An Excerpt from the Script of
Promise of a Love Song

© 2001 Junebug Productions, Pregones Theater and Roadside Theater

Pre-set: Four scrims staggered across the stage and a band set up on a platform behind the down center stage scrim. All scrims are translucent with curtains behind them.

Center stage -- gear piled up: 2 large trunks, 1 small trunk, 3 chairs, a suitcase, a large basket and a ghost light. There is also a fiddle, a trumpet and a saxophone. Glow of light over the band stand and on center stage. The house lights are on, though dimmed.

The three main acting areas are: Scrim 1 at stage right is the backdrop for a rural Appalachia house; Scrim 2 at center stage masks the band; Scrim 3 slightly off center left is the back drop for a New York tenement and Scrim 4 at stage left is the backdrop for a New Orleans's "shotgun" house. Scrims 1,3 and 4 have curtains in the back that open and close to create various effects such as silhouettes and lighting patterns.

Curtains are open when the play begins. The audience sees through the scrims and in the space between them.

SCENE IX
(MUSIC: Greenwood Sideeo. LIGHTS WITH APPALACHIAN PATTERNS PROJECTED OVER SCRIMS 1, 3, 4. CURTAINS ARE CLOSED. Mother AND Billy VENTURE OUT OF THEIR "WORLD" AND INTO THE OTHER PLAYING AREAS, LOOKING, DISCOVERING, AND WONDERING. HE HAS PUT ON A VEST AND SHE HAS PUT ON A HAT AND A BLAZER. THEY STOP UPSTAGE CENTER, IN FRONT OF SCRIM 2.)

Mother
(WALKING DOWNSTAGE CENTER.) Tell you the truth, this world is a big ball to me. I don't know how people ever got anywhere. I'd never been nowhere much less to a place like that University Hospital, but from the time Billy was 11 'till he was 18 we went ever three months. He had whooping cough and it affected his brain. They said they found a black streak in his brain from coughin' so hard, but they said they couldn't operate or he'd be in worser shape. If that was now, they'd do somethin', but it's too late.

(ANGRILY, Billy RUSHES HOME, GOING BEHIND SCRIM 1.)

If he lives 'till fall, he'll be 65.

(SHE ENTERS PLAYING AREA AND STANDS UPSTAGE, NEXT TO SCRIM 1, OBSERVING Billy. LIGHTS ON Billy.)

Billy
To market, to market to buy a fat hog Jiggety, jiggety, jiggety jog.

One of them said, "What's wrong with this'n? Other'n said. "I don't know, some kind of fits. You know them hillbillies, probably married her uncle." I asked that'n if he was my pa or my uncle. She said, "Don't ask foolish questions!" At first it was fun to go, but I was glad when we quit.

Mother
They said there was nothin' more they could do. We could get his medicine from any doctor and I could give it to him.

(SIDE LIGHTS ON Mother. SHE LOOKS TOWARDS THE LIGHT ON HER RIGHT, SINGS A VERSE OF Greenwood Sideeo AS SHE LEAVES THE STAGE, TAKING OFF HER HAT, CROSSES BEHIND SCRIM 1, FORMING A SILHOUETTE.)

Then she drew out her wee penknife
All alee and lonely.
There she took those wee babe's lives
Down by the Greenwood sidee'o.

Billy
I tried to go back to school, but that'n said no. She just wanted me to stay home and work.

Mother
(Mother ENTERS AND GIVES HIM A POT AND SPOON TO BATTER. SHE EXITS.) He'd slip off and they 'd send one of the other children after me to come get him.

Billy
(WAITS FOR Mother TO LEAVE AND PUTS DOWN THE POT AND SPOON.) At recess they played a game, the boys and girls together... housekeeping. I wanted to play housekeeping with my danged 'ole sweetheart Serecea... but she didn't want to.

Mother
(SHE ENTERS AND GIVES HIM BACK THE POT AND SPOON, IN A GESTURE INDICATING THAT HE SHOULD CONTINUE TO BATTER.)

He like to wore me out. Ever'day was a rasslin' match. Tryin' to raise seven others, cook, farm, can. One day, I'd been up fore daylight canning beans outside in a tub. Well, this woman from the health department come by to see about Billy, and I just didn't have time to talk to her. She said, "My God. You work like a brute!"

Lord, that flew all over me. I ain't no brute. A brute is a dumb animal that has to be drove to work. Nobody drove me. I worked hard for a reason, my own reasons. Me and Billy we ain't no mindless brutes.

But one day, later on up in early winter, I was feeding the livestock, and I was plumb wore out. I was cold and so tired I like to have cried. All the sheep was laying down in a stall. They looked so warm and restful all laying there together, and I real careful laid down, curled up next to 'em and they let me. I slept fer 'bout an hour. When I woke up I thought, Lord that woman was right, I've become a brute.

