Vol. A 1994 film adaptation of the same name stars James Woods (Weston), Kathy Bates (Ella), Henry Thomas (Wesley), Randy Quaid (Taylor), and Jim Fitzpatrick (Emerson). Paper bag being tucked under one arm. Join StageAgent today and unlock amazing theatre resources and opportunities. Ellis enters, laughing at the passed-out Weston who is slumped on the kitchen table. . 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. Hello, this is Emma's monologue from Curse of the Starving Class by Sam Shepard. I could feel the space around me like a big, black world. I could feel the headlights closing in. Ella and Ellis argue, Ellis shows her the deed Weston gave him, and Taylor arrives to settle his deal with Ella. Ella Tate is the wife of Weston and mother of Wesley and Emma Tate. An example of data being processed may be a unique identifier stored in a cookie. Ella finally enters and says that she is going on a business luncheon with Taylor. Mom calling cops. Ella enters, asks why the lamb is back in the kitchen, and tells Weston that she has been at the jail, visiting Emma. Heart still pounding. 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. Weston tries to be civil to Ella, but she starts screaming at him. Sergeant Malcom is the police officer who arrives at the house to inform Ella that Emma has been arrested for riding a horse into the Alibi Club and shooting it up. Eder, Richard, Theatre: The Starving Class, in New York Daily News, March 3, 1978, p. C4. He then suggests that they move away to some place safe, like Alaska. Hes plastered and doesnt want to move. Emma tells Taylor that her family has violent tendencies caused by some family members having nitroglycerin, which is a very explosive element, in their blood. Wesley then leaves and Emma returns, covered in mud after being thrown from the horse and dragged through the mud. It is the next day. 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. 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. I could feel this country close like it was part of my bones. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. Instead, it chooses to bring the eagle down, even if it means certain doom for the cat as well. Having escaped jail by having sex with Officer Malcolm, Emma has decided to become a criminal. Door slams. *Our system only provides suggested monologues or songs for select characters if we have matching monologues and song information in our database. 14. Gale Cengage Wesley wanders in, dazed and naked, wet from his bath. To help, she has some suggestions for fantastic dramatic monologues for child actors. Ella is a highly dysfunctional individual with no capacity to cope with her husband's alcoholism. Whatever the cause, the Tates will do just about anything to raise themselves out of the downward spiral into which they've fallen. Curse of the Starving Class premiered Off-Broadway at the New York Shakespeare Festival, on March 2, 1978, presented by Joseph Papp. Man cursing. I could hear the coyotes. From a mile off I could tell it was the Packard by the sound of the valves. He is also the same man who swindled Weston into buying the useless desert property. I listened like an animal. Hart, Lynda, Sam Shepards Metaphorical Stages, Greenwood Press, 1987. The curse on the family is described by both women as something that breeds internally in Weston and Wesley and is inevitable. Feeling strong ties to his family and to the land, Wesley maintains the farm after the others have given up. Some of our partners may process your data as a part of their legitimate business interest without asking for consent. The laundry is still on the table; a pot of artichokes boils on the stove. I guess we had to be. English. Wesley then enters and sets up a small enclosure in the kitchen. Weston, slightly drunk, is a big man; he wears baggy pants, tennis shoes, an overcoat, and a baseball cap. When Wesley tells her that there will not be enough money from the house to move to Europe Ella gets angry that Wesley is ruining her dream. 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. Ellis enters, laughing at the passed-out Weston who is slumped on the kitchen table. Also inevitable, and also treated as a curse, is Emmas menstruation (which is another image of the inside escaping to the outside). Foot kicking harder. Then, far off the freeway could be heard. 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. Yes I am aware =)#Respecttheplaywright #ZakiyyahBG #Monologues#Bestmonologues #SamShepard #Curseofthestarvingclassmonologue #Ella View All Characters in Curse of the Starving Class, Curse of the Starving Class guide sections. But with the millions of people who now lived there, there simply was not enough room in the city. Video . Slater drops the lamb inside the fence; laughing, the two men leave, issuing another warning. All monologues are property and copyright of their owners. She appears to be the most bizarre character in the play, yet is also the most normal member of the family. the maintenance!. We dont see Weston for a while, but hes everywhere in this run-down home, or everywhere that violence and destruction have taken place, including in his sons and his wifes consciousness. While Wesley is bathing, Weston yells in to him that he agrees to become an avocado grower for the Grower's Association. 2023 eNotes.com, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Take a look at our library of free monologues . 