About the Play:

Chocolate Cake has long been a favourite of acting teachers for Female Monologues.

Win / Lose / Draw are three related one-act plays by Mary Gallagher and Ara Watson. An Off-Broadway hit, this triple bill is a compelling panorama of the modern world, as seen from a feminine viewpoint. By turns funny, moving and wickedly entertaining, this theatrical triptych details the experiences of six incredibly different women as they confront the losses and gains of their lives; three scenes combining to form a startling portrait of modern America as represented by some of its more unusual inhabitants, from Los Angeles to the Deep South. Ranging in mood from high comedy to near tragedy, the plays are unified by a common theme; each contrasts women from different social or intellectual levels in situations where they react with attitudes characteristic of their backgrounds.

Little Miss Fresno (jointly written by both Mary Gallagher and Ara Watson) deals hilariously with two very competitive mothers whose daughters are in the semi-finals of a local beauty contest for kids. One mother is a gossipy veteran who coolly keeps a score card along with the judges; the other, a first-timer, is anxious and ill-at-ease. When both daughters win there is a truce between them – but the finals are still to come.

Final Placement (written by Ara Watson). The scene is the Tulsa office of a child welfare caseworker. A mother guilty of child abuse is intent on regaining the custody of her son, even though he has been put up for adoption by the courts. Despite her poverty and ignorance she displays a touching eloquence – and a disquieting menace – as she attempts to stave off the inevitable.

Chocolate Cake (written by Mary Gallagher) is about two women with opposite temperaments and backgrounds who meet at a self-awareness conference for women. But in a motel room where a chocolate cake is hidden, they discover that they share the same guilty secret. One is a simple and timid country wife married to her high school sweetheart, a mechanic; the other is a brassy, intimidating, big-city wife whose husband is a wealthy businessman. Inevitably their conversation gets around to their favourite topic "food," but the funnier their exchanges become the more we are made poignantly aware of the deprivation and disappointments which have led them to compensate with compulsive overeating.

Little Miss Fresno is part of a triple bill produced in 1983 at the Provincetown Playhouse in New York City that became an Off-Broadway hit under the title of Win, Lose, Draw. Jointly written by Ara Watson and Mary Gallagher, it was added to two plays; Final Placement by Ara Watson and Chocolate Cake by Mary Gallagher, that were presented with great success at the acclaimed Actors Theatre of Louisville Humana Festival.

Cast: 2 female (flexible casting)

What people say:

"…it shows the work of two developing and worthy women playwrights." — Village Voice

"Win / Lose / Draw deserves to win and prove a draw. Let's hear it for the women." — New York Post

"It's a good bill, well worth seeing." — New York Daily News

About the Playwright:

Mary Gallagher is an American playwright, screenwriter, novelist, actress, director and teacher. She currently teaches playwriting and screenwriting at New York University/Tisch School of the Arts. She has written screenplays for Paramount, MGM, HBO, NBC, CBS, Lifetime and Showtime.

Ara Watson is American playwright. Her plays have been produced in New York at the Provincetown Playhouse, the WPA, Ensemble Studio Theatre (EST), and American Palace. She was co-winner of the Great American Play contest at Actors Theatre of Louisville.