Señorita Julia By Matthew Salazar-Thompson Adapted from Miss Julie by ...

Se?orita Julia __________________________

By Matthew Salazar-Thompson

Adapted from Miss Julie by August Strindberg

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CAST OF CHARACTERS

MISS JULIA, aged twenty-nine. Impish young lady who has been living under the watchful eye of her Jewish father who owns the ranch. JOSE, valued worker on the ranch, aged thirty, of Hispanic background. Desires the American Dream and wants to escape the confines of what his culture has defined him as in The United States. CHRISTINA, a cook, aged thirty-five. Jose's fiancee and mother of Jose's soon to be child. Through her actions she has accepted the assimilation of the Mexican culture except where it will intersect with God. HOMBRE, The voice of the Earth and the manifestation of the Chicano dream. CHORUS, The elements of the planet. EARTH, WIND, WATER, FIRE. Chorus may be expanded as necessary.

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Synopsis In a tragic updated retelling of Strindberg's classic tale of servitude and status, Jose and Christina live under the auspice of Julia and her father, Mr. Warner. Blending themes from Miss Julie and Percy Shelly's Prometheus Unbound we find that the relationship between a Jewish kept daughter and a Chicano valet escalate to a dangerous consummation in a world that is not ready to accept the differences between class, race, and religion.

Scenes

Act 1, Scene 1 - The interior of the Warner Ranch. Act 1, Scene 2 - The same. Act 1, Scene 3 - The same.

Act I, Scene 1.

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The action takes place on Midsummer Eve, 1943 in the kitchen of Fredrick Warner's

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sprawling ranch home in the Central Valley of California.

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A country style kitchen. There is a modern refrigerator. A working sink sits next to an oven. *

A large stand-alone wooden cutting block sits somewhere on the set. Two matching chairs *

and a small dining table adorn the room. A Philco radio sits upon the counter somewhere. *

Adjacent to the kitchen are two door frames, but no doors. The stage left frame leads to * CHRISTINA's room. The stage right frame leads to JOS?'s room. In both "rooms" there * are only two pieces of furniture: a simple single bed and a small dresser. An ornate cross * hangs somewhere over CHRISTINA's room. Downstage of the door frames lead to other * areas of the house. There is also a telephone and a suspended clock which reads 9:33pm. *

In the dark we hear the sound of shoveling dirt. A low vibrating sound plays.

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A dark red light slowly rises. Down center HOMBRE stands, shoveling "dirt." Lights

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slowly rise on the CHORUS as they uniformly focus their attention towards him.

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CHORUS

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Behold the carrion caretaker of this land.

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EARTH CHORUS

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You dare defy that single god, that single carrier of the cross, those whose skin bleeds

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alabaster, whose cobalt eyes mire the sanctity of civility.

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HOMBRE stops digging and addresses the

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CHORUS.

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HOMBRE

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I ask you... Are not Thou and I alone of living things, behold with sleepless eyes regard *

this soil? With toil and tombs of broken hearts, with fear and self contempt and barren hope *

I ply my hands through this Earth. O'er Mine own misery and thy vain revenge-three

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hundred years of sleep un-sheltered hours have divided the pangs of scorn and dispair-but *

these are mine empire. O Mighty God! Almighty, I had I deigned to share the shame of

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thine ill tyranny, and hung not here, chained with my hands, back, my feet to this vertical *

wall of a condor-baffling desert. Black, scorching, dead, unmeasured; without herb, yet full *

of locust the shape and sound of life.

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Se?orita Julia

Matthew Salazar-Thompson

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EARTH CHORUS

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Your misery, hath brought desolation to the golden veins than travel through my stones, *

through my rivers, through my skies.

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WATER CHORUS

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My rendered heart shall answer ye to thee.

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FIRE CHORUS

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Your refuge, and your deference lies fallen and vanquished here is the valley of sun

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bleached stones of this Spanish Caucus.

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WIND CHORUS

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What brazen statues stand now?

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HOMBRE

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My sacrifice hath turned the emblem of hot breath of Aztec youth from starry eyes to that *

of bruised fruit.

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WIND CHORUS

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Yet behold that emblem, that is scorn for these chains upon you, one hath heaped a

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thousand fold torment from the sand sipping breeze.

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HOMBRE

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You dare remit the anguish of that lighted stare? These chains? These chains that bury the *

meat of my limbs? That seek to set a fire under the flame of my heart?

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WIND CHORUS

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In each heart terror survives the raven it has gorged? Has it not?

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HOMBRE

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Your words are not unlike that of winged snakes. This land burns my feet, buries my back, *

my-

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WIND CHORUS

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Though chained... there are clouds to climb through the eagles periscope. I bid ascend these *

subtle and fair minded spirits beyond that twilight realm as in the glass coffer of

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confession.

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CHORUS

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Confession.

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