disintegration of the family. He begins eating everything in the refrigerator. Incapable of driving or holding a job, he is a profoundly unstable man controlled by the alcohol that runs in his system. Theres a moment in Curse when a character says, after an exchange about enemy territory, Were all white, arent we? It passes so quickly that you might not hear it, but its there, in a script that was first produced when Shepard was only thirty-three and the theatre world was decades away from being woke. Thats what I treasure about Shepard: his matter-of-fact observations about where his characters stand in the worldobservations that also tell us so much about the world they inhabit. As a dad, Weston is an amalgam of brute force and regret, and thats the only legacy that his son will ever have. The play opens with Wesley putting pieces of a broken down door into a wheelbarrow. As Ellis talks to them, they learn that Weston owes money to some pretty hard fellas. Wesley offers to take the money to those men, but Ella forbids it. Shifting unconsciously. Vol. He picks up the lamb and carries it off. Yes I am aware =)#Respecttheplaywright #ZakiyyahBG #Monologues#Bestmonologues #SamShepard #Curseofthestarvingclassmonologue #Ella Video marketing. Gale Cengage eNotes.com The Tates live on a farm where they formerly raised sheep and grew avocados. Ellis, the owner of the bar where Weston drinks, enters with $1500 and says he owes Weston for the sale of the house; Ella orders her son to throw him out. Weston is a destructive and angry man . Emma picks up Ellas pocketbook, steals from it, and then tells Wesley that she is going to begin a life of crime. Join StageAgent today and unlock amazing theatre resources and opportunities. They finish the story, saying that a tom cat had come to sniff around in the testes and the eagle picked it up. 28 Feb. 2023 , Last Updated on May 5, 2015, by eNotes Editorial. 14. I could feel the space around me like a big, black world. Inviting Wesley to have some breakfast, he tells him (as Wesley walks off) that he is reconsidering the idea of planting avocados. The lifters have a sound like nothing else. Word Count: 958. Both musicals, based on immensely popular eighties movies, feature performers who help you see the narrative behind all the flash. Seeking 2 Actor Team for Spring Research Playwrights, Librettists, Composers and Lyricists, See more characters from Marranca, Bonnie, ed. My heart was pounding. Center stage is a table, downstage a refrigerator and stove. Mans voice. She has just started her first period, and has several mood swings during the play. Ella returns with groceries that Taylor has bought for the family and throws out the artichokes. Act Two opens with siblings Emma and Wesley hard at work on tasks that are interestingly, stereotypically gender appropriate: Emma is recreating her charts on how to properly cut a frying chicken (since her brother pissed on them in the last act), and Wesley is rebuilding the door that his father broke down. Wesley, who has been listening to this story, then asks what happens next. Directed by Robin Lynn Smith, the cast featured Kathy Bates (Ella) and Bradley Whitford (Wesley). Gale Cengage Shelves: plays, aty20. . "Curse of the Starving Class - Compare and Contrast" Drama for Students 353 subscribers Episode 10: Sam Shepard's Curse of the Starving Class Sam Shepard wasn't just a playwright but an actor himself, fully into the arts. The Curse Of The Starving Class - Monologue (Wesley) A monologue from the play by Sam Shepard Wesley is cleaning up shards of wood from the door his father broke down the night before during a drunken outburst. Sam Shepards Curse of the Starving Class is a darkly comic look into the world of dysfunctional Tate family, as they struggle amongst themselves for food, freedom, and meaning in their run-down lives. Sources Emma asks the refrigerator why it doesn't have any food because they aren't part of the starving class. Ella has called the police because Weston threatened to kill her, but she doesnt leave right away; Wesley is upset that his mother has summoned outside forces to their home. 1. Telling Wesley how to treat the maggot-infested lamb, Weston dumps his laundry from the duffel onto the table for Ella to wash. Start your 48-hour free trial to get access to more than 30,000 additional guides and more than 350,000 Homework Help questions answered by our experts. I was lying there on my back. Sergeant Malcolm from the police department enters and tells Ella that Emma has been arrested for riding a horse into the Alibi Club and shooting the place full of holes. Even