When Fence Lines Become a Battleground…
Pablo, a high-powered lawyer, and wife Tania, a very pregnant doctoral candidate, are realizing the American dream when they purchase a house next door to community stalwarts Virginia (played by CRT veteran Christy Brandt) and Frank. But a disagreement over a long-standing fence line soon spirals into an all-out war of taste, class, privilege, and entitlement. The hilarious results guarantee no one comes out smelling like a rose.
Comedy

Director’s Note

Do you know your neighbors? Do you truly know the people near where you sleep, eat, dream? If you answered yes, you may be in the rare group of people that still do the neighborly thing. These days, I swear many neighbors only connect through their community Facebook group fighting in the comment section. My fiancé and I just moved to our first home, ​​and I don’t know my neighbors—with the pandemic I have an excuse—but it made me think about when I was a child growing up in the desert. Back then, I knew everybody in the neighborhood: the fights, the gossip, and even the romances. Life was different then: I lived in the desert, and social media was not a thing yet, so you had to go outside and play. 

The pandemic hit the world hard, so getting to know new people was not in the cards for me. In my isolation, I explored plants, finding ways to connect to something alive. Even though I lived far from the desert and could not travel to see my family, I could connect by putting cacti plants all over our home. My botanical exploration had mixed results–my fiancé called me a plant murderer (but there was no motive, your honor!). Plus, I only killed plants very high maintenance to keep alive. 

Aside from my plants, I have been desiring to get to know my human neighbors, but unfortunately, I didn’t meet them before the pandemic. So now, I feel a little rusty making connections, unlike our friends the Butleys and Del Valles. Being “neighborly” describes itself, but it’s hard to remember how to do it in practice. Creating a relationship with your neighbors can sometimes be a relationship of a lifetime—I’ve seen it with my childhood neighbors—or it could be a historical feud like the Capulets and Montagues…and maybe the Del Valles and the Butleys. 

A cordial relationship must be cultivated, nurtured, and cared for just like a garden. Neighbors can save lives. They can be the ones who give important information about your well-being to first responders. And our neighbors can provide day-to-day glimpses of humanity and care, like a smile in the morning. Did we forget how to be caring to those closest to us after so much time apart?

I think about the Butleys and the Del Valles and how maybe they would have never connected if they lived in our world today. Both Virginia and Frank would have been at high risk for Covid due to their age. Fortunately, in the world of this play, Covid-19 does not exist. They can be neighborly and help us understand the metaphors for the state of the world, where land is fought for and claimed; but in the end, nature is resilient. Much like the desert plants I bought when we went on lockdown. Those tough cacti are still alive!

All this to say, it’s worth getting to know each other. It’s human to have conflict with one other, but we are smart enough to find solutions. The heart of this play for me is the connection. Fighting is easy. The beauty is in the struggle that comes with acknowledging the problem and finding ways to fix it: to grow a neighborly connection into a flourishing garden.