Sebastián Muñoz is a current PhD student in Latin American Cultural and Literary Studies in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese. During this past spring semester, Sebastián had the opportunity to participate in the Department of Theatre’s production of Sweat from March 2nd to March 11th, 2022.
How did the opportunity to participate in Sweat come about?
Sebastián: “Dr. John Grinstead sent out an email saying they were looking for people to play a Latino person in a play at the Department of Theatre. Every time I get a general email, I usually just dismiss it, but then I thought, ‘Oh Theatre, why not?’ I wrote to Tom Dugdale, the director of Sweat, asking for an audition. I did my audition and Tom liked it, so he said, ‘Let’s make it official.’ I finally got to live out a childhood dream of mine.”
Sebastián described the process behind the making of Sweat as pleasing, but also physically and emotionally tiring.
What was the production schedule for the play?
Sebastián: “I was cast last semester. The production is actually a class. I had to get credits and enroll for the spring semester. We rehearsed five days a week for three hours from 6:30 PM to 9:30 PM. Four weeks ago, we started doing it six days a week, four hours each day. There was actually one week that we rehearsed for seven days. It was really tiring, but nice to participate.”
In the play, Sebastián was cast as the role of Oscar, a Colombian American born in Reading, Pennsylvania – just like the other characters. The only difference between the characters is that Oscar is treated as an immigrant.
Sebastián: “Oscar is struggling too. Being there as a Latin American person who is in the U.S. myself, even though I am kind of white passing, I still struggle with a lot of things that happen here. I can feel that tension not only in the play, but also in myself.” As a spectator of the play, you can feel the conflict between wanting the townspeople to keep their jobs, but also sympathizing with Oscar for crossing the picket line and doing what is best for himself.
According to Sebastián, the play had two important themes for spectators.
What will the audience take away after seeing Sweat?
Sebastián: The first being, “many of the things we have here that we think to be quite cheap have had a great impact in areas that saw their jobs moved to places with cheaper labor costs. The effects of development have a hidden side of people who suffer because of job relocations. Entire cities have gone into poverty when they were previously thriving. Some people, especially in rural America, pay the price that we don’t see for commodities, which is super important in Sweat.” The second takeaway deals with how these labor relocations also shape our political environment right now. Sebastián said, “Donald Trump promised to bring back jobs, so you can understand why people voted for him under the guise that they will get their job back and get more money. I think it is important to understand why some people vote for who they choose. We shouldn’t dismiss them as uneducated or ignorant to the candidate’s actions, but we need to understand their own small world and how that shapes their decisions. Those are the main points that I think people who see Sweat will take away.”
The Department of Theatre, Film, and Media Arts puts on many amazing productions throughout the academic year. Be sure to check out their production schedule to keep up to date with their current season offerings and future collaborations across university departments.
