Beautifully Broken Things

by Dean Bruggeman

The Kendrick family of Portland, Oregon are anxious to move past the chaotic 2016 campaign and into the relative tranquility of the Obama-Clinton transition. With nine days to go, however, Trump’s Teflon candidacy is making the poll numbers & pundit predictions ring frighteningly hollow. The unexpected arrival of a cherished relative with "evolving" political views and a family dinner marred by unmitigated...

The Kendrick family of Portland, Oregon are anxious to move past the chaotic 2016 campaign and into the relative tranquility of the Obama-Clinton transition. With nine days to go, however, Trump’s Teflon candidacy is making the poll numbers & pundit predictions ring frighteningly hollow. The unexpected arrival of a cherished relative with "evolving" political views and a family dinner marred by unmitigated disgust on both sides of the divide do nothing to assuage anyone's anxiety.
But this family knows how to throw an Election Night party! In anticipation of the shattering of that highest, hardest glass ceiling, everything is just perfect...except one thing.
In the apocalyptic vista of Act 2, the old rules don’t apply. As the city’s second night of post-election protests morphs into rioting, the Kendricks grapple with emotional fallout from within and without their family ranks.
…and from Washington, DC, the entertainment capital of the world! Cue the applause track, music & showbiz lights! It’s time to play “Clusterfuck City,” the scandal-plagued game show where the American people are the contestants, and everyone’s a loser!
...and after yet another exhilarating protest march, Pete Kendrick & his friends fail to notice their activism garnering attention from forces determined to Make America Great Again by any means necessary.
But Hillary Clinton has noticed; and in this new era of daily sociopolitical outrage, the would-be first female President of the United States imagines us as a nation whose greatest strength is our embrace of diversity.

Copyright © 2017
WGAw Registration No. 1897580

For a copy of the play, please contact the playwright at woofusluckyphilo@hotmail.com

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Beautifully Broken Things

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  • Hal Corley: Beautifully Broken Things

    An almost operatic ride by the end, its power the ability to go deeper as it aims wider, and actually opens and expands before our eyes. Burrowing deeply into the Kendrick family as a specific handful of people, not 2016 archetypes, the play expertly captures the volatile climate, that daily tension between external political developments and internecine domestic warfare of every flavor. Formidable as an American portrait, ultimately by its close, almost epic. Like Emily Mann's "Execution of Justice" it transcends the ripped-from-the-headlines genre, even as we appreciate the harrowing...

    An almost operatic ride by the end, its power the ability to go deeper as it aims wider, and actually opens and expands before our eyes. Burrowing deeply into the Kendrick family as a specific handful of people, not 2016 archetypes, the play expertly captures the volatile climate, that daily tension between external political developments and internecine domestic warfare of every flavor. Formidable as an American portrait, ultimately by its close, almost epic. Like Emily Mann's "Execution of Justice" it transcends the ripped-from-the-headlines genre, even as we appreciate the harrowing headlines that fold into it. Ambitious, eye-opening -- and heartbreaking.

Development History

  • Type Reading, Organization The Blank Theatre - Hollywood, CA, Year 2019
  • Type Reading, Organization The Hudson Theatres - Hollywood, CA, Year 2017