Kari Ann Owen
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Theatre Engagé
Our current project is a spoken word/modern dance project in which modern dance is combined in solos and pas de deux to express grief and longing for a relationship with a mother who was a co-perpetrator of incest. Kari Ann's modern dance background includes five years of study in Berkeley and San Francisco with, among others, a Martha Graham soloist and the founder of a dance company now residing in Paris, and performances at the George R. Moscone Center and Fort Mason Arts Center, San Francisco and the University of CA, Berkeley. Kari Ann's current instructor is a former Maurice Bejart soloist.
Kari Ann hopes this dance and spoken word project will involve other survivors of violence in healing through dance. Kari Ann's rigorous studies exemplify the unity of hard technical work with the expression and integration of deep feelings. Her objective in creating these dance and theatre works is to accept the unacceptable and diminish the horror of the memories of parental and sibling rejection and abuse.
Kari Ann in class with Renee Meiffren at Fusion Dance Project, Hayward, CA, Directors Tito and Meghan Reyes.
Photo by Thomas Martin @2010.
Update:
Kari Ann has decided that this dance/spoken word presentation will be most professionally presented by dancers at the height of their achievements. Kari Ann has sent her proposal for the project to several SF Bay Area dance companies, and hope the project will find its best home among those working dancers.
Theatre Engagé
State of CA Corporate Number C1654654
We are an active 501C3 Federal nonprofit corporation.
Kari Ann hopes this dance and spoken word project will involve other survivors of violence in healing through dance. Kari Ann's rigorous studies exemplify the unity of hard technical work with the expression and integration of deep feelings. Her objective in creating these dance and theatre works is to accept the unacceptable and diminish the horror of the memories of parental and sibling rejection and abuse.
Kari Ann in class with Renee Meiffren at Fusion Dance Project, Hayward, CA, Directors Tito and Meghan Reyes.
Photo by Thomas Martin @2010.
Update:
Kari Ann has decided that this dance/spoken word presentation will be most professionally presented by dancers at the height of their achievements. Kari Ann has sent her proposal for the project to several SF Bay Area dance companies, and hope the project will find its best home among those working dancers.
Theatre Engagé
State of CA Corporate Number C1654654
We are an active 501C3 Federal nonprofit corporation.
Kari Ann’s theatre company, Theatre Engagé, produces plays concerning social justice and contemporary history, from comedies and satires to tragedies. Our first play, “Shadow of a Butterfly” by Richard Usem and directed by Hugh Palmerston, concerned the Warsaw ghetto and its survivors, both German military and Jewish civilians. Other plays produced by Theatre Engagé include Kari Ann Owen's “Eagle to the Sun” and “Terms of Surrender” and many performances produced individually by Kari Ann.
Theatre Engagé began producing again in Butte County, CA in 2003 with a musical/dramatic reading performance at Earth Day/Peace Day, Butte College, Oroville, CA in protest of the Iraq War, and performed a play by Kari Ann concerning the relationship of John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy during the Cuban Missile Crisis. This performance in Chico, CA raised money for a local food bank.
Our current project involves a film-cum-theatre benefit in El Cerrito, CA at the end of January 2008 to raise money for the production of a short subject documentary, which is a direct plea to President Bush (and whoever succeeds him) not to launch nuclear weapons against Iran. Kari Ann wrote this screenplay after having become aware of a change in American nuclear policy advocating a first strike.
Please contact Theatre Engagé for more information.
Recent productions include "Bernie Madoff in Hell", directed by Andy Hamner in a wonderful staged reading in Berkeley, CA in September 2009; and “Model of the Year” by Kari Ann Owen and featuring Diana Slampyak and Vincent Wade at the Marsh Theatre in San Francisco, and prize-winning productions from “Modern Life” at Dominican University, San Rafael, California.
Please enjoy the enclosed samples of Kari Ann’s tragic and comic writing.
Crisis
by
Kari Ann Owen
©2003 by Kari Ann Owen
from “Modern Life”
Time: October 1962
Place: The Oval Office of The White House. Four PM.
Characters:
President John F. Kennedy
First Lady Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy
Voice of Television Commentator
=
VOICE OF PRESIDENT KENNEDY, OVER WHICH THE ACTOR PLAYING PRESIDENT KENNEDY SPEAKS UNTIL THERE IS ONLY THE ACTOR’S VOICE: The President is looking over his notes for the speech he will give to the nation later that night. He rises from his chair with the help of crutches:
“Good Evening, My Fellow Citizens. This government, as promised, has maintained the closest surveillance of the Soviet military buildup on the island of Cuba. Within the past week, unmistakable evidence has established the fact that a series of offensive missile sites is now in preparation on that imprisoned island. The purpose of these bases can be none other than to provide a nuclear strike capability against the Western Hemisphere...”
JFK:
If I hadn’t aborted the Bay of Pigs invasion --if I hadn’t chosen defeat over further provocation -- would the Russians have launched then?
ENTER JACKIE
JFK (not seeing her):
That craziness was in the works while I was still a senator. Still, where was my control? What kind of control do I have now?
JACKIE: Jack?
JFK GOES TO HER.
JFK:
From the horse country of Virginia to the horse’s ass country of The White House. (HE KISSES HER.) Welcome home.
JACKIE:
Why the hurry?
JFK:
How are the kids?
JACKIE:
Better behaved when you’re around. John says your voice rocks him like a boat.
JFK:
How are the kids?
JACKIE:
Jack?
JFK (pausing):
I’m sorry. (HOLDING HIS BACK, UNCONSCIOUSLY) How are you?
JACKIE:
At the moment, that depends on how you are.
JFK:
I could use more pain medication, but I don’t dare. I’m going on television tonight, and you’re going with the children to a government shelter.
(JACKIE IS DUMBSTRUCK.)
