Nicole I. Torres ’11 and Jesse T. Nee-Vogelman ’13 play American workers in “Working,” which opens April 2 in the Loeb Experimental Theater.

April 2-10

Loeb Experimental Theater

Directed by Brandon J. Ortiz ’12

Music directed by Mark R. Parker ’12

Produced by Katie R. McNicol ’12 and Marta Bralic ’12

“This show is real. It’s very, very real. At the same time it’s a fun rock musical with a lot of catchy tunes.”

This is how director Brandon J. Ortiz ’12 describes the new production of Stephen Schwartz’s “Working,” which explores the complexity of modern working lives through a series of songs and monologues. The play recounts the insights and hardships of actual people who hold many various jobs, such as waitresses, CEOs, hookers, teachers, truckers, and housewives.

According to Art R. Bartolozzi IV ’12, who plays a corporate executive, these issues concern all of us, because, whether we like it or not, work has become central to many people’s self-conception.

“The play is showing how jobs force you into an identity, which every character deals with differently. Some of them want to be labeled and some don’t,” Bartolozzi says.

To get a greater understanding of their roles, especially as they relate to the current situation of workers on campus, the actors have been talking to the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers. The union is also sponsoring the show and providing the costumes, which are borrowed from people who actually hold some of the jobs that the play portrays.

The idea of expressing working conditions through music immediately resonated with the Harvard Union. Martha Robb, who has been part of the union since 1983 and is helping the “Working” staff, recalls that when it was just forming, its organizers used to go out to the arcade of the Holyoke Center and sing about their ideas to present them in a lighter and funnier way.

Similarly in the play, there is a balance between songs and monologues. The monologues are more serious and present the facts of life, while the songs sound more optimistic as they reveal the character’ emotions.

“The characters speak the monologues about tough working conditions, and then the songs are a release,” Ortiz says. “What I hope comes out here is the sense of hope.  People retain hope against all odds.”

—Elizabeth D. Pyjov