Heart pounding. Shelves: plays, aty20. Curse of the Starving Class was adapted as a film in 1994 by Shepard and Bruce Beresford and produced by Breakheart Films. Later, when Wesley and Ella talk, Ella tells him that she is going to sell the house and use the money to go to Europe. Hello, this is Emma's monologue from Curse of the Starving Class by Sam Shepard. This play cannot be decoded as an allegory in which we can reduce the refrigerator to a representation of spiritual hunger, the lamb to a representation of sacrifice and innocence, and the door to a representation of the barrier between the family and the outside world. The play opens on Wesley, who is loading broken pieces of the familys front door into a wheelbarrow. Waiting to get out. Dad crashing away. Looking at the lamb carcass, she asks Wesley to help her remember the story Weston always told about the eagle. Ellis enters, laughing at the passed-out Weston who is slumped on the kitchen table. View All Characters in Curse of the Starving Class, THIS FEATURE IS ONLY AVAILABLE FOR PRO MEMBERS. Ella then asks Emma what she is holding and Emma reminds her that these are her poster for the 4-H project on how to properly cut up a frying chicken that she has been working on quite some time. [5] The cast was as follows: Wesley - Ebbe Roe Smith Ella - Olympia Dukakis Emma - Pamela Reed Taylor - Kenneth Welsh Weston - James Gammon Ellis - Eddie Jones Malcolm - John Aquino Center stage is a table, downstage a refrigerator and stove. Word Count: 89. She is a small woman wearing a bathrobe and pink fuzzy slippers, and her hair is in rollers. New York: St. Martins Press, 1986. Then a long silence. . 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. [7], Curse of the Starving Class won the 197677 Obie Award for Best New American Play.[8]. Mans voice. The consent submitted will only be used for data processing originating from this website. Since Ella is still under the impression that Wesley is Weston, Emerson and Slater also mistake Wesley for Weston. With James Woods, Kathy Bates, Randy Quaid, Henry Thomas. *Our system only provides suggested monologues or songs for select characters if we have matching monologues and song information in our database. Shifting unconsciously. 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. eNotes.com, Inc. City-dwellers seeking lower taxes, lower crime rates, and less congestion came to these suburbs. Hello, this is Emma's monologue from Curse of the Starving Class by Sam Shepard. Ella re-enters with groceries and throws the artichokes on the floor. Mom screaming. If Noel Cowards character were chic and elegant then Sams were real rootless and raw and I like it! He then suggests that they move away to some place safe, like Alaska. "Curse of the Starving Class - Summary" Drama for Students The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Cond Nast. Weston, once a pilot, is now an alcoholic heavily in debt. They are realistic as stage properties, but the sheer quantity Weston brings home is obsessive, imparting a meaning beyond their food value. Note: When citing an online source, it is important to include all necessary dates. Man throwing up. I was lying there on my back. WESLEY keeps cleaning up the debris, ignoring her. Ella is on stage alone for the beginning of the talk, but her daughter, Emma, walks on stage mid-talk and joins the conversation as though she has been there all along. DeRose, David J. Sam Shepard. Then stopping. They were Second World War veterans, he said, who were disappointed in a way that they didnt understand. New York: Garland, 1988. Authors Series, this book provides a concise introduction to Shepards life, short descriptions of almost all of his works up to States of Shock, and discussions of the themes and techniques that characterize Shepards work as a whole. 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. Ella looks at the carcass, remembering Westons story of the eagle. publication in traditional print. Man throwing wood. The man tells her that he was going to knock but that there was no door. . I could feel this country close like it was part of my bones. 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. Soft crying. Act 2 begins with the sounds of hammering. I could feel the space around me like a big, black world. Urban Sprawl However, the tom cat won't let go because if it does it will fall and die. Vol. the maintenance!. We and our partners use data for Personalised ads and content, ad and content measurement, audience insights and product development. Makes me feel lonely. Ellas loneliness, or the incredible amount of adrenaline she has to produce in order to keep her body togetherIm not sure about her soul; shes not that deepmakes her hungry. Wheels screaming. Every time I see a fair-to-middling production of a brilliant play by the irreplaceable Sam Shepard, who died in 2017, at the age of seventy-three, I leave the theatre with conflicted feelings. Whatever the cause, the Tates will do just about anything to raise themselves out of the downward spiral into which theyve fallen. His teen-age sister, Emma (Lizzy DeClement), on the other hand, can only howl about being emotionally ripped off. What Price Freedom? The New Republic 178 (April 8, 1978): 24-25. 