Inay’s Wedding Dress
A Ten-Minute Drama
by
Conrad A. Panganiban
CAST OF CHARACTERS
RIANNE CASTRO: 18. Female. Filipina American. Darker skinned Pinay.
GERILYN CASTRO: Late 20s. Female. American of Filipino descent. Rianne’s older sister. Lighter skinned by way of natural skin whitening products from Korea.
TIME
Present.
SETTING
The living room of the Castro Family Home set in San Francisco, CA.
Lights up on a Victorian-styled home’s living room.
A beautiful cream-colored wedding dress with butterfly sleeves called a Filipiniana is displayed on the on the floor. The top half of the dress is in the lap of RIANNE, a 17 year-old dark-skinned Pinay (Filipina American) wearing black cargo shorts, a grey t-shirt with its sleeves cut-off, black boots, and a short haircut.
Keys are heard jingling before the sound of a door opening and closing shut is heard off-stage.
Enter GERILYN, 26, a light-skinned Pinay wearing a cute summer dress, sunglasses and carrying a bag with a trendy upperscale store name written on it.
GERILYN
I swear Army Street is getting dirtier by the decade.
RIANNE
It’s called Cesar Chavez now, Gerilyn.
GERILYN stops to notice the dress on the floor.
GERILYN
You found it.
RIANNE
It was in one of the boxes in the garage.
GERILYN
It’s beautiful.
RIANNE
You know how she is. It was kept inside a box inside a box inside another box.
So, did Rick catch his flight okay?
GERILYN meticulously inspects the dress.
GERILYN
What?
RIANNE
Did Rick catch his flight okay?
GERILYN
Oh… yeah.
RIANNE
I’m glad that you didn’t leave with him.
GERILYN
He had to get back to his Firm.
I’m leaving tomorrow. I just stayed to get–
RIANNE
Tomorrow?
I haven’t seen you in forever.
GERILYN
I’m sure I’d be only getting in the way with… whatever it is you do.
RIANNE
Don’t you want to find out whatever it is that I do?
GERILYN
I’d love to Honey, but…
RIANNE
We can go to your favorite, Papalote. And then maybe Ocean Beach later. Get some sun on ya.
GERILYN
Don’t you have school?
RIANNE
I’m on bereavement leave.
GERILYN
They have that at Mission High?
RIANNE
It does for me.
GERILYN
You’ve always been the independent one.
RIANNE
It’s not like I had a choice, did I?
GERILYN
I’d love to join you, but I’ve left my intake of Mexican food here on the West Coast and I really have to get back to my patients.
RIANNE
(Under her breath)
Plastic surgery season, already?
GERILYN
Besides, too much sun isn’t good for my skin.
RIANNE
I guess that explains the bottle in the bathroom.
GERILYN
You should try some. It’s from Korea.
RIANNE
Wow. Korea.
GERILYN
It helps.
RIANNE
So, tell me: how does skin lightening cream help with not getting sunburned?
GERILYN
It helps by… this conversation is completely asinine. Rianne, I didn’t come back here to argue about skin cream.
RIANNE
Then, let’s just talk about anything else. It’s been so long since–
GERILYN
How about next time, Sweetie?
RIANNE
Sweetie?
…
Sure, next time.
…
So, um… Rick seemed nice.
GERILYN
I hope so if I’m going to marry him.
RIANNE
A real catch.
GERILYN
He is.
Pause.
RIANNE
I’m glad you’re here, Ate.
Pause.
GERILYN
Haven’t heard that word in a while.
RIANNE
You’re still my older sister, right?
Pause.
GERILYN
You think that I wasn’t going to come home, did you?
RIANNE
You just never…
No…
I don’t know.
GERILYN
I was here when dad died, remember?
RIANNE
And I remembered you promising mom that you’d come and visit more-
GERILYN
I didn’t come back to argue with you, okay?
RIANNE
I’m not trying to–
GERILYN
I came back for mom. Isn’t that enough?
RIANNE
Just her?
You should have flown back with Rick. I’m sure that you still have a lot of planning to do.
GERILYN
Everything was planned and reserved before we left, except for–
RIANNE
Except for the dress.
GERILYN
Except for the dress.
GERILYN picks up the wedding dress and holds it against herself.
GERILYN
How’d she ever fit in this?
RIANNE
I bet she laid off the rice.
Carbs.
GERILYN
I guess I could let it out a little.
RIANNE
Or you could lay off the carbs?
GERILYN
…
RIANNE
What? It’s an option.
Just be easy with it, okay? It’s fragile, so…
GERILYN
Too bad that it’s so… ethnic.