Jackie, there isn’t much time--
JACKIE: I have a thousand things to do for the social schedule of the White House; for the kids; Jack, your father has had a stroke and can’t be dragged around from here to Virginia and back again to God knows where--
JFK:
Please, Jackie.
JACKIE:
Please?
JFK:
We all may be evacuated in the next few hours. You need to take the kids where I tell you. Somewhere safe--
JACKIE:
“Safe”?
JFK (indicating his speech notes):
In two hours I’m telling the world we’re blockading Russian ships in the Caribbean and demanding removal of offensive weapons in Cuba.
JACKIE:
Good. Maybe the Russians will ”demand the removal of offensive weapons” pointing at them from everywhere and we can all agree on mutual disarmament.
JFK LAUGHS A DOOMED LAUGH.
JACKIE:
Jack, the Europeans look at us a little differently than we do.
JFK:
Yes. They see themselves in the Russian’ and our crosshairs. And since we have so many more offensive weapons than the Russians, they should. But no one here sees it that way.
JACKIE:
Of course not. You tell them not to see it that way. Then you try invading Cuba and whine about their offensiveness when they point missiles at us to defend themselves.
JFK:
I couldn’t stop our embedded military and intelligence. All I could do was dilute their efforts--
JACKIE:
Who’s the President, Jack?
JFK:
I am the temporary custodian of a murderous machine. Jackie, if I run on a disarmament platform -- if I make any gestures in that direction, even a temporary nuclear test ban treaty -- I might be assassinated. I surely would be if I were elected on any platform hinting a dilution of strength.
JACKIE:
Have they threatened you over this?
JFK:
The loudest voices want a full strike. Now.
JACKIE:
Bobby? Macnamara?
JFK:
The blockade is a temporizing gesture, Jackie. The Cubans could fire on their own -- if I were Castro, I might pre-empt, having fought off an American invasion with my two bare hands. A third power might assume nuclear war inevitable after tonight and fire tactical weapons at American sites anywhere in the world. Khrushchev doesn’t want nuclear war, but if he’s overthrown because his own generals think he’s weak, forget tomorrow. Forget the moon coming up tonight.
JACKIE:
You can’t do what they want. You can’t kill us all.
JFK:
A lot depends on other people at this point--
JACKIE:
No!
JFK:
I’ve done all I can do up to now. Jackie, I need you to--
JACKIE:
You need me? I’ve given you two Kennedys. What do you need me for?
JFK:
The children will fall apart if you’re not with them, and... and--
JACKIE:
How about you?
JFK:
I have to stay here; an evacuation of White House personnel will be observed, reported and there would be panic and of course Khruschchev’s military will assume we’re about to fire our missiles.
JACKIE:
Do you want me to go?
JFK:
The Russians have begun destroying their Embassy documents--
JACKIE:
Do you want us to go?
JACK:
I owe you much more than your life. For what you’ve given, put up with--
JACKIE:
My stepfather the investment banker would not see this as a time for balance sheets.
JFK: Your mother would. She saw him as a bank and me as a bootlegger’s son.
JACKIE:
And me as a punching bag. Why are we talking about her?
JFK:
Ever look through a telescope? When you’re about to die, you see loved and so-called loved ones that way.
JACKIE:
Stop that.
JACK:
No matter what happens tonight, the Russians and Cubans see only provocation, and our own hardline people see anything other than war as suicide. Either way, I’m a threat, and disposable. You’re my wife, and the mother of our children, and I want you out of the way.
JACKIE:
There is no “out of the way”. We’re talking about nuclear war, Jack. And what would I tell the children?
JFK (pausing):
What would any parent tell a child during a worldwide nuclear alert?
JACKIE:
You’re leaving that up to me?
JFK (pausing):
I’m sorry.
JACKIE:
You can’t push this on to me. They’re your children, too, and they want to be with you. They loathe separation, and if this really is... all the time we have, they’re entitled to be with their family. Their whole family--
JFK:
I don’t know if I can look at them, Jackie.
JACKIE:
You love them.
JFK (struggling to stand up):
I wish I could have that shot.
JACKIE:
You can look the American people in the eye through a television camera and read them their doom, but you can’t imagine looking at your own children?
JFK:
Tell me what I should do!
JACKIE:
About the kids?
JFK:
About you. Yes, about the kids--
JACKIE (pausing):
Give the Russians and the Cubans something they can live with. And make sure this never happens again. Remove some of our missiles someplace, somewhere--
JFK:
I have already tried to do that before all this happened. Those missiles in Turkey... five times. They’re still there. Such is the power of the blind custodian.
JACKIE:
Do we really need so much military everywhere? Most Americans can’t even find our military on a map, unless it’s a map of their neighborhood.
JFK:
When two huge giants engage in war, they engage in it everywhere and in every sense. They guess the other’s intentions and the guessing alone presumes an... assumption of destruction. Publicly, each pretends to be defending itself while the reality is terror for the sake of authority--
JACKIE: Dostoevsky? “The Grand Inquisitor”? “Miracle, mystery and authority”?
JACK:
Thank you for showing me that chapter; I might not have understood our situation
so clearly --
JACKIE:
Would you rather the children grow up here or in Russia,, Jack? And don’t you prefer yourself to Castro, who murdered thousands of his own people when he took power?
JFK:
Are we better? (PAUSING) Yes, I love this country and the freedom to speak one’s mind, but the one insupportable thought that will kill me is what we are becoming as we defend that freedom. If that’s what we’re defending. And I’m scared, imagining the searing scream of pain across my eyeball when the bomb melts my face, and my brother’s hands melting into his telephone as he tries to call his children and I blame myself for so much of this, for lying about what the Russians have that is so much less than we have--
JACKIE:
But dangerous and pointed at us just the same--
JFK:
And our stupid, ridiculous fear of one man, Fidel Castro. Reasonable diplomacy and a little empathy with exploited Cubans might have defused this war before he became the weapon of people who think of him as one more useful tool, weapon, deluded idealistic clown. We’re the elephant’s eye he sticks his fly’s wing in, and we pretend he’s Satan.
