Feature Documentary

Director, Cinematographer, Editor: Richie Duque

Producer: Tony Gerber

Sound: Emmanuel Germond

Production Company: Market Road Films

Client: The Public Theater

Synopsis

In the spirit of the Federal Theatre Project which brought live artistic performances to struggling communities during the Great Depression, The Public Theater Mobile Unit hit the road in the fall of 2018, with an 18-stop tour of Lynn Nottage’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play SWEAT, traveling through Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota.

Nottage’s play which tells the story fo a group of friends in a factory town whose middle class lives are decimated by the closing of a steel-tube manufacturer was heralded in The New Yorker as “The first theatrical landmark of the Trump era: Lynn Nottage’s play Sweat is a tough yet empathetic portrait of the America that came undone.”

The production was stripped down to its essentials in order to fit into non-traditional venues, labor halls, community centers, public schools. Additionally, an audience talk-back designed to amplify the unheard voices of local communities with similar experiences to the fictional characters of Nottage’s play, followed each performance.

What ensues over the course of the documentary is a touching yet unflinching look at the working class of America and how much in common they have with the cast and crew of the theater production hailing from New York City.

Emmy Award Winning Documentary Director and Producer, Tony Gerber (Jane, Kingdom of the White Wolf, The Notorious Mr. Bout) is serving as producer.