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Waterwell, in association with Working Theater, present
This performance was made possible with support from these generous sponsors: Gary Metzner, American Federation of Teachers, New York Professional Nurses’ Union, Labor Notes, News Guild, American Roots Textile Factory, Chicago Federation of Labor, Patricia Campos-Medina, Eugene Debs Foundation, Ruth Milkman, and Teamsters 804.
written by Stefano Massini
translated by Francesca Spedalieri
directed by Kristina Valada-Viars
Friday, June 17 at 5pm in the International Ballroom DEF
as part of the 2022 Labor Notes conference
Featuring: Karen Aldrige, Emma Ladji, Sandra Marquez, Ayssette Muñoz, Deanna Myers,Joan Nahid, Caroline Neff, Adhana Reid, Sadieh Rifai, Daniella Pereira, Penelope Walker
Line Producer: RJ Silva
Production Stage Manager: Jennifer Gregory
Based on actual events, 7 Minutes depicts an urgent meeting of the 11 women and gender non-conforming folx elected to the union council of their rural Connecticut textile factory. Changes at the factory seem inevitable when new owners take over, giving the council only 90 minutes to vote on a decision with serious consequences for everyone at the factory. Tempers flare and anxieties boil over as individual needs, perspectives and suspicions vie for position while the clock runs down.
A razor-sharp portrait of unionized factory workers grappling in real time with the power imbalance they depend on for their very livelihoods, 7 Minutes scrutinizes the individual impact of the economic forces and labor practices currently under debate in the United States. Best known in New York for his Tony Award Winning play, The Lehman Trilogy – a searing study in the unfettered pursuit of wealth by early captains of American industry – Massini tracks in 7 Minutes the lasting effects of the capitalist system they helped build on the workers of today, who bear the brunt of ever-tightening productivity demands and decades of government policy and business interest weakening the labor movement.
Website: www.waterwell.org
Facebook: @Waterwell
Instagram: @WaterwellTheater
Twitter: @Waterwell
Mailing List: Join here
Waterwell is a group of artists, educators and producers dedicated to telling engrossing stories in unexpected ways that deliberately wrestle with complex civic questions.
We create productions that are creatively daring and emotionally potent to cultivate connections across real and perceived divides.
We train young artists, and educators, to create work with an artist-as-citizen ethos as the foundation of their creative process.
We produce our projects using an evolving set of best practices that are influenced by the principles of community organizing. This is part of an investigation about how storytelling can have the most relevance and impact in efforts to create a more just and humane society.
Waterwell is committed to working with kindness and integrity.
Our projects manifest in more than one medium but everything we do is infused with our love of the immediacy of live performance.
Website: www.theworkingtheater.org
Facebook: @WorkingTheater
Instagram: @working.theater
Twitter: @WrkingTheater
Mailing List: Join Here
Working Theater exists to bridge the access gap to theater. We bring stories for, about, and with working people to the professional stage in NYC. Working with our community, we aim to remove barriers such as relevance and affordability so that working people can experience and engage with theater in their everyday lives.
Founded in 1985, Working Theater is the only not-for-profit off-Broadway theater company dedicated exclusively to creating and producing new American plays for, about, and with working people. This particular population is comprised of those working in the industrial, service, and transportation industries—a community that makes up the majority of the overall metropolitan workforce. They are the executive assistants, postal workers, domestic workers, building service workers, restaurant workers, and transport workers who make New York run. We believe great theater should not be a privilege or a luxury and aim to make our productions relevant, accessible, and affordable to all individuals regardless of geography or socioeconomic status. We want working people who may be unable to afford commercial theater or feel that it does not resonate with them, to make play-going a regular part of their cultural lives. Through ticket subsidies, an active commissioning program, a successful grassroots audience development program, and a pioneering arts-in-education program, our audience reflects the full diversity of New York. In recent years, the Company has expanded its reach by touring its professional productions into the NYC neighborhoods working people call home, through its ambitious Five Boroughs/One City.