JACKIE:
But the missiles are there and they’re pointing at us, Jack.
JFK:
After the Bay of Pigs, I still kept after him. Bobby even more than me. We switched murder contractors, Jackie,that’s all. Dad’s Mafia friends, who put me here.
JACKIE:
No, Jack.
JFK:
Yes.
JACKIE:
Why?
JFK:
If I had quit trying to eliminate Castro, the “friends” would have eliminated me. Do you see how important Castro was to them?
JACKIE:
Casino profits? Because Castro nationalized--
JFK:
Castro humiliated them. I doubt the money mattered more than that.
JACKIE:
Why couldn’t you have Bobby get rid of them? Before they turn on -- no, no, Jack --
JFK:
Bobby couldn’t do it without an organization, and Hoover has too much on me and Bobby.
JACKIE:
Don’t tell me you were that blatant.
JFK:
You know the women’s names and when they were here, at the Carlyle, Lawford’s place --
JACKIE:
When I was trying to escape this barless cage--
JFK:
So how can you imagine Hoover doesn’t know? Someone else needs to occupy this office and defend this country from its real rulers. I failed the country, Jackie. Which means I failed you, and the children. I’m sorry.
JACKIE:
And you believe it has to end in... no, Jack. You’re not getting to let it happen because you think it has to happen.
JACK:
Go to a shelter. Now.
JACKIE:
I love you! I love you because the children love you!
JACK:
If it weren’t for the children, it would be so easy to give into the generals and push the button--
JACKIE:
Stop it! Stop talking like you think you’re a puppet.
JACK:
My being here was Dad’s wish--
JACKIE:
I know that family myth --first Joe Jr. dies, so you get pushed to the throne... Don’t you dare tell me you don’t like being here.
JACK:
Who doesn’t like the pompous glory? But not now.
JACKIE:
Who else would you want in this chair? Eisenhower and Nixon planned the Bay of Pigs. You didn’t make all of this come together... Oh. You want to die as... atonement?
JACK:
No, I’m not that strong a Catholic.
JACKIE:
I have things to atone for, too -- When I’m away from here, I don’t face myself.
JACK (with affectionate and slightly exasperated humor):
I know; I’ve seen the bills from Cassini. Actually I haven’t seen many lately.
JACKIE:
But I was just up there--
JACK:
Dad told Cassini to “not bother the kids; just send me the bills”. I hear Dad’s selling Hyannisport--
(THEY LAUGH.)
You win a few million votes for sixty four every time you walk out on a public stage.
You win a lot more than that, whatever--
JACKIE:
Jack, please--
JACK:
Whatever it’s worth.
JACKIE:
Then you can’t want us to leave when -- when --
JACK:
I... don’t, but... What good would staying here do you? You’d be sitting in the residence wondering what was going on. No one would tell you anything.
JACKIE (mocking)
Just wait, General LeMay, while I clear the end of the world with Jacqueline.
JACK:
I’ve separated everyone else from their families; why should I bear less of a burden?
JACKIE:
Because if you lose sight of us, you may... you may--
JACK:
Yes. It might be so easy to go to war if it weren’t for the children. And not just our children.
JACKIE:
Who? Who else?
JACK:
I didn’t love those women. I’m sorry. I need you now when I’ve taken so much from you--
JACKIE:
My mother told me the “womanizing” was the way it was, no matter who I married. And I believed her--
JACK:
Since... since the baby died, there hasn’t really been anyone.
JACKIE:
And if I were gone, wouldn’t there be? Even in your mind, your memory?
JACK:
I wouldn’t want those memories. But sometimes I didn’t feel I could reach you, even when you were right next to me. I had done so much to you -- left you alone with that first pregnancy and the miscarriage, tried to prove myself so many times with whoever was there, whenever, wherever -- Shame is a poor aphrodisiac.
JACKIE:
But I’ve been at your side when you were... weakest; how could you fear rejection when you were stronger?
JACK:
Strong? Giving tough speeches while on pain injections sneaked between appointments?
JACKIE:
But you want me and the children here.
JACK:
Yes! But the warning time is less than eighteen minutes once the missiles are fired!
JACKIE:
Then what difference would it make where I am? I know how a nuclear bomb works, Jack. It draws breath for its fire; people in shelters will suffocate. And even if they don’t, what will they breathe when they come out? No, it’s harder for you to look me in the face knowing I know your true feelings.
JACK:
God forgive me; I’ve failed you and this office.
JACKIE:
So you’re going to hand them the world to prove your self pity? Kill us all to fake a suicide?
JACK:
Standing up to them will be martyrdom. You should hear those generals, those aging Cold Warriors. I’m a cowardly brat to them who thinks a bloody mouthed bear can be disarmed by a line of ships waiting in the Caribbean like Mother Duckie and her babies.
JACKIE:
It does not matter what they think. You’ve bravely taken a middle way, a blockade or “quarantine” instead of... invasion or air attack. Once you’re made a decision and... and implemented it, they’ll keep listening. What choice do they have? The Secret Service is there, and it’s your military.
JACK:
And you’re here.
JACKIE:
Yes. And the children.
JACK:
My mother once said the stars are the eyes of all the children become angels.
JACKIE: No more angels, Jack. Please--
JACK:
The blockade is a temporary gesture. Alot of what happens next is up to the Russians.
JACKIE:
Nothing they do is worth the end of the world.
JACK:
Thank God I’ve got Macnamara at the Pentagon. He understands this is a prevention exercise. He can implement that no orders to fire can come from anyone but me.
