Heritage Square 2004 Playwriting Contest

by Christina Hamlett

All the world’s a stage. Here at Heritage Square, all of the Past is a stage as well.

Playwrights and history buffs are invited to submit original one-act plays for performance and professional filming this December 2004. The costumed productions will take place in four of our historic landmark homes; specifically, the Perry House, the Hale House, the Valley Knudsen Garden Residence, and the Longfellow-Hastings Octagon House. The following rules and guidelines will enable you to put your best script forward and to participate in “Holiday Lamplight Tours,” a reflection of Southern California’s rich cultural and architectural legacy.

Submission Period:
March 1-May 31, 2004.
Entry Fee:
$5 per script (no limit on number of entries).
Script Length:
12-15 minutes each.
This Year’s Theme: “Faraway Friends”

Unlike a traditional theater setting, our audiences get to experience an hour’s worth of time-travel by walking from one house to the next and eavesdropping on four families as they prepare for the holiday season in, respectively, 1876, 1900, the 1930’s and the 1940’s. Our objective is to not only entertain our guests with a well written story but also to impart historical tidbits on these particular eras as they affected those who lived in them.

Contestants are not limited in the number of scripts they can submit for each house. Some, for instance, may want to try their hand at writing a script for each house and interweaving references to prior characters (ancestors) from the earlier settings. Others might focus their energy on writing a script for the time period that most appeals to them. Each entry will be judged on the basis of creativity, originality, warmth, and the inclusion of no less than 5 historical facts pertinent to that era.

Official Rules
• Plays must be typed in proper script format with a cover sheet containing the writer’s name, address, phone number and email. A sample script has been provided for review, as well as interior photographs of each of the staging areas.
• No scripts will be accepted by email or fax. Submission packages are to be mailed to Heritage Square Museum, 251 South Lake Avenue, Suite 915, Pasadena, CA 91101-
3005 and marked “Play Contest” on the outside of the envelope.
• Each script must be between 12-15 pages in length. Size of cast must not exceed 6 actors.
• A completed application must accompany the script, as well as a check payable to “Heritage Square.”
• In addition, all playwrights are asked to provide documentation of the historical references included in their stories. This can
either be a bibliography, a xeroxed page from a history book, a website, etc. A substantial portion of the judging will be based on
historical authenticity and adherence to the season’s theme of “Faraway Friends.”

Winners will be announced in late summer of 2004, with rehearsals commencing in the fall. Plays will be professionally filmed and awarded to the winning playwrights. In addition, each will be interviewed for publication in a feature story, as well as entitled to a stageplay, screenplay or novel critique (a $450 value) by a professional coverage consultant.

From left to right: The Perry House, The Hale House, The Valley Knudsen Garden Residence, and the Longfellow- Hastings Octagon House.

The “Stages”
                           
The Perry House – Circa 1876

All action takes place in a parlor the size of a small ballroom. The cast is either already in this scene when the first audience comes in or can
make entrances from the upper right (where the piano is).

The Hale House – Circa 1900

Although we traditionally start the action of this play in the first parlor, we’re doing something a little different this year, allowing a “mini-scene”
on the entryway’s staircase landing. If you decide to use this, characters will exit up the stairs; the audience will then turn their attention to the first parlor (pictured below).

Characters in this scene make their entrances from double doors on the right, which lead to the second parlor (pictured below). Note: both
parlors are roped off to prevent the audience from wandering in and sitting on the furniture!

Characters can either walk through the doors of the first parlor and continue their earlier conversation or they can enter from another set of
double doors on the right.

Finally, in order to get the audience out of the Hale House and into the next venue, we lead them through the kitchen:

Because it’s a small room, any characters you use need to be here when the audience arrives and pretty much stay put behind the chopping block table.

The Valley Knudsen Garden Residence –
Circa 1930’s

This is the only house in which the audience actually gets to sit down like regular play-goers. They enter from an outside door (left side) and
are seated on the half of the room that faces the above scene. Cast members make their entrances and exits from the entryway on the right hand side of the picture or through the two grey doors.

This is also the one venue in which your cast members can address the audience as part of the scene. In the 1930’s script provided, the lead
character was the owner of a boarding house and spoke with the audience as if they were prospective tenants for the room she was renting.

The Longfellow-Hastings Octagon House –
Circa 1940’s

This house, by virtue of its octagonal design, presents challenging staging for our actors and directors. The audience members actually view this small room from two angles, the one pictured above and a doorway that is to the left of the room. A separate upstage entry from a hallway is used for the actors’ entrances and exits.

