FIRST DRAFT

Here is my effort so far ... please add to it, change it, whatever .. unless we get started we will never get going ... Aunt Catherine is giving me good ideas also, so will incorporate them as we go.

MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS

Act I, Scene 1

The common room of a nursing/retirement community. Stage Right is a card table with a jigsaw puzzle partially completed. There is another card table with current newspapers and magazines. Stage Center has a couch and Stage Left are two easy chairs with footstools. At the rear of the stage, are windows looking out over the green grass of the community grounds and the mountains in the distance.

It is 7 a.m. on a week day morning.

Entering from Stage Left is ADELE MORGAN, an Anglo woman in her 70s, well dressed, well groomed, with perfect posture. She enters in a wheel chair.

ADELE

You’ll just have to get used to calling me by my first name, Maria. Every one else does.

Immediately behind her is MARIA SANCHEZ, a Hispanic woman of nearly the same age, dressed in clothes of the culture and wearing lace up shoes. She walks with a cane and carries a bag of knitting. The needles poke out through the top so we can see what it is.
MARIA

After working for you all these years, why do I have to change now? Mrs. Morgan is what I’ve always called you.

ADELE

I know dear, but it doesn’t work in this place. We are all first names here. Will you at least try to call me Adele? We’re equals now.

MARIA

I’ll try, Mrs. Mor ... Adele.

ADELE

(Looking in her lap where she has a briefcase) Rats, I’ve left my newspaper in my room.

MARIA

Maybe there is one on the table.

ADELE

You know I like my own paper, Maria.

MARIA

I’ll just get it for you. She puts her bag on a chair and exits stage left.

Adele wheels herself over to the windows looking out to a place we cannot see.



ADELE

(Murmuring to herself) All the people on their way into work. So busy. So much traffic. What I wouldn’t give ... (she takes a deep breath) never mind, play the hand you’re dealt, Adele. Stop your complaining.

Maria returns with the paper, hands it to Adele.

ADELE

Thank you dear. (She opens the paper to read).

Maria sits with her knitting in one of the chairs stage center. She knits, humming to herself.
Adele reads the paper, moving through it quickly and starts on the cross word puzzle.Act I, Scene 2

In the cafe across the street from the home. A local cafe with big picture window looking out toward the nursing home. Two young women sit drinking coffee and talking. Saturday morning, 10. a.m.

(I need descriptions of these ladies) ANNA LOPEZ, daughter of Maria, and Genny Parker, daughter of Adele.

ANNA

It’s good to see you, Gen. How has your week been?

GEN

Good. The weather’s turning cooler, finally. You?

ANNA

Good. Mom seems to be settling in. I hate to call it ‘the home’ but that’s what it is, isn’t it?

GEN

(Laughing) It surely is. I don’t know if my mom will ever be truly at home, but God bless her she is making an effort.

ANNA

I’m glad they have each other. And your mom is so kind to bring my mother with her, paying for her ...

GEN

True, but Maria has looked after my mother and me for forty years. What else would mom do when she sold the house? Put her out on the street?

ANNA

No, she wouldn’t do that, but she could have given her a pension and left her to fend for herself.

GEN

But Mom can afford it, easily afford it. You know that. And she’s never seen money as anything more than a tool, nothing more nothing less. You use it to make things happen, like a hammer or a saw.

ANNA

She has always been good to us.

GEN

As has Maria. 40 years? Where do you see that kind of loyalty these days?

ANNA

Hmmm. Have you been over this week?

GEN

Phone only.

ANNA

I was here Wednesday. Mom’s knitting up a storm for Tony’s baby. Adele wasn’t in the meeting room, so I didn’t see her.

GEN

She has been fighting a cold. Doesn’t want to infect anyone. But I think it’s a little bit of depression, too. Going from a four bedroom house where she spent a lifetime entertaining her clients to a one bedroom suite in a home ... I know she misses the house.

ANNA

I’m not surprised. We all miss the house.

GEN

Plus her arthritis acts up, depending on the weather. It’s bad right now.

Anna picks up her bag and nods toward the home.

ANNA

Shall we?

They exit stage right.

Act I, Scene 3

The common room. Two women sit talking. 10 a.m. Tuesday.

Crabby is overweight, nearsighted, small, has an unpleasant voice and frown lines etched into her forehead. Happy is overweight, crippled with arthritis and diabetes. One leg has been amputated, but she has a baseball bat sticking into a shoe where that leg should be. She is a big joker. Josephine is the cleaner moving dust from here to there.

HAPPY

Was that your daughter I saw yesterday afternoon?

CRABBY

It was. Right in the middle of my program. Like everyday.

HAPPY

Why does she come then?

CRABBY

She says she’s on her way home from school and I’m on the way.

HAPPY
That sounds reasonable.

CRABBY

She could wait until my program is over. What effort would that take? She could have a cup of coffee somewhere or read a paper while she waits.

HAPPY

You could tape your program too.

CRABBY

I don’t like new fangled equipment. Too complicated.

HAPPY

Nah. It’s not complicated at all. Not once you learn how.

CRABBY

I can’t be bothered. Besides, I like to watch it when it’s on!!!! Not later.

HAPPY

Really? I record everything. That way I can zip through the commercials without watching them. Saves me 20 minutes every hour. I can feel myself getting younger every time i skip them.

CRABBY

That’s fine for you. I can’t be bothered.

HAPPY

If you really want to watch your program though ...

CRABBY

She could come earlier or later. It’s not so much to ask. She spends 15 minutes - in and out - big deal. Not like her brother who sends me cards and magazines so I don’t have to read the ones in the meeting room. He wants me to have my own. He is very attentive.

HAPPY

Where does he live?

CRABBY


In Sacramento. He’s a lawyer. very busy. So is his wife. She’s a lawyer too.

HAPPY

Do they get over very often?

CRABBY

They would if they could, but they barely have time to breathe. Thank goodness they have a place in the mountains so they can get away once in awhile.

HAPPY

That sounds nice. Lake Tahoe?

CRABBY

Yes, only two hours drive.

HAPPY

Happy gets ready to leave the room.

Would you like me to record your soap for you? Then you could watch all five episodes in one go - I’d enjoy the company.

CRABBY

Thanks. But I like to watch in my own place.

HAPPY

I can understand that. I’ll see you later. (Exits stage left)