Foot kicking. How old is Wesley in "Curse ofthe Starving Class"? He has brought a bag of artichokes that he bought while visiting his worthless desert property. Whys he waiting to get out? Even tractors sitting in the wetness, waiting for the sun to come up. In addition, playwright Sam Shepard is himself an actor and can be seen in over a dozen wide-release films (many with his longtime partner Jessica Lange), including Country, Places in the Heart, and The Right Stuff. Weston tries to be civil to Ella, but she starts screaming at him. I could feel the presence of all the people outside, at night, in the dark. Throwing the artichokes out, she fills the refrigerator. See more characters from Sam Shepard. Wesley wanders in, dazed and naked, wet from his bath. Foot kicking hard through door. She participates in 4-H, she is an excellent student, and she wants to make something of herself. Mumbling about his experience flying planes in the Second World War, he passes out again. Today: The U.S. again faces an energy crisis, but this time the shortages and exorbitant prices affect electricity. professional theatre, regional theatre, university / college theatre, community theatre, Ages 12-17: Camp Broadway Ensemble @ Carnegie Hall. These people are not meant to be accurate representations of real people, nor are we meant to believe that this family had a lamb, brought it inside, and then butchered it. While Wesley is bathing, Weston yells in to him that he agrees to become an avocado grower for the Grower's Association. The three of them begin arguing about whether they are the starving class, while Wesley urinates on Emmas chart. This is Michael's monologue as Wesley Tate, the son of. Sorry! Cohn, Ruby. Vol. An example of data being processed may be a unique identifier stored in a cookie. The citation above will include either 2 or 3 dates. While he is fulminating, Sgt. Emma asks the refrigerator why it doesn't have any food because they aren't part of the starving class. Curse of the Starving Class: Directed by J. Michael McClary. Wesley appears, bloodied, and tells Weston that he has tried to get the money back. Ella and Wesley react differently to Westons abuse. Ella has not returned from her meeting with Taylor. The curtain opens on Wesley again, who this time is building a new front door for the house. 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. Obviously, these two motifs are related to each other, for disease is the intrusion of an entity that should be kept outside the body. Malcolm enters and informs the family that Emma has been arrested for riding her horse through the Alibi Club and shooting up the bar. date the date you are citing the material. Curse of the Starving Class is a 1994 American drama film directed by J. Michael McClary and starring James Woods, Kathy Bates, Randy Quaid, Henry Thomas and Louis Gossett Jr. [1] It is based on Sam Shepard 's 1977 play of the same name. At times, Wesley loses patience with his family members, as evidenced by his lack of sympathy for his sister's ruined 4-H project, to which he responds by urinating on her charts and suggesting that his sister do something truly useful with her time. Sound disappearing. Even all the sleeping animals. absolutely zero! Take a look at our library of free monologues . Finding the chicken she butchered for her demonstration gone, she storms off. Weston tells Wesley that he has decided to stay and fix up the house instead of leaving, no matter who holds the deed. The laundry is still on the table; a pot of artichokes boils on the stove. Its humiliating to have the cops come, he says, whining a little. They finish the story, saying that a tom cat had come to sniff around in the testes and the eagle picked it up. Also inevitable, and also treated as a curse, is Emmas menstruation (which is another image of the inside escaping to the outside). The Circuit: Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child. . Some population geographers see the U.S. cities of Los Angeles and San Diego and the Mexican city of Tijuana as one immense megalopolis, a mega-city with tens of millions of inhabitants. Even all the sleeping animals. Ellis, the owner of the Alibi Club walks into the house and sees Weston on the table. "A Little Princess" "I love this monologue because of its sincerity. Symbolic dramas were popular, and Shepard wrote those kinds of plays in his early career. When Emma enters, she joins in that conversation, and Shepard creates the sense that this conversation has been going on for some time. Emerson and Slater warn him to pay up. The last date is today's Hes woken up with dew on the hood before. Gale Cengage Wilmeth, Don B. and Miller, Tice L. "The Cambridge Guide to American Theatre", Cambridge University Press, 1996, Yale Rep Starts Shepard's 'Curse Of The Starving Class' Feb. 3 in New Haven", "Long Wharf Theatre stages 'Curse of the Starving Class' February 13 through March 10", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Curse_of_the_Starving_Class&oldid=1020900821, This page was last edited on 1 May 2021, at 18:23. 