When I went back up to the house, my husband said, "Where in the world have you been? You stink like sheep."

BILLY
Baa, baa black sheep (Mother TEASES HIM AND EXITS.)
Have you any wool.
Yes sir, yes sir
Don't be cruel
To a heart that's true.

(Angela IS BEHIND SCRIM 3, IN SILHOUETTE, BRUSHING HER HAIR. MUSIC: Bus Ride.)

Serecea started goin' to that town school and they wouldn't let me ride the bus. All them other'ns rode the bus, why couldn't I? I tole that'n I wanted to marry Serecea. That'n said, "I reckon not." So I decided to ask Serecea. I went down to where them Vanover children lived. They was a whole mess of them, and I got on the bus with 'em, and I found Serecea and I set next to her all the way to town, but I couldn't git up the nerve to ask her.

So we set, not sayin' nothin' and ever'body starin' at us. And when we got to town she got off and I stayed to save her seat, so's I could ask her goin' home. But some of them come an said, "Git off!" "This'n 'll jist set right here, thank ye." "Fine, just set there all day then." And I did. It was hard but I did.

Then come time to go home and the policeman come and said, "Git off!". And I locked hold on the seat rail in front of me, and I held on and they beat my knuckles 'till they bled and I held on, and one of them said, "They'll raise a fuss 'bout us beatin' up a dummy. Let's jist take the seats out." And they did, and they carried me out. All of the other's was lined up outside... and there was Serecea in front...and I said... Well, hello danged ole sweetheart..(MUSIC TURNS DISCORDANT. Mother AND Dona WALK TOWARDS SCRIM 1 AND 4)

...and slapped me. (MUSIC STOPS, ALL THREE WOMEN, IN SILHOUETTES, PULL THE CURTAINS AS IF STARING OUT A WINDOW.)

. hard in the face. Everybody laughed. This'n did, too. (WOMEN RELEASE CURTAINS. Billy EXITS. LIGHTS CHANGE. NEW YORK PATTERNS OVER SCRIMS 1, 3, 4. TRANSITION WITHOUT MUSIC. ALL CURTAINS OPEN.)

SCENE X
Angela
(A TEENAGE Angela PEEKS OUT OF SCRIM 1.)

"Dear Granma, you wouldn't recognize this neighborhood. (MUSIC: CONGAS. Angela ENTERS AND WALKS DOWNSTAGE CENTER.) Remember when we first moved here and you came to visit? Well, now it is mainly a Puerto Rican neighborhood. It is as if the heart of the city map was being gradually colored in brown. Papi's obsession with getting us out of here is getting to me. He doesn't want us to have friends because "we'll be moving out soon". But is heaven for mami.

(BAND JOINS FOR Dear Gramma. SHE DANCES, WALKS ALL OVER THE STAGE, IN AWE OF TALL BUILDINGS AND CROWDS OF PEOPLE.)

(SHE SINGS.)
Gramma, let me tell you
what is like to live in New York.

Angela
"Papi always wants us to do our grocery shopping at the supermarket when he comes home on weekend leaves, but mami insists that she can cook only with products whose labels she can read, and so, during the week I go with her to la bodega across the street from el building. Ah, and have I told you that the final e is not pronounced for Palmolive and Colgate the way we do it in Spanish? For years I believed that they were Puerto Rican products. Imagine my surprise at first hearing a commercial on television for Colgate and Palmolive. I have to run. Bye, Your favorite. Angela."

(SHE SINGS. CAST SINGS THE CHORUS AND DANCES BEHIND THE SCRIMS. ONE DANCER BEHIND SCRIM 1, Angela DANCING BEHIND SCRIM 3 AND TWO DANCERS BEHIND SCRIM 4.)

Angela
Gramma, let me tell you
What is like to live in New York.

Cast
Gramma, let me tell you
What is like to live in New York
(BAND: INSTRUMENTAL. Angela AND Father ENTER STAGE. Father IS WEARING A NAVY UNIFORM.)

Gramma, let me tell you
What is like to live in New York

(MUSIC ENDS.)

Father
(Father SPEAKS WHILE AN ADULT Angela OBSERVES HIM, AS IF LOOKING BACK INTO A MEMORY.)
I devised a system of back and forth travel. Every time I am sent to Europe, you will go back to Puerto Rico with your grandmother. Upon my return to Brooklyn Yard, I will wire you, and you will come back.

Angela
(APPALACHIAN MUSICIAN PLAYS AN APPALACHIAN BALLAD ON THE VIOLIN AS Angela SPEAKS.)
My father was a man who rarely looked into mirrors. What was he afraid of seeing? My mother prefers to remember him as the golden boy she married. He was a sensitive man whose energies had to be entirely devoted to survival. And that is how many minds are wasted in the travails of immigrant life.