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. No answer. As the play opens, she and Wesley are both surveying the chunks of the door broken down by her husband Weston. Decals peeling off their wings. Take a look at our library of free monologues . Feet stopping. Wearing a 4-H Club uniform, Emma carries charts illustrating how to cut up a chicken. His violent nature and utter lack of accountability are the crux of many of the family's issues. goose eggs! Emerson, a small well dressed thug, enters, giggling about the explosion. Some critics consider it part of a Family Trilogy that includes Buried Child (1979) and True West (1980). Act III My heart was pounding. Upgrade to PRO He asks what happened to Wesley, who had clearly been beaten up. Cutting through the orchard. Back down driveway. They finish the story, saying that a tom cat had come to sniff around in the testes and the eagle picked it up. She wants to know what he wants her mother for and he tells her that he is in the real-estate business and is helping her mother sell the house. professional theatre, regional theatre, university / college theatre, community theatre, Ages 12-17: Camp Broadway Ensemble @ Carnegie Hall. Sam Shepard: Yes, Yes, Yes. Esquire 93 (February, 1980): 79-86. publication online or last modification online. My heart was pounding. Wheels screaming off down hill. He is the representative for several large corporations that are looking to buy up land. Breakdown. Dogs. 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. She then becomes angry with the refrigerator and slams it shut. When he returns, he is wearing Westons overcoat, tennis shoes, and baseball cap, and he says that he butchered the lamb for food. I could feel the space around me like a big, black world. I could feel this country close like it was part of my bones. Emma runs away, only to return covered with mud, thrown by her horse. Like any second something could invade me. No sight. Ella begins to act antsy and Emma realizes that Ella has boiled her chicken. The play alludes to the golden age of motoring when Ella's prized Packard is mentioned, and also blown up, which signifies the . New York, NY, Linda Ray At the same time, land speculators were buying the land of Los Angeles, Ventura, Orange, and Riverside counties and preparing it for residential development. The act ends with Weston (finally) waking up with a start, and Ella running out of the house. Ella. "Curse of the Starving Class - Dramatic Devices" Survey of Dramatic Literature Ella goes downtown to get Emma out of jail. Weston looks around and moves to the refrigerator. Freezing headache. Ella is a highly dysfunctional individual with no capacity to cope with her husband's alcoholism. 28 Feb. 2023 , Last Updated on May 5, 2015, by eNotes Editorial. Curse of the Starving Class: Directed by J. Michael McClary. to read our character analysis for Ella Tate and unlock other amazing theatre resources! Gale Cengage 1998 eNotes.com Emerson is a minor character who represents the men that Weston is in debt to. Then WESLEY'S mother, ELLA, enters slowly from down left. Ella mistakenly calls Wesley Weston. He has done his laundry, which is all nicely folded on the table, and the lamb is back in the kitchen. Peacocks. Hes slept there before. Ella Tate is the wife of Weston and mother of Wesley and Emma Tate. But treating Shepards stage paradigms superficially can lead to characterizations that miss the point of how his figures got to be heartbroken or angry in the first place. No sound. Wesley tells him that he ran into a brick wall. Gale Cengage Act I There are three acts. He tells Wesley to go clean up, and he'll make him a big breakfast. Join StageAgent today and unlock amazing theatre resources and opportunities. The play ends with Ella and Wesley staring at the lamb carcass. Kauffmann, Stanley. Act two opens on Wesley and Emma in the kitchen, where Wesley is building a new front door for the house. Finally, highway patrolman Malcolm appears with the news that Emma, having shot up the Alibi Club, is in jail. Wesley sets up a folding enclosure and puts a sick lamb inside. It is morning. 28 Feb. 2023 , Last Updated on May 5, 2015, by eNotes Editorial. He tells her to take a nap on the table because itll do wonders for her. The play was initially produced in London at the Royal Court Theatre on April 21, 1977, directed by Nancy Meckler. The "curse," as Ella puts it, of the Tate family is that they have nitroglycerine liquid dynamite running in their blood. 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. 