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Enerstine's Family Time Capsule

Match the character name with their line of text.

Happy 17th to 107th Birthdays, Ernestine Ashworth! Beloved daughter, girlfriend, wife, mother, friend, aunt, mother-in-law, widow, second wife, grandmother, great-grandmother, and great-great-grandmother!

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During the play, Ernestine bakes a cake every year on her birthday. The making of the birthday cake is an example of a family ritual that is part of a popular birthday tradition. Rituals and traditions come in many forms, from the food we prepare to the songs we sing and the holidays we celebrate.

• A RITUAL is a ceremonial act or action; an act or series of acts regularly repeated in a set precise manner.
• A TRADITION is an inherited, established, or customary pattern of thought, action, or behavior.

Consider a favorite person of yours who made an impact or taught you a ritual. If you were to make the recipe for this person, what would the ingredients be? Think beyond food. What are the flavors of a human personality? A little bit of sass, a lot of bravery, a pinch of thoughtfulness?

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Now that you have made the ingredients to this magical person in your life, what would they look like in cake form? Now, draw a cake, write a detailed description, or create a collage that represents the recipe of this person.

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Congrats! You have finished your recipe! What have you learned about yourself? In creating this cake, you considered your dreams, habits, comfort materials, family, and friends. Keep these in mind as you evolve through your life. Healing is not constant, through life you will hit peaks and valleys, as long as you commit to yourself and the things that serve you, you can get through it.

• How can you apply this knowledge moving forward?
• How can knowing these things help you navigate change?

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In Birthday Candles, we witness Ernestine’s hopes for the future and reflections on her past at various ages. There is a question that echoes through generations of characters in this play:

“In the career of my soul, how many times have I turned from wonder?”

What does this question mean to you?

From your present perspective, write your hopes and monumental moments of wonder around this question to your past self, your current self, and your future self.

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