Waiting for Lefty Scenes Rewrite: “Interne Episode”

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: “Interne Episode”

These are a collection of rewrites of the Interne Episode scene 6 of the Waiting for Lefty production by Clifford Odets. The original scene depicts themes of nepotism, class distinction, and racial discrimination in a conversation between Dr. Barnes and Benjamin. In the following scenes, we demonstrate the same themes in a contemporary context whether it be the issues prevailing in the pandemic or labor abuse.

Our Scene Rewrites: Priscilla Natawidjaja, Luyao Ou, and Samantha Soto