I can't begin to tell you how excited I am for this play. The first rehearsal in which we did our first read through was jaw dropping in terms of the amount of talent that burst out of that room. I have the honor of playing Curley. Everyone's first thought of this character is that he's the ranch operator's son so he can get away with anything because "his daddy's in charge." Curley has been a tough character for me to relate to as a person. I consider myself a nice person and very modest in what I think about every situation. From reading the novel and the script, it is clear that Curley will always speak what is on his mind and wants to dominate the conversation to get what he wants out of it. Curley has this dominant personality that I would equate to a welsh corgi, they are a very dominant and vicious dog when you enter its territory without its permission, but they have the height of about a foot off the ground; so that intimidation factor they try to get out doesn't get respected as much as it should.
A few things that always come up whenever other characters are talking about Curley are that he's a little guy and that he hates big fellas. One way I found to relate to this was that when I was growing up, I was always the short kid in the class. I had very few class mates that I was taller than and I would get picked on because of that. A common phrase that was used was, "Tiny Tim," you've just got to love children and their use of alliteration. From what I've taken from Steinbeck is that maybe Curley was picked on back as a child by those bigger than him, but he decided to get back at them by a more violent route. Curley definitely makes up for his size in his ability to fight and I think he gained respect and more likely fear of those around him more and more by bringing those bigger than him down to size.
-Tim Hafer
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