Notes for Le Théâtre du Grand-Guignol

The show made "Best of the Week" at the 2014 FronteraFest Short Fringe.  A special thanks to Roxy Becker who starred and made it work!


Notes for one woman show - Le Théâtre du Grand-Guignol

A happy, silly, hard-working bureaucrat, Dorcas Capella, who really believes she is doing good as she perpetrates institutional evil.  She has done all the jobs in the system and has ended up in placing unit (Centralized Placement Unit).

The story is about the fate of one young girl.
- deaths
- first home - sex in the movies
- runaway
- Juvenile justice
- RTC
- Foster home 2
- Shelter
- Runaway - drugs, rape
- RTC - sexual acting out
- First home again
- the end
People:
Mother and Brother
Father
Step mother
Old friends
foster parents
Judge
CPS caseworker
therapists
ad litem
CASA

Not conservative, she’s a liberal.  Not cynical.

She truly believes she is being helpful and doing good and has the best interests of the child in mind.

She was an athlete. absent father.  Solid mother. The shack.  Amateur actor.

Cultural sensitivity.

The case that made her career.

Caseworker-  “No distance, no objectivity.  Each child is considered an individual.”  You can't take this job personally.  Can’t make this job personal.  Can’t take it seriously.  Too much failure.

Last line. Barking laugh. Ha ha ha ha armagedon.

In reverse it’s still a fucking pageant.

"unbridled discretion, however benevolently motivated, is frequently a poor substitute for principle and procedure," US Supreme Court

Defending against child abuse allegations is "like trying to prove you're not a witch." - Seattle lawyer John Henry Browne, who defended two people in Wenatchee

For the good of the child

Fire and Rain
Electric Avenue - “Who is to blame in one country? Never can get to the one”
MIA
Loudon Wainwright III - “The hellhound says it time to pay the dues.”
Little Dragons
Lily Allen - The Fear  “I don't care about clever I don't care about funny”
Porcelain - Moby  “In my dreams I'm dying all the time”

“Are you reading ahead?  You’re reading ahead, aren’t you.  I can tell.  Some of you are reading ahead.”

"We could never equal Buchenwald," - said its final director, Charles Nonon, Grand Guignol Theater.

Rewrite: Texas state song

Lyrics:
Overkill
KMAG YOYO
STUPID HOE
"Just A Girl"
"Hustlin'"
"For What It's Worth"