Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Dead Stars
Dead Stars
Group Members:
- Axel Vryle V. Balagtas (Don Julian)
- Deaundra Hermione V. Roca (Esperanza)
- Geneses III G. Gerona (Alfredo Salazar)
- Luke Andrei Laco (Carmen)
- Mischa Kristin M. Bregaudit (Julia Salas)
- Sean Lawrenz S. Miñoza (Judge Del Valle)
SCENE 1
THE ASOTEA
DON JULIAN IS BUSY TENDING TO THE PLANTS WHILE CARMEN HELPS HIM.
Carmen: I wonder why he seems to be still thinking about getting married. He's
already thirty years old! And I'm pretty sure Esperanza is already becoming
anxious.
Carmen: How can a woman be in a hurry when the man does not hurry her?
Papa, do you remember how much in love he was?
Carmen: With Esperanza, of course. He has not had another love affair that I
know of. What I mean is that at the beginning he was enthusiastic-- flowers,
serenades, notes, and things like that-- What do you think happened?
Don Julian: I supposed long-engaged people are like that; warm now, cool
tomorrow. I think they are oftener cool than warm. The very fact that an
engagement has been allowed to prolong itself argues a certain placidity of
temperament--or of affection--on the part of either, or both. That phase you
were speaking of is natural enough for a beginning. Besides, that, as I see it,
was Alfredo's last race with escaping youth--A last spurt of hot blood .
DON JULIAN AND CARMEN SIT AT THE SOFA WHILE ALFREDO PACES AROUND
THE LIVING ROOM. ESPERANZA SITS ON THE OTHER COUCH.
Alfredo: We think so. After all, the parish priest is a very close friend of the
family. Am I right, papa?
Don Julian: Yes. The Reverend Father has been a close friend of mine. The
preparations for the church wedding would be somewhat more easy.
Esperanza: We called some of our friends who are in the business of arranging
events to come and help us. So it won't be much of a problem.
Esperanza: (laughs) Oh, Carmen, do not be so sad. We would still need you for
the arrangements with the church.
Don Julian: By the way, Judge Del Valle is inviting us to dinner tomorrow
evening. It would be a fantastic time to get to know each other.
Don Julian: Oh, yes. Julia Salas. I've met her before. Very nice young girl.
Carmen: I gratefully accept their invitation. It's a great time for us to bond with
the neighbors. and besides, the silence in this house is driving me insane. I'd
like to get out.
Esperanza: Oh, no need. It's for my Women's Club. You'd get bored with it,
anyway (laughs).
Don Julian: Maybe past 6 o'clock. Esperanza are you sure you can't come?
Esperanza: How I wish I could. Don't worry, I'll be fine. enjoy yourselves.
SCENE 3
THE HOUSE OF THE JUDGE
DON JULIAN. CARMEN, ESPERANZA, ALFREDO, THE JUDGE AND JULIA MEET IN
THE LIVING ROOM
Judge: Welcome, Don Julian! Who are these people you've brought with you?
Carmen: (walks to the Judge and shakes his hand) a pleasure to meet you!
Judge: Oh, there you are, my dear, I thought you were going to leave me here
to tend to our guests all alone. Everyone, this is Julia Salas, my dear sister-in-
law.
Julia: Oh. It seems that the journey to Manila has made her exhausted and she
retired to her room almost immediately after arriving earlier.
Judge: Ah. Of course. well, tell the maids to serve our dinner.
Judge gestures for everyone to sit while the dinner is being served.
SCENE 4
JUDGE'S HOUSE AFTER THE DINNER ALFREDO AND JULIA WERE TALKING.
Julia: (giggles again) when you were calling me Ms. Del Valle.
Alfredo: Oh?
Julia: You see, I'm not Ms. Del Valle. I'm Julia Salas.
Julia: That is nothing, Each time I was about to correct you, but I remembered
a similar experience I had once before.
Alfredo: Oh.
Julia: A man named Manalang--I kept calling him Manalo. After the tenth time
or so, the young man rose from his seat and said suddenly, 'Pardon me,
but my name is Manalang, Manalang.' You know, I never forgave him! The best
thing to do under the circumstances, I have found out is to pretend not to hear,
and to let the other person find out his mistake without help.
Alfredo: As you did this time. Still, you looked amused every time I--
Julia: Well (standing up) Time seems to fly away when you are enjoying
yourself, doesn't it?
Julia: It's getting late. Thank you so much for your time.
Alfredo: Maybe some other time. (Turns to the door) Now I have to go.
Goodbye, Ms. Salas.
Alfredo: Alright then. see you soon, Julia. (Alfredo turns to the door and leaves)
SCENE 5
DON JULIAN'S LIVING ROOM. ESPERANZA AND CARMEN ARE BUSY WITH
CLEANING UP THE DISHES WHILE ALFREDO WALKS OUT TO THE DOOR.
Esperanza: Why should I? I trust Alfredo. And besides, he's too old to flirt.
SCENE 6
THE JUDGE'S LIVING ROOM DON JULIAN AND THE JUDGE ARE TALKING
Don Julian: I am very much into plants. Farming has been my family's
business for years now.
Judge: Yes, it is evident in your plantation. By the way, I would like to show to
you our own plantation in our rest house. Would you and your family like to
come?
Judge: Excellent.
SCENE 7
THE REST HOUSE. AT NIGHT. JULIA AND ALFREDO ARE TALKING.
