The River Bride
by Marisela Trevino Orta
Directed by Robert Ramirez

​
​
​
American Players Theatre
Touchstone Theatre
June 17th - September 30th, 2022
​
Scenic Design: Regina Garcia
Costume Design: Haydee Zelideth
Lighting Design: Jesse Klug
Sound Design & Original Music: Brandon Reed

About The Play

Helena's feelings about her sister Belmira's wedding to Duarte are complicated, much like her relationships with both Belmira and Duarte themselves. But Helena's thoughts are redirected when her father literally fishes a mysterious man out of the Amazonian river, sending everyone's plans into upheaval in this riveting fable about the complexities of love.

As a design team, our goal was to help breath life into the Amazon that encompasses the village that our show takes place in. We wanted the audience to feel like this jungle is always alive and always present, but also feels like it's the same no matter what time period we are. It always feels the same and it's isolated from the rest of the world. We also wanted to explore how Moises and his magic effects the world from the moment he arrives to the finale of the play. The audience would get the sense of how something always feels different about the world of the play whenever he is around. How he can magically make this village feel unique and no longer isolated from the outside world. Disturbing what they've always known to be real.

The sound design helped tell the story in two main ways. The first being the constant presence of the jungle and how it affects the characters within the story. It's the one thing that is consistent throughout the entire show. It's what makes the world feel timeless and it's own little sphere free from the outside world. It changes and flows with the times of the day, but it's always persistent. The second way being Moises himself, and how he effects the world around him. When he arrives he brings a new quality to this timeless world that is ethereal, alluring, and captivating. When he is in a scene, the ever-present ambience of the amazon subtly shifts. Faint magical sounds or sonic textures are layered in and morph the soundscape in a light and airy way. The sound design helps us feel just as trapped as our characters, but it also shifts and evolves as things challenge their pre-conceived notion of the world around them.

The Sound Design

Musical Transitions

For the scene transitions, I wanted to compose my own music. I wanted something to give the passage of time, but also feel like it is it's own world separate from everything else. Just like the village of our characters and how it's separate from the rest of the world in it's own little space. In my musical research of the amazon countries I learned that much of the music is folk based and pulls instrumentation and influence from surrounding countries. I used an Array Mbira that is bell like instrument that is similar to an African Mbira. I also used a Tongue Drum and other African percussion to create a melodic, but percussive score for transitions that was dreamy and mystical in quality to vibe with the rest of the show.


​
​Fished From The River

In the beginning of the play we have the sisters Belmira and Helena chatting at a pier along the Amazon river. Belmira contemplates whether her marriage to Duarte will allow her to escape the village for a greater life, while Helena berates her for feeding their father's fish to the dolphins in the river. Until finally a storm approaches their village as a magical thunder is heard and lighting shoots across the sky giving an ethereal quality to it. Rain falls as the sisters dance in reverie in the rain. Finally we swap to Duarte and SR Costs fishing in the river in the middle of the storm. They discover a main floating in the river and pull him into their raft deciding to take him to the village to recover. Right away there is a sense of mystery as we don't know who this man is or why he was in the river.


​
Moises and Helena Connection

The man fished from the river reveals himself to be a man named Moises. He quickly begins to court Helena for marriage as he explains that he doesn't have long before he must return home. He believes it's love at first sight and does his best to convince Helena. As they make their first physical contact, time and space around them begins to silence and stop. Accompanied by a magical chime, he reveals a necklace he brought for Helena and gifts it to her. They are suspended in time before Belmira enters to bring them back to reality.


​
Moises & Sr. Costa

Later, Moises finds SR Costa and Duarte fishing for food to feed the guests at the upcoming ceremony for Duarte and Belmira's marriage. They talk of what it means to be human and a man. After mentioning that they've been unable to catch anything, Moises offers to lend a hand. He takes the net and throws it into the river, but you can feel a sense of magic and mystical quality in the air as he does so. He is victorious as we hear them pull a net full of fish flopping onto the deck of the pear. Moises helps SR Costa stand where we are once again suspended in time, getting a sense that Moises and Costa are connected in more ways than we or them could imagine.


​
​
The Kiss

Finally allowing herself to fall in love, Helena is finally over her sister Belmira marrying her former lover Duarte and allows herself to fall in love with Moises. They finally share a kiss, as we can hear magical bells and chimes release and birds are heard from above them really making the moment magical.

​
Time Has Run Out

It is revealed that Moises is actually the fabled Boto dolphin that tries to either marry a women to either stay human or drag back into the amazon river. He seeks to marry the love of his life so that he may remain human. However, Helena is originally convinced he is a dangerous man and refuses to marry him. Belmira, believing Moises could finally take her away from the village, convinces him to marry her instead. He agrees, but since she is not who he loves his must drag her back to the river transforming her into the process. Helena and her family finds Moises and Belmira on the pear. She hopes to marry Moises, but it is too late, he drags Belmira into the river and what ensues is a movement sequence of them trying to save Belmira, but Moises escapes with his now wife before finally saying goodbye to Helena.



Finale

In the aftermath of that night months ago, Helena sits alone on the pear they leaped from collecting her thoughts. She is convinced of what she saw, but her family refuses to accept what happened. Believing Belmira to have drowned with Moises in the river, but she believes she witnessed them transform. Helena gets back with Duarte and even becomes pregnant with their child. She claims she will never love Duarte as she did Moises, and will always feel a sense of emptiness. However she will do her best to be a good wife. She begins to cry and accept her fate of living with a broken heart and family as she drops the necklace Moises gives her into the river. Ending the play.