Canaryville Blues, Part III: Writing Canaryville

CONCEPT

EUPHEMISM. Part 6. "Carlotta Tames the Wild Onion" Chapter 40. Section B. aka


CANARYVILLE BLUES



FIRST REVISION



CHARACTERS

Patrick O’Connell, white* male, 22
Katie “Kidd” Finn, Irish American female, 19
Mary “Sis” Finn, Irish American female, 10
Bridgett “Mom” Finn, Irish American female, 38
Patty “Gramps” Finn, Irish American male, 62
Carlotta, white female, early 30s
Maurice “Cranks” “Leavitt” Branson, black male, 72
Marcos Ortubez, Mexican American male, 18
Katherine O’Toole, Irish American female, 20
Cassidy Freeman, white female, 28
Pat Keening, white male, 20
Bridgit Rodriguez, mixed female, 21
Ricardo Campi, Colombian American male, 22
Maria Sanchez, Mexican American female, 19


SYNOPSIS

ACT ONE
Scene One: Monday afternoon
Scene Two: Monday evening
Scene Three: Monday night

ACT TWO
Scene One: Wednesday afternoon
Scene Two: Wednesday evening
Scene Three: Wednesday night


SETTING

Time: October 2002.
Place: A basement bedroom. Canaryville, Chicago.


* Variation in racial/ethnic specificity between characters is a result of self-perception, and doesn’t necessarily mirror reality. The Finns have been in the U.S. for over fifty years, and even Marcos immigrated over a decade ago. The characters are described as they would describe themselves, such designations being of central importance in Canaryville.

* * * * *

I first became fascinated with Canaryville in October 1998 because 1990 census data indicated that the qrea was the highest concentration of Irish Americans in Chicago, despite the high-profile "Irishness" of Bridgeport and Beverly.

I was also intrigued because of the involvement of the meatpacking industry, historically. The industry was lurid and exciting because it had 1) a tragic end on the South Side, similar to GM's departure from Flint, 2) a complicated and tortured labor history, 3) was for a century on of the nation's largest multicultural melting pots, 4) practiced a bizarre and morbid function; the slaughter of tens of thousands of heads of livestock daily, 5) the above all leading to a crazy and wide-ranging body of literature including The Jungle by Upton Sinclair and St. Joan of the Stockyards by Bertolt Brecht.

I wrote two pages of a rough draft of Canaryville Blues in late 1999 / early 2000 for a playwriting class. The plot had a similar structure, but was only very sketchily drawn. The characters and setting, however, have been of continuing interest to me. It seemed a logical choice for revision when I spoke to Dan Gerics about submitting a script for Flint City Theatre.

It in included in my novel Euphemism through its connection with the nefarious character "Carlotta" and her involvement in events depicted in the "Euphemos Cycle" (ie. Euphemism).

* * * * *

Anyone interested in reading the script of Canaryville Blues can send a request to connor@afterdusk.org.