Theater for the People: On Queens, The Brothers Size, and Working Theater
Chris Garlock | Published on 11/18/2025
In Colm Summers’s words, “The history of American theater is written in labor plays.”
As the Artistic Director of Working Theater, a New York-based company completely committed to creating theater specifically “for, about, and with working people,” Summers would be the one to know. Founded in 1985, Working Theater has led the way in the development of sliding-scale ticket initiatives and mobile performance units, all while championing the work of artists who may lack or have lacked access to theater.
The plays that Working Theater produce and commission take an expansive look at the “labor play” and include stories of labor movements and working-class people. Summers noted that there’s a popular assumption that working-class art and narratives lack complexity, but in reality, it is work that is often the most boundary-pushing, avant-garde, and critically acclaimed. These plays are dotted throughout the history of theater, from Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman to Dominique Morisseau’s Skeleton Crew.
This fall offers two working-class plays, a revival of Tarell Alvin McCraney’s 2003 work, The Brothers Size, which ran through September 28 at The Shed, and a revival production of Martyna Majok’s Queens, currently running at New York City Center. Both break free of classical play structures and highlight underserved and infrequently represented communities.
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Emily Chackerian in The Brooklyn Rail. Photo: Alani iLongwe and André Holland in The Brothers Size at The Shed. Courtesy The Shed. Photo: Marc J. Franklin.