Independently Yours

A gentle, life-affirming comedy about one of the major issues of our day.
The play is based on the paradox that sometimes, like our country, you 
have to join together to be truly independent.

The High Haven Senior Living home in San Diego is not a bad 
place to spend one’s autumn days. The food is good, there’s a bus to 
church, and most always someone to play cards with. There’s also Frank 
and his piano for entertainment.
     Despite all this, widower Frank McGowen, a former navy captain,
longs to live in a house with his own garden. There’s only one hitch – he 
can’t cook and says he’s too old to learn.
     Flo Martinez has buried three husbands and rejects any thought of 
moving in with her socially prominent son. She’s hale and hearty for her 
age, but as Frank says, “her lights flicker.”
     Hattie Garner is blind, so living on her own is not an option. She 
wants to let her daughter and son-in-law have their house to themselves 
for the first time in their marriage, now that the children have left the 
nest.
     In comes Emma Waters. Emma has been a housekeeper and nanny 
for a doctor and his wife for 50 years, and was always made to feel like 
one of the family. When Mrs. Easton dies, the doctor decides to sell the
house and move to Sun City, leaving Emma behind.
     With Frank in the lead, these four hatch a plan to rent a house 
together.
     Each has a reason they are not able to live alone, but together, 
they hope to achieve independence. The only problem: strict zoning laws 
that restrict housing to a single family. Will they be able to prove they 
constitute a family and so have a right to keep their independence –
together?
     A formal set is not needed for this play, as movable set pieces can 
be operated by stagehands in the style of Japanese Noh theatre. A rear-projected video screen could be 
helpful.