Free Trying to Find Chinatown: The Selected Plays of David Henry Hwang by David Henry Hwang Page B

naive—you believed the snow was warm.
    MA: I’ve got to change myself. Toughen up. Take no shit. Count my change. Learn to gamble. Learn to win. Learn to stare. Learn to deny. Learn to look at men with opaque eyes.
    LONE: You want to do that?
    MA: I will. ’Cause I’ve got the fear. You’ve given it to me.
    (Pause.)
     
    LONE: Will I see you here tonight?
    MA: Tonight?
    LONE: I just thought I’d ask.
    MA: I’m sorry, Lone. I haven’t got time to be the Second Clown.
    LONE: I thought you might not.
    MA: Sorry.
    LONE: You could have been a . . . fair actor.
    MA: You coming down? I gotta get ready for work. This is gonna be a terrible day. My legs are sore and my arms are outa practice.
    LONE: You go first. I’m going to practice some before work. There’s still time.
    MA: Practice? But you said you lost your fear. And you said that’s what brings you up here.
    LONE: I guess I was wrong about that, too. Today, I am dancing for no reason at all.
    MA: Do whatever you want. See you down at camp.
    LONE: Could you do me a favor?
    MA: A favor?
    LONE: Could you take this down so I don’t have to take it all? (He points to a pile of props)
    MA: Well, okay. (Pause) But this is the last time.
    LONE: Of course, Ma.
    (Ma exits.)
     
     
    See you soon. The last time. I suppose so.
     
    (Lone resumes practicing. He twirls his hair around as in the beginning of the play. The sun begins to rise. It continues rising until Lone, moving, is seen only in shadow.)
     
     
    END OF PLAY

FAMILY DEVOTIONS
     
    (1981)
     
    For my Ama and Ankong, and Sam Shepard
    Production History
     
    Family Devotions opened at The Joseph Papp Public Theater/New York Shakespeare Festival (Joseph Papp, Producer), in New York City on October 18, 1981. It was directed by Robert Allan Ackerman; the set design was by David Gropman; the costume design was by Willa Kim and the lighting design was by Tom Skelton. The cast was as follows:
     
JOANNE
Jodi Long
WILBUR
Jim Ishida
JENNY
Lauren Tom
AMA
Tina Chen
POPO
June Kim
HANNAH
Helen Funai
ROBERT
Michael Paul Chan
DI-GOU
Victor Wong
CHESTER
Marc Hayashi
     
     
    Characters
     
JOANNE, Chinese-American raised in the Philippines, late thirties.
    WILBUR, Joanne’s husband, Japanese-American, nisei (second generation), late thirties.
    JENNY, Joanne and Wilbur’s daughter, seventeen.
    AMA, Joanne’s mother, born in China, emigrated to the Philippines, then to America.
    POPO, Ama’s younger sister.
    HANNAH, Popo’s daughter and Joanne’s cousin, five years older than Joanne.
    ROBERT, Hannah’s husband, Chinese-American, first generation.
    DI-GOU, Ama and Popo’s younger brother, born and raised in China, still a resident of the People’s Republic of China (P.R.C.).
    CHESTER, Hannah and Robert’s son, early twenties.

    Place
     
    The lanai/sunroom and tennis court of a home in Bel Air, California.
    Time
     
    1980.
    Act I: late afternoon.
    Act II: same scene, immediately following.
     
     
    Definitions
     
    bao is a steamed meat bun.
gao sai is dog dung.
guo-tieh is a fried meat dumpling.
jok is a Chinese rice porridge.

ACT I
     
    As the curtain rises, we see a single spotlight on an old Chinese face and hear Chinese music or chanting. Suddenly, the music becomes modern-day funk or rock ’n’ roll, and the lights come up to reveal the set: the lanai/sunroom and backyard of a home in Bel Air. The sunroom has a glass roof and glass walls. Upstage of the lanai/sunroom is a patio with a barbecue and a tennis court. The tennis court leads offstage.
    The face is that of Di-gou, an older Chinese man wearing a blue suit and carrying an old suitcase. He is standing on the tennis court and peering into the sunroom through the glass walls. Behind him, a stream of black smoke is coming from the barbecue.
    JOANNE (Offstage) : Wilbur! Wilbur!
    (Di-gou exits off the tennis court. Joanne enters from the house. She is a Chinese-American woman, attractive, in her late thirties. She sees the smoke coming from the