Still Waiting for Lefty, even in the 21st century

Our Class’ Project

As part of our class’ exploration of artistic protest and resistance, we
studied the creative movements that flourished during the turbulent years of
the 1930s, including the Mexican muralists, the music and poetry of the Harlem
Renaissance, and the role of Jewish theater in New York City. Among other
works, we read Waiting for Lefty by Clifford Odets, and produced by New York
City’s Group Theater, which aimed to support new plays that took on issues
of political and social significance. Waiting for Lefty focuses on New York
City cab drivers preparing to go on strike during the Great Depression and
delivers a scathing indictment of capitalism. For this project, students
selected scenes form Odets’s play and rewrote them to reflect modern social
and economic struggles. Many of the student rewrites focus on the challenges
and hardships posed by the Covid19 pandemic.

Our Scene: “Lab Assistant Episode”

In our modernized versions of the “Lab and Assistant” scene, we incorporate Odets’original portrayal of a ruthless business leader with our own take on current issues such as abortion, the marketing of virus essentials, and the competition to create a new Covid-19 vaccine.

Our Scene Rewrites: Mahek Shah, Batsheva Ohayon, and Jonathan Minaya