Petra's Pecado

By Rupert Reyes

In the rural town of Las Flores, Texas, Petra Dominguez's small tortilla factory is threatened by competitive business woman Tina Tamayo's repeated underhanded and devious efforts to run her out of business. Meanwhile, the new priest's good intentions will further fan the flames between Petra and Tina.

The three collide when Petra decides to boost morale by taking advantage of a one-month free cable offer for the employee break room only to stumble onto an x-rated sight she feels she must seek confession for. When the priest hears Petra's confession, he sees an opportunity to combine her penance with a scheme to increase participation at the church.

Petra's penance: to direct the annual play commemorating the appearance of La Virgen de Guadalupe to Juan Diego for this year's celebration. Of course, Tina Tamayo sees this as a personal cross she refuses to bear - she has directed the play for years and isn't happy about the change.

Petra's inexperience, mixed with the loyalty of her senior citizen friends and Tina's mischief, leads to almost certain disaster. Through a series of "miracles" Petra and her friends begin to find strength in themselves and each other. Will Tina Tamayo triumph in the end? .

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Editing
• Release date: Sep 8, 2013
• ISBN: 9780989311915

Book preview

PETRA’s PECADO

by Rupert Reyes

aE PUBLISHING HOUSE

SMASHWORDS EDITION, SEPTEMBER 2013

Copyright 1993 by Rupert Reyes

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published by aE Publishing House, a division of Austin Editing.

CAUTION: This play is protected in whole, in part, or in any form, under the Copyright Laws of the United States of America, the British Empire, including the Dominion of Canada, and all other countries of the Copyright Union, and is subject to royalty. All rights, including professional, amateur, motion picture, recitation, radio, television, and public reading, are strictly reserved. All inquiries concerning performance rights should be addressed to the author: Rupert Reyes, 3103 Breeze Terrace, Austin, Texas, 78722-1909.

The U.S. World Premiere was produced by Jorge Piña and directed by Rodney Garza. Originally produced in San Antonio, Texas at the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center.

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment and may not be re-sold or given away. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

ISBN 978-0-9893119-1-5

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Table of Contents

Foreword

Introduction

Cast of Characters

Act I

Scene i

Scene ii

Scene iii

Scene iv

Scene v

Scene vi

Act II

Scene i

Scene ii

Scene iii

Scene iv

Scene v

Scene vi

Scene vii

Scene viii

Scene ix

About the Author

FOREWORD

by Rodrigo Duarte-Clark

My first encounter with Rupert as a playwright occurred in the process of producing Teatro de la Esperanza’s melodramatically collectively titled Hijos: Once a Family, about the dynamics of a family caught in the crux of a labor strike. I had only known Rupert as an actor before then, but the delivery of one specific line got my attention. He was playing a neighbor, a chismoso in search of material, trying his less-than-subtle best to get the news from the protagonist whose family is at the center of the play. Rupert’s character asks Y … y como esta la familia? In one simple delivery of So how’s the family doing? I knew Rupert understood the art of the chismolero. In fact, I suspected he was one. I knew then he was going to be a funny playwright.

Sometime later, he humbly showed me the scene he was assigned to write for the aforementioned play, the first piece of Rupertian writing I had ever seen. I tell you no lie, I was moved to tears but, being the macho that I was, I held them back. It was sweet and powerful with metaphors belying a Chicano with rural roots. I knew then he could write drama. A dozen years later, mas o menos, he sends us Petra’s Pecado, which Esperanza later performed (as a work in progress). Of course, Rupert would later refine and perfect the final version which premiered in San Antonio, then Austin, Texas and won him a loyal following and critical acclaim. The humor, eccentric characters direct from the barrio, the mod version of La Virgen de Guadalupe, twists and turns in the plot, and the sweet ending all in one – Petra’s Pecado is truly representative of Rupert: his love of humor, his storytelling, the endearing relationships and values, and his spirit.

INTRODUCTION

by Jorge Huerta

Petra’s Pecado has been entertaining and delighting audiences since it was first produced in 1995 by The Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center in San Antonio, Texas, directed by Rodney Garza. I describe Petra’s Pecado as a modern Chicana/o morality play, a contemporary descendant of the Spanish religious folk theatre that has been a part of Southwestern culture since the Spanish began to employ theatre to convert the natives to Christianity upon their arrival to what is now El Paso, Texas in 1598. One of the most prevalent of these religious plays continues to be Las Cuatro Apariciones de la Virgen de Guadalupe a Juan Diego, first performed towards the end of the 16th century in Mexico. That play is at the center of this delightful comedy as we follow the trials and tribulations of one, Petra Dominguez, as