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Kate Chopin, author of The Awakening, must pick
between her dying husband and her lover, the wealthy
planter next door. She picks her lover, and he leaves
her. In agony she goes forth to become the great writer
she was meant to be. A tour de force play of obsession
rooted in the real life of the famous first great
American novelist and based on detailed, shocking facts
from her life. She 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 results in an epic post Civil War
story of the first great American woman novelist.
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.
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The Chopin House as it once appeared.
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