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Written by Chloe Beeman, Whitney Flinn, Misty Hinrichs, and Elizabeth Uthoff
Directed by Blake Bolan
Under the influence of ntozake shange
D: Call me Sara/ call me Delia /call me names
Soft gentle yeah Define me
Call me whatever you damn well please
May/ Susan/ Veronica/ Kate
I am the woman
fvs: she can’t bake worth shit
but her hair is like music
D: yeah I got perfections/ it’s real blue
fv1: a braid in her hair
fv3: the door of the room flying open
four black rabbits entering with a coffin on their shoulder
lies with short legs
fv1: I love your azure hair
D: do not hit me so hard
fv2: touching a fevered forehead
D: dirty boys
fv2: washing
fvs: transforming to mother sister lover
D: you’re mine now/ you own me
fv2: she is a grown woman/ insignificant tasks always brought about
small glimpses of memory
fv3: if you had lived 1000 years could you recount every moment
fv2: she couldn’t keep track/ she’d had a boy or two
a dozen/ a thousand
body memory
feels a whisper of something on her neck
she’s on her knees scrubbing the floor
till her knuckles bleed/ someone was in the reflection
D: Did I plant peas or carrots here
I was an old woman yesterday/ today I am nothing but a girl
Help me doctor
fv1: Ms Azure Fairie you’ve gone mad
Take two aspirin/ and call me in the morning
fv3: glancing at her reflection she sees azure hair
D: oh so smooth/ like tongue on teeth
fv1: It made her sick/ bitter bitter taste in her throat/ vomit
Scrub the floor
“Have I done this before?”
As with most things she couldn’t remember
D: Call me Sara/ call me Delia/ call me names
Soft gentle/ yeah Define me
Call me whatver you want/ I promise I’ll answer
Cuz that’s what I’ve done for a thousand years
Prayers requests and cries for help
Lyin in a corner of my black and red room
To be returned in the order/ in which they were received
Broken toasters, missing fathers
I’m Martha Stuart, June Cleaver, Squeaky Fromme
I’m a complaint department, the DMV, a dentist, a nurse, a midwife, a whore
If it ails ya I fix it/ even if it isn’t broke
Bandaids cold cream and other ritualistic remedies
hold no place in my medicine cabinet
Magic outweighs the benefits of any antifungal I’ve seen on the market
Here’s some sugar/ I give you everything
Let me dry your tears and fake my death
fv2: she wished she could bake
she could clean/ love
make a pie appear at the snap of her fingers
but she couldn’t feel the batter squish between those fingers
Smoosh it out in a pan
Bake it love with an oven
D: I envy the mothers with houses and ovens
Women and animals/ I’ll be whichever you need at the time
Break my back or look at my face/ touch my hair drink my milk
I confront your desires
Just look at my white wax complextion
The maternal instinct/ is what keeps me going
fv3: he came to her door like the others
real smooth/ his charm/ the way he walked
like a tongue over teeth
she tried to keep her cool/ but she wanted him
him and his grime/ soot/ his filthy ways
So she gave him her lump of sugar/ to ease his bitter taste
He had his own tricks
She changed for him and she liked it
She thought she was in control/ but this one was different
He was real smooth/ like a wet tongue over silk teeth
fv1: you know her hair wasn’t always azure
She changed to please him
To please him pleased her so much/ his favorite color azure
She kept it forever/ it was for him
fv3: he was so damn smooth
he was salways hard to hold he was so slippery smooth
fv1: he would caress her azure mane/ pupils dilating
at the sight of those azure locks
Her hair couldn’t keep him down no matter how tight she tied it
entangled around his body
he slipped right through those azure locks
fv1 and fv3: he was gone
fv3: so smooth/ like tongue over teeth
fv2: when you walk in it smeels crisp
like metal/ like paint/ like excitement
all black and red
black red and synthetic/ carefully ordered light
you could fall into the walls/ they’re so deep
they digest the sinful words said in secret of the room
always changing shape and size
like some magic box
the room grows and you have to leave
fv1: (as Pinocchio) He was walking in the field one day
when he came upon her small cabin/ hungry as he was
He stopped at her door and called
fv3: She saw him outside her window
And she shouldn’ta let him in
fv1: She answered/ beautiful fairy with azure hair
Opened the door
She was crying
He didn’t intend on staying but she begged him
She was sobbing
He did some tricks for her/ that he learned in the circus
fv2: stood on two feet and hopped around
fv1: She made food appear in front of him
He had quite a feast
He didn’t want to see her cry again/ she was so beautiful
fv3: He only caused her grief
But he was there in his paper shirt/ scared her to death
So she let him in
D: You wanna come into my house for a lump of sugar
I wanna love you/ I can tell your forehead is burning with fever
What use is wood to me
Wood can only move by strings
You’ll have no strings to hold you down
Cuz I want skin
fv2: I like to touch your hair
My wooden hands leave splinters in your back
But that’s fine cause oh yeah you’re so shiny
I’m sorry i left my knfe at your throat
You got sucha fine mane
fv1: Animals and dogs like to be kept tied up
It’s safe here/ let me give you something to fix
fv2: You change so much
I splash some cold hard liquid in your face
You’re gonna clean it up
Water drips off wax real easy
We can make love and you can make food
I can taste you smooth like music
You need to change/ cuz people get envious of you
You love to make everything
It’s so easy like velvet/ all smooth like that
fvs: Your hair like music
It’s easier to swallow than velvet
fv2: you gave me sugar/ you gave me gold and paper
you were a mother sister lover man’s best friend
you love to cook me something sweet/ every boy has the same demands
fv3: She indulged his fantasy for a time
She didn’t know if he deserved it
but she took pity on his wooden makings
fv1: he’d rather die than drink her medicine
fv3: she was disgusted by him
crying for hours over the length of his nose
giving gold coins to the first foxy thing/ he saw walking down the street
D: Got my hands dirty today
You’re gonna splash some cold hard liquid on my face
I’ll clean it up/ gotta keep my pores oil free
My hard wax face/ yeah its easy
you got your problems/ then you turn to me
I may be sitting in a dank room full of black cigars
used carpet
got my hands dirty today but my setting doesn’t matter
cuz hair like this can take anything on
I got sand in my mouth from sucking up your dirt for decades
fv3: only a woman can make a real man
(under Delia’s next line, fvs chant “you’re mine now/ you own me”)
D: I forgive the world/ build a city on my tired body
Call me Sara/ call me Delia/ call me names
Soft gentle yeah Define me
Call me whatever you damn well please
Jada Janice Sylvia Linda
I am the woman
fvs: blue silk/ easy to see
D: See me
