Swearing he will kill Taylor and Ella, Weston staggers against the table and falls asleep on top of it. However, many of the same issues (such as access to abortions and birth control, equal pay for equal work, and affirmative action) still remain to be resolved. Sign up today to unlock amazing theatre resources and opportunities. Who or what can fill these people up? The family of four featured in this play live together in misery on a ranch. Wesley re-enters and starts yelling to the offstage Emma about her chicken. Taylor enters and talks with Emma, who calls him creepy. What does heartache for the wrong reason (is it ever the right reason?) From a mile off I could tell it was the Packard by the sound of the valves. Weston yells at him, telling him that they didn't need the food, because the refrigerator is full for once. She is a small woman wearing a bathrobe, pink fuzzy slippers, hair in curlers. Weston tries to calm Wesley down, and to wake Ella up, but cannot seem to do either. He tells Weston that he has butchered the lamb for food. Ella begins to act antsy and Emma realizes that Ella has boiled her chicken. Wesley is cleaning up shards of wood from the door his father broke down the night before during a drunken outburst. Emma, by way of contrast, often shouts her lines from offstage. He compares it to a zombie invasion and takeover, where the zombies build their own city. eNotes.com, Inc. They were Second World War veterans, he said, who were disappointed in a way that they didnt understand. Already a member? The man tells her that he was going to knock but that there was no door. Reading his plays is like taking a trip. 2023 . He advises Wesley to do the same. Jump-start your essay with our outlining tool to make sure you have all the main points of your essay covered. Taylor arrives for his luncheon date with Ella; the children treat him rudely. Whys he waiting to get out? 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. Cars line up for gasoline, and President Ford appoints an energy czar to head U.S. energy policy efforts. Word Count: 269. If there are two dates, the date of publication and appearance The set similarly incorporates both realistic and mythic elements. . The Tates live on a farm where they formerly raised sheep and grew avocados. Hes plastered and doesnt want to move. Cohn, Ruby. However, the tom cat won't let go because if it does it will fall and die. Emerson and Slater enter, laughing and holding the bloody carcass of the lamb. Having the set self-destruct is meant to indicate, of course, that trouble is on the way, but why make such an overdetermined move when Shepard clearly reveals, in the ensuing dialogue and action, how troubling the story were entering is? She then pulls out a wad of cash and tells him that she's taking their mother's car and going into crime. Lyons, Charles R., Shepards Family Trilogy and the Conventions of Modern Realism, in Rereading Shepard, edited by Leonard Wilcox, St. Martins Press, 1993. 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. Gale Cengage While Ella takes steps to get away by trying to sell the old homestead, through a lawyer named Taylor (Andrew Rothenberg), Wesley can't imagine his life as anything other than what it is: he. 1998 eNotes.com Back down driveway. Emma Tate is the daughter of Ella and Weston Tate. . While he is fulminating, Sgt. eNotes.com Weston is a destructive and angry man . From a mile off I could tell it was the Packard by the sound of the valves. . Wheels screaming off down hill. Word Count: 302. Ella sits up and screams, and Emma departs. 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. Emma asks the refrigerator why it doesn't have any food because they aren't part of the starving class. 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. 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. Michael and me -- well, we're closer than most brothers and sisters. 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. Woman screaming. Wesley is not happy with his mother's decision, and she continues to try and ask him to go stop Emma. Continue with Recommended Cookies, Home | The Curse Of The Starving Class Monologue (Wesley). 2023 eNotes.com, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Throwing the artichokes out, she fills the refrigerator. Emma returns, still furious, and the three begin an argument about the starving class and whether or not they are part of it. Bottoms, Stephen J., The Theatre of Sam Shepard: States of Crisis, Cambridge University Press, 1998. Oumano, Ellen. Below are five dramatic monologues for women of various ages, pulled from a wide variety of sourceseverything from a Sam Shepard play to HBO's "Succession.". Join the StageAgent community We and our partners use data for Personalised ads and content, ad and content measurement, audience insights and product development. This act opens with Weston, who is now clean, and sober. She climbs up and stretches out on it as Wesley, completely naked, enters. Ellis is the owner of a bar, the Alibi Club, where Weston spends his time when he is not at home. Mom crying soft. DeRose, David J. Sam Shepard. 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. Feet walking toward the door. The lifters have a sound like nothing else. Wood splitting. Ad Choices. Log in here. Gale Cengage Soft crying. Hello, this is Emma's monologue from Curse of the Starving Class by Sam Shepard. Act III Manage Settings I could feel the headlights closing in. 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. 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. To help, she has some suggestions for fantastic dramatic monologues for child actors. New York, NY, Accessibility Statement Terms Privacy |StageAgent 2020. eNotes.com Weston begins to tell Wesley about how he began to see the poison in his own father, and how Wesley can see it in him. Ella. Wesley then explains to Emma that it is not typical homebuyers who are going to purchase the house, but that it is land developers. The Circuit: Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child. By signing up, you agree to our User Agreement and Privacy Policy & Cookie Statement. weve done it again! We don't currently have any monologues from Curse of the Starving Class . 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. 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. Vol. My listening was afraid. I could feel myself in my bed in my room in this house in this town in this state in this country. 14. Ed. 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. I could feel the headlights closing in. 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. Ella Tate is the mother of the family. Ella wakes up, and a huge explosion offstage follows upon this. Weston is proud of Emma, saying that it takes guts to do something like that at her age. Michael Venzor was featured in a 2011 Equity Showcase of "Curse of the Starving Class" by Sam Shepard. 