TURNING OVER

by Jeanette Farr

Martina has always been the best at video games since "turning over" Defender in 1984. The skills she learned with the games she played got her through many battles and out of a small agricultural town and helping her father work in the fields.
Visited in an unmanned aerial vehicle bunker by a ghost who gives her a gift, she returns home. After a fight with her husband about the purchase of a video game console...

Martina has always been the best at video games since "turning over" Defender in 1984. The skills she learned with the games she played got her through many battles and out of a small agricultural town and helping her father work in the fields.
Visited in an unmanned aerial vehicle bunker by a ghost who gives her a gift, she returns home. After a fight with her husband about the purchase of a video game console, Martina is propelled in a world of past traumas video-game style. As she battles levels and the "monsters" from her past, guided by a mysterious warrior, can she achieve the decision to move forward with her career despite a moral dilemma that she is responsible for events beyond her control? Can she make the decision to be a better human, wife, and mother by turning over the game and succeed, or have the rules changed since her days in a small town?

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TURNING OVER

Recommended by

  • Playwrights Foundation: TURNING OVER by Jeanette Farr
    “

    Playwrights Foundation enthusiastically recommends this play, TURNING OVER, as a Semi-Finalist for the Bay Area Playwrights Festival 2020. We were moved by the quality of the writing and the relevant and compelling themes that spoke to the mission of our festival. It excelled in a competitive process of 735 plays submitted this year and rose to the top after a six month long process discussing its merits with both national and local Bay Area readers, and we hope it moves swiftly towards production.

    Playwrights Foundation enthusiastically recommends this play, TURNING OVER, as a Semi-Finalist for the Bay Area Playwrights Festival 2020. We were moved by the quality of the writing and the relevant and compelling themes that spoke to the mission of our festival. It excelled in a competitive process of 735 plays submitted this year and rose to the top after a six month long process discussing its merits with both national and local Bay Area readers, and we hope it moves swiftly towards production.

    ”
  • Stephanie Alison Walker: TURNING OVER by Jeanette Farr
    “

    Turning Over is a rich, complex and moving story that stays with you long after leaving the theater. Jeanette has woven a beautiful tapestry in this highly theatrical work that fuses video games, war and the emotional battlefields fought at home. It's a play I would love to see come alive- with real and exciting challenges for a crackerjack design team. The timeliness of the issues addressed here demands that it be seen sooner than later.

    Turning Over is a rich, complex and moving story that stays with you long after leaving the theater. Jeanette has woven a beautiful tapestry in this highly theatrical work that fuses video games, war and the emotional battlefields fought at home. It's a play I would love to see come alive- with real and exciting challenges for a crackerjack design team. The timeliness of the issues addressed here demands that it be seen sooner than later.

    ”
CHARACTERS:
4 W, 4M (doubling encouraged). Flexibility to use more depending on staging.
MARTINA SALGADO – female, Latina, 30’s, comes from modest roots, uses her maiden name – her parents were field workers and sometimes she would help. She is a sergeant in the air force and uses math as comfort. She sees things others don’t see.
JOE – MARTINA’s husband, 30’s, any ethnicity, male, A good man.
COMMANDING SGT. ROY TAYLOR – male 50’s, served his time, a military “lifer” continuing to serve in a bunker in Las Vegas. Believer in God and pleasing his wife.
SGT. JAMES – 20’s a cowboy who grew up on video games. Hides his pain with sarcasm.
LIEUTENANT BRENDA LEPCIO – an advocate for MARTINA. Practical. Does what she can.
NADIMAH – Female; 20’s Pakistani; a ghost; Sometimes a protector; Her parents harvested dates on a date farm in Pakistan. A shape-shifter. She is what Tiny needs her to be. Doubles with ABHI – Martina’s high school friend.
SOLEDAD – MARTINA’s mother, Latina 50’s. Protective. Wise, but believes in burying her feelings. Runs things at home and in the fields.
CHICO “HONCHO” SALGADO - male, Latino, 50’s. A devoted family man who works hard. Striving to own something of his own someday. A dreamer.
A male chorus and female chorus to include the following characters – OR –
DOUBLING SUGGESTIONS as follows:

JIMMY – a soldier and a survivor. Has much in common with MARTINA. (To be played by the same person as SGT. JAMES.)
ABHI – Martina’s friend from high school. Fearless. Can be played by actor who plays NADIMEH.
TRAINER – Can be played by the actor who plays SGT. JAMES
EYE DOCTOR – Can be played by actor who plays SGT. TAYLOR
DRILL SARGEANT – Can be played by actor who plays JOE.
CORN HUSK MAN – Can be played by actor who plays CHICO
ENLISTED MAN #1 – a brother-like figure to MARTINA, a drinking buddy. Jovial. Can be played by actor who plays SGT. TAYLOR.
ENLISTED MAN #2 – another brother-like figure to MARTINA, quiet type. Can be played by actor who plays JOE.
SOLDIERS/FIELDWORKERS/LAS VEGAS LOCALS/NEWS REPORTER V.O. – chorus. Can double with other characters.

Development History

  • Reading, Antaeus Playwright's Lab, 2018
  • Reading, Theatricum Botanicum Green Reads Dramaturgy Workshop, 2018
  • Residency, Tofte Lake Center at Norm's Fish Camp (MN), 2018

Awards

  • Playwriting Competition - Second Rounder
    Austin Film Festival
    2020
  • Bay Area Playwrights' Festival
    The Playwright's Foundation
    Semi-Finalist
    2020
  • New American Voices 2020
    The Landing Theatre Company
    Semi-Finalist
    2020