2000-2001 Season

THE AMERICAN CENTURY: PART ONE
Presented during the 2000-2001 Season
 

It is late nineteenth-century Nebraska, and Alexandra, a Swedish immigrant in charge of her younger brothers Lou, Oscar and Emil, struggles to bear fruit on her family’s drought-ridden land. When her friend Carl’s family moves to St. Louis, Lou thinks they should leave too, but Alexandra adamantly believes that the dry land they own has opportunity.

Sixteen years pass, and their land is now green. Alexandra has made her wealth with alfalfa, but despite her success, she feels the sting of loneliness. Emil has gone to University, and Lou and Oscar are now rich and petty. Carl passes through on his way to Alaska, and marvels at what Alexandra has done with the land. He shares that he feels like a failure, but Alexandra says she would rather have his freedom than all her land. Meanwhile, Emil, back from college, discovers that his childhood sweetheart Marie is now married to another. Although her husband Frank has become embittered after years of struggling with the land, Marie asks Emil to accept her marriage or she won’t see him again. Hurt, he leaves for Mexico. In the meantime, Oscar and Lou let Alexandra know that she ought to make Carl leave, as people are gossiping about them. Carl realizes he must leave and make something of himself, despite Alexandra’s entreaties for him to stay.

Emil returns, and one day, overwrought after the funeral of a friend, goes to Marie’s, where they fall into each other’s arms. Frank, coming home, finds them together and shoots them. Alexandra blames herself for not realizing what was going on between Marie and Emil, and loses the will to live, until one day she awakes with a clear idea: she must go see Frank in jail. He says that he never meant to hurt Marie and Emil; she tells him that they were all to blame, and that she will strive to get him pardoned. When Alexandra returns home, she finds Carl waiting for her. He’s heard the news, and has come to stay with her for a while. He has done well for himself, and must go back to see to his own work in the Spring. He asks Alexandra to go with him, and she will as long as he doesn’t ask her to leave her land. Carl understands—he would never ask her to part with it. She realizes that she has achieved peace: “those who love and understand this country are the only ones who really own it.”