Soft crying. As the play opens, she and Wesley are both surveying the chunks of the door broken down by her husband Weston. Wesley leaves and Emma returns, covered in mud from being dragged by the horse. Weston is a destructive and angry man . She asks Wesley why he is wearing their father's clothes. to read our character analysis for Ella Tate and unlock other amazing theatre resources! Wheels screaming off down hill. Wesley enters and they discuss Weston's laundry and the best way to help the lamb with the maggots. I picture him just sitting. Dads voice. Continue with Recommended Cookies, Home | The Curse Of The Starving Class Monologue (Wesley). He compares it to a zombie invasion and takeover, where the zombies build their own city. Floating. Taylor explains that selling is in Ellas best financial interests. Acts 1 and 2 both begin with characters engaged in simple question-and-answer conversations which serve to provide expository information necessary to an understanding of what has occurred before the start of the play or between the acts. . . the maintenance!. When the Spanish first explored the area of Los Angeles and the San Gabriel and San Fernando Valleys, the region was arid, almost desert. His mother, Ella (Maggie Siff), enters, wondering why her son is doing what hes doingcleaning up after the guy who broke the door down, otherwise known as Weston (David Warshofsky), Wesleys father and Ellas spouse. Wheels screaming. Wesley is not happy with his mother's decision, and she continues to try and ask him to go stop Emma. [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. I could hear stock cars squealing down the street. Largescale irrigation beginning in the late nineteenth century made the desert bloom, and soon the area (along with the Imperial and Central Valleys) was Americas richest farmland, producing citrus fruits, melons, berries, even lettuce and other water hungry crops. Emma is with him, and the two of them discuss the potential sale of the house and Ellas relationship with Taylor. Emma and Wesley discuss whether their mother will come back, or whether she will run off to Mexico with Taylor. Emma decides that Ella boiled her chicken and storms out. The lifters have a sound like nothing else. Ad Choices. I could hear stock cars squealing down the street. Last Updated on May 5, 2015, by eNotes Editorial. Incapable of driving or holding a job, he is a profoundly unstable man controlled by the alcohol that runs in his system. Dad crashing away. His violent nature and utter lack of accountability are the crux of many of the family's issues. While Ella takes steps to get away by trying to sell the old homestead, through a lawyer named Taylor (Andrew Rothenberg), Wesley cant imagine his life as anything other than what it is: he moves and speaks as if bewitched by the awfulness; his existence is a Daddy-dominated dream. Reading his plays is like taking a trip. Wesley appears, bloodied, and tells Weston that he has tried to get the money back. The lamb is heard before the lights come up on act 3. The last date is today's Kauffmann, Stanley. They tell him that they have blown up the car with Emma in it. Cohn, Ruby. The Circuit: Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child. Foot kicking hard through door. Weston tells Ella to let Emma go and then there is a bright flash and a loud explosion from outside. Solutions . Ella returns from jail, exhausted, to find Weston cooking breakfast for Wesley. Among other things, in act 1, Sam Shepard calls for the table and chairs, the refrigerator and stove, the remains of the broken door, the wheelbarrow, the duffel, the bag full of artichokes, and the live lamb and the collapsible pen. Wesley deduces that Taylor is the one who sold Weston worthless desert property in the first place. "Curse of the Starving . 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. Ella Tate Curse of the Starving Class. 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. She first tries to run away by taking the family horse, but it throws her off and drags her through the mud, so she comes back. At first, Weston can't remember who all he has loaned money to, and begins to rant about how this is his home and nobody ought to be able to take it from him because he has nowhere else to go. Ellis is a greedy charlatan who tries to cheat the family out of their house. Shelves: plays, aty20. The citation above will include either 2 or 3 dates. The plays action demands a working refrigerator and a working stove, yet there are no walls to define the kitchen, and the ruffled, red-checked curtains that are suspended in midair do little to confirm a concrete reality. I was looking straight up at the ceiling at all my model airplanes hanging by all their thin metal wires. The curtain falls as Wesley and Weston discuss how to rid the lamb of the maggots that are infesting its digestive tract. Act 2 begins with the sounds of hammering. 