JACKIE:
Where do you want me and the children when you make your speech?
JACK:
Where I can see you.
JACKIE:
I need to be... more... where you can see me. I have been doing an awful lot of running away.
JACK:
No one would keep you from what you truly love. The privacy, the horses. Have you ever fantasized about dying?
JACKIE:
As a little girl, I used to dream that I would... soar to the stars, going over some giant Olympic level jump and never come down. How I wish I could now!
JACK:
We can’t afford that kind of thinking.
JACKIE:
No. We can’t.
JACK:
Where are the children now?
JACKIE:
With Mrs. Shaw.
JACK:
She’s so wonderful with them. I want them with you. And her. And whoever helps them feel that nothing’s... different.
(HE STANDS UP.)
I wish I could stand for the speech.
JACKIE:
Make your heart stand.
JACK:
Airtime. (AS SHE MOVES TO THE SIDE OF THE STAGE) Don’t go anywhere.
COMMENTATOR:
From the White House in Washington, an address by President John F Kennedy. The President speaks of matters of the highest national urgency. Mr Kennedy has been meeting with high officials of the government throughout the day in an atmosphere of near crisis. Now from his office in the White House, the President of the United States.
JACK:
Good evening, my fellow citizens:
This Government, as promised, has maintained the closest surveillance of the Soviet Military buildup on the island of Cuba. Within the past week, unmistakable evidence has established the fact that a series of offensive missile sites is now in preparation on that imprisoned island. The purpose of these bases can be none other than to provide a nuclear strike capability against the Western Hemisphere.
...
Neither the United States of America nor the world community of nations can tolerate deliberate deception and offensive threats on the part of any nation, large or small. We no longer live in a world where only the actual firing of weapons represents a sufficient challenge to a nation's security to constitute maximum peril. Nuclear weapons are so destructive and ballistic missiles are so swift, that any substantially increased possibility of their use or any sudden change in their deployment may well be regarded as a definite threat to peace.
...
Acting, therefore, in the defense of our own security and of the entire Western Hemisphere, and under the authority entrusted to me by the Constitution as endorsed by the resolution of the Congress, I have directed that the following initial steps be taken immediately:
First: To halt this offensive buildup, a strict quarantine on all offensive military equipment under shipment to Cuba is being initiated. All ships of any kind bound for Cuba from whatever nation or port will, if found to contain cargoes of offensive weapons, be turned back.
Second: I have directed the continued and increased close surveillance of Cuba and its military buildup... Should these offensive military preparations continue, thus increasing the threat to the hemisphere, further action will be justified. I have directed the Armed Forces to prepare for any eventualities...
(VOICE FADES, INDICATING A PASSAGE OF TIME, AND THEN REVIVES.)
The path we have chosen for the present is full of hazards, as all paths are--but it is the one most consistent with our character and courage as a nation and our commitments around the world. The cost of freedom is always high--and Americans have always paid it. And one path we shall never choose, and that is the path of surrender or submission.
Our goal is not the victory of might, but the vindication of right- -not peace at the expense of freedom, but both peace and freedom, here in this hemisphere, and, we hope, around the world. God willing, that goal will be achieved.
Thank you and good night.
(ENTER JACKIE CENTER STAGE.)
JACKIE:
What now?
JACK:
I don’t know. But it won’t be long. I’ll be in the Situation Room. Go to Mrs. Shaw and the children. Don’t sleep.
(EXIT JACK. JACKIE MOVES TO THE EDGE OF THE STAGE, ONE SPOTLIGHT ON HER AND THE REST IN DARKNESS OR DARK SHADOW.)
JACKIE (hands going to her eyes):
They say you can’t look away when the bomb explodes; that it... compels you as it blinds. Like love? Jack, are we going to die in eighteen minutes, fading into unidentifiable little blips of sporadic light? Like my father as he died of liver cancer, but alcoholism is also like a giant hand turning off every brain cell one at a time. Dad, war wasn’t supposed to happen to Bouviers. To people who lived outside the crowds. Daddy, where are your arms? I could always crawl into your arms, so I never cared how you smelled or who the women were with pieces of you hanging from their skin. You’re the lucky one, never allowing yourself to know you were your own annihilator. Smart man: no matter what you drank, smoked or sneaked around to screw, you were a Bouvier, a princely enticement, a... scented lie. Jack wouldn't lie to me this time, Dad, and we’re going to feel everything as it happens, knowing we’re at fault. The Cubans aren’t the Russians and the Russians aren’t the Nazi Germans... We’re... responding to a provocation we created. No... not... me. I didn’t make the bomb and copy the monster and shake it at the world so fear would make the bomb seem protective. “Shield of the motherland”, a Russian atom worker called it! I did not do this! But I married it, and shut my mouth til now. Daddy’s Good Little Girl!
(SHORT PAUSE)
Dad, Jack wants to stop it now; he wants to, but his generals think he’s too peaceful and... provocatively weak even as he is! Whatever he does now, it means his life. And mine? He needs me near him, so it does mean mine. I have to believe he... meant what he said, that it would be easy to launch the missiles if it weren’t for the children. Can someone explain that to me? Fathers! Explain that, Joe Senior, you foul and sex-obsessive criminal! Why did you put Jack in this position where he owes everyone -- the Mafia for Cook County and the 1960 election, therefore secret, silent war to regain their stupid casinos, their miserable kingdom of vice? Your kingdom, and you never loved him; you only wanted more power for yourself. “Win! Win! Win!” Even if it kills a kid, and if one can’t play, like his retarded sister, just lobotomize and bench the useless bitch. So Jack plays no matter how he hurts, but it’s not touch football now! Some lunatic in or out of uniform may even fake an attack just to force Jack to launch, and if he hesitates, kill him, and the world. I wonder what those men down there really want? It isn’t peace. It’s... place. Purpose. Function, a mathematical term? Peace would be like death... to them... No! No! No!
