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Resurrection Of The Snowbird

Resurrection of The Snowbird

By Mark Mc Quown

Synopsis

            Resurrection Of The Snowbird is the story of an old sailboat that has been stowed away for years under the back porch in a sandy tomb under Mama’s house on the Island of Balboa across from the Newport Jetty in southern California.  At the beginning Mama is dead but she acts as a ghost all thorough to the end of the play.  She has died, sold the house and now all of the relatives, the cousins, the uncles, the aunts – have come to take away their share of her goods while she watches and comments.

            Aunt Bar is mama’s daughter and her caretaker for the last thirty some odd years and there is a back lash of feeling in the family that Mama sold the house out from under her own daughter.  She is there at the beginning, packing and wrapping and stacking boxes of stuff bound for someone else’s house.  Marty, Mama’s granddaughter, is there with her husband Hal and their two daughters, Caroline and Cassandra.  Cassandra has a very special place in Mama’s heart and in the course of the play – she leaves Cassandra an ancient, lost, antique ring that brings the family almost to war over who should have the piece of jewelry.

            Lindsay, Marty sister and another granddaughter of Mama is there with her husband Evan and their children who are never seen in the play, only heard.  Evan has taken on the task of resurrecting the Snowbird from the down under which required a dredge to take out the sand.  The running dredge is a constant reminder to Mama about why she hated the boat so much and why she is so glad that it is finally being dredged up to be thrown away on the garbage barge.

            Piece by piece, furniture by furniture, Mama’s home is taken apart in the two acts so what starts out as a fully furnished home of great antiques, in the end the house is almost empty.  Also in the end, the Snowbird is hauled up and taken out on the end of the pier and placed on the garbage barge to be left in a land fill.  The leaving of the sailboat is also Mam’s cue so after the fight over the lost ring all the families leave and Mama is alone except for two moving men who take the last large sofa and leave the house empty.

            Resurrection Of The Snowbird has a cast of eight.  Two men in their forties and six women who range in age from teenagers to Mama at eighty nine.  The play takes place in a single set, Mama’s one time home and the time is the late 1980’s.  There are two, male cameo’s at the end in the form of the moving men.  They are on stage for one page.

Cast: 
Resurrection Of The Snowbird By Mark Mc Quown Cast Of Characters: Cassandra . . . . A bright, very physical eleven year old. She is one of the daughters of Marty and Hal. Hal . . . . . Cassandra’s father, in his forties. Marty . . . . . Cassandra’s mother, Hals’ wife and Lindsay’s sister. Caroline . . . . Hal and Marty’s other daughter. She is a lazy twelve year old trying to find her position in the family pecking order. Aunt Bar . . . . Marty’s mother’s sister, now living in her mother’s house. She is late fifties and very organized. She has taken care of her mother (Mama) for the last thirty years. Evan . . . . . Lindsey’s husband and the brother-in-law to Marty and Hal. He is in his forties, super bright in math. Lindsey . . . . Evan’s wife and Marty’s sister. She goes a hundred miles an hour all the time, she is in her forties. Mama . . . . . Marty and Lindsey’s grandmother. She is eighty plus and lived in this beach house with her daughter Barbara (Bar) for thirty years. She has been dead for about a year. Two Moving Men . Two cameo roles for any two men for one page. The Setting: The time, 1980’s A beach house on the tiny island of Balboa connected to the California coast near Newport Beach. An old porch, now converted into a closed room, faces the audience. Upstage of the old porch and through a large arch is the living room of the 1930’s beach house with an entrance upstage left and upstage center. The center door leads to a hallway which leads to the kitchen, the office and the downstairs bathroom at the end next to the spare bedroom. The upstage left door leads to the upstairs, the kitchen and the side door to the outside Down right in the old porch is a round oak table with four chair. On the other side is an old stuffed chair facing what would be the bay windows, with a small foot stool and next to the chair is a plaster bust of a female on an oak stand. In the down stage left corner of the porch is a screen door leading to the outside walkway to the pier in the back or the kitchen side door in the front. A full description of this set is in the back of this script.
Authors: 
Mark Mc Quown
Script: