Title: "The Easel Rivals"

A Comedy in Four Acts

Dramatis Personae:

• GABRIELLO – A pompous yet passionate painter, prone to theatrical exclamations.
• VALENTINA – A fiery and ambitious painter, quick of wit and scornful of overly serious acts and pretending to high art.
• LUCIO – Gabriello’s bumbling apprentice, eager but hopeless with a brush.
• BEATRICE – Valentina’s sharp-tongued confidante, ever ready to meddle.
• DUKE ALONSO – A noble patron of the arts, easily swayed by talent or trickery.

ACT I – A Canvas of Contempt

A public square in Abalsodade. Two grand easels stand opposite each other. Gabriello, in a flamboyant beret, feverishly paints. Valentina, across from him, works furiously. Their eyes dart to each other’s canvas with equal measures of loathing and intrigue.

GABRIELLO: How fares thy feeble hand, O dame of smears?

Hath yet thy brush resolved to paint aright,

Or dost thou slather pigment as a babe

Who knows not red from rot?

VALENTINA: Ha! Thou prattling cockatoo of color,

Were mine own work as foul as thine, good sir,

I wouldst pluck out mine eyes and gift them thee,

For surely thou dost paint by sense of smell.

GABRIELLO: (aside) Her tongue doth cut me, yet it whets desire.