From Hutchinson Street
FROM HUTCHINSON STREET is about Roberta, a grocery clerk in her early forties who has lived in her family’s Chicago two-flat her entire life. She lives with her young daughter Katie and above them lives Jason, who she has known since childhood. Jason is Katie’s father, a fact Roberta keeps hidden from her due to the fact Jason is a junkie continually on the mend. Roberta’s roommate is Wilson, a 60-ish drifter. All of the characters are haunted by individual memories the building has stored away for them in some way and, though many interweaving memory scenes, the house itself becomes the play’s most looming character. When Roberta is presented with an opportunity to sell the house due to neighborhood gentrification, her dream of moving to California suddenly becomes possible. But the decision forces the household to confront aspects of their relationships they’ve long buried.
In two acts.
One woman and one man, both around age 40. One man near age 60. One young girl. One couple, a male and female, in their thirties or late twenties.
One set.