Waiting for Lefty Scene Rewrite: “Joe and Edna”
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: “Joe and Edna”
During times of hardship, unity and labor unions are crucial in order to help families. In our projects, we chose to use Odets’ scene of Joe and Edna in order to focus on budget cuts. Additionally we wanted to show how unions would help alleviate the issues caused by budget cuts. We incorporated raging issues caused by the Pandemic into our scenes and added a modern day twist. Each of the scenes have a different take on the story of Joe and Edna, but all share similar messages behind them, which Odets wished to convey.
Our Scene Rewrites