tractors sitting in the wetness, waiting for the sun to come up. We're what the school psychologist calls -- products of a broken home. Research Playwrights, Librettists, Composers and Lyricists. "Curse of the Starving Class - Literary Style" Drama for Students Emma and Wesley keep opening the fridge and looking for something thats not therea crystal ball filled with absence. Monologues. I could see the trees being lit one after the other by the lights, then going back to black. Realism, a style of drama that seeks to represent the world on the stage just as it is in real life, was out of favor in the 1960s, the decade in which Shepard began writing. Curse of the Starving Class is a play by Sam Shepard, considered the first of a series on family tragedies. date the date you are citing the material. President George W. Bush proposes an energy policy that stresses greater production, but many citizens mistrust this policy because of Bushs and Vice-President Dick Cheneys ties to oil companies and the energy industry. Shepard, though, does not define the familys curse just as a disease, though; this curse is more historical and supernatural, like the curses that afflicted the great families of Greek tragedy. Emma and Wesley discuss whether their mother will come back, or whether she will run off to Mexico with Taylor. The man tells her that he was going to knock but that there was no door. Finally, highway patrolman Malcolm appears with the news that Emma, having shot up the Alibi Club, is in jail. Pushing the clothes to the floor, she falls asleep on the table. Ella talks about the curse that is plaguing their family. Christian H. Moe. An example of data being processed may be a unique identifier stored in a cookie. Taylor is a lawyer who is involved in real estate and is looking to buy the property from Ella. . Then WESLEY'S mother, ELLA, enters slowly from down left. Note: When citing an online source, it is important to include all necessary dates. He and Emerson represent the men that Weston owes money to, and have come to serve as a warning. eNotes.com to read our character analysis for Ella Tate and unlock other amazing theatre resources! Wesley tries to tell them that Weston is his father. 14. eNotes.com The Circuit: Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child. WESLEY I'm doing it. Hes woken up with dew on the hood before. Ella, Wesley's mother, enters the kitchen. Weston, sober, neatly dressed, folds laundry while talking to the lamb. Sam Shepard: A Casebook. Decals peeling off their wings. Slater also brings the dead lamb's carcass into the house. Him just sitting in the car. Ella sits up and screams, and Emma departs. At the same time, land speculators were buying the land of Los Angeles, Ventura, Orange, and Riverside counties and preparing it for residential development. DeRose, David J., Sam Shepard, Twayne, 1962. Shoulder smashing. Gale Cengage Ella falls asleep on the table and Wesley, dressed in Westons old clothes, enters. King, Kimball. eNotes.com Wesley then tells Weston that Ella has also found a buyer for the house and Weston goes into a rage, and then collapses on a table and falls asleep. Even all the sleeping animals. "Curse of the Starving Class - Historical Context" Drama for Students Curse of the Starving Class "balances dark comedy and biting satire in its look at a family fighting to stay alive," according to the Long Wharf Theatre. Ellis enters, laughing at the passed-out Weston who is slumped on the kitchen table. Whats he doing? Weston in new clean clothes and the lamb in its enclosure are on stage, and Weston is telling the lamb his story about castrating lambs and throwing their testes onto a roof for an eagle to eat. 28 Feb. 2023 . The three of them converse tensely until Ella enters. The lights go down with him staring in the open fridge. eNotes.com will help you with any book or any question. Wesley says that Emma doesn't want to do it just because she is on the rag, so she throws down her markers and gets up to add the water. Emma decides that Ella boiled her chicken and storms out. Emma then yells down that she is going to take the horse and leave. When: what time period Where: city and state. Head smashing. Emma enters, carrying her riding crop. How old is Wesley in "Curse ofthe Starving Class"? I guess we had to be. The first motif almost overwhelms the play with its omnipresence. He pulls out the $1,500, telling them that is the amount that Weston owes to some pretty hard fellas. He exits again and returns with a lamb, which he puts in the enclosure. I could hear stock cars squealing down the street. The Curse of the