Big Work

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Big Work weaves together verbatim excerpts of interviews with 17 strangers into a modern day meditation on the American Dream and how we define success and ourselves in the 21st century.

In 2014, playwrights Melissa Bergstrom and Kate Marple were curious about why the first question we always ask the people we meet is, “What do you do?” Feeling largely and unhappily defined by the ways they each made their livings, the playwrights interviewed people across the United States to find out how work shapes our lives and our sense of self. Farmers, pharmacists, retail workers, at-home parents, accountants, housekeepers, aerospace engineers, and others shared the paths they took to get where they are, the families they made along the way, the dreams they left behind and the ones they still have, and what matters most to them. What began as a simple exploration of work, quickly evolved into much deeper conversations about what is expected of us, how much control we have in where we end up, what we will leave behind, and whether or not we really can have it all.

The portraits of the real people offered by the play reveal the rich inner lives we all lead, and beckon us to explore what questions we should be asking in order to truly know one another.

Watch the Prologue

Discover The Questions Behind the Story

We asked each of the 40 people we interviewed for Big Work the same 13 questions. Their answers form the stories in our play.

1
What do you do for a living?

2
How did you get here?

3
How do you describe your job to other people?

4
What's the biggest stereotype – positive or negative – that people have, one, about your job, and two, about you because of your job?

5
Do you play a character at work?

6
What do you get from what you do?

7
If you could do anything for a job, what would it be?

8
What’s your philosophy about the role work should play in your life?

9
Where do you draw your sense of self? Or if it’s easier to answer, what are you most proud of?

10
What does success look like for you at work? In your life?

11
What do you think the message of the American Dream is? Does it influence you at all?

12
What advice would you give to someone graduating high school?

13
If you returned home for a family reunion or a high school class reunion, what question do you most wish people would ask you?