Plays
WORDS THAT BURN: A Dramatization of WWII Experiences
of William Stafford, Lawson Inada, and
Guy Gabaldón in Their Own Words
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Written by Cindy Williams Gutiérrez
Directed by Gemma Whelan
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Winner of the 2017 Oregon Book Award
Photo: © Russell J Young.
Left to right: Paul Susi, Todd Van Voris, Anthony Green
Through a blend of poetry and monologue, this dramatic work reveals how three historical figures—conscientious objector William Stafford, Japanese-American internee Lawson Inada, and East L.A. marine Guy Gabaldón—galvanized language to discover liberation during “the good war.”
"There are two aspects of this piece that I find particularly noteworthy. Though the research for the piece involved independent sources, the playwright elected to have all of the men participate in the telling of each of their stories. The dramatic implication of this strategy is to imply that all three men were equally affected by World War II: the pacifist Stafford as much as the gung-ho Marine Gabaldón and the incarcerated Inada... The second noteworthy aspect is the sensitive selection of episodes and writings contained in each of their stories. The precise selection of anecdotes and facts affirms what I suspect was the playwright’s intent: to include this disparate group of men (by ethnicity and inclination) into one unified group equally affected by a very bloody and hard-won war. I found the piece both evocative and informative."
—EDIT VILLARREAL, Judge, 2017 Oregon Book Award for Drama
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Productions and Podcasts
2014—Premiere: Produced by Los Porteños at Milagro Theatre in Portland, OR
2016: Produced by Merc Playhouse in Twisp, WA
2017: Produced by Literary Arts at Linkville Playhouse in Klamath Falls, OR
2018: Recorded by OPB for Literary Arts' Archive Project
IN THE NAME OF FORGOTTEN WOMEN: A Play in Verse
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Written by Cindy Williams Gutiérrez
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New
In the tradition of Ntozake Shange’s for colored girls who have considered suicide/ when the rainbow is enuf, this dramatic work is a choreopoem combining poetry with music and dance. In the Name of Forgotten Women is, in its essence, a ceremony to restore the Feminine in the world.
Through the individual and collective voices of women, the work explores the plight of Woman—as bride, wife, mother, and daughter—in over 15 countries around the globe. Inspired by real-life incidents, the play dramatizes the war waged on women’s bodies and freedom in the 19th and 20th centuries, and their indomitable will to survive. The play is narrated by the herstorical figure Enheduanna, High Priestess to the Sumerian Goddess Inanna and the first known author of the world, who returns from 4,300 years ago to guide the audience through the women’s contemporary stories of oppression and resilience.
Left to right: Darlene Solomon Rogers, Charu Nair, and
Mandana Khoshnevisan
Productions
2019—Staged Reading: Produced by Wellspring in Twisp, WA
Reserve seats for IN THE NAME OF FORGOTTEN WOMEN here.
A DIALOGUE OF FLOWER & SONG
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Written by Cindy Williams Gutiérrez
Directed by Olga Sanchez
Music by Gerardo Calderón
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Produced for the 2012 GEMELA Conference
Photo: © Russell J Young
Left to right: Musician Gerardo Calderón, Phil Stockton, Sofia May-Cuxim. Nicole Accuardi, Alex Leigh Ramirez, Rafael Miguel
Projected image of Diego Delascio
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Set mostly in 15th-century Mexico, the play re-imagines a historic Mesoamerican literary event that took place around 1490. In the original Dialogue of Flower & Song, seven poet-kings from rival chiefdoms gathered to discuss the meaning of poetry, or "flower and song."
Not so in this re-imagining where boundaries of time, space, and gender are crossed. The host of the original dialogue—poet-king Tecayehuatzin—returns from the Land of the Fleshless to invite three female poets from pivotal points in Mexico's history—15th-century poet-princess Macuilxochitzin from Tenochtitlan, 17th-century poet-nun Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz from Nueva España, and photojournalist Diana from the contemporary Mexican Diaspora—to a "do-over." The women must debate the purpose of poetry and wrestle with what it means to "be impeccable." The winner of the debate may be able to alter the course of history. There is nothing anti-war war correspondent Diana would like to do more than redo a secret from her past.
Productions and Pocasts
2012—Staged Reading: Produced by the University of Portland at Milagro Theatre
in Portland, OR for the 2012 GEMELA Conference
(Spanish & Latin American Women’s Studies—pre-1800 Conference)
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2008—Podcast: Produced by Maine Humanities in Freeport, ME