(SHE INSTINCTIVELY COVERS HER EYES.)
Stupid, covering my eyes. My father’s dead and my husband is in a basement with his enemies and a few people who may help him. Someone may help him. No, it’s not quite over. Bobby? Macnamara? Somebody help him. Jack, Jack...
(SHE KNEELS AND HOLDS THE MEMORY OF HIM IN HER ARMS.)
"Through this holy unction, this final rite may the Lord pardon you whatever sins or faults you have committed."
(SHE MAKES THE SIGN OF ANOINTING HIM WITH OIL.)
Am I blind and stupid, loving you for needing me, and not just because of the children? I am not stupid! Please come up from the basement. Please come up and say the Russians have backed down; the ships are turning back; twenty million of their own dead in World War Two was enough and they’ll give up their weapons if we give up ours. Come up, Jack. Come up so I can tell you I forgive the sex with other women because you have to feel someone’s there. I do, too, but horses and crowds at fashion shows are less risky -- they can’t call or blackmail -- and I get some healthy exercise and lots of praise and feel... unbeaten, like Mother never did that (GESTURING A SLAP) to me. And yours never left you, fleeing your father’s women, which she blamed on herself for not looking like them. Or like me?
(HOLDING HIM AS IF HE WERE IN HER ARMS)
The children only know their daddy, not the truth. Mrs. Shaw is putting them to bed, and they haven’t heard the end of the world on the radio.
(OPENING THE WINDOW)
The crowds are out. They’re holding candles. Red and gold leaves are... reflecting in the light, as if the stars were falling one by one, like little pearls, and shining in our eyes. Never fade. Stand with us. Jack, you don’t know how many people love you.
(SHE RISES.)
I’m not sleeping.
(AS THE LIGHTS FADE, A VOICE COMES UP.)
Two days after President Kennedy’s naval quarantine was in effect, a launch warning mistakenly was triggered at Volk Field, Wisconsin where F 106 planes were armed with air to air nuclear missiles. The launch warning occurred when a guard fired at a figure climbing a security fence. The figure turned out to be a bear.
In June 1963, John F. Kennedy announced at American University that as long as other nations refrained from atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons, so would the United States; and that the United States would join Russia and Great Britain in another attempt to agree on a treaty banning nuclear weapons tests. He was assassinated in Dallas five months and twelve days later. Jacqueline Kennedy was with him when he was shot and when he died.
FADE TO BLACK
PROGRAM NOTES: Author Kari Ann Owen was thirteen years old at the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis. She spent what could have been her last evening on Earth hiding from her abusive family in her room while listening to Radio Moscow’s English language broadcast to the North American continent, which followed President Kennedy’s speech. She dedicates her play to the beloved memories of the Kennedys and the hope of humanity surviving its politicians.
The murder plots against Fidel Castro continued until the last breath of the Kennedy Administration. Russo,Live by the Sword, pages 156-157
Two days after President Kennedy’s naval quarantine was in effect, a launch warning mistakenly was triggered at Volk Field, Wisconsin where F 106 planes were armed with air to air nuclear missiles. The launch warning occurred when a guard fired at a figure climbing a security fence. The figure turned out to be a bear. New Yorker, June 19, 1995, page 57, article by Richard Rhodes
President Kennedy’s statement, “If it weren’t for the children, it would be so easy to push the button!” was made during the crisis to Presidential aide Dave Powers. Edward Klein, All Too Human, page 320.
In June 1963, John F. Kennedy appeared to reject war as an inevitable condition when he announced at American University that as long as other nations refrained from atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons, so would the United States; and that the United States would join Russia and Great Britain in another attempt to agree on a treaty banning nuclear weapons tests. Russo, Live by the Sword, page 159 He was assassinated in Dallas five months and twelve days later. Jacqueline Kennedy was with him when he was shot and when he died.
I DON’T CARE IF YOU’RE A NERD
from “MODERN LIFE”, a series of one act and monologue plays
by
Kari Ann Owen -- ©2003 by Kari Ann Owen
penomee@yahoo.com
Kenny, can’t we go to the dance together? I don’t care if you’re a nerd. What’s a nerd anyway? Half the kids in school wear glasses, half are fat and the others are bulked-up or anorectic. We’re all chained to some assembly line, so who cares? At least you’re making a future. That’s what my mom says: making a future. She thinks kids like you will automatically win Nobel prizes and be richer than movie stars. Is that what you want? I know what I want: for you to ask me to the dance on Friday night. “Oh, Sabrina, can I pick up you in my dad’s four door, warm, leather-seated car?” But you won’t talk to me. How come? I talk to you, even when I’m standing around with my girlfriends. All right, so they giggle when you walk by. Do I laugh at you? When I saw tears fogging up your glasses last week, I got you Kleenex from my locker, didn’t I? When those football players called you a homo.. They did it because the SAT scores were just posted, not because you wear bi-focals. Well, how would you feel if you were them? You were a finalist for the Westinghouse Science Prize with a huge scholarship, and you just got early acceptance to MIT, and they’re lucky they can remember the name of the shape of a football field. Speaking of shapes... they said my butt looks like a horse. Because I ride a lot, and I win awards, too. My mom and I are trying to raise the money to send me to the National High School Rodeo! But do the kids say, “Go, girl”? No, they call my names, too. But if I can get scholarships, I’ll become a large animal vet! Come on, Kenny: we have so much in common. Would you please lift your head? You’re acting like a horse about to get a rabies shot! Just pretend I’m a computer monitor and look me in the eye, okay? Well, thank you. I like my eyes, too... You want to go to the dance? With me? Really? Roses! I like red roses! Like the Kentucky Derby! You mean it?