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. Ella Tate is the mother of the family. Incapable of driving or holding a job, he is a profoundly unstable man controlled by the alcohol that runs in his system. sound like? She then decides to steal her mother's car and take up a life of crime, claiming that it is the only way to make a real living in this world. I could hear the coyotes. Sources Download the entire Curse of the Starving Class study guide as a printable PDF! She appears to be the most bizarre character in the play, yet is also the most normal member of the family. Weston Tate is the father of the family and an abusive alcoholic. Word Count: 494. A French Villages Radical Vision of a Good Life with Alzheimers. Sam Shepard: The Life and Work of an American Dreamer. 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. 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. The first motif almost overwhelms the play with its omnipresence. Emma enters, carrying her riding crop. Taylor argues that Weston is legally incompetent to sell the house and boasts that he has corporations and executive management behind him. [2] The play was commissioned by Joseph Papp and premiered in London in 1977 before playing at Papp's New York Shakespeare Festival in 1978. Laws against marital rape, for instance, gain ground in many states that had previously resisted them. 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). New York, NY, Accessibility Statement Terms Privacy |StageAgent 2020. Floating. He compares it to a zombie invasion and takeover, where the zombies build their own city. Something indescribable. Wesley then leaves and Emma returns, covered in mud after being thrown from the horse and dragged through the mud. Weston tries to calm Wesley down, and to wake Ella up, but cannot seem to do either. The playwright Sam Shepards matter-of-fact observations about where his characters stand in the world tell us so much about the world they inhabit. After this outburst he passes out. Paper bag being tucked under one arm. Then no sound. . 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 speculators and developers then began building subdivisions in the areas immediately surrounding the city. Video marketing. Gale Cengage Marranca, Bonnie, ed. Wesley embarks upon a long monologue narrating the events of the previous night before leaving, at which point Ella begins talking to nobody in particular about the start of menstruation. Word Count: 958, Curse of the Starving Class begins with Wesley, in sweatshirt and jeans, tossing pieces of a door into a wheelbarrow. Word Count: 302. Vol. 28 Feb. 2023 , Last Updated on May 5, 2015, by eNotes Editorial. Ages 12-17: Camp Broadway Ensemble @ Carnegie Hall. Inside has become a hollow, void place to the family, and as a result, they want outElla to Europe, Emma to Mexico, Wesley to Alaska, Weston to an alcoholic stupor. Dad's a foul talking drunk, and Mom is desperately trying to save what's left of their family life. Wesley then leaves and Ella begins to give a motherly talk on what happens during menstruation and what cannot be done during the cycle. Hart, Lynda, Sam Shepards Metaphorical Stages, Greenwood Press, 1987. Wesley describes the suburbanization going on around them as a zombie invasion and tells her he dreams of going to Alaska. Bottoms, Stephen J., The Theatre of Sam Shepard: States of Crisis, Cambridge University Press, 1998. Swearing he will kill Taylor and Ella, Weston staggers against the table and falls asleep on top of it. 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. Their daughter, Emma, is a smart and rebellious teen, itching to get away from her crazy home. How old is Wesley in "Curse ofthe Starving Class"? Emma is with him, and the two of them discuss the potential sale of the house and Ellas relationship with Taylor. The family of four featured in this play live together in misery on a ranch. 2023 eNotes.com, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Wood splitting. 1. Results may vary. . Emma is frightened by him, but Wesley tells her to stay calm. publication in traditional print. Important moments, themes, monologues:-gender roles-Emma's monologue about being a mechanic and swindling her mom out of money Jump-start your essay with our outlining tool to make sure you have all the main points of your essay covered. We don't currently have any monologues from Curse of the Starving Class . "A Little Princess" "I love this monologue because of its sincerity. The film was written by Bruce Beresford and directed by J. Michael McClary. English. Hes woken up with dew on the hood before. 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. As Wesley and Ella argue, Ella speaks of the curse she sees operating on the family. Reading his plays is like taking a trip. 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. Ella is the mother of the family in Curse of the Starving Class. Where Wesley seems angry with her for provoking Weston to anger, Ella holds that the incident was entirely Weston's fault. 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. As Ella calls her name out in a dream, Emma quickly leaves. If there are two dates, the date of publication and appearance

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