Wake To Dream

Read the 1st 10 Pages || Development History Below

Characters
Rosaura, a young woman disguised as Barca, a young man.
Clarin, a young woman disguised as Trump, a young man.
Segsismundo, a young man kept in prison, animal like.
Clotalda, Rosaura’ mother, abandoned her after birth, now Prime Minister of the Scarlet City.
Basilio, Segismundo’s father and King of the Scarlet City.
Estrella, Segismundo’s niece.
Astolfo, a popular actor, now in residence at the Scarlet City.

Location: Set in and around the Scarlet City, the last great outpost of the West and East in the waste of what was Poland.
Time: Far in some other future, in the shadow of once great machines that are now breaking down.
The play is a fantasia inspired by Calderon’s play, La Vida Es Sueno.

Synopsis
Spurned by her lover Astolfo, Rosaura and her best friend Clarin disguise themselves as men to hunt him down in the Scarlet City. On their way there, they come across a prisoner, Segismundo, who claims he has never been outside. Moved by his suffering, Rosaura and Clarin are captured by Segismundo’s warden, Clotalda, who condemns them to death for trespassing.

As Rosaura mounts the scaffold, she sings a lullabye her mother taught her before abandoning her. Clotalda realizes the condemned man is her daughter, just as Astolfo, fresh from wooing the princess Estrella, recognizes his former lover.

But she is saved by the entrance of King Basilio, who explains how a terrible prophecy caused him to lock his son Segismundo away, and how he now plans to free him. They will drug his son, awaken him in the palace, and tell him his life before was just a dream. If he acts gently, he will inherit the throne; if he acts like the tyrant predicted by the prophecy, they will return him to prison.

Rosaura and Clarin celebrate being pardoned, only to watch as Segismundo, thinking his freedom a dream, behaves dangerously and is locked away again. Clarin, knowing too much, is locked away, too; but both are freed by a group of rebels declaring war on Basilio.

Meanwhile, Rosaura continues her quest for revenge, only to meet Segismundo a third time, and their encounter changes their trajectories from revenge to redemption.

Development History
Staged Reading as part of Flux Theatre Ensemble’s Dream Project
Director: William Ditterline
Rosaura: Liz Dailey
Clarin: Marnie Schulenburg
Segsismundo: Zack Robidas
Clotalda: Nancy Franklin
Basilio: Richard Scanlon
Estrella: Tiffany Clementi
Astolfo: Shannon Michael Wamser
Ensemble: Rebecca McHugh, Joe Mathers, Jason Paradine