SPF 11: Even Flowers Bloom in Hell, Sometimes
An examination of the inmates within a system trying to discover meaning in the face of isolation and doubt in one’s own worth over a 25 year bid. The play explores familial ties, love, race, inmate-correctional officer relations, the passing of time, and the succeeding generation of individuals who deal with the challenges of trying to avoid a life of crime or resigning oneself to becoming a part of the system that swept up previous generations.
Development History
First draft written in 2017.
Franky D. Gonzalez is a playwright and TV writer of Colombian descent splitting time between Dallas and Los Angeles. He holds a BA in Theatre from the University of North Texas and has had his work featured throughout the Dallas-Ft. Worth metroplex where he served proudly as the Dramatists Guild Regional Representative in 2018. Nationally, his work has appeared with The Lark, the Sundance Institute, the Great Plains Theatre Conference, the Goodman Theatre (Live @ Five Series), Bishop Arts Theatre Center, Repertorio Español, LAByrinth Theater Company, Dallas Theater Center, Austin Latinx New Play Festival, Stages Repertory Theatre’s Sin Muros Latinx Theatre Festival, the HBMG Foundation National Winter Playwrights Retreat, Play4Keeps Podcast, the Antaeus Playwrights Lab, The Mid-America Theatre Conference, The Midwest Dramatists Conference, and the One-Minute Play Festival. Franky was a co-recipient for the 2018 MetLife Nuestras Voces Latino Playwriting Award, while also winning the Crossroads Project Diverse Voices Playwriting Initiative Award, the Short+Sweet Theatre Festival Manila Best Overall Production Prize, was selected for a MacDowell Fellowship (2019), participated in the Orchard Project’s Liveness Lab, and was a staff writer for the fourth season of 13 Reasons Why. He has also been a finalist for the San Diego REP Latinx New Play Festival, The DVRF Playwriting Program, the Ashland New Play Festival, the Playwrights Realm Scratchpad Series, the ScreenCraft Stage Play Competition, and a semi-finalist for the Bay Area Playwrights Festival, the Seven Devils Playwrights Conference, the Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, the Dubai Short+Sweet Theatre Festival, and runner-up for the Alpine Fellowship. Franky is managed by Valor Entertainment and represented by the Gersh Agency.
Michael John Garcés…is the artistic director of Cornerstone Theater Company. Directing credits there include Native Nation (commissioned and presented in Arizona by ASU Gammage) and Urban Rez by Larissa FastHorse; California: The Tempest by Alison Carey; Plumas Negras by Juliette Carrillo; Café Vida by Lisa Loomer; and What Happens Next by Naomi Iizuka (a La Jolla Playhouse “Without Walls” production in association with Cornerstone Theater Company). Other recent work includes the just and the blind by Marc Bamuthi Joseph and Daniel Bernard Roumain (Carnegie Hall and The Kennedy Center); Seize the King by Will Power (Alliance Theatre); Larissa FastHorse’s The Thanksgiving Play (The Geffen Playhouse); The Royale by Marco Ramirez (Arizona Theatre Company); Epic by Elen Struve (The Great Plains Theatre Commons); and Wrestling Jerusalem by Aaron Davidman (The Guthrie Theatre, Cleveland Public Theatre, Philadelphia Theatre Company). He is also a playwright and a proud alumnus of New Dramatists. He serves as vice president of the executive board of SDC, the theatrical union for stage directors and choreographers.
“EVEN FLOWERS BLOOM IN HELL, SOMETIMES”
Prisoner – Andres Munar
Inmate #1 – Blake Young-Fountain*
Inmate #2 – Joshua Lamont
Sister – Alaska Jackson*
Cellmate – Moe Irvin*
Little Man (L.M.) – Andres Chavez
Correctional Officer (C.O.) – Bruce Lemon
Mother – Presciliana Esparolini*
Lawyer – Lisa Catara*
*Road Company Member