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Synopses of Plays by Kari Ann Owen (formerly Karen Iris Bogen)
MODERN LIFE -- open ended series of short plays and monologues comprising a full evening of theatre. Rory, a disabled man and Dot.Com, his giant female service dog plus other characters, including Osama Bin Laden's horse, a female; a fifteen year old girl and her mother, doctor, and a fifteen year old boy involved in a rape trial; and a depressed atomic bomb, tired of his encasement. A monologue series concerning abortion and rape are included as well, with monologues for a fifteen year old girl, a fifteen year old boy, the victim’s mother and a female judge. There is also a duologue between Jacqueline and John F. Kennedy on the eve of the Cuban Missile Crisis. One bare interior set which light can change to suggest any setting. This series is tragic and comic by turns. Latest Modern Life play: Amnesty, a drama of an older married couple on the eve of nuclear war.
MONEDA -- One act, one hour -- four men. One interior set.
This tragedy depicts the final hours of Salvador Allende, President of Chile, before his probable assassination by the fascists who overthrew him with American intelligence support and at the behest of Richard Nixon et. al. This tragedy depicts what might have happened in those final hours had Pres. Allende called Henry Kissinger to plead for intervention on behalf of the Chilean people, particularly those bound for prison, torture and death. World premiere December 2000, San Francisco, CA. Video version available.
FIREHEART-- One Act, one hour -- 5 men, 1 woman. One interior set.
Set in a Madrid cathedral in 1492, this drama of Inquisition and rebellion portrays a Catholic princess's growing up upon declaring her opposition to bigotry and genocide. One interior set. World premiere December 2000, San Francisco, CA.
VICTORY -- One Act. 1 hour -- 3 men, 4 women. One interior and one exterior set.
This companion piece to FIREHEART is a drama of Inquisition and resistance from a Muslim viewpoint, and a love story between a young Spanish dancer who is mute through trauma and a Muslim caliph whose devotion and strength are boundless. The Inquisition is no match for either of them.
TERMS OF SURRENDER -- Two Acts -- 2 hours -- 3 men, 1 woman. One interior set. One exterior set.
This drama of a gay priest's confrontation with his god, his lover's imminent demise from AIDS, and his own recent HIV+ diagnosis is a story of heartfelt honesty and affirmative victory-in-protest.
WHY NOT, GIOVANNI? -- Three acts -- 2 hours -- Two females, 5 males including 1 10 year-old boy. One interior set.
This romantic comedy portrays the growing assertion and individuality of Lucia, an Italian American actress who falls in love with Barry, a Polish American actor. For this romance to blossom, hilarious obstacles must be overcome, including Lucia’s 6 foot room-mate, who tries to become a cat to get more love... and almost makes it.
AN EXACT QUALITY OF LIGHT -- One Act -- 90 minutes -- 4 men, 1 woman. One interior/exterior set. This drama of failed reconciliation between a disabled Jewish Vietnam veteran/combat photographer and his father is the first play in this country to deal with the impact of the war from a Jewish perspective.
STRIPS -- One Act -- 45 minutes -- 3 men, 1 woman. One interior set.
This prison revenge tragedy portrays a horrifying yet finally revelatory sequence of events involving a young female stripper who ”dances“ at a prison as a result of a First Amendment court ruling.
ESCAPES -- One Act -- 45 minutes -- 2 men, 1 woman. One divided interior set.
Bruce, the sexually addicted son of a nominated Secretary of State, begs his father for money to enter a rehabilitation center. In order to get his father’s help, Bruce Jr. must tell Bruce Sr. why. A horrifying and graphic flashback to a scene of uncontrolled fear destroys every myth about sadomasochism ever perpetrated on a talk show or in sexually exploitative media.
CRAZY! -- 3 10-minute comedies -- roles playable by both men and women. One interior set.
These comedies about getting and staying free from substance abuse will tell you what New Agers won’t. Neither political correctness nor pomposity can halt the march toward sobriety of an assorted cast of children, bikers and football heroes, along with their own supporting casts of motorcycles, cats and cheerleaders.
EAGLE TO THE SUN -- Two Acts -- 2 1/2 hours, 3 women, 18 men. One adaptable and changeable interior/exterior set. A contemporary drama of a Native American biker's transition from violence to sobriety. This horrifying portrayal of police, prison and outlaw brutality in San Francisco and its environs is more contemporary than when it was written. Screenplay adaptation by Ms. Susan Hart and Kari Ann Owen.
MODEL OF THE YEAR -- One Act -- 30 minutes, 1 man, 1 woman, assorted hecklers. One interior set. This contemporary black comedy is set in a New York nightclub during the live television broadcast of the Model of the Year awards. This year, the recipient shreds all anticipation and decorum when she tells the truth about her life and all those present.
SWORDPOINTS -- One Act, 90 minutes -- 2 women, three men. One interior set. A timeless drama of a young Lesbian's spiritual conversion, reconciliation and transition from outlaw to warrior during medieval times.
SPIRIT MOTHER -- Monologue Series -- 15 minutes, 2 African American women (30’s, 60’s), 1 African American man, 30’s. Sister Ruth, an evangelist in South Georgia, is murdered by a drug-crazed lunatic she opens her doors to feed. Sister Ruth’s only child and son-in-law, prominent journalists in San Francisco, are left to seek what spiritual fragments can be made whole in a world of frequently jealous colleagues, condescending editors and hostile sources. Conversion is real, sometimes defiant and always possible.
SIDES OF JACK -- Monologue Series -- 15 minutes, 2 older men, mid 50’s. A Jewish doctor, Nathan Steiner, molests his daughter, then asks his oldest friend, Jack Cohen, for a character reference for Family Court. When Jack erupts with anger and truth, a way of life built on arrogant illusions dies forever.
