Playwright Lynn Nottage pores over loss of jobs, identity in ‘Sweat’

ShawnJ West does not shy away from explosive conversations.

As director of the latest Palo Alto Players production, Lynn Nottage’s Pulitzer-winning play “Sweat,” those conversations not only manifest inside the storyline but first build momentum in the rehearsal room.

“What I’ve always loved about conflicts is they’re always about the relationships that people choose or are born into, and with that, you never know what someone’s going to say,” says West, a longtime Bay Area actor, director and podcaster.

In “Sweat,” which had its premiere in 2015 at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, characters say an awful lot. The play is set in the early and later 2000s, focusing on a diverse crop of blue collar workers who have seen their jobs dwindle as the North American Free Trade Agreement decimat