Historical Story

Artists' Statement:

This work attempts to place itself in the 1920's in Chicago, during the Prohibition era.  Though it is pre-Depression, it is set in a poorer area of town, in a family with no father and only the oldest son working.  Originally, we had the idea that this would be a Mormon family, but after doing some research, we found that the probability of a Mormon family living in Chicago in the 1920's was very little, and decided instead to base the family's belief system after those commonly held by the members of the Women's Temperance Union, typically very religious women whose main concern about Prohibition was providing protection and empowerment to women, rather than restricting the rights of individuals to buy alcohol.

When we first envisioned the story, we had a clear beginning and a clear end.  We wanted Charles to be working, without his mother's knowledge, at a speakeasy, which would clearly be at odds with his mother's belief, as well as his own core beliefs, and in the end, we wanted him to reconcile those beliefs.  What we found was the lack of a strong conflict.  Originally, we had Charles finally just telling his mother, and the two of them having a conversation, but the tension was low and there was no interesting conflict.  The rally and riot were added to increase the stakes, as well as the decision to make Charles the sole provider for the family, instead of having a father figure, who was absentee from the script, providing some sort of fall-back.  Also, in the development of the script, we toned up the tension in the end between Charles and his mother, instead of having a cheesy resolution, so that the burden would ultimately rest on Charles to make his final decision.

To place the script in the setting, a large part depended on proper dialogue.  Appropriate slang was used for the age, though we didn't want to overwhelm the reader with unfamiliar jargon, just using enough to give the dialogue authenticity.  The script reading done in class was a great check on this, especially when appropriate accents were utilized while reading, and helped us to nail the dialogue down.

It was interesting to construct a narrative that isn't drawing from personal stories, or those shared by others, like many of the examples shown in class.  Authenticity was a little harder to achieve, but in the end the result is something that is definitely plausible, and could perhaps echo situations that existed in that time period.