The Merit System
Play Description
Ray Rivers is a young Puerto Rican man on the way up. Everything is going great for him except he doesn’t believe he deserves it. Struggling with the cost of assimilation, he walks a tightrope both at the factory, where he has been recently promoted to management, and with his fiancée. When a recently divorced Cuca joins the assembly line, with the sole purpose of making enough money to return to her beloved Puerto Rico, an unexpected friendship between Ray and Cuca develops and finally allows him to accept the part of himself that he’s long denied.
Production Info
Cast: 3 total (2 female, 1 male)Full Length Drama (about 80 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Contemporary Costumes
- About the Author(s)
- About the Book
- Special Notes
Author(s)
Edwin SánchezWinner of the National Latino Playwriting Award for LA BELLA FAMILIA, recent productions include UNMERCIFUL GOOD FORTUNE and TRAFFICKING IN BROKEN HEARTS, both in Los Angeles as well as the world premiere of the romantic comedy I'LL TAKE ROMANCE at the Evolution Theatre in Ohio. Other productions include: DIOSA, produced by Hartford Stage after a successful workshop by New York Stage and Film, TRAFFICKING IN BROKEN HEARTS at the Bank Street Theater in New York, UNMERCIFUL GOOD FORTUNE at the Intar Theater in New York, for which he received the Princess Grace Playwriting Award in 1994, and BAREFOOT BOY WITH SHOES On at Primary Stages in New York. This play was selected by the Eugene O'Neill Playwrights Conference to represent the National Playwrights Conference at the Schelykovo Playwrights Seminar in Russia; ICARUS produced by Fourth Unity, Actors Theater of Louisville as part of their Humana Festival, San Jose Rep and regionally throughout the U.S.; and TRAFFICKING IN BROKEN HEARTS, Atlantic Theater in New York, and productions in Brazil and Switzerland. He was also among the playwrights involved with Brave New World, an organization commemorating the events surrounding September 11th. www.edwinsanchez-writer.com. Edwin is on the playwriting faculty at Primary Stages in New York City.
Book Information
| Publisher | BPPI |
|---|---|
| Publication Date | 1/19/2017 |
| Pages | 52 |
| ISBN | 9780881456691 |
Special Notes
If original stage producers credits appear in bold below, all licensees are required to include them in the following form on the title page in all programs distributed in connection with performances of the Play and in all advertising in which the full cast appears in size of type not less than ten percent (10%) of the size of the title of the Play:
In addition, the following must appear within all programs distributed in connection with performances of the Play:
by special arrangement with Broadway Play Publishing Inc, NYC
www.broadwayplaypub.com
Related Plays
$10.95–$15.00Play Description
Unemployed mailman Humbert Lavoignet has fallen into a six-month trance. When he awakes, he announces that God has ordered him to do something wonderful, and he sets about building a tower made of junk. With echoes of Don Quixote, THE WONDERFUL TOWER OF HUMBERT LAVOIGNET is a play about genius, vision, and divine obsession.
Production Info
Cast: 5 total (1 female, 4 male)Full Length Drama (about 100 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00–$15.95Play Description
What would happen if you found that impossible love was indeed possible? And what would happen if two of these couples were a drag queen and a woman, and a priest and a boy?
Production Info
Cast: 6 total (1 female, 5 male)Full Length Drama (about 100 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00–$15.95Collection Description
This collection includes 15 short and very short plays. BEA AND MAY: Bea does not want her beloved, May, to marry Jerry, but Jerry’s rich, and May has a plan. CELESTED: Lou’s ex, Celeste, shows up at his wedding. DING: Three people sit in a waiting room waiting for the bell to go ding! ERNESTO THE MAGNIFICENT: Tonight Ernesto the Failure will become Ernesto the Magnificent. ETHAN’S GOT GAME: Ethan’s going to be a millionaire by the time’s he twenty-one. GOODBYE: Hijo is leaving his family to pursue being an actor in New York. JIMMY: Danny’s rough trade, Jimmy, might be more than he bargained for. JODY’S MOTHER: Jody has made a terrible mistake, and Jody’s mother is paying for it. LILI MARLENE: Lili Marlene knows what’s wrong with this country, the lack of glamour. POPS: Tomas’s father was a busboy at Windows on the World. SILENCE 1: Robin is not speaking to Sandy, and it’s driving Robin crazy. SILENCE 2: Sandy’s not speaking to Robin, and Robin makes a meal out of it. SMILING: Ernest can’t wipe the smile off his face. SPEED DATING FOR THE LATINO ACTOR: A group of actors rediscover hope in their chosen profession. THE SUBSTITUTE: This substitute teacher has had enough, and he’s going to make sure his students think twice about ever bullying anyone again.
Plays in This Collection
Full Length Drama (about 80 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00Play Description
Reality and fantasy collide as a son, just out of a mental institution, and his mother, a former hooker, now a fortune teller, battle for the truth regarding the death of a daughter who may never have existed.
Production Info
Cast: 8 total (4 female, 4 male)Full Length Drama (about 90 minutes)
Single Set
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00–$15.95Play Description
Barbara, recently deserted by her husband of five years, discovers a Conquistador in her living room. Though she has had vivid fantasies about Spain, the Conquistador and his cruel and bloodthirsty approach to life were never part of them … until now. Through him and a maze of real and imaginary characters — including her best friend Diversion, a Mayan Ancient, and a very familiar guitar player — Barbara sorts through the leftovers and finds her Duende. A seriously magical comedy.
Production Info
Cast: 5 total (3 female, 2 male)Full Length Comedy (about 90 minutes)
Single Set
Contemporary Costumes
Play Description
Bathed in music, moonlight, and surf, THE GUITARRÓN is the story of Guicho, a young fisherman, who is transformed by love and music. Meanwhile, the cellist who inspired Guicho rises from the dead and starts life anew as a fisherman.
Production Info
Cast: 6 total (1 female, 5 male)Full Length Drama (about 100 minutes)
Single Set
Contemporary Costumes
Play Description
ON SUNDAYS concerns a single day in the life of a young female dancer whose existence is surrealistically intertwined with fifty years of the life of a man who has become obsessed with her.
Production Info
Cast: 3 total (1 female, 2 male)Short Drama (about 30 minutes)
Single Set
Contemporary Costumes
Play Description
Wilson is searching for his deceased son, James. With the assistance of two experts in reincarnation, he finds a young woman, Jaime, but is she really his son reincarnated?
Production Info
Cast: 8 total (4 female, 4 male)Full Length Drama (about 100 minutes)
Multiple Sets
Contemporary Costumes
$10.95–$15.95Play Description
A play about a father-daughter relationship and a very beautiful culture slowly being overcome by an alien culture.
Production Info
Cast: 7 total (3 female, 4 male)Full Length Drama (about 90 minutes)
Single Set
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00–$15.95Play Description
A childless, Latino couple kidnap a young girl in order to create a family, but the little girl has ideas of her own, and when her imaginary friend, the Grinch, comes to life to help her, the couple ends up with far more than they bargained for. A dark, gothic fairy tale for the contemporary world.
Production Info
Cast: 3 total (2 female, 1 male)Full Length Drama (about 95 minutes)
Single Set
Contemporary Costumes
$10.95Play Description
María Irene Fornés' award-winning adaptation of Aire Frío, the masterpiece of Virgilio Piñera, perhaps Cuba's greatest modernist writer.
Production Info
Cast: 8 total (4 female, 4 male)Full Length Drama (about 90 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Contemporary Costumes