Finished Works "Purple Paint" / "Words in the Air"
"Teachers Left Behind"/"Black Winged Fish"
"Purple Paint"
by Bridget Ossmann
"Purple Paint" by Bridget Ossmann has been voted a "New Voices" Winner by Cincinnati Playwrights Initiative. A staged reading was peformed at the Fifth-Third Bank Theatre in Cincinnati on September 9th 2014.
"Purple Paint" by Bridget Ossmann
Based on the writing of Ercel Eaton's book "Appalachain Yesterdays"
Synopsis
Running Time: 1hr. and15 min. / no intermission
Time Period: Mid to late 1930’s
Setting: The story takes place in the coal mining hollows of Southeastern Kentucky in the mid to late 1930’s. The O’Connor family lives in a primitive house on the side of the mountain. There are no roads leading to their house. The closest road is on top of the mountains. The O’Connor’s have no electricity, no car, and no running water.
Synopsis: As though a chapter out of American history flies loose and settles on the stage, the story of “Purple Paint” comes to life, told through the eyes of a family whose home nestled in the side of a mountain in the Appalachians.
Maddie, a young daughter in the family loves to write and constantly puts on paper the thoughts churning around in her head. Her father, a coal miner and farmer, struggles with the effort of keeping his wife and five children, fed, and clothed. It is difficult on those nearly-isolated farms to keep it all done.
Conflict, arising between powerful mine owners and those miners who lived in the surrounding hills and valleys and wished to form a union swept out to touch the lives of residents, causing trouble that sometimes reaches the fist and gun stages among the divided residents.
Keeping the devastating quarrels and fights away from his teen-aged son and younger offspring worried the father as he tried to deal with creeping animosity in the community.
Maddie stewed inside about discrimination against her people: terms such as “hill-billy” and other terms seeped inside the language as though they were a part of the “what everybody said.”
Weaving in and out of the trouble and the blaming of an absent press that added to the widespread discriminations is a tender love story filled with a ton of heartache along the way.
As the parents struggle to take the best action on behalf of their children and their community, a story unwinds that has over time affected thousands of residents of the nearly hidden scrap of America. And still does.
Characters:
Daniel O’Connor (Poppy) - male, mid 30’s, soft spoken, peacemaker, Miner but wants to be a farmer father to the 5 O’Connor children, husband to Melissa O’Connor
Melissa O’Connor (Mommy) - female, early thirties, has a good heart butis very stubborn and opinionated, terrible cook, does not show affection easily, mother of 5 O’Connor children, raises chickens, does not make friends easily
Oakley O’Connor – male, 16 yrs old, second oldest of the O’Connor children, loves farming like his father, very protective, wants to be treated as an adult, easily impressed by his friends
Lotty O’Connor – female, 17 yrs old, oldest of the O’Connor children, very domestic, quiet and kind, enjoys reading, falls in love with Jason Tidwell
Maddie O’Connor – female, 14 yrs old, outspoken, uses correct grammer, writing is her passion, writes about the mountain people, loves the mountains and does not want to move away, was burned as a child
Ruby O’Connor - female, 8 yrs old, youngest of the O’Connor children, excessive talker, very nosey, devoted to her baby brother, loves school, very proud of her family especially Jessie and his contraptions, obsessed with “Raw Head and Bloody Bones” folklore.
Lester Hadley –male, mid 30’s, O’Connor’s closest neighbor, widower, miner, mudslide killed his wife and unborn child, angry, does not like very many things in life
Lewis Grissom - black male, mid 30’s, miner, very quiet, responsible and reliable, devoted to Daniel O’Connor and O’Connor family
Jason Tidwell - male, 21 yrs old, newspaper reporter, very honest and hard working, falls in love with Lotty
Jessie O’Connor- male, 11 yrs, hates school work, loves to build things, always working on contraptions, lazy and tries to get out of work, rarely shows emotion
Words in the Air
by Bridget Ossmann
Setting: Room of a care facility.
Time Period: Present day.
Synopsis
Missy doesn’t understand her dying mother’s request when mother insists on Missy visiting her Aunt Paula in a care facility. Why? Missy has never been close to her aunt. Her mother told her stories about Aunt Paula when they were growing up but something happened and all communication stopped. What was it that causes them never to speak? A visit, a photo album, and a shocking discovery shatters Missy’s world with regret that she had not said “yes” to her mother’s request earlier.
Characters:
Paula: 78 year old female/suffering from the onset of Alzheimer’s/prone to sever mood
swings which she has suffered with her whole life
Missy: 45 year old female, Paula's niece
Roger: 20 year old male/ghost from the past/appears as in a photo album
Teachers Left Behind
A Musical Comedy
by Bridget Ossmann
"New Voices" Winner by Cincinnati Playwrites Initiative.
Setting: Basement in the home of Virginia Budge.
Time Period: Present day.
Characters:
Females – 4 Males – 2 Children – no set amount
All characters must be able to sing.
Budge: late 70’s, long years of teaching and living alone have made her a strong, opinionated, abrasive and conniving; yet she is fiercely protective of her students, dedicated to their future success and willing to go the extra mile to help them achieve. She also suffers from the onset of Alzheimer’s.
Christine: mid 20s, is wealthy, a darling of her parents, who runs with the country club set and uses up men like tubes of tooth paste. She is deceitful, sneaky and likes to wear clothes pictured in the latest fashion magazines. Bitchy and hateful, she clearly thinks herself just a cut above everyone else.
Francis: mid 20s is a hard-working part-time college student stretched between classes and a full time job. He struggles to balance his time among those duties and still have time to keep track of his former teacher, Virginia Budge. He is devoted to her, and has been since junior high school. They have, over the years, developed an abiding friendship but he is constantly frustrated with her meddling and her lapses of memory.
Debbie: early 50s, water meter reader, is an unhappy woman who feels she is in a dead-end job. A musically talented student in high school, she dropped out when her parents failed to offer any encouragement toward her dreams of becoming a musician. Budge encouages her to go back to school and follow her dreams.
Large female shadow: a sort of “shape-shifter,” and constant companion of Budge, stays the retired teacher throughout the play. Lively and animated, she represents the failing mind of Budge. Shadow’s actions mimic improvisational dance
Male shadow: older late 70’s, A figment of Budge’s mind, a kind spirit who moves between her past and the present which is presenting so much turmoil for her. Is he a lost love or a shadow of her past? He brings comfort to her as she tries to face leaving her home.
Small shadow figures: all ages. Their roles are those of kindergartners through teenagers. They represent Budge’s memories of students. As Budge’s students they scurry about and dance and sing during the scenes.