Excerpt of La Posada (formatted for web viewing.)
ACT 1, Scene One: Prologue
(At rise, TINA stands gazing, holding an old suitcase. She looks exactly like in her Mionland painting “Over the Edge.” She is looking toward a neon sign for the Canyon Top Motel.)
(ALLAN enters wearing a tattered ex-pat backpack and begins pinning up a banner for The Great Peace March. Tina’s suitcase falls, spilling crayons and other art supplies. ALLAN drops the banner and slowly helps TINA put things back inside. They have a “moment”.)
(In their characteristic early 1900s clothing MARY and FRED enter.)
FRED
Do you know those people?
MARY
I’m indebted to them.
FRED
For what my dear?
MARY
For bringing my masterpiece back to life.
FRED
I thought Hopi House was your masterpiece. Or the Watchtower?
MARY
(Reminiscing.) Oh yes, Fred, those were very nice.
FRED
And inventive, Mary love.
MARY
But no. La Posada was my tour de force.
FRED
(Referring to TINA and ALLAN.) And those two?
MARY
They’re the ones who brought it back to life.
From ACT I, Scene Two: 1993, La Posada
(WORKERS bring in a dilapidated window frame implying the outside of La Posada as it stood before restoration. Sounds of cars and trains. There may be flashing lights and a siren, as from a police car.)
(Lights up as TINA, ALLAN, and DAN stand staring at the imagined building. All wear knapsacks.)
TINA
It does look like a hacienda.
DAN
A very rundown hacienda, but still…a hacienda.
ALLAN
Smack dab in the middle of one of Arizona’s many abandoned towns.
DAN
Right on Route 66 and right off Interstate 40. That’s what killed it.
From ACT I, Scene Ten
(Late night, winter inside the hotel. Occasional sounds of trains. Other WORKERS enter and, as each is digitally projected, they “hang” Tina’s paintings of four presidents’ wives: Edith Wilson, Betty Ford, Florence Harding, and Elizabeth Monroe).
(Sound of the hotel’s nighttime doorbell.)
(TINA, wearing a robe over pajamas, enters with a cardboard dog on a leash. It looks like her dog Gorby. Using a flashlight, TINA makes her way past the paintings to an offstage door. First Lady Edith Wilson as in Tina’s painting stands offstage with luggage.)
EDITH
(Offstage.) I’m so sorry. I’m not used to driving this far, and I just had to stop at some of the points of interest on Route 66.
TINA
(Offstage.) It’s okay. You said you’d be late.
EDITH
(Offstage.) Not this late. It must be nearly midnight.
TINA
(Offstage.) Oh, you’re cold. Come in.
(TINA and EDITH enter. EDITH takes off her hat.)
TINA (cont.)
Your room is ready. I hope you don’t mind that it’s the Mamie Eisenhower room. We name all our rooms after people who’ve stayed here. Jeez! Is it snowing out there?
EDITH
Just started.
TINA
May I take your coat?
EDITH
Thank you, but I’ll keep it on for a while.
TINA
We haven’t figured out how to heat the whole hotel yet, but the heater’s on in your room. Would you like a cup of tea?
EDITH
I’d rather have a beer if you have one. British style preferably. It’s cold out there!
TINA
Let me look.
(TINA exits. EDITH examines the paintings. TINA returns with a bottle of red wine.)
TINA
All I could find is wine, but I’m so sorry. I can’t find a cork pull.
EDITH
No problem.
(EDITH takes a Swiss army knife or corkscrew from her luggage and opens the bottle.)
(continued . . . )