The Fiancé
When Bea moves to a retirement home to finally live the Manhattan life she dreamt of as a girl, she finds a new friend in the man next door, Doug. But when Doug proposes, she must overcome her family’s objections to the engagement and decide how she wants to spend of the rest of her life…and with whom.
After the worst breakup of my life, I simply wrote the play I most needed to see - one to make me believe in love again. If it could happen for Bea at age 85, then maybe it could happen for me. I've also experienced first-hand how challenging it can be for a family member remarry after a spouse's death and wanted to write about it. Marsha Norman, one of my teachers at Juilliard, always says the best ideas for plays are ones that cause people to tell you a story in return. If that's true, then this must be my best idea, because I've never told someone about it without hearing back some version of, "My grandfather remarried 6 months after my grandmother died..."
Characters
3 women, 2 men
Setting
Retirement community in Manhattan. The present.
History
May 2014 - Reading in the Slant Theatre Project's Springboard Reading Series
“This is sure easier than things were in my day. In my day we didn’t have phones, not even landlines, so if a man wanted to see you, he had to work. He had to FIGURE IT OUT and set a date to see you again or else - he wouldn’t. There was no texting at the last minute to cancel, so if something interfered with a man’s journey to see you, you were stood up! You ever heard that phrase? “He stood me up!” That really happened.”