JAC Publishing & Promotions Description Page

Family by Thomas W. Sypek

#2006-0002

ISBN #1-933159-52-9

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Cast Requirements:

	TOM WALLACE: 55. A father who believes in family values. A man with a strict sense of rules and regulations.
	ANNA WALLACE: 54. Tom’s wife, small and fragile, a delicate piece of glass who is shattered by life. A woman that is haunted by secrets. She is an alcoholic.
	UNCLE WILLIE FERGERSON: 63. A fisherman. A lifetime friend of The Wallaces’.
	CAROL WALLACE: 16. She is struggling with her identity. She is a perfect daughter and lady.
	RICHARD (RICHIE) WALLACE: 17. Average teenager. He has an air about him of a beaten puppy. He is nervous and unsure of himself.

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Synopsis

The Wallace Family lives in a three-story house in South Boston, Massachusetts. It is the 1950s. Tom Wallace, a man who believes life should be lived by a set of rules, works two jobs. His son, Richie has just dropped out of school. His younger daughter Carol has left school and is working. Uncle Willy, an old friend of the family, has just lost his job. Tom takes him in. Tom’s wife Anna is a small fragile woman haunted by ghosts of the past. On the surface everything seems normal, but underneath things are starting to surface. Secret after secret is revealed.

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Time… 1953-1954

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Place… A kitchen in the family home of the Wallaces’. Old wall paper cover the walls. There are kitchen appliances: refrigerator, sink, stove. There is an aluminum plastic top table complete with chairs. A portable record player is on the counter with some records beside it. On one of the counters is a radio. There is a pantry. Cabinets line the walls. On the back wall are two windows from which you can see the backyard. Between the windows is a large clock set for five o’clock. A worn out linoleum covers the kitchen floor. There are three doors on stage. A kitchen door that leads to the front door. A door upstage of the kitchen that leads to the backyard. A door downstage left that leads to the cellar and the bathroom. There are stairs in the hall that lead upstairs. On one of the walls is a phone.

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Properties List

Shotgun. Cardboard Christmas decorations. Two barrel hoops, colored twine, wire, Christmas ornaments, scissors, red and green crepe paper, miniature Christmas tree. Crochet bag with yarn, Two half pint bottles of Four Roses Whiskey, Two packages of cigarettes, Recording of Doris Day’s, “Secret Love”, Eddie Fisher’s, “Oh, My Papa.”, “Rock Around The Clock”, and “Ave Maria”. Recordings of Christmas music. Wristwatch. A piece of paper with numbers on it. 1950’s kitchen set. Recorder. Radio. Wall Clock. Telephone. Rocking Chair. Kitchen appliances. Lunch box. Frozen Shirt with outstretched arms. Clothesline. Two books by Edward Rowe Snow, Storms and Shipwrecks of New England, and True Tales of Buried Treasures. Baseball cap.

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Suggested Music & Recordings

Doris Day’s “Secret Love,” Eddie Fisher’s “Oh, My Papa,” “Rock Around the Clock,” “Ave Maria,” “Southie is My Home Town,” and Christmas Carols. There are also the sounds of a gunshot being fired and a car honking outdoors.

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Costume Plot

	TOM: 1950’s work clothes. Hat and coat. Dress pants and shirt.
	ANNA: 1950’s dress. Shoes. Bag. Housecoat. Slippers.
	RICHARD: 1950’s pants, shirt, shoes, coat.
	CAROL: 1950’s dress, coat, hat, and shoes.
	UNCLE WILLY: Old overalls, shoes, fisherman’s cap.

Thomas_Sypek.jpg (253686 bytes) Author Biography
Tom Sypek’s work has been read and performed in and around the Boston Area. His first full-length play, His Place in the Sun, had a reading at The Playwright’s Platform in Boston. The Out Loud Theatre of Cambridge did a reading of his one act play, Strangers. His other original work Hysteria, dealing with the AIDS scare, was produced by the Writer’s Ensemble and performed at The Lyric Stage Company of Boston.

Family was produced as a stage reading by Peg Holzemer’s Theatre One Productions, Inc. at The Middleboro Public Library. The play was directed by Susan O’Neil with local actors Patricia Minkle, Tom White, Jim Norris, Lousie-Dery-Wells, Francis M. Girard and Laura Decesare.

Tom is presently at work on another production and along with his playwriting skills, he is a talented Poet, Actor, Director and writer of Short Stories. He has as an actor performed for The Winthrop Players, Mission Hill Players, Theatre One, Nemasket River Productions, Charlestown Working Theatre, and The S.O.B.E.T Players of South Boston. His poetry has been printed in The South Boston Literary Gazette and local newspapers.