A LETTER TO PRESIDENT KENNEDY ON THE NIGHT OF HIS ASSASSINATION -- Monologue -- 15 minutes -- one girl, age 14. The molestation and survival of Leslie Miriam Steiner, as told to President Kennedy on the night of November 22, 1963.
NATIONAL SECURITY -- Monologue Series -- 15 minutes, 1 man, 30’s, 1 woman, 30’s, 1 woman, 60’s. When Kissinger aide Michael Abromowitz commits suicide during the invasion of Cambodia, his wife and mother-in-law mourn, accuse and scream enough truths to rock every murderous bureaucrat in Washington. A tragedy offset by the blackest humor imaginable, excepting Clinton’s finger-wagging denial of sex with Monica.
Production Resumé, 1990’s/2007+ for Kari Ann Owen
penomee@yahoo.com
MODERN LIFE, Excerpt from ‘Crime and Children’, Brava Theatre, San Francisco, May 2005; ‘Religion and Rap’ and ‘Pinked’ and ‘Impressions’, Marin County Fringe Festival, Dominican University, San Rafael CA, April 2005, nominated for Best Play, Festival 2005, Director: Miguel Garcia, Best Director for Festival 2005; ‘Bomb’ monologue and ‘Horse’s Patootie,’ John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts/VSA Arts Festival, Washington DC, Director: Kari Ann Owen. June 2004; ‘Bomb’ Monologue, Stockyards Theatre, Chicago, June 2003; ‘Crisis’, ‘Hunger’ and ‘Angels’, Chico, CA, November 2003 and January 2004
MONEDA, play to film, screenings April 19, 2003, Butte College Television, Oroville, CA; February 13, 2001, Peña del Sur, San Francisco, CA. Director: Ulises Escobar and Awakenings Festival of the Arts, Victoria, Australia, 2002
FIREHEART and MONEDA (historical dramas)
Produced in San Francisco, CA, December 2000. Two One Acts, one hour each-- Moneda, 4 men; Fireheart, 4 men, 1 woman. Directors: Ulises Escobar and Tony Castellano. One interior set apiece.
VICTORY (historical drama)
Staged reading, Opera Piccola Theatre, Oakland, CA, July 2001. One Act, one hour in length, 3 men, 4 women. Director: Michael Garcia.
EAGLE TO THE SUN (contemporary Native American drama of prison and sobriety)
Produced in workshop by Theatre Engagé, San Francisco, CA March/April 1990. Full length drama, 13 men, 3 women. Director: Robert Fairless. Screenplay adaptation by Ms. Susan Hart and Kari Ann Owen.
SPIRIT MOTHER (Monologue series, 2 females, 1 male.)
Staged reading, Mama Bear's Cafe, Oakland CA, January 1992. Director: Kari Ann Owen.
Staged reading, Ohana Cultural Center, Oakland, CA, April 1991. Director; Kari Ann Owen.
TERMS OF SURRENDER
Excerpted by author as speech, "A Living God in the Age of AIDS," at Performing AIDS Conference, Cleveland, OH, February 1996.
Produced at 7th Annual San Francisco AIDS Conference, George R. Moscone Center, San Francisco, CA. Feb. 1995, as directed staged reading. Director: Hugh Palmerston. Choreographers: Marni Wood and Jocelyne Danchick. Dancer: Kari Ann Owen.
Produced by Theatre Engagé at the Lab Theatre, San Francisco, CA, April/May 1989. Director: Hugh Palmerston.
MODEL OF THE YEAR (contemporary tragedy)
One woman,20’s; one man, 50’s; audience members. One act -- 10 minutes.
Production, The Marsh Theatre, San Francisco, CA, August 2007. Director: Kari Ann Owen. Reading, Committee on Disability and Technology, disability organization, Berkeley, CA, Spring 2000.
STRIPS (contemporary prison tragedy)
One woman, three men. One act -- 45 minutes.
Reading, Marsh Theatre, July 1997, San Francisco, CA. One Act -- 45 minutes -- 1 woman, 2 men.
ESCAPES (contemporary drama about sex addiction and recovery)
Reading, Bindlestiff Theatre, July 1997, San Francisco, CA. One Act -- 45 minutes -- 1 woman, 2 men.
A LETTER TO PRESIDENT KENNEDY ON THE NIGHT OF HIS ASSASSINATION (Monologue, 1 female.)
Staged reading, Mama Bear's Cafe, Oakland CA, January 1992. Director: Kari Ann Owen.
GETTING CLEAN #1 (A man and his motorcycle)
Produced by Theatre Engagé, Living Sober Conference, San Francisco, CA, 1991. One act comedy, one man, one woman. Director: Kari Ann Owen.
Produced by Theatre Engagé, Ohana Cultural Center, Oakland, CA, 1990. Director: Kari Ann Owen.
AN EXACT QUALITY OF LIGHT: (Revision of Foreigners. Full length drama, 5 males, 1 female.) Staged readings, Marsh Theatre and Potrero Hill Multi-Ethnic Theatre, San Francisco, CA, 1993 and 1994. Directors: Kari Ann Owen and Lewis R. Campbell.
SWORDPOINTS
Produced by Goddess Theatre, Boulder, CO, 1994. Full length medieval drama. Three men, two women. Director: Susan Retzer.
Staged reading produced by Menlo Players Guild, Menlo Park, CA, 1991. Director: Augustus Schoen.
Staged readings produced by Theatre Engagé, Richmond and Berkeley, CA., 1991 and 1992.Directors: Augustus Schoen (1991) and Naomi Stein (1992).
