Cover art: "The Throne of Saturn" by Elihu Vedder

Flowers

José Rivera

This play is included in the collection:

Description

Lulu's acne must have some cosmic meaning, perhaps punishment for her vanity, but when the acne morphs into hibiscus flowers, she believes she is cursed. Her little brother, Beto, however, sees an “unearthly beauty” in the flowers.

Production Info

Cast: 2 total (1 female, 1 male)
Short Drama (about 20 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Contemporary Costumes
Reviews

Press Quotes

“José Rivera’s GIANTS HAVE US IN THEIR BOOKS, is subtitled ‘Six Children’s Plays for Adults.’ The genesis of the plays, he explains in a program note, was his four-year-old daughter’s observation that, if we have giants in our fairy tales, they must have us in theirs. Rivera wrote the plays, he says, ‘as if we were the subject of fairy tales told by giants.’ It’s an apt notion. The six short plays in GIANTS have all the beautiful simplicity of fairy tales … Rivera’s prose has become more concentrated and spare, more pregnant with metaphor and poetry. The profuse and sometimes self-consciously fantastical stew of magic realism — which, like his mentor, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Rivera insists is just another form of everyday reality — has been condensed so that each image carries greater weight. The six short fables in GIANTS add up to two hours of compelling, entertaining and provocative theater.” —Robert Hurwitt, San Francisco Examiner

About the Author

Author

  • José Rivera

    José Rivera’s full-length plays have been seen nationally and internationally and translated into a dozen languages. Obie Award–winners MARISOL And REFERENCES TO SALVADOR DALI MAKE ME HOT, both produced by The Public Theatre, NY, are taught around the country, as well as his essay “36 Assumptions about Playwriting." World premieres include THE HOUSE OF RAMON IGLESIA (Ensemble Studio Theatre), THE PROMISE (Los Angeles Theatre Center), EACH DAY DIES WITH SLEEP (Circle Rep/Berkeley Rep), CLOUD TECTONICS (Humana Festival at the Actors Theatre of Louisville), MARICELA DE LA LUZ LIGHTS THE WORLD (La Jolla Playhouse), GIANTS HAVE US IN THEIR BOOKS (Magic Theatre), SUEÑO (Hartford Stage Company), SONNETS FOR AN OLD CENTURY (Greenway Arts Alliance), BOLEROS FOR THE DISENCHANTED (Yale Rep), SCHOOL OF THE AMERICAS (Public Theatre), MASSACRE (SING TO YOUR CHILDREN) (Goodman Theatre), BRAINPEOPLE (ACT/San Francisco), ADORATION OF THE OLD WOMAN (La Jolla Playhouse), ANOTHER WORD FOR BEAUTY (Goodman Theatre), THE MAIDS (INTAR), THE KISS OF THE SPIDERWOMAN (Menier Chocolate Factory, London), THE LOVESONG (IMPERFECT) (14th Street Y, directed by the author), YOUR NAME MEANS DREAM (Contemporary American Theatre Festival, directed by the author), THE HOURS ARE FEMININE (INTAR, directed by the author, winner 2024 HOLA Best Production Award). His latest play A LUNAR RHAPSODY was workshopped at Duke U., Northwestern U., DePauw U., and Santa Fe Playhouse, each co-directed (with Sara Koviak) by the author. The screenplay for Rivera’s first produced movie, “The Motorcycle Diaries” (Walter Salles, director) was nominated for 2005 Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar — making Rivera the first Puerto Rican writer so honored. Other honors include a BAFTA, a Writers Guild Award, a Goya Award (Spain), and Argentina’s top screenwriting prize. His film “On the Road” (Francis Ford Coppola, producer, Walter Salles, director) premiered at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival and “Trade” (Lionsgate Pictures) was the first film to premiere at the United Nations. Other films include “The 33” and “Letters to Juliet.” Rivera co-created and produced “Eerie, Indiana,” (NBC) and was a consultant and staff writer on “Penny Dreadful: City of Angels” (Showtime) 2019. Rivera wrote and directed the award-winning short films “The Fall of a Sparrow” and “The Civet,” seen at film festivals around the country. Rivera is a recipient of a Fulbright Arts Fellowship, a Whiting Foundation Award, a McKnight Fellowship, a 2005 Impact Award, and was a playwright-in-residence at the Royal Court Theatre, London. In 1989 he studied with Gabriel García Márquez at the Sundance Institute. He has served on the boards of PEN West, TCG, and Sundance, was a Creative Advisor at Sundance Screenwriting Labs in Utah, Jordan, and India, and currently teaches writing at HB Studio, New York. Most recently, he was head writer and executive producer of the Netflix series based on One Hundred Years of Solitude (winner “Best Series,” 2025 Premios Platino), which the London Telegraph called “a spellbinding adaptation of an unfilmable novel.”

About the Book

Book Information

Publisher BPPI
Publication Date 6/30/2014
Pages 72
ISBN 9780881451412

Special Notes

Special Notes

Licensees are required to include the original stage producers credits 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:

Originally produced at the Magic Theater, San Francisco

The following must appear within all programs distributed in connection with performances of the Play:
Flowers is produced
by special arrangement with Broadway Play Publishing Inc, NYC
www.broadwayplaypublishing.com

Productions

Upcoming and Recent Productions

Nonprofessional


10/18/2018 – 10/21/2018
Indiana State University
Terre Haute, IN