Application

Please print or type the requested information and
include it with your check and script by 5/31/04.
Name:
Address:
Phone #:
Email:
Which house(s) did you choose to write about?
___1876 ___1900 ___1930’s ___1940’s
Amount enclosed: _________ ($5 per script)
How did you hear about this contest?
Please attach a separate sheet which documents
your sources for any historical facts you have
included as part of your play.
Questions? Email Inkview@cswebmail.com

Sample Script (©2003)

EXT. THE VALLEY KNUDSEN GARDEN RESIDENCE - 1933
The TOUR GUIDES lead the TOUR PARTICIPANTS to the entrance of the 1930’s House. In response to the knock, the Latina landlady of this boarding house, ROSA SANCHEZ, answers the door, carrying a broom. The HEAD TOUR GUIDE addresses her; he holds a folded section of the newspaper.

    GUIDE
Señora Rosa Sanchez?
    ROSA
(cautiously)
Si?
   GUIDE
I'm here about the ad you have to rent one of your rooms?
   ROSA
The room--ah, yes! It is in the newspaper but one day already and I have yet to catch my breath answering the door!
  GUIDE
Is it still available?
  ROSA
(nods)
The price--they complain it is too high! Thirty dollars a month and a shared bath. Is that not a fair price, Señor?
   GUIDE
Yes, but money's pretty tight all around these days, what with a Depression going on.
   ROSA
(notices the TOUR PARTICIPANTS)
These people--they expect to live in the room with you as well?
   GUIDE
I've never seen them before in my life. But they probably read the same ad and need a place to live.
   ROSA
Then I invite all of you in so I will only have to show the room once.
As they enter, the guides instruct them to sit down in the chairs
provided.
   ROSA (CONT'D)
I must first finish the rest of my cleaning for Christmas.
Sit quietly, por favor, and I will show you the room when I am
done.
Offstage, from the kitchen, we hear the voices of RUBY LOUISE, an African American, and CAITLIN, who is Irish and has fiery red hair. Both young women are in their 20's and have been out
campaigning for Upton Sinclair.
    RUBY
Vote for the future!
   CAITLIN
Vote for it now!
   RUBY
End all the poverty!
   CAITLIN
He'll show you how!
They are breathless and laughing as they enter the room, each clutching a share of political handbills. Such exuberance clearly annoys Rosa.
   ROSA
Silencio, the two of you! Have I not said time again that you are to use indoor voices when you come inside?
   CAITLIN
Aye, y' did, mum. But sure as my Aunt Katie always used to
say, y' need to be loud at the top o' your voice so's to be
heard when you're right!
   ROSA
Right about what?
   CAITLIN
Why, Mr. Upton Sinclair himself. Sure as he'll be the next
governor of California, don't y' know! Ruby Louise 'n' myself have been out all day tellin' the people so!
   RUBY
(notices the audience)
Who are they?
   ROSA
They are here to see the room when I am finished cleaning.
Ruby smiles, nudges Caitlin, and they both start to step forward as if to distribute flyers. Rosa, w/o turning, knows what they're up to.
    ROSA
You were not planning to tell them how to vote, were you?
   RUBY AND CAITLIN
(putting the flyers behind their backs)
No, Mrs. Sanchez.
   CAITLIN
(insistent)
But sure as Mr. Sinclair does have a plan to end the poverty. The E-P-I-C, he calls it.
   ROSA
(hands them dust cloths to help her)
The only thing that will end the poverty will be more people getting to W-O-R-K.
   RUBY
What we need is to have the Olympic Games again. That brought a lot of jobs.
   CAITLIN
Go on with y', lass! They'd not be lettin' us host one so soon after the last...'n' that one was just past a year ago.
   ROSA
(sharply)
A little less talk, a little more cleaning, por favor.
As the two young women proceed to dust, Rosa addresses the tour participants.
   ROSA (CONT'D)
To think that once this house was quiet! Quieter still when my husband Ramón and my sons had to travel farther to find work in the fields. Many--like myself--we open our doors to be boarding houses because we have no choice. The need is great. Señorita Ruby?--her family lost everything in the Long Beach Earthquake this year. Señorita Caitlin-- the very same. In their rooms--less than half of the size of this--they live here with their families until they can move on.
Ruby and Caitlin are giggling about something.
   ROSA (CONT'D)
Still they seem to find time to be happy.
Ruby proceeds to sing "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?"
   RUBY
"Once I built a railroad, I made it run, Made it race against time. Once I built a railroad, now it's done --"
From offstage, she is joined in by the singing voice of CHON, a young aspiring Chinese actor.
   CHON (OFFSTAGE)
"Brother, can you spare a dime?"
