USC Aiken Faculty, Students Perform Together on Stage in Columbia

Aiken, SC (05/23/2019) — Students and faculty members from the University of South Carolina Aiken Department of Visual and Performing Arts are working together in Sweat, the current production presented by the Trustus Theatre in Columbia, now through June 1.

The show, written by Lynn Nottage and directed by Erin Wilson features three of USC Aiken's own talents. Professor Dewey Scott-Wiley, who is a Trustus Company member, plays Tracey in Sweat. USC Aiken senior DK Turner makes his Trustus debut as Cynthia's son, Chris. Professor Chet Longley designed the realistic set and lights for the Columbia-based production.

Promotional materials say Sweat takes place in Reading, Penn., a valley town of fiercely proud families who worked for generations in the plants and factories of a thriving county seat. Unions rule, well-paying jobs are coveted, and politics are personal.

Having grown up side-by-side in Reading, best friends Tracey and Cynthia went from fun-loving schoolchildren to saloon-loving adults who work together on a steel manufacturing line. In a tight-knit community like this one, it takes one fracture in its core for the breaking point of friendship to be seismically tested.

Critics say the show, inspired by field research and first-person testimonials collected in Reading, resulted in this "unflinching, intensely researched, and Pulitzer-winning slice-of-life drama."

One theatre goer says it is realistic and thought provoking

"Sweat captures the pressure cooker of trying times-where a lethal combination of layoffs, lockouts, and picket lines sends the Rust Belt way of life into crisis, leaving us to ask the question: How do we face change?"

Go to https://trustus.org/event/sweat/ for more information on Sweat, which won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

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