Description

In Certain Arrangements, a troubled teenager learns of his own abilities and confronts the choice of his young life in a moving story of our time. On probation for stealing a car, an African-American teenager is apprenticed to an elderly Italian American immigrant woman who runs a flower shop in urban South Philadelphia. The old woman, who longs to win first prize for flower arranging at the annual flower show, places heavy demands on the teenager. He, in turn, puts up with her discipline as he longs for the end of his probation period. Just as he is coming to respect the old woman, a gang member who got him into trouble in the first place, pressures him into a scheme to use the shop as a front for drug-dealing. At a critical moment, the teenager must choose between the values of the street and those the old woman has tried to instill in him. Setting: a flower shop. Contemporary costumes. Approximate running time: 45 minutes.