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. Further Reading My listening was afraid. He and Emerson represent the men that Weston owes money to, and have come to serve as a warning. 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. The man tells her that he was going to knock but that there was no door. Every resident of the Village Landais has dementiaand the autonomy to spend each day however they please. The curtain falls as Wesley and Weston discuss how to rid the lamb of the maggots that are infesting its digestive tract. 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. 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. 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. Sorry! As the play opens, she and Wesley are both looking through the chunks of the broken door that her husband, Weston, broke in a fit of rage. The lights come up on Wesley, building a new door, and Emma, in a Western shirt, jodhpurs, and riding boots, making new charts for her demonstration. publication online or last modification online. 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 myself in my bed in my room in this house in this town in this state in this country. Wesley Tate is the son of the family. Emma, by way of contrast, often shouts her lines from offstage. Sam Shepard's coming of age drama about a dirt-poor 1950's-era farm family. He tells Wesley and Emma that he has already purchased the house from Weston and shows them the cash. Keys turned off. Wesley realizes that it was Taylor who sold Weston the desert property just as Ellis arrives with fifteen hundred dollars for the house, the exact amount Weston owes to gangsters. Emerson and Slater warn him to pay up. "Curse of the Starving Class - Summary" Drama for Students Kaufmann, Stanley, What Price Freedom? in New Republic, April 8, 1978, pp. Emma walks out. Some foreigner. 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 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. He compares it to a zombie invasion and takeover, where the zombies build their own city. Word Count: 89. Whats he doing? Ages 12-17: Camp Broadway Ensemble @ Carnegie Hall. Just from my Dad coming back. Ed. 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. Wood splitting. Emma and Wesley discuss whether their mother will come back, or whether she will run off to Mexico with Taylor. The "curse," as Ella puts it, of the Tate family is that they have nitroglycerine liquid dynamite running in their blood. 1. Curse of the Starving Class was adapted as a film in 1994 by Shepard and Bruce Beresford and produced by Breakheart Films. Weston looks around and moves to the refrigerator. 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. They finish the story, saying that a tom cat had come to sniff around in the testes and the eagle picked it up. Ella. Wearing a 4-H Club uniform, Emma carries charts illustrating how to cut up a chicken. Throwing the artichokes out, she fills the refrigerator. 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. Dogs. Man throwing up. Taylor arrives for his luncheon date with Ella; the children treat him rudely. He tells the lamb a story about an eagle who was diving very close down to the ground trying to steal the testes of the lambs he was castrating. Curse of the Starving Class premiered Off-Broadway at the New York Shakespeare Festival, on March 2, 1978, presented by Joseph Papp. The three of them begin arguing about whether they are the starving class, while Wesley urinates on Emmas chart. A. J. Sobczak and Frank N. Magill. She climbs up and stretches out on it as Wesley, completely naked, enters. He is a wicked man, a villain in the story. online is the same, and will be the first date in the citation. Then I heard the Packard coming up the hill. Beaufort, John, Off-Broadway: Tale of a Blighted Family, in Christian Science Monitor, March 3, 1978. Oumano, Ellen. [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. Their daughter, Emma, is a smart and rebellious teen, itching to get away from her crazy home. The play opens on Wesley, who is loading broken pieces of the familys front door into a wheelbarrow. Wesley exits at the sounds of his fathers approach. He has brought a bag of artichokes that he bought while visiting his worthless desert property. Wesley then begins to gorge himself on all of the food in the refrigerator. Vol. He begins eating everything in the refrigerator. It is morning. Perhaps that's the reason they're stuck where they are: broke, hungry, and fighting. Shepard makes similar realistic and mythic use of costumes; the clothes in which Weston is first seen also fit Wesley. 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. He has done his laundry, which is all nicely folded on the table, and the lamb is back in the kitchen. With Curse of the Starving Class, Shepard moved more toward realism, to the social dramas of such classic realists as Ibsen. If there are two dates, the date of publication and appearance Then I could picture my dad driving it. Ella pushes all the laundry to the floor and lies on the table. While he is fulminating, Sgt. SHARE. Emma yells at Ella and exits. Then a long silence. The consent submitted will only be used for data processing originating from this website. Its themes include the struggle for dignity, moral obligations to family members, and the effect of money in America. Wesley still refuses to go after his sister, and Ella tells him that she is planning to use the money from the house to go to Europe and that he and Emma can come if they want. 