Roles to be Cast
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Columpio---Spanish for swing
The play asks what sacrifices do we make for Love?
Seeking a strong ensemble of 7 Actors (4 Women and 3 Men)
This play deals primarily with Latino characters. However, we are
seeking the BEST and STRONGEST actors possible to bring the
roles to the stage. The same goes for AGES. Please do not be
discouraged, especially if this is a story that resonates with you.
Spanish is a plus, it is specific and minimal and we will provide coaching.
Contact Joe Luis Cedillo at joe-cedillo@uiowa.edu if you'd like a reading copy.
JUANEY Chicana, wife, late 20s to early 30s, a house dress simplicity,
she lives in her eyes with looks she gives, bounces between
school girl quiet and romantic self-expression
Her name Juanita (Spanish pronunciation)
DANNY Chicano, husband, year younger than his wife, blue collar
philosopher, hides coulda, woulda, shoulda in blue flannel
checks and construction boots, defines himself by a sense of
who he might have been even if does not want it
His name is Daniel (Spanish pronunciation)
LOUEY Son, a twin, from 10 to 17, he is the mercurial combo of
dreamer and realist, he listens with his soul, an old soul quality,
he has the sad tendency to seek what he feels in his heart
He is Joe Luis---not Jose
JULIA Daughter, a twin, from 10 to 17, she is the fearlessness each
parent secretly desires, her sense of self is a physical one, her
heart is muscle but her fragility is also epic
She is Julia Rosaline---but she never uses her middle name
NANA Mexican, Grandmother, Danny’s Ama, she is always 53,
defines herself by the 11 children she raised and the 5 she lost,
measuring her strength by the depth of love she can unleash and
pain she will never allow to make her bend.
Her name is Rosaline Amparo Sanchez y Castillo
MARGIE Caucasian, neighbor three houses down, her sense of self is
through the real and imagined criticism of others, she manifests
her inadequacy in how she acts out, she obscures the good that is in
her as albatross and shield
GUNNY Marine Corps Gunnery Sergeant, 33, African-American,
nothing about him is issued, he is someone who discovered his
calling but is not a zealot
Time:
Fall 1983
And
Tuesday night, November 1990,
Five days after the twins’s birthday,
Desert Shield
Setting:
The kitchen of a Via Princessa track home,
Newhall, Southern California
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Synopsis
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This is a family story that centers on a struggling-to-be-middle class
Latino family, all taking place in a kitchen shown in three acts.
"Of all the guys in high school, he liked me for being nice. I don’t know
how I’d feel if he stopped loving me."
1983. JUANEY (a house wife and mother)is seven years into her marriage
to DANNY (who works construction) and he has moved them out of the
barrio (poor neighborhood) and into the suburbs. Juaney struggles as she
is alienated by neighborhood women and only through her close friendship
with MARGIE does she seemingly endure. Her children, LOUEY and
JULIA (who appear in the play at age 7 and 17), have their own struggles
with fitting in and getting by. There is tension between Juaney and Danny
about how to best raise their family.
"Why is it the guys who run never wind up with the girls who shot put?"
The family dynamic changes when NANA appears after having been
involved in a fight with Danny's father. NANA increasingly takes over and
issues involving how Juaney's raising her children come to a head as battle
lines are drawn in the kitchen. Even Margie is not safe from the attacks.
This struggle comes to a head with more losers than winners.
"When you said “we’ll deal with it,” you didn’t mean me and you. You didn’t
mean me at all."
1990. The kitchen has changed as have everyone who occupies it. Julia
talks with Margie about increased tension in the household again. When
Juaney arrives and then Louey, her obvious strain with her children is
evident until GUNNY (a Marine Corps recruiter) arrives to enlist Louey.
Sensing that this may very well be a dire situation, Juaney prepares to do
battle to save her son from signing up. Danny and Nana wind up arriving
and also becoming involved in this final battle over the family.
"I didn’t stop being smart by wanting to sign up."
Following the outcome, in a final moment, Juaney and Julia come together
as mother and daughter as both face the new future while reflecting on the
past.
JUANEY
Yes and no. He bought it, but before he told me he did, he brought me here…
and there was the swing. A columpio. He said, it didn’t feel right because
there was no place for kids.
JULIA
That’s not really cool mom.
JUANEY
Oh no, no. He was right. I sat and he pushed and I could see everything he
saw. I could see his dream. I wanted school…but I knew I needed to be
here..for you. Even if you weren't here yet...I knew you were coming.
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