Show Synopsis:
People from various professions describe what their work is and who they are in their jobs through songs and stories.
Character:
Maggie, a middle-aged woman who knows the value of good hard work and has no problem doing hard work for the sake and future of her children.
Song Context:
After hours, Maggie goes into clean an office and thinks about her job - what has led her there and what it would be like for her children to follow in her footsteps.
Fun Facts:
1) This musical is based on Studs Terkel's sociology book Working, comprised of accounts and interviews he collected in the early 1970s.
2) Stephen Schwartz gave the following pointers to the actors working to develop their various characters: " In the preface to the book, Studs tells about the telling gesture that illuminates character. See if you can find one or two for each of your people, a gesture or physical habit that grows out of their work or environment. Think about how they stand, how they sit, how they move, where their center of balance seems to be. Do they speak rapidly or haltingly? Are they shy or aggressive in speaking? How has their work affected them physically? I expect you to begin rehearsal with very definite choices made.?
3) Schwartz called this musical ?essentially a documentary?the songwriters tried to use as much of the words and locution of the characters they were writing about as possible.?
"Mama worked just like her mama before her,
Domestic workin' was their trade.
They was laundress, cook, and live-in help,
Thursday girl, babysitter, and a hotel maid;
They worked six days a week, all day long
Never could get out of debt.
Those were the days when the minimum wage was anything you could get!
They was cleaning women without faces,
Coming and going on a first name basis.
You're talkin' to somebody who knows... and after too many years... Lord!
I don't wanna be in one more laundry room,
I don't wanna pick up now another broom,
One of these days, just wanna sleep til noon!
Cleanin' women without faces
Comin' and going on a first name basis
Ooo, y'talkin' to somebody who knows
And after too many years..Lord!
I don't wanna be in one more laundry room!
I don't wanna pick up now another broom,
One of these days, just wanna sleep til noon!
All day long I'm thinkin', my kids is in the streets stomewhere,
But the lady of the house don't think you thinkin' half the time.
Always talkin' round you, like you ain't even there.
It's gettin' so it does somethin' to my mind!
I've got a daughter with a head on her shoulders,
Purdy as a picture too!
She ain't gonna hide that purdy face behind
Kitchen doors, scrubbin' floors like her Mama do.
If my legs don't give out and my back hold up,
I'm gonna make her a better day.
You'll never see her gettin' down on her knees
Unless she's down there to pray! No more
Cleanin? women without faces
She gonna walk in-a on this last name basis!
She'll be the first in this family
To have a face you can see!
She ain't gon' be stuck inside no laundry room,
When she sweepin' she be pushin' her own broom,
Day may never come when she can sleep til noon,
But long as she can get up singin' her own tune
Only that day
Can't come to soon!
Cleanin' women!"