The October People’s Choice Award goes to…

The people have spoken… The October People’s Choice Award goes to Lisa Gaye Thompson for her play America Chavez: Particle Flyer, presented as a staged reading at Monday Night PlayGround on October 16th live at the Freight & Salvage and simulcast via Vimeo Livestream. Congratulations, Lisa!

Courtesy of Lisa, we’re pleased to share the first two pages from the award-winning script. Enjoy!

America Chavez: Particle Flyer
by Lisa Gaye Thompson

CHARACTERS
DOC—30 – 40 years old, white. In his work in pediatric oncology he normally keeps a distance to protect himself—he’s not unkind, just distant. His philosophy is that cancer families need somebody who’s objective to rely on. But with this kid it’s different.
ANTONIA—11 years old, latina. She’s nerdy but tough. Impatient with everyone who can’t keep up with her. She’s practiced at protecting everybody around her from her fear and pain with jokes and precociousness. Although sick, she’s vital and vibrant.
MOM—40s, latina. After years of fighting for her daughter’s life, she’s tired, and has come to a new plateau. She’s going to keep fighting like hell, that will never stop. But she has a calm urgency about her now. She isn’t a basket case, she’s focused.

SETTING – A hospital cancer ward on the eve of Antonia’s bone marrow transplant. The last hope for her recovery from a cancer she’s battled with for years. Because of the procedure she’s in a special room where she’ll live for the next 30 days. On the wall above her bed is a giant poster of America Chavez, superhero. Along with pictures of her two moms and two brothers there are comic books and other toys such as a rubik’s cube on her bedside table.

DOC enters. At times he sits at ANTONIA’s bedside, but also
busies himself with chart-checking and other fiddling, including
picking up items from the bedside table. ANTONIA sits up in bed,
physically fragile but crackling with vitality.

DOC
Antonia, mind if I pop in for a minute?

ANTONIA
Do you have good news, doc? Am I in remission?

DOC
Nothing’s changed, I’m sorry.

ANTONIA
Psych! I’m just giving you a hard time.

DOC
I don’t know how you manage to keep a sense of humor.

ANTONIA
(annoyed) Why do adults always say things like that? I crack jokes, like any kid.

DOC
You’re absolutely right. It’s one of those stupid things adults say to make ourselves feel
comfortable. Greasing the wheels of civilization.

ANTONIA
Well it’s stupid.

DOC
Yeah. You’ll see tha—(stops self)

ANTONIA
What?

DOC
Nothing. More stupidity.

ANTONIA
Tell me. (beat) Or I won’t trust you.

DOC
(mortified) I was going to say you’ll see when you’re an adult.

ANTONIA
Oh shit. (laughs)

DOC squirms but begins to laugh also.

DOC
(Doc ventures a joke) Maybe.

ANTONIA and DOC laugh together. ANTONIA delighted.

DOC
Do you have any questions about what’s coming?

ANTONIA
In the morning, you’ll inject the bone marrow and then I’ll go into isolation for 30 days and then I’ll go home for another 70 days and if my body accepts it, I might live a little longer. (glib, but the import is palpable) And this is pretty much the last thing there is to try.

DOC
You know, bone marrow transplants can have miraculous results.

ANTONIA
Don’t kid a kidder. People like us don’t believe in God.

DOC
God’s not exactly in my wheelhouse, no. But we all need some source of hope—you have her,
right? (gestures at the giant poster above her bed) Super Girl?

ANTONIA
You’re hopelessly white. That’s America Chavez. You’ve never heard of her?

DOC
I don’t have kids, and uh I’m not much of a superhero person. What are her powers?

ANTONIA
Lots of the usual stuff. Super strength, speed, … but her coolest power is that she can kick open star-shaped portals and travel to other dimensions and times.

DOC
Where does she go?

ANTONIA
Wherever she’s needed. Mostly.

DOC
Is that why you like her?

ANTONIA
(ridiculing him) You mean so I can go to other dimensions where I don’t have cancer? Na. I love her because of her origin story.

DOC
Origin story?

ANTONIA
All the superheroes have one. It tells how they got their powers: mutation, spider bite, radiation, alien mutation … I guess they’re all pretty much mutations.

DOC
What’s America Chavez’s origin story?

ANTONIA
She had two moms—

DOC
Like you.

ANTONIA
Their universe was being threatened by black holes and her moms sealed up the black holes with their own selves. Now her two moms’ particles are scattered across the universe. So then I like to think that when she opens the star-shaped portal, she’s traveling through her mothers. They’re all around her. And that’s why she really does it, you know, be a superhero. So she can be with them.

Join us for the next Monday Night PlayGround on November 20! For more info, click here!