In and Out of Character, Women Speak by Odilia Rivera-Santos

Odilia Rivera Santos

People say words are not valuable -- writing is an art which doesn't pay, etc. But I see words as gems devoid of slavery and forced labor. It is our most valuable currency once we're stripped of all other accoutrements.
I think of stark sets with actors whose clothes cannot create class distinctions and how they strive to be noticed, heard, loved, admired and how they cajole each other into assisting one reach the aim of another. I am, at this very moment, sitting in a crowded place. A woman to my left, who looks like a classical music person, is sipping coffee and staring at me. My transient tranquillity is her ocean. And she is unabashedly taking a dip. My aim today is to practice walking meditation and to remain unperturbed, untouched, disengaged from/by the externals. My internals provide enough stimuli.
I am acting as if I were a spirit in search of a body.
I am finishing monologues for my actresses for the next big show: In and Out of Character, Women Speak, which will be performed at The Organization for Puerto Rican Artists.
I never found an Italian-American actress of any ethnicity or race to play an Italian-American, so that monologue returns to the vault. I am deep inside the writing, so excuse the tangents and heavy metaphors -- the density will be diluted before the performance.
Mid January . ..
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