Uploaded February 2017 | Updated September 2026, 4 hours ago
Go behind the scenes with the director, playwright and members of the cast of SEVERANCE.
WAITING FOR LEFTY / SEVERANCE
by Clifford Odets / Levi Alpert
February 23 - March 5, 2017
Tickets at http://www.crt.uconn.edu/ or 860-486-2113
Nafe Katter Theatre
WAITING FOR LEFTY Clifford Odets’ passionate and politically-charged play Waiting for Lefty is a timeless piece of classic American theatre that you won’t readily forget. In 1930’s New York City the Great Depression takes full force and working families are put out on the streets to starve. As people fight for their lives, a union of cab drivers decide ‘no more’ and wait for their leader, Lefty Castello, to choose if they will strike or not. The demand for social change drives this classic Group Theatre production into modern times leaving us to answer: “what are we waiting for?”
SEVERANCE by Levi Alpert is a new short play that provides an additional modern context to the themes of workers rights.
Artistic Director Michael Bradford says, “In the original 1935 production of Waiting For Lefty, Odets was asked to write a “curtain raiser” to create a full night of theatre. “Severance” is a new short play by a recent UCONN grad, Levi Alpert. I asked Levi to consider writing a “curtain closer” that brought us a little closer to our present lives as a way to look at how wonderfully far and sadly how little we have “traveled.” Levi’s writing is beautifully severe and insightful and yet it again offers us a different vision of the same choice Odet’s offered, a choice at the core of our existence, humanity or fear.”
Go behind the scenes with the director, playwright and members of the cast of SEVERANCE.
WAITING FOR LEFTY / SEVERANCE
by Clifford Odets / Levi Alpert
February 23 - March 5, 2017
Tickets at http://www.crt.uconn.edu/ or 860-486-2113
Nafe Katter Theatre
WAITING FOR LEFTY Clifford Odets’ passionate and politically-charged play Waiting for Lefty is a timeless piece of classic American theatre that you won’t readily forget. In 1930’s New York City the Great Depression takes full force and working families are put out on the streets to starve. As people fight for their lives, a union of cab drivers decide ‘no more’ and wait for their leader, Lefty Castello, to choose if they will strike or not. The demand for social change drives this classic Group Theatre production into modern times leaving us to answer: “what are we waiting for?”
SEVERANCE by Levi Alpert is a new short play that provides an additional modern context to the themes of workers rights.
Artistic Director Michael Bradford says, “In the original 1935 production of Waiting For Lefty, Odets was asked to write a “curtain raiser” to create a full night of theatre. “Severance” is a new short play by a recent UCONN grad, Levi Alpert. I asked Levi to consider writing a “curtain closer” that brought us a little closer to our present lives as a way to look at how wonderfully far and sadly how little we have “traveled.” Levi’s writing is beautifully severe and insightful and yet it again offers us a different vision of the same choice Odet’s offered, a choice at the core of our existence, humanity or fear.”