The two women squeal in delight that he's home. They run off to greet him.
  ROSA
(to audience)
That would be Chon Lee, another victim of the so-called progress. He and his family lived in Chinatown until the government--it decided--needed the land for the building of a new train station.
(shakes her head)
Many Chinese--they are now without homes, just like the Lees. So many of them here in Los Angeles now. I tell Ramón sometimes I think there are more than in all of China itself. Who could have seen such a thing would happen?
Ruby and Caitlin return with Chon, who is grinning from ear to ear.
   CAITLIN
(to Mrs. Sanchez)
Sure as y'd best be sittin' down for the news, mum.
   ROSA
Something good has happened?
   RUBY
(breathlessly)
Chon went to the movie studios today and--
   CAITLIN
Hush yourself now, Ruby! Tis the lad's grand news to be tellin' 'n' not ours.
  CHON
(takes a deep breath, then makes big announcement)
I got a job!
   RUBY
Chon is going to be in a movie!
   ROSA
(deep sigh, to audience)
These young people and their big dreams! What kind of person,
I ask, can feed a family on the wages they pay to actors?
   RUBY
(to Chon)
What's the name of it?
   CHON
I do not know it yet.
   CAITLIN
How many lines do y' have?
   CHON
I do not have any words to say.
   RUBY
But you get to wear a costume?
   CHON
I tell them my mother can sew it and they say that is good.
   CAITLIN
Then what be the name o' the person y' play in it?
   CHON
I do not have a name. I am what they call an extra.
   CAITLIN
Extra what?
   RUBY
It's what they call the people in crowd scenes, the ones who just blend in.
   CAITLIN
(to Ruby)
Sure as we could do somethin' like that, don't y' think?
   RUBY
(teasing her)
With that color hair?
   CAITLIN
Just goes to show how little y' be knowin' about the business of movin' pictures. They don't make 'em in color!
   RUBY
I bet they do!
(extends her hand for a bet)
   CAITLIN
I'd not want to be takin' your money.
   ROSA
So this job of yours, Chon--when does it start?
   CHON
Not just yet but sometime soon.
   CAITLIN
'N' will they be payin' a good wage for it?
   CHON
Not very much. But they say it is a good start to being a star. Maybe some day I will even win an award for talent. They are called Oscars and are small men made of shining gold.
   RUBY
I wouldn't mind one of those myself. Can anyone win?
   CAITLIN
(laughs)
Sure as the day a lass like yourself wins such a thing for best actress, I'll be eatin' my hat!
   RUBY
(defiantly folding her arms)
And I'll be there to pass you the salt!
   CHON
Would you girls like to help me practice my part?
   CAITLIN
Would y' be meanin' the part where y' have no name, no lines 'n' no idea when exactly it starts?
He nods excitedly.
   RUBY
Then what exactly do you have to practice?
   CHON
I practice my facial expressions for close-ups.
He goes through a quick series of dramatic facial expressions. The two women laugh and applaud as they exit with him through the kitchen. Rosa talks to audience.
   ROSA
In the country of my ancestors--Mexico?--there is a saying.
Mi casa es su casa. My house is your house. For those who live beneath this roof, however, there is a second saying. Su casa es su responsabilidad Your house is your responsibility.
As she talks, a middle-aged Jewish woman named RACHEL SILVERMAN enters the room. She is reading a letter to herself that obviously distresses her.
   ROSA (CONT'D)
I tell them over and over they must help with the chores, to be responsible. "No, no, not today," they tell me. At the dinner table, though--
(laughs)
¡Dios Mio! They eat all of my food as if there were no tomorrow.
(confidentially)
I try to add the fiery jalapenos here and there but--¡Qué suerte! They have grown used to the taste, I think, and some even seem to like it.
(she notices the audience's distraction with the newcomer; she glances over her shoulder)
The woman who just walked in? That is Señora Rachel Silverman. Two years she and her family have been here and still we do not call each other by first names. They are nice enough and keep to themselves but it was my youngest son-- Miguel?--who tells me they do not celebrate this holiday as we do. It is a thing I do not understand but that I do not question.
(she turns to greet Rachel)
Señora Silverman!
   RACHEL
(startled)
Such a start you gave me!
(indicates letter)
A letter from my Uncle Herschel--I must have been preoccupied.
(she hastily folds it and puts it in the pocket of her dress)
   ROSA
It is not bad news, I hope?
   RACHEL
(shrug)
One day like the rest, none of it good to start with. From my mouth to God's ears, should a complaint make any difference?
Rachel notices the seated tour participants.
   RACHEL (CONT'D)
Oy! Since when did your house become Grand Central Station?
   ROSA