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. Like so much else in Curse of the Starving Class, she is presented realistically, but there is a mythic quality to her character. Addressing the lamb, he sets a duffel and a grocery bag on the table. Taylor explains that selling is in Ellas best financial interests. date the date you are citing the material. 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. Act I But is it even possible, at this point? If there are three dates, the first date is the date of the original Wesley re-enters, wearing his father's old clothes. 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. Symbolic dramas were popular, and Shepard wrote those kinds of plays in his early career. New York: Garland, 1988. 1998 eNotes.com Some critics consider it part of a Family Trilogy that includes Buried Child (1979) and True West (1980). He pulls out the $1,500, telling them that is the amount that Weston owes to some pretty hard fellas. Emma explains that her father broke the door down the night before in a drunken rage. Then I could picture my Dad driving it. Weston is proud of Emma, saying that it takes guts to do something like that at her age. 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. Whenand where doesTheCurse of the Starving Class take place? They wanted large houses, cars, two-car garages, front and back yards. If you buy something through one of these links, we may earn an affiliate commission at no additional cost to you. Ella decides to take matters into her own hands and puts the house up for sale without consulting her husband. 28 Feb. 2023 . In her attempt to steal the car, she is blown up with the car by the bomb that Slater puts in it. Already a member? Afraid of sound. They swipe at each other viciously over their conflicting hopes and dreams until they rip each other to shreds. My P-39. Weston stumbles in, even drunker, and wants to know where Ella is. Ella is the mother of the family in Curse of the Starving Class. 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. New York: Twayne, 1992. 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. The play opens with Wesley putting pieces of a broken down door into a wheelbarrow. 14. 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. Wesley asks her how she got out of jail and she tells him that she made sexual overtures at the guard. The Circuit: Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child. Then crying softly. Then no moving. SUZIE. 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. Heart pounding. We only provide suggested audition monologues or songs for an individual character if our system finds content that matches a character's traits. Wheels screaming. 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. Curse of the Starving Class: Directed by J. Michael McClary. Then I heard the Packard coming up the hill. A pop of metal. 6162. Closely connected to the symbolic structure of the play is its use of motif, or a recurring image. 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. Act two opens on Wesley and Emma in the kitchen, where Wesley is building a new front door for the house. "Curse of the Starving Class" was praised for its handling of dark comedy that finishes with a sinister surrealism. Randall argues here that, although Curse of the Starving Class is indeed a more realistic play than the works that preceded it, Shepard retains a use of language in this play that we do not ordinarily associate with realistic drama., "Curse of the Starving Class - Bibliography and Further Reading" Drama for Students sound like? . 28 Feb. 2023 , Last Updated on May 5, 2015, by eNotes Editorial. eNotes.com, Inc. Ed. He pulls out the $1500 that he owes Weston for the purchase of the house, and Ella tells Wesley to throw him out. I could feel myself lying far below them on my bed like I was on the ocean and overhead they were on reconnaissance. New York: Grove, 1982. Dad calling Mom. The set similarly incorporates both realistic and mythic elements. SymbolismCurse of the Starving Class uses symbolism a great deal, but Shepard uses it in a jarring way. Weston considers fleeing to Mexico, and Wesley muses about finding Taylor to get the money for the desert land back. Ella and Taylor leave together, and Emma runs off again. 14. What does heartache for the wrong reason (is it ever the right reason?) Vol. Wesley returns, bloodied by Ellis. He picks up the lamb and carries it off. [10], Simard, Rodney. He looks at his parents; they do not notice him, and he leaves with the lamb. Alone, Ella stares at Weston asleep on the table; he sits up, they look at each other, she runs off, and he lurches toward the refrigerator, kicking artichokes out of his way. Wesley deduces that Taylor is the one who sold Weston worthless desert property in the first place. However, we have dozens of other monologues that you can read. Joseph Chaikin & Sam Shepard May 18 2022 Friends since 1964, correspondents since 1972, playwright Sam Shepard and director Joseph Chaikin established . 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. Then moving around through house. The lifters have a sound like nothing else. Mom crying soft. She has just started her first period, and has several mood swings during the play. all the upkeep! Then WESLEY'S mother, ELLA, enters slowly from down left. Then no sound. Whole body crashing. The play closed on April 9, 1978. . Research Playwrights, Librettists, Composers and Lyricists, See more characters from Weston is a destructive and angry man . Curse of the Starving Class Wesley, in sweatshirt, jeans and cowboy boots picks up pieces of a broken door and throws them methodically into an old wheelbarrow. 