Mis chicas

I started writing "Tables and Beds, an unromantic comedy" at the end of 2006, a very difficult year in my life, and I finished it in 2008, the beginning of the happiest time of my life... a time that I feel is still going, knock on wood, very strong.

For me writing this comedy was a type of therapy, a very personal journey. I wanted to talk about relationships, about broken hearts, unmet expectations, and the indestructible love of real, honest, and true friendship.

The play ended up being a love letter. A love letter to all my "chicas", the women of my life: my sisters, Rosalia and Maite, my niece, Marta, Monica, Calila, Mamen, Tatiana, Blanca, Beatriz (to whom the play is dedicated), Elisabeth, Mercedes mother, Mercedes daughter, Karen... These ladies in presence, via the phone, or "in memoriam", helped me pull through the very dark years of 2005 and 2006. And in many ways, all of them, separately and combined, have been the so-called "love my life".

Mar, the romantic heroine of "Tables and Beds" is a composite of three element: mis chicas, my favorite characters of fiction and myself.
 
Since "Tables and Beds" opened in the winter of 2010, in Spain. Two important names has been added to "mis chicas.""

One is Cristina, a friend who every day makes me feel like Madrid is only around the corner from Chicago.

The other one is Géraldine Dulex, the actress playing the role of Mar in this first American production, the role that I originally wrote for Mercedes Herrero, daugther.

Maybe it is important that I didn't say this out-loud before today, twenty fours before the opening of the US premiere of "Tables and Beds." It would have been too much pressure for Géraldine to hear this during the process, her knowing how much I love the women who inspired the play. Now her amazing work is about to be available for the world to enjoy. And I just couldn't be any more proud or grateful.

Géraldine has temporarily moved back from New York to Chicago, just for this show. That commitment has been an incredible financial, logistical and emotional sacrifice for her. But, as it happens always with my chicas, everything she does for me seems effortless and natural. Almost, as if it was fated and there was no decision involved in the process.

Géraldine, as all my chicas, is funny, at times knowing that she's funny, at times not even realizing how hysterical she is. Like a good day at the Korean spa, Géraldine has been for me, one of those presences who is able to calm me down if I'm too high, or bring me up, if I feel down.


On top of the friendship, Géraldine is a generous and kind artist in full collaboration with the material, both from an artistic and the production perspective. And, most importantly, she is the kind of actress that I could write roles for.... for the rest of my life.

At times during rehearsals, I look at Géraldine, and the three men from the cast, Popio, Kauffmann and
Brynt, and I'm absolutely puzzled by the fact that I didn't know ANY of them when I wrote this play. How can that be possible? Hand in Glove!!!

As much as I wish all my chicas were here next to me for opening night at Stage773 in Chicago... I have a great, great consolation.

Thanks to Géraldine, all of them will be with me tomorrow tonight. On stage.

Emilio Williams