| | Author: | Sandra Gail Teichmann-Hillesheim | | EMail: | steich0613@aol.com | | ICWP Member?: | Yes | | Nearest Large City: | Kansas City, Missouri | | Country: | USA | | Play Title: | Mockernut Street | | Runtime: | 91-120 minutes | | Synopsis: | MOCKERNUT STREET is a triptych from Life in the 1990s, where I examine who we were at the turn of the century, i.e., who we were as individuals unto ourselves and who we were living together. Each of the three one-acts making up this play is written to stand alone; the challenge comes when each of the three acts encounters other acts on Mockernut Street. The same can be said for each of the three characters in each one of the three acts; as individuals complex, yet complete in themselves, any one character in an act must deal with complications of difference in the presence other characters.
In BLUE RUBIES I have used a lyrical mode to consider the private aspects of life through the main character, Una, who works at painting into silence the barking and crying dogs chained to live on Mockernut Street. Getting the right color for the silence is Una's obsession. In the process, Una paradoxically confronts not only her individual sanity but a sense of the community's need for well-being as she struggles with noise, cruelty, art, and beauty. Respect for the public trust of flora and fauna, for that beyond the privacy of our own windows is perhaps the key to peace in private life.
In RYAN'S MOTHER, I use realism to consider the political side of life, i.e., the politics of power within a family unit on Mockernut Street. The family and those in it are both the epitome and the symbols of conflicting interests for status and authority in organization. From what seems to be a nihilistic perspective, Ryan views the situation and the persons in the family as little more than figures in a picture book. Ryan's mother, however, struggles through emotional displays as she tries to give meaning to her existence as it relates to Ryan and her husband Carlos and to the tragedy of life. Respect for self might be said to be the key to effective use of power for the purpose of maintaining a controlled order.
In TRAIN CROSSING, I resort to absurdism as I consider the social needs of life. This act is a nonlinear comic study of alienation, non-communication, discomfort, and disconnection. Giffard, a stranger on Mockernut Street and a stranger in the home of Billy Blair and Modesty, confronts the phenomenon of space and time as much as self and in so doing finds himself in inexplicable proximity with others and the world he lives in. Respect for the connections we make with each other would seem to be the key to healthy community.
| | Male: | 2 | | Female: | 1 | | Max. Cast: | 3 | | Min. Cast: | 3 | | Media: | Stage | | Genre: | Drama | | Theme: | Life in the 1990s | | Web Page: | | | First Name: | Sandra Gail | | Last Name: | Teichmann-Hillesheim | | Notes: | |
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