2023 . 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. I could smell the avocado blossoms. I am aware that I have taken on characters that are outside of my RACE, GENDER, SEXUAL ORIENTATION, DIALECT, and AGE. The curse, as Ella puts it, of the Tate family is that they have nitroglycerine liquid dynamite running in their blood. [3] The play was commissioned by Joseph Papp.[4]. Our summaries and analyses are written by experts, and your questions are answered by real teachers. Last Updated on May 5, 2015, by eNotes Editorial. [2] The screenplay was written by Bruce Beresford, who also served as an executive producer. 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. Paper bag covering Tiger Rose. Feet coming. Something indescribable. . [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. 1970s: In Los Angeles, suburbanization continues unabated. Emerson is a minor character who represents the men that Weston is in debt to. to read our character analysis for Ella Tate and unlock other amazing theatre resources! Wesley enters and they discuss Weston's laundry and the best way to help the lamb with the maggots. Later, when Weston enters and finds only the lamb at home, he naturally begins a conversation. Packard disappearing. New York, NY, Ages 12-17: Camp Broadway Ensemble @ Carnegie Hall Weston and Wesley discuss the poison that Weston feels has infected him all of his life. We and our partners use data for Personalised ads and content, ad and content measurement, audience insights and product development. Dogs. Property he had there has proved worthless, so he decides to sell the familys home. New landPlymouth Rock, California, Alaska, or anywhere in betweenis settled and cleared for farming or industry by rugged individualist pioneers; more people move near that newly desirable land, and towns spring up; the towns grow so big and encroaching that the rugged individualists feel crowded by city life (or are unable, economically, to survive) and move on to find new frontiers. Scouting me. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Cond Nast. Today, Los Angeles is one of the largest urban conglomerations in the world. Even all the sleeping animals. Like several of Shepard's plays, Cures of the Starving Class explores family dysfunction in Western America. From a mile off I could tell it was the Packard by the sound of the valves. Even tractors sitting in the wetness, waiting for the sun to come up. Ed. Ella, Wesley's mother, enters the kitchen. Wesley finishes the story, how a big cat climbed onto the roof and began fighting with the eagle. 28 Feb. 2023 , Last Updated on May 5, 2015, by eNotes Editorial. Hes going to sleep there all night. Word Count: 958. eNotes.com What Price Freedom? The New Republic 178 (April 8, 1978): 24-25. 28 Feb. 2023 . Ella goes downtown to get Emma out of jail. Monologues. However, many people move back into the central city to work in the burgeoning entertainment industry. 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. Gain full access to show guides, character breakdowns, auditions, monologues and more! The speculators and developers then began building subdivisions in the areas immediately surrounding the city. He tells the children that he has found a buyer for the house, and Emma leaves abruptly. . Emma and Wesley keep opening the fridge and looking for something thats not therea crystal ball filled with absence. 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. Last Updated on May 5, 2015, by eNotes Editorial. He exits again and returns with a lamb, which he puts in the enclosure. They are realistic as stage properties, but the sheer quantity Weston brings home is obsessive, imparting a meaning beyond their food value. 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. He advises Wesley to do the same. Caught up in this are families such as the one in Curse of the Starving Class, whose land is coveted by subdivision developers like Taylor. Watt, Douglas, In the End, Emptiness, in New York Daily News, March 3, 1978. Lights go off. Emerson, a small well dressed thug, enters, giggling about the explosion. 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. [1] Others consider it part of a quintet that includes Fool for Love (1983) and A Lie of the Mind (1985). The refrigerator is the focal point of the action; each member of the family is obsessed with its emptiness. They were Second World War veterans, he said, who were disappointed in a way that they didnt understand. eNotes.com When Ella asks what Emma is carrying, Emma tells her that they are the materials for her 4-H demonstration on how to cut up a frying chicken, and then she immediately starts looking for her chicken in the refrigerator. Vol. nada! Emma is enraged that her mother is selling the house and Taylor tries to convince her that selling the property is in their best interest. Ella sits up and screams, and Emma departs. Laws against marital rape, for instance, gain ground in many states that had previously resisted them. The central city suffers while middle-class people flee to suburbs that sprawl ever farther into what was once farmland. . Christian H. Moe. I could hear stock cars squealing down the street. His violent nature and utter lack of accountability are the crux of many of the family's issues. California, especially southern California, is perhaps the best laboratory to examine this development.
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