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  "description": "The 2015 play by Lynn Nottage traces the relationships between a tight-knit group of bar regulars over an eight-year span.",
  "path": "/sweat-ict-rep/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-03-31T04:00:33.000Z",
  "site": "https://www.shoutwichita.com",
  "tags": [
    "Learn more and buy tickets",
    "Derby man has the kind of voice that turns heads — and chairs",
    "Socializing while sober: how some Wichitans are cultivating alcohol-free communities",
    "As a small creative business closes, the owner mourns",
    "Painting through it: Autumn Noire on 20 years of making art",
    "How a guy from Wichita resurrected 'Dawn of the Dead'",
    "Bygone Friends University museum housed curious collections",
    "Click here to support our work with a tax-deductible donation",
    "Yes! I want to support the SHOUT"
  ],
  "textContent": "So much of a happy life depends on the things we can count on: work, family, friends, a home. How hard is it to face losing those things when the rules suddenly change?\n\nAchingly hard, as the working-class patrons of the pub at the heart of Lynn Nottage’s “Sweat” have learned, facing just that. This demanding play opened Friday and is in good hands with ICTRep. Performances run through April 5.\n\nThere are so many reasons to fit this drama into your already packed schedule. First, the script. Nottage is the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for drama twice. Her work explores American power structures, marginalized communities, and race relations.\n\nDigital transitions help audience members keep track of the play's timeline. __Courtesy photo by Jill Harper for ICTRep.__\n\nThe voices she creates for her characters in “Sweat” are so straightforward, so real, that you become immersed in their conversations as if you are with them at the table with a beer and a shot. Set from 2000 to 2008 in Reading, Pennsylvania, the script feels as relevant as it did in 2015 when it debuted and in 2017 when it opened on Broadway.\n\n## Our free email newsletter is like having a friend who __always__ knows what's happening\n\nGet the scoop on Wichita’s arts & culture scene: events, news, artist opportunities, and more. Free, weekly & worth your while.\n\nSubscribe\n\nEmail sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup.\n\nNo spam. Unsubscribe anytime.\n\nDirector Julie Longhofer assembled a team clearly committed to this poignant story and its crushing message. Scenes are connected with transitions that remind us of the change in timeframe and blast us with snippets of news to help us recall the events of the day that live in the background of this story.\n\nThis ensemble comes from a pure and honest place. Clearly, each actor has worked to build a credible human, not unheard of in theater, but especially effective in this production.\n\nStan (Chris Maslen) partakes in the centuries-old tradition of bartenders: advising the bartend-ees. __Courtesy photo by Jill Harper for ICTRep.__\n\nChris Maslen as the wise, ever-present bartender, Stan, is a knockout. In spite of his character’s limp due to a work injury, Stan cuts a strong figure and is ready to advise and protect his regulars at all times. Maslan is an impressive force, endowing Stan with strength and compassion so completely that I was 100% sold on his performance.\n\nKate Compton is utterly believable as Tracey, one of three dear friends who meet regularly for drinks after getting off at the plant where they’ve worked together for almost 30 years. Compton navigates this tricky role beautifully, embracing the less flattering elements of Tracey as well as the rough charms inherent in her character. We come to see why Tracey is angry, but we’re sad she won’t open her heart to her longtime friend Cynthia, and it’s painful to watch her life implode as she insists on blaming her friend when things aren’t going well. Compton’s vocal work and interactions with Maslan and other characters are convincing and captivating.\n\nTracey (Kate Compton), Stan (Chris Maslen), and Cynthia (Jeneé Jenkins Saffold) share a few laughs at the bar. __Courtesy photo by Jill Harper for ICTRep.