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. 2023 Cond Nast. Weston and Wesley discuss the poison that Weston feels has infected him all of his life. The man tells her that his name is Taylor and that he is looking for her mother. Last Updated on May 5, 2015, by eNotes Editorial. Wesley tells him to take the Packard and escape to Mexico. Gale Cengage 14. 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. If you buy something through one of these links, we may earn an affiliate commission at no additional cost to you. Wesley, who has been listening to this story, then asks what happens next. It is morning. The curse on the family is described by both women as something that breeds internally in Weston and Wesley and is inevitable. In the end he was cheering for the eagle. One foot right through the door. In the night. Word Count: 958. Cars line up for gasoline, and President Ford appoints an energy czar to head U.S. energy policy efforts. Wesley tells her, when she asks if he is going to take over the role of Daddy Bear, that he feels himself becoming his father, that as he put on Westons clothes, he could feel something growing on him. Our summaries and analyses are written by experts, and your questions are answered by real teachers. Like several of Shepard's plays, Cures of the Starving Class explores family dysfunction in Western America. Emma yells at Ella and exits. Every resident of the Village Landais has dementiaand the autonomy to spend each day however they please. The conventions of dialogue in the play again present this mixture. On the one hand, I want you to experience the extraordinary power of Shepards alternately disciplined and unwieldy languagelanguage that pulsates with a unique imaginationbut, on the other, I dont want you to see and hear what Shepard brought to the American stage in less than ideal circumstances. Los Angeles grew dramatically in the middle of the twentieth century, becoming one of Americas largest cities. publication online or last modification online. Emma explains that her father broke the door down the night before in a drunken rage. Suspended in air, left and right, are faded curtains. Weston then tells them that he has already found someone who will buy the land and pay in cash. Upgrade to PRO Sign Up for PRO to view suggested audition pieces! Our Essay Lab can help you tackle any essay assignment within seconds, whether youre studying Macbeth or the American Revolution. The prospect of selling the land to real estate developers has a significance far greater than the loss of a mere house, but his family. What Price Freedom? The New Republic 178 (April 8, 1978): 24-25. Feet. 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. Today: After riots, fires, a major earthquake, landslides, and flooding, Los Angeles continues to grow. 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. Ella leaves with Taylor, telling Wesley to take the lamb with the maggots back outside. So many artichokes seem bizarre in a household where there is never enough to eat. 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. . Just sitting. Curse of the Starving Class Jan 26 2023 Tells the story of a dysfunctional family living in a farmhouse they are planning to sell in the hopes of moving on to bigger and better things. Seeking 2 Actor Team for Spring The open spaces that once separated them have largely disappeared; similarly, the farmland that once was the areas largest economic resource has long since given way to other industries. Curse of the Starving Class was adapted as a film in 1994 by Shepard and Bruce Beresford and produced by Breakheart Films. 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. 28 Feb. 2023 , Last Updated on May 5, 2015, by eNotes Editorial. Curse of the Starving Class premiered Off-Broadway at the New York Shakespeare Festival, on March 2, 1978, presented by Joseph Papp. Vol. Video marketing. Wesley tells him that he ran into a brick wall. Lights go off. Motif While Ella eats her breakfast, Wesley urinates on Emmas charts. Ever more land was needed, and the developers set their sights to the farmlands surrounding the city. Emerson, a hit man, enters giggling, followed by his partner Slater, carrying the skinned lamb carcass. I could smell the avocado blossoms. Then moving around through house. Taylor declares that he will go to court and have the deed taken back and then buy the property from Ella, then leaves the house. Obviously, these two motifs are related to each other, for disease is the intrusion of an entity that should be kept outside the body. Ellis, the owner of the Alibi Club walks into the house and sees Weston on the table. Bulls. Our summaries and analyses are written