These people?--they are here about the ad for the room.
   RACHEL
But you only have the one.
   ROSA
I wish I had one hundred! Easily, I tell you, I could fill them all!
   RACHEL
(forces a smile)
I weep tears of joy for you.
   ROSA
Is that why your eyes are sad, Señora? If you would ever like to talk...?
   RACHEL
(pulls up a chair)
As long as you mention it...
   ROSA
(to audience)
Did I ever mention that sometimes I speak too soon?
   RACHEL
The room you're renting--how much do you want?
   ROSA
Thirty dollars, same as the rest.
   RACHEL
My husband, Irving, and I--we can give you twelve.
   ROSA
(puzzled)
But you and Señor Silverman have a room.
   RACHEL
So we need another. Is that too much to ask?
   ROSA
(shakes her head)
No, Señora, but it does not change the price I ask for.
   RACHEL
Such a bargain you drive! Thirteen-twenty-five then, starting the end of the month.
   ROSA
But why should I wait until the end of the month-- (indicates audience)
--when one of them is willing to pay me what I ask today?
   RACHEL
A steal at any price, yes, but the circumstances--could I paint it any clearer?
   ROSA
Forgive me, Señora, but you have not painted anything at all.
   RACHEL
(takes a deep breath)
Germany.
   ROSA
Germany?
   RACHEL
The letter from my uncle and his wife? Germany for Jews-- It's not such a good place to be right now. They need to get out.
   ROSA
What does this have to do with me?
   RACHEL
What it is with you is an empty room. A room they can stay in
when they get here. My Uncle Herschel--did I mention he's a
tailor just like my Irving? They can open a shop together. I even know a store for lease in Boyle Heights. It can be just like the one he has in Germany.
   ROSA
If he already has a shop, why would he want to come here?
   RACHEL
Because every morning, he finds a swastika painted on his
window. Every day, he cleans it away. The next morning, it's
back again.
   ROSA
Why does your uncle not go to the police?
   RACHEL
As if it would do any good! These people--my people--a man
named Hitler means to eliminate them.
(snaps fingers)
Pretend they never exist!
   ROSA
(crosses herself)
That is terrible!
   RACHEL
His shop is not the only one they boycott, he tells me. Oy! But a boycott of Jews is only the beginning.
   ROSA
I would like to help you, Señora Silverman, but--
   RACHEL
But what?
   ROSA
(overwhelmed and feeling helpless)
Lo siento mucho.
   RACHEL
And what you said just now should mean what to me?
   ROSA
It means that I am very sorry. A price is a price.
(holds out palm)
Thirty dollars today or I cannot hold the room.
   RACHEL
What? Do I look like I'm made of money? You know we're good for it! Once my Uncle Herschel gets here and we do well for ourselves...You just watch! The new shop will be a success! Is this the face of a woman who lies?
   ROSA
(indicates audience)
You see in the faces of these people they need a place to live as much as those you ask me to wait for. Why should I say no to them and yes to you?
   RACHEL
Think of it as an investment.
   ROSA
I am not the Wall Street Stock Market, Señora. You saw what investments did to that!
   RACHEL
(urgently)
An investment in life, then. L-Chai-im! It is a phrase we say. To life itself!
(indicates letter)
No matter the cost.
   ROSA
The cost is still thirty dollars in full.
Rachel bites her lip, nods in reluctant understanding and starts to leave.
   ROSA
I am sorry you could not write to them to come.
   RACHEL
(turns to face her)
Who said I wouldn't write?
   ROSA
But the room--
   RACHEL
So they'll stay with us.
   ROSA
In a room made for one, you already have three! Where will you put them?
   RACHEL
Where will Hitler put them if we refuse?
(beat)
Not to worry. We'll make do. If our people could find their way through the desert, we can find our way through this dark time as well.
As she starts to exit, Rosa has a change of heart.
   ROSA
There is a phrase among my people, too, Señora. Mi casa es
su casa.
Rachel looks puzzled.
   ROSA (CONT'D)
My house is your house.
I do not know how you will find this way you speak of, my
friend, but I would like to help.
(deep sigh)
The room is yours...if you want it.
Rachel hugs her in gratitude before exiting. Rosa faces the audience.
   ROSA
For the length of your wait, I apologize. It seems that the room you came to look at today--it has been promised to someone else. But, you know, many families have opened their doors to boarders during these difficult times, just as I have. I know of another house, in fact, with a vacancy right down the street. And now, por favor, I must ask you all to leave so I can get everything ready for the
holidays. Happy house hunting! I shall keep a good thought that you and your families find a place in time for Christmas.