eNotes.com However, many people move back into the central city to work in the burgeoning entertainment industry. 2003 eNotes.com New York, NY, Ages 12-17: Camp Broadway Ensemble @ Carnegie Hall A French Villages Radical Vision of a Good Life with Alzheimers. 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. Reading his plays is like taking a trip to the other side of town. WESLEY keeps cleaning up the debris, ignoring her. She asks Wesley why he is wearing their father's clothes. Curse of the Starving Class was adapted as a film in 1994 by Shepard and Bruce Beresford and produced by Breakheart Films. Inviting Wesley to have some breakfast, he tells him (as Wesley walks off) that he is reconsidering the idea of planting avocados. eNotes.com will help you with any book or any question. Ella stares at the lamb. The play alludes to the golden age of motoring when Ella's prized Packard is mentioned, and also blown up, which signifies the . 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. Wesley is cleaning up shards of wood from the door his father broke down the night before during a drunken outburst. Ella and Wesley react differently to Westons abuse. As she is falling asleep, and Weston is talking to her about the benefits of sleeping on the hard table, Wesley walks into the kitchen, naked, and takes the lamb outside. Ella returns with groceries. Emma explains that her father broke the door down the night before in a drunken rage. Michael Venzor was featured in a 2011 Equity Showcase of "Curse of the Starving Class" by Sam Shepard. Wesley, who has been listening to this story, then asks what happens next. I could feel the headlights closing in. Wesley tells Weston that his creditors are going to kill him. English. As Wesley and Ella argue, Ella speaks of the curse she sees operating on the family. Their conversation quickly turns to an issue of thematic importance: restlessness and dissatisfaction in heartland America. date the date you are citing the material. Continue with Recommended Cookies, Home | The Curse Of The Starving Class Monologue (Wesley). Sam Shepard's coming of age drama about a dirt-poor 1950's-era farm family. I was looking straight up at the ceiling at all my model airplanes hanging by all their thin metal wires. Pushing the clothes to the floor, she falls asleep on the table. professional theatre, regional theatre, university / college theatre, community theatre, Ages 12-17: Camp Broadway Ensemble @ Carnegie Hall. Weston tries to explain the poison to Wesley by comparing it to the way to you poison a coyote by putting strychnine in the belly of a dead lamb. Wesley and Ella talk about Westons eagle story as the play ends. New York, NY, Ages 12-17: Camp Broadway Ensemble @ Carnegie Hall His partner, Slater, enters after him, playing with the skinned lamb carcass. Ed. Last Updated on May 5, 2015, by eNotes Editorial. She is just waking up and winds an alarm clock in her hand as she watches WESLEY sleepily. 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. Wesley says that Emma doesn't want to do it just because she is on the rag, so she throws down her markers and gets up to add the water. Join StageAgent today and unlock amazing theatre resources and opportunities. eNotes.com eNotes.com Bulls. Ella sits up and screams, and Emma departs. date the date you are citing the material. Ella falls asleep on the table and Wesley, dressed in Westons old clothes, enters. Log in here. The second date is today's Hes slept there before. Dogs. 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. weve gone and left everything up to the old man again! Ellis enters, laughing at the passed-out Weston who is slumped on the kitchen table. Ages 12-17: Camp Broadway Ensemble @ Carnegie Hall. In her attempt to steal the car, she is blown up with the car by the bomb that Slater puts in it. Taylor argues that Weston is legally incompetent to sell the house and boasts that he has corporations and executive management behind him. Ella decides to take matters into her own hands and puts the house up for sale without consulting her husband. Some critics consider it part of a Family Trilogy that includes Buried Child (1979) and True West (1980). Log in here. I listened like an animal. DeRose, David J., Sam Shepard, Twayne, 1962. 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. My heart was pounding. Car door slamming. Dogs barking down the road. Property he had there has proved worthless, so he decides to sell the familys home. 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. 14. 6162. Downshifting into second for the last pull up the hill. Mom screaming for police. Watt, Douglas, In the End, Emptiness, in New York Daily News, March 3, 1978. She reassures the refrigerator that soon there will be little eggs, butter, and other foods tucked away inside of it. Then, far off the freeway could be heard. 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. I could feel the presence of all the people outside, at night, in the dark. Then moving around through house. He is the representative for several large corporations that are looking to buy up land. "A Little Princess" "I love this monologue because of its sincerity. 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. Ella Tate is the mother of the family. 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. You might get the wrong idea about what he was up to, what he worked so hard to say. 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. . . Wesley describes the suburbanization going on around them as a zombie invasion and tells her he dreams of going to Alaska. Taylor enters and talks with Emma, who calls him creepy. "Curse of the Starving Class - Dramatic Devices" Survey of Dramatic Literature When Wesley tells him that Ella is thinking of selling the house, Weston explodes and threatens to kill her and Taylor. . When Weston comes to, he starts up again where he left off, rejecting Wesleys suggestions that they plant avocados on their 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. He has done his laundry, which is all nicely folded on the table, and the lamb is back in the kitchen. She then becomes angry with the refrigerator and slams it shut. Weston, sober, neatly dressed, folds laundry while talking to the lamb. We are all a version of someone elses story. Ella enters and she and Weston discuss Emma's shooting up of the club. Obviously, these two motifs are related to each other, for disease is the intrusion of an entity that should be kept outside the body. Floating. How old is Wesley in "Curse ofthe Starving Class"? eNotes.com will help you with any book or any question. I was lying there on my back. Ella tries to get Wesley to go down and stop Emma from taking the horse. eNotes.com, Inc. 