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. She often changes topics when she feels it in her best interest and tries to ignore the things going on immediately around her. 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. Mom screaming for police. Ella has not returned from her meeting with Taylor. Maggie Siff, as the wife of an abusive man, in Shepards story of a broken family. 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. I picture him just sitting. The curtain falls as Wesley and Weston discuss how to rid the lamb of the maggots that are infesting its digestive tract. Today: After riots, fires, a major earthquake, landslides, and flooding, Los Angeles continues to grow. 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. Can you send me character analysis of characters of Sam Shepard's play "Curse of the Starving Class"? I was looking straight up at the ceiling at all my model airplanes hanging by all their thin metal wires. Bulls. Hart, Lynda, Sam Shepards Metaphorical Stages, Greenwood Press, 1987. 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. Ellis enters, laughing at the passed-out Weston who is slumped on the kitchen table. The play opens on an image of the breakdown of the barrier between outside and inside, the shattered front door that allows all sorts of undesirable elements to enter the house. . Wesley takes the money, offering to deliver it to the people his father owes money to. While Ella eats her breakfast, Wesley urinates on Emmas charts. My Jap Zero. She and Weston argue heatedly. eNotes.com will help you with any book or any question. He pulls out the $1500 that he owes Weston for the purchase of the house, and Ella tells Wesley to throw him out. Center stage is a table, downstage a . Ella talks about menstruation as Emma, who is having her first period, enters. I listened like an animal. Upgrade to PRO The second is the date of 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. Researchers have studied how much of our personality is set from childhood, but what youre like isnt who you are. "Curse of the Starving Class - Media Adaptations" Drama for Students Ella leaves with Taylor, telling Wesley to take the lamb with the maggots back outside. He then suggests that they move away to some place safe, like Alaska. Video marketing. View All Characters in Curse of the Starving Class, THIS FEATURE IS ONLY AVAILABLE FOR PRO MEMBERS. There are three acts. 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. The Circuit: Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child. 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. Emma yells at Ella and exits. How old is Wesley in "Curse ofthe Starving Class"? Log in here. Feet stopping. . Keys turned off. Then, far off the freeway could be heard. Where Wesley seems angry with her for provoking Weston to anger, Ella holds that the incident was entirely Weston's fault. Results may vary. Today: The U.S. again faces an energy crisis, but this time the shortages and exorbitant prices affect electricity. Sam Shepard: A Casebook. Research Playwrights, Librettists, Composers and Lyricists. Taking pictures of the enemy. Laws against marital rape, for instance, gain ground in many states that had previously resisted them. As a dad, Weston is an amalgam of brute force and regret, and thats the only legacy that his son will ever have. Sound disappearing. His teen-age sister, Emma (Lizzy DeClement), on the other hand, can only howl about being emotionally ripped off. Ella and Taylor leave together, and Emma runs off again. Ella, in curlers, wearing a bathrobe, is angry with Weston for having broken the door during the night, but brightens at finding bread and bacon in the refrigerator. Then moving around through house. eNotes.com, Inc. Download the entire Curse of the Starving Class study guide as a printable PDF! DeRose, David J., Sam Shepard, Twayne, 1962. The "curse," as Ella puts it, of the Tate family is that they have nitroglycerine liquid dynamite running in their blood. When Emma enters, she joins in that conversation, and Shepard creates the sense that this conversation has been going on for some time. 14. Shoulder smashing. The last date is today's Ella warns Emma that swimming during her period could kill her. [5] 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. I could feel the space around me like a big, black world. SymbolismCurse of the Starving Class uses symbolism a great deal, but Shepard uses it in a jarring way. Hes woken up with dew on the hood before. Act I Lahr, John, A Ghost Town of the Imagination, in Village Voice, July 25, 1977, pp. 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. Ella points this out to Emma and Emma storms off, insisting that she is going to take the horse and run away. 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. In the night. Planes still hanging. . He picks up the lamb and carries it off. Emma decides that Ella boiled her chicken and storms out. They are realistic as stage properties, but the sheer quantity Weston brings home is obsessive, imparting a meaning beyond their food value. Like so much else in Curse of the Starving Class, she is presented realistically, but there is a mythic quality to her character. Shifting unconsciously. Hes plastered and cant move. 28 Feb. 2023 , Last Updated on May 5, 2015, by eNotes Editorial. Its themes include the struggle for dignity, moral obligations to family members, and the effect of money in America. . Weston stumbles in, even drunker, and wants to know where Ella is. She asks Wesley why he is wearing their father's clothes. Disclaimer: Some of the articles on Mighty Actor include affiliate links to sites like Amazon, Skillshare, and others. Upgrade to PRO Sign Up for PRO to view suggested audition pieces! 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. Sam Shepard: The Life and Work of an American Dreamer. Ella tries to take the money from Wesley, but he tells her there is not enough to go to Europe on. It is morning. 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. Sound of door not opening. Him just sitting in the car. The play opens with Wesley putting pieces of a broken down door into a wheelbarrow. Note: When citing an online source, it is important to include all necessary dates. She participates in 4-H, she is an excellent student, and she wants to make something of herself. He has done his laundry, which is all nicely folded on the table, and the lamb is back in the kitchen. 28 Feb. 2023 , Last Updated on May 5, 2015, by eNotes Editorial. To ignore the things going on immediately around her 1977, pp character of... With Recommended Cookies, home | the Curse of the lamb for food your... In America, David J., Sam Shepard, Twayne, 1962 as ellis to! Stage properties, but he tells Weston that he has done his laundry, is. 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