has real difficulty balancing his romantic nature and the new life he has found in the drug trafficking of the neighbourhood. His true affection for his love, Inez, pregnant with his child, will always weigh considerably in any decision he now has to make. INEZ, a sixteen-year-old Hispanic girl, is intense and gritty. She is a survivor, seemingly touched, but never crude. She finds herself caught between the demands of her family that she stay away from Roberto since he is considered "not their kind," and the fact that she is pregnant by him. Though often her rough manner may suggest otherwise, she has done some reading and some serious thinking, and can share her ideas readily, with Cindy especially. JAMAL, an eighteen-year-old African American, has seemed to have lost his bearings following the breakup of his family, his father's unemployment, and his sister's disappearance. His basic intelligence and artistic nature will be hidden by his easy cynicism, and he also finds escape in drugs. He is already something of a drifter, but retains beneath it all, a boyishness, more and more buried. HECTOR, a fifteen-year-old Hispanic, looks to the big boys, playing up to them, especially since he's trying to escape being a kid. He thinks a lot about basketball and girls; jams with the best of them, dancing up a storm at the slightest opportunity. He has a kind of wacky charm about him, which kind of makes him a kind of happy mascot to the others. CINDY is a sixteen-year-old Asian who, though feeling somewhat isolated at times through her Asian ancestry, is determined to be accepted on her own terms. Sharp and observant, she tries to put her family's ideas about traditional women’s roles in perspective, as she persists in discovering her own possibilities, and her life outside the family store, as an outsider among outsiders. She can become a source of support and understanding for the others, a true friend, as she continues to define herself. NELSON is a seventeen-year-old White boy who is something of a clown. He enjoys calling attention to himself, and especially, to his playing the stud. The others know he talks a good game, mostly, and he himself, in quieter moments, suspects it. As a jokester, he works to mask his family problems, involving a father gone, and a retarded kid brother he often has to take care of. These characters work together in monologue and song - dreaming of a new day for all people when life can be without suffering and pain. MUSICAL NUMBERS 1. Come Into My Jungle - Cougar, Company 2. Bring In The Morning - Alicia, Company 3. Rap: You Wake Up In The Morning - Hector, Company 4. Rap: You Go To Your Shower - Jamal 5. Let It Rain - Alicia, Hector, Nelson, Cindy, Company 6. Rap: Got Up Late - Hector 7. Rap: The Best-Kept Secret - Cougar 8. Another Cry - Inez 9. The Ghetto Of My Mind - Cougar 10. Nightingale - Cindy 11. Funky Eyes - Hector, Company 12. You (Tu) - Inez, Roberto 13. I'm On My Way - Lakesha 14. Never Stop Believin' - Company 15. Something Is Wrong With Everyone Today - Hector, Lakesha, Jamal, Company 16. Call On Your Soul - Cougar, Company 17. Rap: Awake And A Dream - Jamal, Lakesha, Cougar, Company
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