RIANNE
Ethnic.
GERILYN
I mean, what are these?
RIANNE
They’re called butterfly sleeves.
GERILYN
Why would anyone need to wear big oven mitts on their shoulders?
RIANNE
The sleeves are designed to look like butterfly wings. You know? When it’s ready to fly, its wings are set straight up.
GERILYN
Wings should stay on a butterfly, or on a bird. Definitely not on a dress. Not a worry, I’ll have Emily remove them when I get back home.
RIANNE
Emily?
GERILYN
Rick’s sister. She’s an amazing seamstress and such a good friend. We can talk for hours on end about everything! I’m sure she’ll find a way to turn this into something amazing.
RIANNE
It’s already something amazing.
GERILYN
It is. But it’s not really my style.
RIANNE
Your style?
(RIANNE takes the dress away from Gerilyn.)
You or this this this Emily ain’t touching shit!
GERILYN
Mom’s Will said that everything is to be divided between us—including this dress.
GERILYN takes back the dress.
RIANNE
Not if you’re going to tear it apart.
RIANNE takes back the dress.
GERILYN
It’s not like you’re ever going to be able to wear it!
GERILYN moves to take back the dress, but RIANNE holds it behind her back.
RIANNE
How dare you!
Silence.
GERILYN
I’m… well, you won’t be.
RIANNE
The ONLY time you come home is to bury a parent and then you have the nerve to tell me that I’m not even fit to wear something that was passed down to me!
GERILYN
To us! It was passed down to us. And no. I don’t think you’d ever wear that dress for the simple fact that you’ve never worn anything that even resembles anything worn by a woman in your life.
RIANNE
I’m so gonna choke you out with my bra.
GERILYN
Sports bras don’t count.
RIANNE
Get out!
Get out of my house.
GERILYN
Our house. Divided equally.
RIANNE
How can it be ours when you don’t even live here anymore? I wasn’t the one who took off all the way across country to leave her only family behind.
GERILYN
It was for school, Rianne! I wasn’t going to be stuck in this neighborhood and do nothing with my life.
RIANNE
Is that what you think of me? Of mom? Of dad? They worked their fingers off to pay for your precious Ivy League education!
GERILYN
Of which, they could only afford to pay for half! And that was just for the Undergraduate Degree.
And I never asked them for a single cent when I went to Medical School. I worked two jobs and took 19 credits a semester for that degree, so I didn’t have to wind up like mom cleaning up after old people who shit all over themselves.
RIANNE
Mom worked at Beverly Manor to pay for your Mercy High tuition.
GERILYN
Jealous much?
You know that I tried to pay them back. Why do you think I tried to buy them a new house in Crow Canyon? To get out of this run-down house in this dirty neighborhood in this God forsaken City!
RIANNE
God Foresaken? You don’t think God likes gay people?
GERILYN
Would you get over yourself? I never said that. You know, for your information, I have tons of gay friends.
RIANNE
And a gay sister.
GERILYN
Who happens to be lazy and a pothead and a keeper of a wedding dress that she’s never going to be able to wear!
GERILYN quickly grabs at the dress and rips off one of the sleeves.
Silence.
RIANNE
You want the dress?
All at once, all the pent of anger, pain, and sadness of no longer having an older sister when Gerilyn left comes out.
RIANNE (CONT.)
(RIANNE tears off the other sleeve and throws it at Gerilyn.)
Here!
(RIANNE tears off another piece of the dress and…)
Here!
(RIANNE attempts to tear another piece off but isn’t able to…)
Fuck it. Here! Take the whole thing!
(RIANNE throws the shredded wedding dress at Gerilyn.)
You never wanted this life. You never wanted mom, dad, or me! You don’t think I knew about how much you hated being different from all your rich private school friends? I defended you when people called you a coconut. And now look at you! You don’t even share the same skin color as any of us. What did we do to make you hate us so much?
But you know what? Maybe I’m the crazy one, because all this time, the only thing I really wanted was for you to be here. I wanted you here when I was always being made fun of at school. I wanted my sister to hold my hand as I watched Mom take her take her last breath. And I needed my Ate here when Dad realized that he would never be able to walk me down the aisle in a Church that tells me I’m a Sin.
And now that you’re about to take that walk, the only thing you’ll have left of this family is that ripped up piece of fabric to walk you down that aisle.
RIANNE storms out of the room.
The slam of a door is heard followed by the stomping of footsteps down the front stairs of the house.
Lights fade on GERILYN holding the torn wedding dress.
Blackout.
END OF PLAY