The students at the National Theater Institute will stage an Occupy the O’Neill, in a manner of speaking.
On Dec. 16-17, the NTI will perform an original “response” to Clifford Odets’ 1935 debut play “Waiting for Lefty,”  as its ensemble project. 
The shows are free and start at 7:30 p.m. at the Diana Merrill Theater at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center.
Odets, a socialist who once testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee, set his play during the 1934 New York taxi driver strike.  

The O’Neill’s press material calls the NTI take on “Waiting for Lefty” a “bold adaptation,” that hopes to harness the spirit and message of the recent Occupy Wall Street protests that spread around world.

(As an aside – theater term, that – there’s a rule to promoting plays and movies that all adaptations are “bold”;  all classics are “immortal”; all action is “packed.”  We all do it.  That’s because nobody wants to see meek adaptations, ephemeral classics or have action be intermittent.)

According to the press release, the production will seek to forge solidarity between the stories of “heartbreak, unemployment, dissatisfaction, and struggle” of the Occupy movement with the then contemporary  Depression-era characters in “Waiting for Lefty.”

Jeff Janisheski, artistic director of the NTI said the project is “ an attempt to articulate the stories of struggle that Americans are facing now.”

The students’ performance will mix theater, dance, songs and original material.

For more information call (860) 443-5378. or visit theoneill.org/nti