Title: “Trust your talent”.
Author: Silvina Carrasco
7 Characters:
- Pedro: He is a very talented and nonconformist painter who fails to recognize his talent.
- Miguel: Owner of an art exhibition gallery. He is Pedro’s friend and admires his work. He is the one who encourages him to recognize the beauty of his work.
- Assistant 1: He is part of the group that attends the exhibition and admires Pedro’s painting.
- Assistant 2: Is part of the group that attends the exhibition and admires Pedro’s painting.
- Assistant 3: Is part of the group that attends the exhibition and admires Pedro’s painting.
- Assistant 4: Is part of the group that attends the exhibition and admires Pedro’s painting.
- Assistant 5: Is part of the group that attends the exhibition and admires Pedro’s painting.
ACT I
Characters involved in this act: Pedro and Miguel.
Scenario: Pedro’s painting workshop. Beautiful pictures everywhere, paintings. On the lectern, an unfinished canvas covered by a soft cloth.
The friends converse in the studio
-Miguel: Every time I come here, I continue to be amazed by the wonders you paint.
-Pedro: It seems to me that the appreciation you have for me clouds your objectivity.
-Miguel: I also continue to be surprised that you can’t recognize your talent, that you can’t see the beauty in what you create.
-Pedro: It’s not talent, my friend, it’s dedication. What happens is that you are conditioned by the affection you have for me.
-Miguel: If you decided to share your work with others, to exhibit it; you would see that you would generate the same in others who don’t know you.
(Miguel approaches the lectern and looks at the canvas that covers the painting).
-Miguel: Aren’t you going to let me see it?
-Pedro: Not until it’s finished.
-Miguel: How intriguing. You’ve never taken so long on a painting before.
-Pedro: It’s just that I had hopes for this one. I thought I was finally going to create something extraordinary. But once again I’m starting to lose them. Maybe I should finally assume that I have no talent for this.
ACT II
Characters in this act: Pedro and Miguel.
Scenario: Pedro’s painting workshop.
-Miguel: (Excited) So it’s ready?
-Pedro: Yes, but don’t get excited. I’m only showing it to you because I promised you I would do it when it was finished and the truth is, I can’t do any more.
(They approach the lectern. Pedro removes the cloth and the painting comes into view: the figure of a woman trying to get out of a dense whirlpool, with her hand pointing to the sky and a delicate expression of supplication on her face).
-Miguel: (Marveling and moved) It’s wonderful.
-Peter: I don’t know, there’s something not quite right.
-Miguel: It’s that her gaze moves… (Contemplates the woman in silence) You have to expose it.
-Pedro: I don’t know, there’s something that’s not quite right. It’s… flat. It’s a flat painting.
-Miguel: I know what I’m talking about: I also paint and exhibit art. Believe me, I’ve never seen anything like it.
-Pedro: Thanks, my friend, but I can’t see what you see.
ACT III
Characters taking part in this act: Pedro, Miguel and Assistants 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.
Stage: Miguel’s art gallery. Clear walls, good lighting and paintings on display.
Pedro enters and goes to the back of the gallery. He sees a group of people around a painting. As he gets closer, he observes the amazed faces of the people contemplating the painting as if hypnotized. They talk about it without noticing Pedro’s arrival.
-Assistant 1: It’s touching.
-Assistant 2: The mixture of colors is so subtle that it seems to have relief.
-Assistant 3: The woman seems to have life.
-Assistant 4: She seems to want to come out of the painting. Beautiful!
-Assistant 5: Really beautiful.
-Pedro: (Approaching Miguel who is with the group) It’s extraordinary. Did you paint it inspired by the painting I showed you? It doesn’t bother me because it’s wonderful. I didn’t know how to express it that way, but it’s the idea I had in mind when I painted the woman I showed you. It is the painting I would have wanted to create.
-Miguel: It is the painting you have created. I took the audacity to take it out of your workshop because I knew you wouldn’t do it.
-Pedro: But… it looks different.
-Miguel: I just put a different background, a frame and the appropriate lighting. The biggest difference is that this time before analyzing it with your critical eye you have seen how it moved other people.
THE END