by experts, and your questions are answered by real teachers. I could feel the space around me like a big, black world. However, we have dozens of other monologues that you can read. [10], Simard, Rodney. He tells her to take a nap on the table because itll do wonders for her. Ella tries to feign innocence and Emma storms out. Urban Sprawl Act III eNotes.com publication in traditional print. Weston enters, even drunker than he was before. Later, when Weston enters and finds only the lamb at home, he naturally begins a conversation. Then a long silence. Weston tells Wesley that he got up early and took a walk around the house and decided he wanted to stay, so he cleaned up, bought food, made a huge breakfast, and did all of the laundry. online is the same, and will be the first date in the citation. His teen-age sister, Emma (Lizzy DeClement), on the other hand, can only howl about being emotionally ripped off. Door slams. There are three acts. 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. Even tractors sitting in the wetness, waiting for the sun to come up. Man going insane. Act I (As he throws wood into wheelbarrow.) 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. men who came back from the war, had to settle down, raise a family and send the kids to schooland they just couldnt handle it. That was what Shepard knew as a boy. He tells Wesley to go clean up, and he'll make him a big breakfast. [3] The play was commissioned by Joseph Papp.[4]. I could feel the presence of all the people outside, at night, in the dark. Michael and me -- well, we're closer than most brothers and sisters. The second is the date of Also inevitable, and also treated as a curse, is Emmas menstruation (which is another image of the inside escaping to the outside). The lifters have a sound like nothing else. Weston exits and Emma enters. Emma, by way of contrast, often shouts her lines from offstage. Something indescribable. Manage Settings Wesley returns, bloodied by Ellis. Then I heard the Packard coming up the hill. Taylor is a lawyer who is involved in real estate and is looking to buy the property from Ella. Slater drops the lamb inside the fence; laughing, the two men leave, issuing another warning. Weston, slightly drunk, is a big man; he wears baggy pants, tennis shoes, an overcoat, and a baseball cap. . Laws against marital rape, for instance, gain ground in many states that had previously resisted them. "Curse of the Starving Class - Historical Context" Drama for Students Emerson and Slater enter, laughing and holding the bloody carcass of the lamb. Kissel, Howard, Review of Curse of the Starving Class, in Womens Wear Daily, March 3, 1978. New York: Twayne, 1992. Shifting unconsciously. The play opens with Wesley putting pieces of a broken down door into a wheelbarrow. Wesley returns as Weston fills the refrigerator with artichokes he bought in the desert. Log in here. It is morning. As a dad, Weston is an amalgam of brute force and regret, and thats the only legacy that his son will ever have. [5] Act two opens on Wesley and Emma in the kitchen, where Wesley is building a new front door for the house. Waiting to get out. professional theatre, regional theatre, university / college theatre, community theatre, Ages 12-17: Camp Broadway Ensemble @ Carnegie Hall. 0. Peacocks. Wesley refuses to stop Emma, and Ella begins to tell him about her plans to sell the house. 14. Ella begins to act antsy and Emma realizes that Ella has boiled her chicken. The second date is today's Directed by Robin Lynn Smith, the cast featured Kathy Bates (Ella) and Bradley Whitford (Wesley). all the upkeep! To help, she has some suggestions for fantastic dramatic monologues for child actors. They finish the story, saying that a tom cat had come to sniff around in the testes and the eagle picked it up. To revisit this article, select My Account, thenView saved stories, To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. publication online or last modification online. Sound disappearing. Feeling strong ties to his family and to the land, Wesley maintains the farm after the others have given up. The consent submitted will only be used for data processing originating from this website. Mom calling cops. Dogs. Ella enters, asks why the lamb is back in the kitchen, and tells Weston that she has been at the jail, visiting Emma. In cash the people outside, at night, in the end he was cheering for the sun come.: Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child inside ella monologue curse of the starving class fence ;,... In the desert laws against marital rape, for instance, gain ground in many states that had previously them! One who sold Weston worthless desert property in the first place asks Wesley why he is wearing father... 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