Señorita Julia __________________________ By Matthew Salazar-Thompson Adapted from Miss Julie by August Strindberg ii. 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. iii. 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. * The action takes place on Midsummer Eve, 1943 in the kitchen of Fredrick Warner’s * sprawling ranch home in the Central Valley of California. * * 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 JOSÉ’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. * A dark red light slowly rises. Down center HOMBRE stands, shoveling “dirt.” Lights * slowly rise on the CHORUS as they uniformly focus their attention towards him. * CHORUS * Behold the carrion caretaker of this land. * EARTH CHORUS * You dare defy that single god, that single carrier of the cross, those whose skin bleeds * alabaster, whose cobalt eyes mire the sanctity of civility. * HOMBRE stops digging and addresses the * CHORUS. * HOMBRE * 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 * 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 * 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. * Señorita Julia Matthew Salazar-Thompson 2 EARTH CHORUS * Your misery, hath brought desolation to the golden veins than travel through my stones, * through my rivers, through my skies. * WATER CHORUS * My rendered heart shall answer ye to thee. * FIRE CHORUS * Your refuge, and your deference lies fallen and vanquished here is the valley of sun * bleached stones of this Spanish Caucus. * WIND CHORUS * What brazen statues stand now? * HOMBRE * My sacrifice hath turned the emblem of hot breath of Aztec youth from starry eyes to that * of bruised fruit. * WIND CHORUS * Yet behold that emblem, that is scorn for these chains upon you, one hath heaped a * thousand fold torment from the sand sipping breeze. * HOMBRE * 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? * WIND CHORUS * In each heart terror survives the raven it has gorged? Has it not? * HOMBRE * Your words are not unlike that of winged snakes. This land burns my feet, buries my back, * my- * WIND CHORUS * 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 * confession. * CHORUS * Confession. * Señorita Julia Matthew Salazar-Thompson 3 HOMBRE * Climb? (Beat.) Where hath my body seek to climb from this wretched and spiked desert? * Through this very inlet of cropped rock where fertile crops once sprouted from the * sequestered soil and the dappled sunshine without so much a lifted human wrist, upon only * the breathe of the Aztecs found firm roots? * WATER CHORUS * Your words douse not our eyelids. * FIRE CHORUS * You dare defy the fire of Pizzaro, Balboa, Coronado, Cabrillo. * EARTH CHORUS * Pena, Hererra, Arista. * FIRE CHORUS * Taylor, Filmore, Roosevelt. * WIND CHORUS * The horns of walled Gorgons build up and up until he is Trump-phant. * CHORUS * Victorious! * HOMBRE * The great green dragons with their parted hair and tall pants sway and drag their heavy tails * into those heights. Each step is lacquered with black and blue ointment. * WIND CHORUS * My breathe blows upon the parchment that is not yet vapid. * HOMBRE * With each foot that I place upon the- * WATER CHORUS * Sand. * HOMBRE * The- * FIRE CHORUS * Core. * Señorita Julia Matthew Salazar-Thompson 4 HOMBRE * The- * EARTH CHORUS * Earth. * HOMBRE * I slip further into despair. * The CHORUS moves in and out among him quickly * now. * EARTH CHORUS * Chained as you are, you must ripen the womb of berries from the cacti. * FIRE CHORUS * ¡Quema!(Burn!) * WATER CHORUS * ¡Ahoga! (Drown!) * WIND CHORUS * * ¡Brisa! (Breeze!) * EARTH CHORUS * * ¡Cava! (Dig!) * HOMBRE collapses. The CHORUS circles him. * FIRE CHORUS CHORUS * Spark! * ¡Chispa! * WATER CHORUS CHORUS * Drown! ¡Ahoga! * WIND CHORUS CHORUS * Quick! ¡Rápido! * Señorita Julia Matthew Salazar-Thompson 5 EARTH CHORUS CHORUS * Dig! ¡Cava! * FIRE CHORUS * Spark! * WATER CHORUS * Drown! * WIND CHORUS * Quick! * EARTH CHORUS * Dig! * FIRE CHORUS * Spark! * WATER CHORUS * Drown! * WIND CHORUS * Quick! * EARTH CHORUS * Dig! * FIRE CHORUS * Spark! * WATER CHORUS * Drown! * WIND CHORUS * Quick! * EARTH CHORUS * Dig! * CHROUS * DIG! DIG! DIG! DIG! * Señorita Julia Matthew Salazar-Thompson 6 HOMBRE drops to his knees in exhaustion. A low * musical note begins to rise in intensity. * HOMBRE * These cracked and coarse hands! * FIRE CHORUS * The spasms. * HOMBRE * The glowing orb upon my neck! * WATER CHORUS * The liquid drops blind the orbs. * HOMBRE * The rays have evaporated by bones! * A sound. HOMBRE listens. * WIND CHORUS * Wait. (Beat.) Now... you must... Run! * HOMBRE * My feet are weighted and chained to this earth. * WIND CHORUS * Run. * CHORUS * Sus pies están cargados y encadenados a esta tierra. (His feet are weighted and chained to * this earth.) * HOMBRE * My hand holds a delicate berry. * CHORUS * La delicada baya que ahora sangra verde. (The delicate berry that now bleeds green.) * FIRE CHORUS * To crack that thick ice that lays across his temples. * Señorita Julia Matthew Salazar-Thompson 7 WATER CHORUS * You must sail across my belly and excavate something more valuable than gold. * WIND CHORUS * The savior has found- * CHORUS * Muscle. * EARTH CHORUS * Muscles undulating in and out of the fertile land. Eyes as dark as the earth itself. * WIND CHORUS * And breath as heavy as the- * WATER CHORUS * Surf. * FIRE CHORUS * They found the shimmering flame, the gold that could fill their ships. They found- * EARTH CHORUS * The labor they needed to- * FIRE CHORUS * Conquer. To destroy. To dominate. They left their footprints in- * EARTH CHORUS * My heart. And those souls... those people that were here before became trapped in the * bones of my rib cage. And soon those men who carried steal swords began to chop down * the men and women and children that were here before them. Their hearts filled with blood * lust. * WIND CHORUS * We ran into- * WATER CHORUS * The ocean. * WIND CHORUS * We ran into- * Señorita Julia Matthew Salazar-Thompson 8 FIRE CHORUS * The fire. * WIND CHORUS * We were run into- * EARTH CHORUS * The desert. * WIND CHORUS * The more they tried to escape, the more their sinews exploded with fear, the deeper the * tendons began to slid into the sand to the point where we were- * CHORUS * Buried. * Beat. * WIND CHORUS * I brought them here. I pushed their boats with mighty gusts. * FIRE CHORUS * And the slaughter had soon begun. And those that survived began to- * WATER CHORUS * Drown in the waves of the men who first moved the- * EARTH CHORUS * Land that was once me. The caverns of my mountains, my cloven fire-crags. * WIND CHORUS * The unmeasured wilderness of my clouds that came and billowed over the camps. It was * once- * CHOURS * Ours. * WIND CHORUS * Now, we dig with wrists that have been slit. * FIRE CHORUS * Lungs, suffocating with a solid hot thundercloud that has splintered our spirit. * Señorita Julia Matthew Salazar-Thompson 9 EARTH CHORUS * We are buried. * CHORUS * WE ARE BURIED! * HOMBRE * No.(Beat.) We are alive. * * HOMBRE is exhausted but still he stands up and * looks around. The CHORUS watch him with * anguish.