1970s: Oil and gas shortages precipitate an energy crisis in the United States. WESLEY keeps cleaning up the debris, ignoring her. Cutting through the orchard. It is shocking to see a live lamb on stage and even more shocking to see it bloody and dead; similarly, the centrality of the refrigerator to every scene and the constant opening and closing of its door reminds us of the theme of hunger and starving, but Shepard refuses to nail down its meaning for us. Research Playwrights, Librettists, Composers and Lyricists. From a mile off I could tell it was the Packard by the sound of the valves. Ed. Freezing headache. Wesley is not happy with his mother's decision, and she continues to try and ask him to go stop Emma. Every resident of the Village Landais has dementiaand the autonomy to spend each day however they please. But the people who came to Los Angeles did not want to live in the same kinds of overcrowded cities many of them had left back East. Wesley does not want to do it because he is making the door and Emma doesn't want to do it because she is remaking her posters. In the play, as in the real world, these families were often taken advantage of, selling their land for well below market rates and finding themselves with nowhere to go and little money to sustain them. Weston enters, even drunker than he was before. Whatever the cause, the Tates will do just about anything to raise themselves out of the downward spiral into which theyve fallen. Feet walking toward the door. [6], The play was produced at Yale Repertory Theatre, New Haven, Connecticut, in February 2000, directed by Jim Simpson and featuring Kristine Nielsen, Guy Boyd, Mandy Siegfried, Danny Seckel, Paul Boocock, Ron Faber, Steve Mellor, Dan Moran and Chime Serra. Researchers have studied how much of our personality is set from childhood, but what youre like isnt who you are. Note: When citing an online source, it is important to include all necessary dates. At the end of the play, the skinned lamb carcass symbolically suggests the sacrifice of Wesley, or perhaps Emma, to a malevolent force. No sound. Taylor appears and tells Ella that he has the final draft of the deed of sale. She is a small woman wearing a bathrobe, pink fuzzy slippers, hair in curlers. Addressing the lamb, he sets a duffel and a grocery bag on the table. Last Updated on May 5, 2015, by eNotes Editorial. Hes slept there before. By the time she enters the action, theres nothing left for her in the fridge, not even the chicken she raised so that she could kill it and cut it up as a demonstration for the 4-H Club. 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. The play opens with Wesley putting pieces of a broken down door into a wheelbarrow. Some foreigner. Christian H. Moe. If there are two dates, the date of publication and appearance Motif How old is Wesley in "Curse ofthe Starving Class"? publication online or last modification online. Shepard makes similar realistic and mythic use of costumes; the clothes in which Weston is first seen also fit Wesley. Weston Tate is the father of the family and an abusive alcoholic. She and Weston argue heatedly. Wesley assures his father that the gang will get him, and Weston takes off for Mexico. View All Characters in Curse of the Starving Class, THIS FEATURE IS ONLY AVAILABLE FOR PRO MEMBERS. When she turns around she finds that there is a man standing in the room with her. publication in traditional print. Ella tries to get Wesley to go down and stop Emma from taking the horse. . Then I heard the Packard coming up the hill. Word Count: 302. Ella wants Wesley to go after Emma and persuade her not to take the horse, but he doesn't want to; he doesn't care if she leaves . Ella leaves with Taylor, telling Wesley to take the lamb with the maggots back outside. Randall, Phyllis R., Adapting to Reality: Language in Shepards Curse of the Starving Class, in Sam Shepard: A Casebook, edited by Kimball King, Garland, 1988. Today, Los Angeles is one of the largest urban conglomerations in the world. Log in here. Dogs. Ella believes that Emma has left on the horse, and is not overly concerned about her. She tells Wesley that just when you think the curse has been beaten, and it has retreated back into the smallest cells of their genetics, it will suddenly reappear in full force. The lights go down with him staring in the open fridge. Swaying very quietly like they were being blown by someones breath. Weston leaves. He tells her to take a nap on the table because itll do wonders for her. Wesley finishes the story, how a big cat climbed onto the roof and began fighting with the eagle. As a country whose greatest natural resource has always been its seemingly endless supply of land and space, the United States settlement and development has generally followed the same pattern. DeRose, David J., Sam Shepard, Twayne, 1992. Mans voice. "Curse of the Starving Class - Media Adaptations" Drama for Students Ella enters and she and Weston discuss Emma's shooting up of the club. Join the StageAgent community If Noel Cowards character were chic and elegant then Sams were real rootless and raw and I like it! I could smell the avocado blossoms. Word Count: 958, Curse of the Starving Class begins with Wesley, in sweatshirt and jeans, tossing pieces of a door into a wheelbarrow. Join StageAgent today and unlock amazing theatre resources and opportunities. Upgrade to PRO Sign Up for PRO to view suggested audition pieces! Like several of Shepard's plays, Cures of the Starving Class explores family dysfunction in Western America. Bulls. Emma runs away, only to return covered with mud, thrown by her horse. He tells her that as he put them on he could feel his own essence slipping out of him, and his father's essence coming into him. Advertising in newspapers around the country, they encouraged