My grandfather was a Pullman porter, and my father put his way through college by cleaning floors at night in the libraries. I understand that working people are in some way the bedrock of my existence and the existence of many people here.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the importance of hard work and the sacrifices made by previous generations.
Lynn Nottage reflects on her family's humble beginnings, highlighting how her grandfather and father worked menial jobs to support their families and education. Their labor represents the foundation of her existence and a reminder of the crucial role that everyday working people play in the broader society. This acknowledgment of struggle and commitment underscores the value of their contributions to her life and to others.
In practice
In a graduation speech to highlight the importance of hard work and family values.
People probably have different philosophies about this, but I think that when you're first shaping the play and trying to find a character, the initial actors that develop it end up imprinting on it - you hear their voices; you hear their rhythms. You can't help but to begin to write toward them during the rehearsal process.
There were not a lot of women in the theater department - it was really run by men, and so the message was that women can be onstage, but women can't really be backstage.
The person whose work introduced me to the craft was Lorraine Hansberry. The person who taught me to love the craft was Tennessee Williams. The person who really taught me the power of the craft was August Wilson, and the person who taught me the political heft of the craft was Arthur Miller.
I was repeatedly told that there isn't an African American woman who can open a show on Broadway. I said, 'Well, how do we know? How do we know if we don't do it?' I said, 'I think you're wrong.'
Once working people discover that, collectively, we have more power than we do as individual silos, then we become an incredibly powerful force. But I think that there are powers that be that are invested in us remaining divided along racial lines, along economic lines.
It's incumbent on us to reach beyond the confines of the institutions that traditionally produce art and find new ways to get it to the people.
Exhaustion pays no mind to age or beauty. Like rain and earthquakes and hail and floods.
Had they known at these moments to be quietly joyful? Most likely not. People mostly did not know enough when they were living life that they were living it.
There is nothing more enticing, disenchanting, and enslaving than the life at sea.
Then the children went to bed, or at least went upstairs, and the men joined the women for a cigarette on the porch, absently picking ticks engorged like grapes off the sleeping dogs. And when the men kissed the women good night, and their weekend whiskers scratched the women's cheeks, the women did not think shave, they thought stay.
You cannot live your life to please others. The choice must be yours.
And I put the latte down on a table, awash in the happy middle of my greatest adventure.
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