Starving Class Community Note includes chapter-by-chapter summary and analysis, character list, theme list, historical context, author biography and quizzes written by community members like you. [9] The play focuses on the disturbed Tate familythe drunken father, burned-out mother, rebellious teenage daughter, and idealistic sonas they struggle for control of the rundown family farm in a futile search for freedom, security, and ultimately meaning in their lives. . The refrigerator is the focal point of the action; each member of the family is obsessed with its emptiness. We only provide suggested audition monologues or songs for an individual character if our system finds content that matches a character's traits. Their daughter, Emma, is a smart and rebellious teen, itching to get away from her crazy home. He asks what happened to Wesley, who had clearly been beaten up. Ella stares at the lamb. 6162. What does heartache for the wrong reason (is it ever the right reason?) In act 1, while Ella prepares her breakfast, Wesley has a long speech in which he recounts his sense of life while lying in bed, not simply on this night but also on many other nights. Like several of Shepard's plays, Cures of the Starving Class explores family dysfunction in Western America. While Ella eats her breakfast, Wesley urinates on Emmas charts. Then no sound. An enormous explosion is heard. Ella tells Emma that the horse is crazy and that she is too young to leave home but Emma refuses to listen. Mom screaming for police. Clean laundry is stacked on the table; the room has been swept. Since Ella is still under the impression that Wesley is Weston, Emerson and Slater also mistake Wesley for Weston. All monologues are property and copyright of their owners. No sound. No sound. Ella has not returned from her meeting with Taylor. Wesley protests feebly. He declares to them that he is a whole new person, and Wesley, finally stopped eating, tells Weston that the men who are after him are going to kill him. Dogs barking down the road. [7], Curse of the Starving Class won the 197677 Obie Award for Best New American Play.[8]. Weston says that when he woke up that morning, after sleeping on the table, that he felt like a new man and walked around their property naked to reclaim ownership. "Curse of the Starving Class - Dramatic Devices" Survey of Dramatic Literature Ella wakes up, and a huge explosion offstage follows upon this. . Ella does not tell Emma that she plans to sell the house, but Emma tells Ella that she dreams of moving to Mexico and becoming a mechanic. Weston tells Wesley that he has decided to stay and fix up the house instead of leaving, no matter who holds the deed. Word Count: 1530. A pop of metal. date the date you are citing the material. Michael and me -- well, we're closer than most brothers and sisters. However, the tom cat won't let go because if it does it will fall and die. Ellis grabs the money back from Wesley (feeling that now he is owed for the damage to his bar), and the act closes as Ella agrees to come to the police station to pick up Emma. The lifters have a sound like nothing else. The entire upkeep of the farm falls on the shoulders of their idealistic son, Wesley, the only one who seems to have some hope for the family left. I could smell the avocado blossoms. We are all a version of someone elses story. Perhaps that's the reason they're stuck where they are: broke, hungry, and fighting. Hes slept there before. What Price Freedom? The New Republic 178 (April 8, 1978): 24-25. Then moving around through house. During their argument, Wesley goes to Emma's posters and begins to urinate on them. Just sitting. As Ella calls her name out in a dream, Emma quickly leaves. Wesley re-enters, wearing his father's old clothes. Underdogs take center stage in a newsroom drama about Rupert Murdoch and in Taylor Macs spin on Shakespeares first tragedy. Emerson and Slater enter, laughing and holding the bloody carcass of the lamb. Paper bag covering Tiger Rose. Feet coming. When the Spanish first explored the area of Los Angeles and the San Gabriel and San Fernando Valleys, the region was arid, almost desert. Conservatives, however, decry feminism, blaming it for rising divorce rates and what they see as a breakdown of the nuclear family. Weston yells at him, telling him that they didn't need the food, because the refrigerator is full for once. Christian H. Moe. date the date you are citing the material. Wesley describes the suburbanization going on around them as a zombie invasion and tells her he dreams of going to Alaska. 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