HOT MONEY: A Zoological Quest for Immortality in the Madagascar Vanilla Boom

This play is currently in development, and this is the first draft.

SYNOPSIS:
With the help of Mangoman, a strange produce clerk whose wares only smell and taste of vanilla, Smash, a zoologist, searches the depths of the rainforest for the Malagasy Crowned Eagle. Supposedly extinct for over five hundred years, Smash believes one still lives and that this mythical and immortal bird may hold the secret to living forever. Elsewhere in the rainforest, the wild vanilla orchids--which an endangered species of chameleons relies upon for sustenance--have transformed into dollar bills. Doc, a neurosurgeon, examines the perspectives of the many people whose lives are impacted by the rise and fall of the price of vanilla across the globe, while Smash and the Mangoman embark on an epic romp through the life spans of various animals and find out what it means to truly live.

HOT MONEY was originally supported by a New Now Commission from playwright Lauren Gunderson in 2020; additional support was provided in Early Winter 2021 by a grant from the Network of Ensemble Theatres, which funded original dramaturgy by Anna Jennings; finally, a developmental workshop, directed by Barry Carman, was supported by Great Plains Theatre Commons and K+R Strategies in Omaha, Nebraska in the Summer of 2021 – thus, this full first draft.

Set in the sweltering Washington DC summer of 1881, President James Abram Garfield lays dying behind a curtain in the White House - Charles Guiteau has buried a bullet deep in the President's belly, and Dr. D Willard Bliss is trying desperately to find it. Enter Alexander Graham Bell, overwhelmed and exhausted by the success of his revolutionary telephone. Both men seek greatness: for Bell, an invention that will redefine his success as a scientist; for Bliss, to be the ultimate medical savior of the nation. As Garfield slowly succumbs to sepsis, their failed attempts to save him fully charge the motivations of Bell's assistant, Charles Sumner Tainter, as what he hears from Bell's machine suggests what they're searching for may not be a piece of lead.

BELL AND BLISS was inspired by primary resource materials that include not only the personal journals and letters of the titular characters, but also visceral artifacts such as President Garfield's spine and the bullet that wounded him. The playwright interacted with these primary resources at institutions including the Library of Congress Manuscript Division, the Historical Society of Washington DC, and the National Museum of Health and Medicine.

An adaptation of the biographical works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, featuring Mrs. Hudson and the adventures she embarks on through her love of reading.