(MUSICIANS BEGIN TO PLAY Africanly/Sincerely Yours AS THE NEXT SCENE SETS IN.)

SCENE XI
Nelson
(LIGHTS COME UP ON Nelson AND Dona BEHIND SCRIM 4. THEY ARE FACING EACH OTHER IN SILHOUETTE.)
If I could promise you a love song
I'd cup my hands to catch the sound of clear running water
bubbling through a bed of stone and pebble
and bring it to the sunny place that you make laughing.
I'd make a song that lights up the air the way your laughter does,
If I could promise you a love song. . . .

(IT'S AFRICAN LIBERATION DAY, 1971. MUSICAL TRANSITION TO African Liberation Day Theme. Dona OPENS CURTAIN ON SCRIM 4. Nelson IS CONCLUDING A SPEECH IN SHAKESPEARE PARK. CROWD BACKSTAGE, BEHIND SCRIMS 1 AND 4, IS CHEERING HIM ON, FISTS UP. SHADOWS OF THE CROWD REFLECTED ON THE WALLS.)

Nelson
We've got a right to be proud of what we've done on this African Liberation Day. We're over 2000 strong here today. Next year we need to double our numbers if want "South Africa for '73". 1971 is not the end. 1971 is a new beginning. But the best way we can help our brothers and sisters in Africa is to win the fight for justice here at home. So what if it's true that white folk are guilty of making slaves of us back in the day, and ripping off the riches of Africa with colonialism, we need to understand all that, but let's not get bogged down in bitterness and anger because the future is in our hands. We're the only ones who can make ourselves free. "South Africa Free by '73".
(LIGHTS OUT BEHIND SCRIM 1 AND ON CROWD BACKSTAGE. Nelson ENTERS. LIGHTS ON Nelson. Dona ENTERS CARRYING TWO COATS AND HATS.)
Look at that crowd, DiDi! This is the best African Liberation Day ever.

Dona
Come on in the Church office over here. Here. You need to put this on.
(GIVES Nelson A TRENCH COAT, A HAT, AND SUNGLASSES.

Nelson
(HE MAKES BELIEVE HE IS PUTTING THEM ON, JOKING.) What's this stuff? This ain't no Mardi Gras?

Dona
(AS SHE PUTS ON HER COAT.) Just put it on, please. The Federal Court rejected our appeal. They refused to set aside your conviction. If you stay here these Crackers will throw the book at you. So as your legal counsel I say you better get the hell out of here.

Nelson
We got people out there from every major black organization inside of 200 miles . . . If I leave now the whole thing could fall apart.

Dona
Any movement that depends on one man is no better than a one man army.

Nelson
Where do you think I ought to go?

Dona
We've got options. First stop is in Mexico. Then, Cuba, Algeria, China. Here are passports, money, everything we'll need's in the car.

Nelson
They'd know you were involved. You'd loose you license to practice law.

Dona
Attorney/client privilege, not to mention that they'd have to prove that I did something illegal. But that's all moot anyway. I'm going with you.

Nelson
Is this still my lawyer talking?

Dona
No. It's the mother of your unborn child.

Nelson
The mother of my . . . Didi, you gros com sa? You don't mean I'm pregnant?

Dona
No, fool. I'm pregnant.

Nelson
I'm gonna-- Hey, Rev! Somebody! I'm-- We're going to have a baby. Come here, woman. We definitely got something to celebrate now.

Dona
We'll have plenty of time to celebrate when we get to Mexico. Hurry up. Get changed.

Nelson
Didi . . . I can't do that. (TAKES OFF THE SUNGLASSES AND THE HAT.)

Dona
You don't understand the urgency of the problem here.

Nelson
Don't ever tell me what I don't understand! Do you hear me? (PAUSE) What would I do in Cuba, or Algeria or China? Or Africa far as that's concerned?

Dona
What will you do in jail for the next thirty years?

Nelson
The same thing that Mandela's doing on Robbins Island, standing on principle.

Dona
And what about me?

Nelson
You would not want a man who compromises on principle.

Dona
What about our child?

Nelson
We'll love the child, Didi That's what we'll do. And we'll teach the kid to love our people and to love the struggle for justice.

Dona
You'll be in jail at best. What kind of father can you be sitting in jail?

Nelson
(HE EMBRACES HER.) I've got the best lawyer in the world. If they get me in jail, she won't let me stay in jail any longer that I have to, will you, baby? Come on, baby, let's go tell the people we going to have a new soldier for the revolution! (HE EXITS, WITH Dona FOLLOWING HIM. MUSIC ENDS.)