people to come to Sunny California! to retire or simply to flee the frigid northern climates or unhealthy cities of the East. Monologues are presented on StageAgent for educational purposes only. Copyright [2023] Mighty Actor, The Curse Of The Starving Class Monologue (Wesley), DRAMATIC MONOLOGUES FOR TEENS/KIDS (BOYS), DRAMATIC MONOLOGUES FOR TEENS/KIDS (GIRLS). I picture him just sitting. He pulls out the. Michael and me -- well, we're closer than most brothers and sisters. Scouting me. The curse on the family is described by both women as something that breeds internally in Weston and Wesley and is inevitable. Curse of the Starving Class begins with Wesley, in sweatshirt and jeans, tossing pieces of a door into a wheelbarrow. Upgrade to PRO Teeth covered with peanuts. A French Villages Radical Vision of a Good Life with Alzheimers. Join StageAgent today and unlock amazing theatre resources and opportunities. It is morning. We are all a version of someone elses story. The curtain falls as Wesley and Weston discuss how to rid the lamb of the maggots that are infesting its digestive tract. Barnes, Clive, Shepards Starving Class Offers Much Food for Thought, in New York Post, March 3, 1978. We only provide suggested audition monologues or songs for an individual character if our system finds content that matches a character's traits. 6162. As she leaves, Ella wakes up, mistakes Wesley for Weston, and tells him to go after Emma because she's too young to leave on her own. Head smashing. Wesley refuses to stop Emma, and Ella begins to tell him about her plans to sell the house. Taylor says that any deal Weston makes is void because he is considered incompetent by the state. Westons only way of being a father is to exercise his paternal privileges, which, in Shepard-land, include wreaking havoc, fucking up your kids and your wife, and squandering the future; we learn by the second act that, in order to pay off loan sharks, Weston has already sold the property, to a bar owner named Ellis (Esau Pritchett, who has a lot of strength and appeal, though Kinney doesnt temper his performance, either). "Curse of the Starving Class - Literary Style" Drama for Students As the play continues we constantly see this theme emphasized: conversations in the kitchen are conducted in a normal tone of voice, but conversations between one person in the kitchen and another person outside the room are almost always furious screaming matches; the refrigerators constant opening and shutting reminds us that inside is an empty place; even the lamb, when brought onstage by Wesley, is placed into a small penned enclosure. The Castmates Who Make You Care in Beetlejuice and Tootsie. She tells Wesley that she knows about Westons foolish purchase of desert land sight unseen, and Wesley deduces that it was Taylor who sold him the land. He is easily taken advantage of and when his debts are not paid, it takes an even more terrifying toll on the people close to him. Slater drops the lamb inside the fence; laughing, the two men leave, issuing another warning. 2023 eNotes.com, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 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. Slater is Emerson's accomplice. Woman screaming. Los Angeles grew dramatically in the middle of the twentieth century, becoming one of Americas largest cities. Download the entire Curse of the Starving Class study guide as a printable PDF! At the same time, land speculators were buying the land of Los Angeles, Ventura, Orange, and Riverside counties and preparing it for residential development. Vol. The tom cat and the eagle start fighting in midair, with the cat clawing out the eagle's chest, and the eagle trying to drop it. Perhaps thats the reason theyre stuck where they are: broke, hungry, and fighting. An enormous explosion is heard. Malcolm agrees to wait for Ella at the station. His violent nature and utter lack of accountability are the crux of many of the family's issues. Emerson is a minor character who represents the men that Weston is in debt to. Ella returns with groceries. The man tells her that he was going to knock but that there was no door. They have blown up Westons car, unaware that Emma was inside. Having escaped jail by having sex with Officer Malcolm, Emma has decided to become a criminal. She often changes topics when she feels it in her best interest and tries to ignore the things going on immediately around her. Mom screaming. They tell him that they have blown up the car with Emma in it. Curse of the Starving Class premiered Off-Broadway at the New York Shakespeare Festival, on March 2, 1978, presented by Joseph Papp. Floating. The property requirements suggest a realistic, if not a naturalistic play. eNotes.com, Inc. *Our system only provides suggested monologues or songs for select characters if we have matching monologues and song information in our database. The use of the artichokes in Curse of the Starving Class suggests both the realistic and mythic aspects of Shepards dramatic strategy. Then, far off the freeway could be heard. The "curse," as Ella puts it, of the Tate family is that they have nitroglycerine liquid dynamite running in their blood. Shifting unconsciously. Watt, Douglas, In the End, Emptiness, in New York Daily News, March 3, 1978. Paper bag covering Tiger Rose. Feet coming. They wanted large houses, cars, two-car garages, front and back yards. 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