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SAN FRANCISCO, October 6, 2005 -- Chicano playwright Roy Conboy tells a tale of cruising, music, and unrequited love set in the violent and chaotic days of 1970, "because love is muy importante when death is loose in the world." "Drive My Coche," a critically acclaimed fiery solo work with songs written and performed by Conboy, fuels the enduring fever of this turbulent era. Produced by El Teatro de la Esperanza in association with the Theatre Arts Department at San Francisco State University, "Drive My Coche" opens at El Teatro de la Esperanza’s Black Box Theatre on Friday, November 11 and runs through Saturday, December 17, 2005. The story is told as a memory of a middle-aged Chicano named Bill (also known as Guillermo and Memo), driving his Hyundai, with his two kids in the back seat, through San Francisco one night in1998. He gets lost in the fog, until he discovers his 18-year-old self again and embarks on his story. Working as a bus boy in a barbecue restaurant in 1970, he starts dating a co-worker, Kathy. They bond over his car/coche–a 1960 Chevy Bel Air, and their relationship deepens as they cruise Los Angeles and its beaches and deserts. But the draft is pulling Bill closer and closer to war, while Kathy mysteriously appears and disappears in his life, carrying the weight of some unknown trouble. He wonders where she disappears to, and she wonders why he's not in college, but neither provides answers. He gets called to a draft board hearing where his attempt to protest the Vietnam War ends with his being assigned the highest draft priority. And then, during a raucous and revealing all night party, he discovers the complications of Kathy's romantic life, and the chaotic wartime tragedy that is at the heart of her troubles. A Chicano playwright, director and teacher, Roy Conboy's most recent plays are "Tailor From Chihuahua" and "Crow's Eye View," the latter of which was presented by the Bay Area Playwrights Festival in 2004. Other recent plays include "Drive My Coche," which opens for a San Francisco run November 11 through December 11, 2005 at El Teatro Esperanza. Conboy is generally regarded as one of the leading Chicano playwrights in the country, and his work has been produced by such theatres as Teatro Vision of San Jose, East Los Angeles Repertory, Teatro Latino in Minneapolis, Teatro del Pueblo in St. Paul, The Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center in San Antonio, Teatro Milagro in Portland, Cucucuevez in Santa Ana, and PCPA Theaterfest in Santa Maria. His work has also been produced at Cypress College, Mesa College, Chabot College, Los Medanos College, Santa Ana College, and San Francisco State University. Workshops and staged readings of his plays have been seen at the Denver Center, the Mark Taper Forum, the Seattle Group Theatre, the Bay Area Playwrights Festival, ASK Plays, South Coast Repertory, Latin American Theatre Artists, and Festival Latino of San Francisco. Conboy serves as Chair of the Theatre Arts Department and head of the Graduate Playwrighting program at San Francisco State University where he has helped raise the playwrighting program to national prominence.
A car,
a girl, the draft, the war–Chicano playwright Roy Conboy
tells a tale of cruising, music, and unrequited love set in the violent
and chaotic days of 1970, "because love is muy importante when death
is loose in the world." Drive My Coche, a critically acclaimed fiery
solo work with songs written and performed by Conboy, fuels the enduring
fever of this turbulent era. -###-
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