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). Yes I am aware =)#Respecttheplaywright #ZakiyyahBG #Monologues#Bestmonologues #SamShepard #Curseofthestarvingclassmonologue #Ella American Gothic: Sam Shepard's Family Trilogy.. Keys turned off. 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. Wheels screaming off down hill. Feet walking toward the door. Emerson, a small well dressed thug, enters, giggling about the explosion. 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. Kissel, Howard, Review of Curse of the Starving Class, in Womens Wear Daily, March 3, 1978. Tate Family patriarch Weston, is an alcoholic, who leaves his family for days at a time, buys into scam business deals, and owes money to all the wrong people in town. He then came inside and took a bath, made a big breakfast, drank some coffee, and did everyone's laundry. While Wesley is bathing, Weston yells in to him that he agrees to become an avocado grower for the Grower's Association. "Curse of the Starving Class - Historical Context" Drama for Students These objects are indeed symbolic, but they are meant to hit the audience with their power. He is also the same man who swindled Weston into buying the useless desert property. Wesley appears, bloodied, and tells Weston that he has tried to get the money back. [3] The play was commissioned by Joseph Papp.[4]. At the end of the play, the skinned lamb carcass symbolically suggests the sacrifice of Wesley, or perhaps Emma, to a malevolent force. Act III 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. WESLEY I'm doing it. New York: Garland, 1988. Download the entire Curse of the Starving Class study guide as a printable PDF! He looks at his parents; they do not notice him, and he leaves with the lamb. Weston asks where Ella is, and then goes into a rage when Wesley and Emma tell him where she went. If there are three dates, the first date is the date of the original Today: After riots, fires, a major earthquake, landslides, and flooding, Los Angeles continues to grow. No sound. Michael and me -- well, we're closer than most brothers and sisters. Ella goes downtown to get Emma out of jail. Door slams. To revisit this article, select My Account, thenView saved stories, To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. 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. 14. City-dwellers seeking lower taxes, lower crime rates, and less congestion came to these suburbs. Word Count: 269. She is a small woman wearing a bathrobe and pink fuzzy slippers, and her hair is in rollers. Hes going to sleep there all night. He compares it to a zombie invasion and takeover, where the zombies build their own city. Vol. But Shepard retains the symbolic structure of his earlier plays. Ella Tate is the wife of Weston and mother of Wesley and Emma Tate. The Circuit: Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child. Clean laundry is stacked on the table; the room has been swept. 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. Whatever the cause, the Tates will do just about anything to raise themselves out of the downward spiral into which theyve fallen. Me, the enemy. She often changes topics when she feels it in her best interest and tries to ignore the things going on immediately around her. Jump-start your essay with our outlining tool to make sure you have all the main points of your essay covered. Something indescribable. First gear grinding. Even sleeping people I could feel. 2425. Wesley enters, sets up a small fenced enclosure in the kitchen, exits, and reenters with a lamb. "Curse of the Starving Class - Literary Style" Drama for Students Weston, once a pilot, is now an alcoholic heavily in debt. Act two opens on Wesley and Emma in the kitchen, where Wesley is building a new front door for the house. Emma and Wesley keep opening the fridge and looking for something thats not therea crystal ball filled with absence. Incapable of driving or holding a job, he is a profoundly unstable man controlled by the alcohol that runs in his system. Cars line up for gasoline, and President Ford appoints an energy czar to head U.S. energy policy efforts. Sign up today to unlock amazing theatre resources and opportunities. Man throwing wood. Weston asks the lamb a question or twowith no door on the kitchen, is he inside or outside, meaning does he still have power over all that he surveys?before starting to complain about how little his family can do without him. No answer. Center stage is a table, downstage a . Barnes, Clive, Shepards Starving Class Offers Much Food for Thought, in New York Post, March 3, 1978. Last Updated on May 5, 2015, by eNotes Editorial. Hello, this is Emma's monologue from Curse of the Starving Class by Sam Shepard. He advises Wesley to do the same. But with the millions of people who now lived there, there simply was not enough room in the city. Act-by-act or chapter-by-chapter summaries and reviews of the plays and books I am currently reading. Word Count: 958, Curse of the Starving Class begins with Wesley, in sweatshirt and jeans, tossing pieces of a door into a wheelbarrow. See more characters from Sam Shepard. Whenand where doesTheCurse of the Starving Class take place? Who or what can fill these people up? To help, she has some suggestions for fantastic dramatic monologues for child actors. Ella talks about menstruation as Emma, who is having her first period, enters. "Curse of the Starving Class - Bibliography" Great Characters in Literature Then, looking in that bloody fridge, he, like his children, finds nothing: zero! 1970s: With the first wave of feminism, women begin demanding equal treatment by the law and by their husbands. When Emma enters, she joins in that conversation, and Shepard creates the sense that this conversation has been going on for some time. Weston, slightly drunk, is a big man; he wears baggy pants, tennis shoes, an overcoat, and a baseball cap. The family of four featured in this play live together in misery on a ranch. Vol. He begins eating everything in the refrigerator. Soon, the music is interrupted by a great rumble, and the kitchen walls break in half. Wesley protests feebly. Manage Settings The film was written by Bruce Beresford and directed by J. Michael McClary. I could hear the coyotes. Then WESLEY'S mother, ELLA, enters slowly from down left. 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