Photo Flash: Inside Opening Night of Lynn Nottage's SWEAT at Arena Stage

The new drama SWEAT by Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage (Ruined; By The Way, Meet Vera Stark) comes toArena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater following a critically-acclaimed debut at Oregon Shakespeare Festival as part of a co-commission between the two theaters. The play is directed by Nottage's longtime collaboratorKate Whoriskey and runs January 15-February 21, 2016 in the Kreeger Theater. Check out photos from opening night below!

SWEAT is a result of extensive interviews conducted by Nottage and Whoriskey, who spent two years visiting and interviewing residents of Reading, Pennsylvania, which was named the nation's poorest city in 2011. Set in 2000 and 2008, the play explores America's industrial decline at the turn of the millennium with a look inside Reading, where a group of close friends shares everything: drinks, secrets and laughs. But when rumors of layoffs shake up the local steel mill, the fragile bonds of their community begin to fray and a horrific crime sends shock waves across two generations.

As previously announced, Jack Willis (Arena's Mother Courage and Her Children, President Lyndon Baines Johnson in Arena's upcoming All the Way) and Tony Award nomineeKimberly Scott (Joe Turner's Come and Gone at Arena and on Broadway) reprise their roles of Stan and Cynthia, respectively. Also reprising roles they originated for the Oregon world premiere are Kevin Kenerly as Brucie, Stephen Michael Spencer as Jason, Tramell Tillman as Chris and Tyrone Wilson as Evan.

Joining the company for the D.C. production are Tony Award nominee Johanna Day (Broadway's You Can't Take It With You, Arena's Good People) as Tracey and Reza Salazar as Oscar.

Photos by Cameron Whitman

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