AUTHOR'S NOTE + SYNOPSIS
AUTHOR'S NOTE + SYNOPSIS
The Unauthorized Occupation of Patty Hearst
CALL ME TANIA:
ACT ONE
A hidden “before-the-play-begins” scene – covertly putting two competing versions of reality in motion
Overture
0 - 0
Participants, witnesses and the media reenact sound-bites for a historic overview of the strange ordeal
The Question Remains
1 - 1
At her parents’ home, before her kidnapping, Patty and her parents sing of their ordinary-world problems
Trivial Trivial Things
1 - 2
Patty sings a universal-teenager song about her uncertain identity in her family and in the world
Caught Up In Between
1 - 3
An Unexpected Knock
Patty’s live-in fiancé Steve delivers cautionary advice
1 - 4
Patty’s violent abduction plays out “silently” in slow-motion – scored by a gentle instrumental…
Taken (Part 1)
1 - 5
…the violent abduction replays in real-time, in pitch darkness with terrifying gun fire and screams
Taken (Part 2)
1 - 6
Patty’s parents react to the news of their daughter’s kidnapping, colliding in an up-tempo duet
Level-headed Adrenaline
1 - 7
My Dream of Freedom
Patty and Cinque sing a captor/captive duet of their mutual-yet-contradictory ambitions for liberation
1 - 8
Stop Start Over (Part 1)
1 - 9
Patty is forced to record her own audiotape ransom note listing the SLA’s unattainable demands
The Madness of Rainbows
Mr. Hearst explains how “a perfect world” is one of the most horrible things ever demanded
1 - 10
Indoctrination
1 - 11
The SLA deconstruct and reprogram Patty’s mind as she struggles to hold her soul inside
The SLA slips Patty LSD, sending her on a vertiginous psychedelic journey with dark passages
Drop Through The Sky
1 - 12
Ghosts in The Closet
1 - 13
Patty encounters her dead grandparents who offer cryptic clues for her survival and redemption
Stop Start Over (Part 2)
1 - 14
The SLA’s unattainable demands are spelled out in a new audiotape ransom message
Unexpectedly thousands of people line up for the free-food ransom – and the situation escalate into a riot
Troubles of This World
1 - 15
As the riot unfolds in slow-motion, a figure steps forward and sings to Mrs. Hearst of class inequality
The Poor Are Pawns Again
1 - 16
The world reacts to a new SLA audiotape while an outrageous proof-of-life Polaroid of Patty is staged
Stop Start Over (Part 3)
1 - 17
All But One Thing
Patty chooses survival, completing her mind-controlled transformation into a militant revolutionary
1 - 18
1 - 19
Am I Only What I Did Today
Patty robs a bank, wielding a military assault-rifle and crosses the point of no return
END OF ACT ONE
INTERMISSION
ACT TWO
2 - 1
The Question Remains (Reprise)
Outside the Hearst home the media speculates, public opinion turns sour and the mystery deepens
2 - 2
Come Back
Mr. Hearst helplessly revisits a dream where a 4-yr-old Patty is taken away by an apocalyptic storm
2 - 3
A Mother's Nature
Mrs. Hearst blames the whole situation on herself
2 - 4
My Favorite Red Bedspread
In a fantasy flashback, 8-year-old Patty reinterprets her childhood to rationalize her present path
2 - 5
There Are Many Ways To Be A Good Girl
Patty rescues two shoplifting comrades with zombie-like programmed reflexes and a spray of gunfire
2 - 6
Revolutionaries Man
When Patty and the SLA carjack a teenager, he’s delighted to be joyriding with his famous captors
2 - 7
No Going Back Now
The world watches on live TV as the SLA are burned alive – Patty realizes the FBI wants her dead
2 - 8
As If I Never Was At All
After his death, Cinque exposes his humanity as he concedes the regrets of his unfulfilled dreams
2 - 9
The Road
Patty and the surviving SLA members travel onward in a brief interstitial vignette
2 - 10
The Year of Missing You
Mr. and Mrs. Hearst endure a year-long stretch of aching uncertainty as Patty drops off the radar
2 - 11
Monday Morning Through My Eyes
During a bank-robbery, a murder victim rebukes romanticizing outlaws and glamorizing violence
2 - 12
Arrested
The FBI arrest Patty, igniting a media frenzy and giving her parents new hope
2 - 13
Shrink Intake
Five psychiatrists send Patty on a journey of self-reflection – she narrates two intertwined trains of thought
2 - 14
Places Everyone
Bailey’s vainglorious rehearsal for the trial reveals his corrupt agenda that outrageously parallels the SLA's
2 - 15
Trial and Errors
In the courtroom, Patty's bank robbery defense of “mind control” is mocked by the team of Federal prosecutors…
2 - 16
But Then They Made Me
…and rejected by the jury – who echo Patty’s feelings of being unfairly coerced
2 - 17
Imaginary Girl
While escorted to prison, Patty laments that now she has no identity at all now – except the false ones put on her
2 - 18
Prelude to The Eleventh Hour
A prelude to an instrumental “11-o’clock number” contemplates the uncertainty of last-minute cliffhangers
2 - 19
The Silence of My Innocence
Patty refuses to betray her own innocence with a confession of guilt to reduce her sentence
2 - 20
The Eleventh Hour
An instrumental “11-o’clock number” transforms everything
2 - 21
The Hero of Our Own Life Story
Released from prison by President Carter, Patty has a life-changing insight into why
the jury condemned her – a compassionate awakening to the flaws and frailties of human nature
END OF PLAY
CURTAIN
SYNTHESIZING: INSTINCT VISION VOICE EMOTION & MEANING
IMAGINARY GIRL: The Occupation of Patty Hearst – book, lyrics & music © Leonard Dolivio Cetrangolo