Julia: The afternoon has seemed very short, hasn't it? Then, This, I think, is the
last time--we can visit.
Julia: If you are, you never look it. Not perspiring or breathless, as a busy man
ought to be
Alfredo: But--
(A short pause.)
Alfredo: A man is happier if he is, as you say, calm and placid.
Alfredo: Who? I?
Alfredo: There is nothing to see--little crooked streets, bunut roofs with ferns
growing on them, and sometimes squashes.
Alfredo: Will you come? You will find it dull. There isn't even one American
there!
Julia: Well--Americans are rather essential to my entertainment. (laughs)
(Another short pause.)
Julia: We live on Calle Luz, a little street with trees.
Julia: What?
Julia: There is where you will lose your way. Now, that is not quite sincere.
Alfredo: It is.
Alfredo: Pretty--pretty--a foolish word! But there is none other more handy I
did not mean that quite-
Alfredo: Re-enforcing it, maybe. Something is pretty when it pleases the eye--it
is more than that when--
Julia: If it saddens?
Alfredo: Exactly.
Alfredo: Always?
Julia: Tomorrow. I received a letter from Father and Mother yesterday. They
want me to spend Holy Week at home. That is why I said this is the last time.
Alfredo: I know. This is Elsewhere, and yet strange enough, I cannot get rid of
the old things.
SCENE 9
AT THE CHURCH. THE PROCESSION. ALFREDO SEES THE PROCESSION OF THE
PATRON FROM THE CHURCH. JULIA WAS ALSO WATCHING THE PROCESSION.
Alfredo: I had been thinking all this time that you had gone-
Julia: No, my sister asked me to stay until they are ready to go.
Julia: Yes.
(A short pause.)
Julia: Mr. Salazar, I wish to congratulate you.
Alfredo: Julia, did you ever have to choose between something you wanted to
do and something you had to do?
Julia: No!
Alfredo: I thought maybe you had had that experience; then you could
understand a man who was in such a situation.
(A short pause.)
Alfredo: You are fortunate.
Alfredo: I don't know, Julia. Perhaps not. But there is a point where a thing
escapes us and rushes downward of its own weight, dragging us along. Then
it is foolish to ask whether one will or will not, because it no longer depends
on him.
Julia: But then why--why--Oh, what do I know? That is his problem after all.
Julia: Why must it? I--I have to say good-bye, Mr. Salazar; it is getting late.
Esperanza: ...why would Calixta do such a thing? (turns to Alfredo) Well, what
of it?
Alfredo: Of what?
Alfredo: No.
Esperanza: Well?
Esperanza: Why shouldn't it be? You talked like an--immoral man. I did not
know that your ideas were like that.
Alfredo: My ideas? The only test I wish to apply to conduct is the test of
fairness. Am I injuring anybody? No? Then I am justified in my conscience. I
am right. Living with a man to whom she is not married--is that it? It may be
wrong, and again it may not.
Esperanza: Why do you get angry? I do not understand you at all! I think I
know why you have been indifferent to me lately. I am not blind, or deaf; I see
and hear what perhaps some are trying to keep from me (voice shaking, like
about to cry). Why don't you speak out frankly before it is too late? You need
not think of me and of what people will say.
(A short pause)
Alfredo: Yes, one tries to be fair--according to his lights--but it is hard. One
would like to be fair to one's self first. But that is too easy, one does not dare--
Esperanza: If you mean you want to take back your word, if you are tired of-
why don't you tell me you are tired of me? (Esperanza leaves the room crying.)
SCENE 11
DON JULIAN'S LIVING ROOM. DON JULIAN AND ALFREDO ARE TALKING.
(A short pause)
Alfredo: Papa.....I think I am falling out of love with Esperanza.
Don Julian: (stands up) Falling out of love?! Near the date of your wedding?!
Why? with whom?!
Don Julian paces through the living room, trying to maintain his composure.
Don Julian: this is unacceptable, Alfredo. The Judge and his entire family is
leaving. You will marry Esperanza!
Alfredo: (buries his head in his hands) I know my duty to her, Papa.
Don Julian: And you better do it. For the sake of the reputation of our family!
(leaves Alfredo)
SCENE 12
AT CALLE LUZ.
TIME HAD PASSED BY. ALFREDO AND ESPERANZA ARE LONG SINCE MARRIED.
ALFREDO IS IN CALLE LUZ FOR A BUSINESS TRIP. HE WALKS AROUND TO FIND
THE HOUSE WHERE, LITTLE DID HE KNOW, JULIA SALAS LIVES NOW.
Julia: ALFREDO!!!
Alfredo: No, thank you. Maybe some other time. I'll be here for about a week.
Alfredo: Yes. Remember she told me that's where they live now?
(A short pause)
Don Julian: Your feelings for her -
Alfredo: - are gone. Papa, it has been a long time. So all these years I had been
seeing the light of dead stars, long extinguished, yet seemingly still in their
appointed places in the heavens.
Alfredo: Yes, it seems that is the truth. Maybe I was just blinded by the passion
and the surge of guilt I felt.
Don Julian: Maybe it had been like that all along, son. A phantom feeling. Of a
love that never was. Alfredo: Maybe that is the truth. Yet somehow, I feel
grateful for the chance to be enlightened to this feeling. It answered a lot of
questions inside me.
Alfredo: Yes, it did. Questions that I did not think have answers before,
THE END.