JAC Publishing & Promotions

Kitchen Recipes by Steve A. Rowell

#2005-0017

ISBN #1-933159-21-9

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Cast Requirements:

bulletALBERT SANDERS - Male seen from his 20s to his 80s. He is desperately trying to hold his fragile family together. WWII veteran who marries his school sweetheart. Tries to create the perfect 50s life and family, only to come up with something totally different—totally American.
bulletROSE SANDERS - Female seen from her early-20s to late-40s. A mentally disturbed wife and mother who has trouble coping with the freedom of suburbia. She sacrifices her family life and pays the price.
bulletBETTY SANDERS - Female seen from her teens to early 50s. The oldest child, she is a lesbian trying to cope with her sexual preference and her family through the 1950s and 1960s.
bulletJAMES SANDERS - Male seen from his teens to 50s. A disenfranchised individual who looks to television to fill his emotional void. He is the middle child, striving for his father’s approval and traumatized by his mother’s death.
bulletCHARLES SANDERS - Male seen from his teens to his 50s. Lost soul searching for personal satisfaction. The youngest of the siblings, he is given everything, not allowed to grow until he gives it all away.
bulletNARRATOR - An unchanging ghostlike presence that guides the audience through the lives of the family by means of a television cooking show. A reflection of 50’s TV. Sees the plot in simple, bold strokes.
bulletENSEMBLE
bulletActor #1 - Female late 20s. Portrays Lizzy Evans - neighbor and friend of Rose
bulletActor #2 - Female late 20s. Portrays Jane Franks - neighbor and friend of Rose, and the Woman who inhabits house after the Sanders.
bulletActor #3 - Male early-30s. Portrays Ken Franks - Neighbor who seduces Rose, and the Psychiatrist who examines James
bulletActor #4 - Male early-30s. Portrays Dan Evans - Neighbor and friend of Albert,
bulletRealtor and the Man who inhabits house after the Sanders

Synopsis

Kitchen Recipes is a full-length dramatic play in two acts told in a non-linear format. The play depicts a family starting out in the 1950s in suburbia and follows them for sixty years. It incorporates a narrator who drifts through the play and the players representing their lives in cooking metaphors.

The Setting

Unit set: a kitchen that is remodeled between acts

ACT 1

bullet2000 - The siblings sit at the kitchen table to discuss the next day. They are taking their father from the home he has lived in for 30 years and putting him into a nursing home.
bullet1950 - Rose and Albert Sanders are newlyweds. They are busy with their lives creating the new social structure of the era. They raise their children and relate to neighbors.
bullet2000 - Later in the evening, the siblings awake and continue bickering and remembering.
bullet1960-70 - The children grow into adulthood and bring on problems. Rose commits suicide, leaving only a note. Albert finds he cannot bring himself to read it, so he hides it in a kitchen drawer.

ACT 2

bullet1970s - A funeral. The siblings look for answers, trying to deal with what has happened.
bullet1980-90 - The children return to their father on independent visits relating their new lives and attempting to stay in touch.
bullet2000 - The siblings gather their father’s belongings and get him ready to go. Albert stands at the drawer where the note is hidden but still cannot open it.
bulletThe Future - The new owners of the house are awakened in the night to find Albert, now suffering from Alzheimer’s, in their kitchen. The couple find the unopened note in the clutter and read it to a catatonic Albert.

Properties List

Assorted documents/letters/notes Pen & note paper (2) identical medicine bottles
Phone & cell phone Pickled okra A bowl of ice cream
Baby bottle & diapers Shoebox Babies in pink & blue blankets
Playing cards & poker chips Ice cube buckets Ice cube tray
Magazine Thermometer Mixed drink
Kitchen utensils/spatula Dishes Earrings in a tiny gift box
Electric coffee pot & cups Glass of milk Letter wrapped in a red ribbon
Frozen dinner (3) pictures Celophaone tape
A tray of food Binoculars Paper sack
Newspaper Suitcase Baseball bat, cap & whistle

Costume Plot

bullet Narrator—50’s style dress; an apron
bulletBetty—Taffeta prom gown; jeans & a t-shirt; black pant suit
bulletJames—A 3-piece suit
bulletCharles/Charlie—A Catholic priest’s collar; 60’s-style (tie-dye, denim)
bulletRose—50’s-style house dress; robe/pajamas
bulletAlbert—50’s suit; robe/pajamas
bulletOthers—50’s-style casual, professional and cocktail dress; 60’s- & 70’s-style casual dress

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Author Biography
Playwright Steve Rowell is a resident of Lake Mary, Florida. He is a member of the Dramatist Guild, Central Florida Theatre Alliance, and the Playwright’s Round Table as well as a member of the board of directors for the Florida Children's Repertory Theatre. Rowell participated in the first CFTA “Play in A Day” and has been produced locally by Playwright’s Round Table, Southern Winds Theatre, The Peoples Theatre, and Performance Space Orlando. He wrote a monologue for the City of Orlando’s Millennium Celebration at Lake Eola. Steve’s adaptation of A Christmas Carol - “Tiny Tim; A Christmas Carol Revisited” will debut this winter at the Main Street Theatre in Mansfield, Texas.  For more information, visit Steve online at www.stevearowell.com.

Online purchases are for single script purchases only and include $3 S&H.  For more than one script or a script package, please call us at (781) 272-2066

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I find the play to be sensitive, with interesting character and relationships. It's also interesting theatrically, with the device of going back and forth in time. The device of the cooking show narration is good—just what we want to do with this theatre company.”
- Lorree True, Director, Deptford Players, New York

“Rowell’s Kitchen Recipes dishes up a filling offering with distinct flavors and textures. It depicts the new culture shaped by the suburbs. Rowell’s use of culinary metaphors provides a welcome contrast to a stern tale told with intelligence and understanding.”
-Susan Rowland, Limelight Theatre, St. Augustine, FL

$5/individual copy

$30/package +
$35/performance royalty