Blood Ties / Lazos de Sangre
This dramatic play follows three powerful brothers as they try to navigate honor, responsibilities, and love in their daily lives. The oldest, Santiago, is forced into an arranged marriage to a woman who yearns for a child, but he is keeping a secret from her that will ultimately destroy their marriage. Meanwhile, the middle brother creates an unforeseen situation with his philandering ways, while the youngest brother pursues a love long denied. This play is filled with sorrow, joy, laughter, and a final choice that leaves the audience gasping. Loosely based on “Yerma,” written by Spanish dramatist Frederico Lorca.
Productions
Behind The Scenes
With Nelly E. Cuellar-Garcia
What inspired you to write this play?
I had two reasons for choosing to write this piece.
1. We had a lot of seniors this year who are going on to university to study theatre, and I wanted them to have a challenging piece to add to their resume.
2. I have already had published two of the three rural plays of Lorca, and I wanted to create a piece based on his hardest of the three, so I loosely based "Blood Ties" on Yerma.
What’s your favorite part or line in the play? Why?
My favorite part of the play occurs toward the end when Sofia talks about bulls to Santiago. The metaphorical comparison of the bull’s ability to breed to the man allows the audience to see the primal emotions flowing between the two. My two leads were powerful in their development of this scene and had the audience gasping with every barb that Sofia delivered to Santiago, and Santiago’s physical and emotional transformation to that bull motif as he dealt with her accusations made a memorable piece of theatre.
What’s did you try to achieve with this play?
I wanted the audience to analyze and discuss how the play made them feel as they sat down to dinner after the show. I wanted them to understand how a marriage can be destroyed when couples enter a union with different hopes and dreams, and I wanted them to reflect on three very different representations of love the piece explored.
Do you have anything else you’d like to share? You’d like to add?
This play was filled with music and movement. Find places where the music can add depth and texture to a scene or as transitions. The scripts allows you to your designers to create a beautiful world that stands in contrast to the souls being destroyed by their circumstances in life.