RESUME OF PLAYS, 1970s-1980s
AN EXACT QUALITY OF LIGHT: (Revision of Foreigners. Full length drama, 5 males, 1 female.) Staged reading, Playwrights Forum, Palo Alto, CA Cultural Arts Center, February l987. Director: Jeanne Thomas.
FOREIGNERS: (Revision of Legacies: A Trilogy . Full length drama, 5 males, 1 female.)
Read at Collins Art Gallery, San Francisco, CA, January 1987. Director: Karen Iris Bogen.
Read at Playwrights Forum, Palo Alto, CA Cultural Center, October l986. Director: Craig Hamilton.
Staged reading, Shelter West Theatre, New York, NY, April 1985. Director: Judith Joseph.
Read at St. Albert's College, Oakland, CA, February l984. Director: Karen Iris Bogen.
Read at Staircase Studio, Hollywood , CA, January 1984. Director: Dan Mason.
LEGACIES: A Trilogy. Solitude, Foreigners and Legacies.
Solitude (One act tragedy, 2 males, 2 females.)
Produced at California State University, Sacramento, December 1979. Director: John Henry Null.
Produced at Fort Mason Cultural Center, San Francisco, CA, August and September 1979. Director: Kate Swackhamer.
Staged reading, New England Playwrights Cooperative, New Haven, CT, October 1983. Director: Amy Seham.
Staged reading at American Theatre Association National Convention, Minneapolis, MINN, August 1983. National contest winner.
Finalist, University of Wyoming/St. Edwards University (Austin, TX) contest for plays about women, December 1982.
Read during a series of playreadings on war and peace at Berkeley/Richmond, CA Jewish Community Center, February 1982. Director: Karen Iris Bogen.
Foreigners (Full length tragedy, 1 female, 3 lead males, 2 supporting males, offstage male and female voices).
Read by Veterans Ensemble Theatre, New York City, October 1983. Director: Tony Rasemus.
Finalist, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, 1980 and 1981.
Semi-finalist, National Repertory Theatre Contest, 1981.
Read by Ensemble Studio Theatre, New Plays Reading Series, New York City, April 1982.
Read by Circle Repertory Theatre Laboratory, New York City, September 1979. Director: Robert LuPone.
Legacies (Full length tragedy, 1 female, 8 males, 9 offstage voices).
Read by Mill Valley, CA, Center for the Performing Arts, New Plays Reading Series, April 1982. Director: Will Marchetti.
Read during a series of playreadings on war and peace at Berkeley /Richmond, CA, Jewish Community Center, February 1982. Director: Karen Iris Bogen.
Read for Jewish Arts Community of the Bay Area, San Francisco, CA, January 1982. Director: Karen Iris Bogen.
Read for Gene Frankel's Playwrights and Directors Unit, New York City, February 1981. Director: Karen Iris Bogen.
WHY NOT, GIOVANNI? (Full length comedy, 1 female, 3 males, 1 male child.)
Staged reading by The Drama Section, a faculty playreading group, University of California, Berkeley, November 1983. Directors: Elaine Schooley and Carla Rosenlicht.
Staged reading at Bear Republic Theatre, Santa Cruz, CA, New Plays Reading Series, September 1983. Director: Herbert Smith.
Read at Mill Valley, CA, Center for the Performing Arts, New Plays Reading Series, May 1983. Director: Douglas Dildine.
Read at Playwrights Center, San Francisco, CA, January 1982. Directors: Karen Iris Bogen and Theresa Ilao.
SIDES OF JACK (One act drama, 2 males.)
Staged reading by Tour de Force, Theatre, San Francisco, CA, November 1987. Director: Susan Worthing.
Staged reading at Double Edge Theatre, Boston, MA, May 1986. Director: Karen Iris Bogen.
Read at St. Mary Magdalene's Parish, Berkeley, CA, March 1985. Director: Karen Iris Bogen.
Staged reading at Ralph's Cafe, Berkeley, CA, August 1984. Director: Karen Iris Bogen.
NATIONAL SECURITY (Monologue series, 1 male, 1 female.)
Staged reading by Tour de Force Theatre, San Francisco, CA, November 1987. Director: Susan Worthing.
Read at Playwrights Platform, Boston, MA, September 1985.
Read at St. Mary Magdalene's Parish, Berkeley, CA, April 1985. Director: Karen Iris Bogen.
Staged reading at Ralph's Cafe, Berkeley, CA, August 1984. Director: Karen Iris Bogen.
ESCAPES (One act play, 2 males, 1 female).
Staged reading by Tour de Force Theatre, San Francisco, CA, November 1987. Director: Susan Worthing.
Read at St. Mary Magdalene's Parish, Berkeley, CA, April 1984. Director: Karen Iris Bogen.
SPIRIT MOTHER (Monologue series, 2 females, 1 male.)
Read at St. Mary Magdalene's Parish, Berkeley, CA, April 1984. Director: Karen Iris Bogen.
A LETTER TO PRESIDENT KENNEDY ON THE NIGHT OF HIS ASSASSINATION (Monologue, 1 female.)
Staged reading by Tour de Force Theatre, San Francisco, CA, November 1987.
Staged reading at Double Edge Theatre, Boston, MA, May 1986. Director: Karen Iris Bogen.
Read at St. Mary Magdalene's Parish, Berkeley, CA, April 1984. Director: Karen Iris Bogen.
WITNESSES (One act drama, 1 female, 1 male.)
Finalist, University of Wyoming/St. Edwards University (Austin, TX) contest for plays about women, December 1982.
Read during a series of playreadings on war and peace at Berkeley/Richmond, CA, Jewish Community Center, February 1982. Director: Karen Iris Bogen.
Read over KALW-FM, San Francisco, CA, February 1982. Director: Karen Iris Bogen
CIRCLE OF SILENCE (Two act drama, 2 men,2 women).
Performed at United Methodist Church, San Francisco, CA, February 1975.
