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Writer Kate Chopin wants to hold on to her marriage and her six small
children and launch herself as a novelist in 1884. Frustrating her
attempts are her wealthy next door neighbor, wanting to prove his
masculinity, her jealous husband, stricken with malaria, the little
sex-pot seamstress next door, the town gossip, and the bankrupt cotton
business, which consumes her time. All this crescendos in the coming
of age of this great writer of the The Awakening.
CAST OF CHARACTERS: (2
M, 2W)
KATE CHOPIN—32, dark-haired Irish beauty, with waves and curls about
her shoulders. She has direct brown eyes that look right at you and a
captivating face with a frankness of expression.
OSCAR CHOPIN—38, her husband, an aristocratic cotton merchant
recuperating from “malaria.” Handsome eyes, a feverish glance. He
retreats into silence and heavy brooding.
MARIA NORMAND DELOUCHE—26. Cuban vixen with golden hair, broad smiling
mouth, tip-tilted nose and full figure. She likes to wear Spanish
mantillas and flowers draped over her curly hair.
ALBERT SAMPITE—38, wealthy planter with charm and animalism.
Devilishly good-looking, dark eyes with an insolent manner.
SETTING:
December, 1882. The Chopin plantation in Cloutierville, Louisiana, a
one-street town blighted by the Civil War. |
The Chopin House as it
appears today |
