Women and Hollywood: From John Wayne movies to the plays of Sam Shepard, the story of the American West has always been presented as a distinctly male experience. Cowboys and Indians, outlaws and frontiersman, ranchers and prospectors, oil tycoons and cattle barons: the history of film, theater and literature is littered with strong men who stare unflinchingly into the face of adversity.
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As a citizen of the great state of California, this play strikes a chord with me. Hearing about the struggles of a lower-income single mother, surrounded by the oft-idealized landscapes of our great state is not something entire new to me. Amidst so much natural beauty, raw stories of survival (or lack thereof) have a certain poignancy. Reading about the main character's struggles, i am reminded of the stories I have had the privilege to witness, the ugly wrinkles of life as ragged as the foothills of the sierras. smply reading this synopsis is enough to take me back to the long drives to the center of my family in the far north of California, a place renowned for both its profound and remote natural beauty (think alpine forest and glacial lakes, juxtaposed with forest fires and the seismically cataclysmic confluence of the Sierra and Cascade mountain ranges) and the meth epidemic currently making its way through every pristine mountain town and logging camp. Reading this article, I am reminded of the sheer resiliency of those who hitch their trailers along I-5, squatting in walnut orchards and repeating the same cycles until they run themselves into the ground, wearing the faintest of smiles, the smiles born of the knowledge that one will die in one's own domain, even if it be a double wide rented in Reno half a lifetime ago.
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