__\n\nJeneé Jenkins Saffold brings a graceful stability to Cynthia, who has been dreaming of a better future in her decades of working on the line. Saffold gives Cynthia a gently funny and determined demeanor, as she works out how to balance her frustration with her husband’s addiction with her need to maintain a relationship with him, the father of her son. It is moving to watch Saffold process the painful changes in Cynthia’s relationship with Tracey, as she observes her friend “othering” her in a way she has never experienced before.\n\nTracey (Kate Compton), Cynthia (Jeneé Jenkins Saffold), and Jessie (Chelsie Penner) enjoy a drink while Cynthia’s ex-husband, Brucie (David Williams) looks on. __Courtesy photo by Jill Harper for ICTRep.__\n\nAs Jessie, the perennially intoxicated member of the trio, Chelsea Penner is sympathetic and a wonderful mess. While Jessie is smarter and paying closer attention than most of her friends think, she is ill-equipped for big changes and doesn’t handle conflict well. Penner is charming in the role.\n\nJason (Hunter Bartholomew) and Chris (Torey Wilson) talk about their plans with bartender Stan (Chris Maslen). __Courtesy photo by Jill Harper for ICTRep.__\n\nAs devoted pals who grew up together, Torey Wilson (as Cynthia’s son Chris) and Hunter Bartholomew (as Tracey’s son Jason) establish in their characters the kind of high-energy, taunting-and-teasing, dedicated friendship that seems common among young American men. Wilson and Bartholomew bring love to the table in their scenes together, even when conflict is tearing them and their families apart.\n\nBrucie (David Williams) hits up Chris (Torey Wilson) and Jason (Hunter Bartholomew) for cash. __Courtesy photo by Jill Harper for ICTRep.__\n\nCynthia’s husband Brucie (David Williams) is credibly written as an addict, and Williams employs his charisma to regularly attempt to win over or win back Cynthia. We are also persuaded by the scenes where Williams is overwhelmed with drink or drugs, draped over a table and struggling to communicate. Evan, a prison administrator, is played directly with a dose of compassion by Eddie Spurlock, who helps us understand what has happened to place Chris and Jason in their current predicament.\n\nTracey (Kate Compton) and Oscar (Nilo Reynoso) talk outside while Oscar is on break. __Courtesy photo by Jill Harper for ICTRep.__\n\nAn understated but compelling performance by Nilo Reynoso in the role of Oscar, a Colombian busboy who longs for a better life but constantly faces pushback, amps up the vivid climax of “Sweat.” I also lift my hat to fight choreographer Joseph Urick, makeup designer Abbey Renae Evans, and scenic designers Julie and Stan Longhofer for bringing more levels of realism to this impressive stage work.\n\nChris (Torey Wilson), Jessie (Chelsie Penner), Stan (Chris Maslen), Jason (Hunter Bartholomew), and Tracey (Kate Compton) discuss what the future might hold for the workers at the factory. __Courtesy photo by Jill Harper for ICTRep.__\n\nIt’s commonplace for me to cast my eyes though the house to see how the audience is responding. Throughout this production, my focus was completely on the stage to the degree that by the time it occurred to me to look around, every figure was bent forward attentively and every eye in the place was riveted to the stage — many filled with tears.\n\n## The Details\n\n**ICTRep presents “Sweat”**\nMarch 27-April 5, 2026, at Oliver’s Place, 2512 N. Oliver St. in Wichita\n\nGeneral admission tickets are $35. Discounts are available for seniors, veterans, students, and audience members under the age of 30.\n\nLearn more and buy tickets.\n\n* * *\n\n_**Teri Mott** is a writer and actor in Wichita, Kansas, where she covers the arts as a critic and feature writer. She is co-founder of The SHOUT._\n\n****Popular Reads****\n❋ Derby man has the kind of voice that turns heads — and chairs\n❋ Socializing while sober: how some Wichitans are cultivating alcohol-free communities\n❋ As a small creative business closes, the owner mourns❋ Painting through it: Autumn Noire on 20 years of making art❋ How a guy from Wichita resurrected 'Dawn of the Dead'❋ Bygone Friends University museum housed curious collections\n\n## Support Kansas arts writing\n\nThe SHOUT is a Wichita-based independent newsroom focused on artists living and working in Kansas. We're partly supported by the generosity of our readers, and every dollar we receive goes directly into the pocket of a contributing writer, editor, or photographer. Click here to support our work with a tax-deductible donation**.**\n\nYes! I want to support the SHOUT",
  "title": "The cost of conflict: ‘Sweat’ at ICTRep",
  "updatedAt": "2026-03-31T04:00:34.265Z"
}