ALL I EVER WANTED…
A Play by Robert Paul Gallegos
Full-length | Three Acts | Autobiographical Drama with Dark Comedy
On November 2nd, 2007, Robert Paul Gallegos stopped dying. Not with a program. Not with a sponsor. With a decision — and then he sat down and wrote it all down: every move, every fist, every bottle, and every moment of grace that somehow survived the damage.
Drawn from the memoir Asleep (Drifting) — Book One, All I Ever Wanted follows Robert from his birth in Española, New Mexico, through thirty moves before the age of fifteen, the streets of San Pedro and Long Beach, California, and three decades of addiction and survival — to the morning he finally woke up.
Three voices — Child Robert, Young Robert, and Older Robert — let the audience witness one life from both inside the chaos and the hard-won distance of understanding.
ACT I — THE ROOTS
Before Robert's story begins, we meet his mother Lucinda — born the illegitimate daughter of a field worker, raised watching her half-sister inherit a name and a fortune she never had. Young Robert moves through Española, through abuse and poverty, held together by a grandmother and aunt who plant what goodness survives.
ACT II — THE DRIFT
Robert drifts into Long Beach — the world he builds in the absence of a stable home. First love, first loss, and at the center of it all: the Bad Company Brotherhood, seven vivid portraits of the men he chooses as family.
ACT III — THE AWAKENING
The losses mount. A reckless Fourth of July becomes the last gasp of a life spiraling out of control. And then: November 2nd, 2007. A cold room, an empty bottle, and a letter from his son Brandon that cracks something open. The play's true climax isn't sobriety — it's understanding.
At first glance, All I Ever Wanted looks like a large production — 66 theatrical sequences across three acts. In practice, it's one of the most efficiently stageable plays a company will ever produce.
The set never changes. Seven furniture pieces live on stage for the entire play, hidden under black drapes when not needed. No set changes. No stagehands moving furniture between scenes.
The projector does the heavy lifting. Every environmental shift — New Mexico desert to San Pedro streets to Long Beach neighborhoods — is carried by a pre-programmed projection sequence. 66 scene transitions on paper; 66 lighting and projection cues in practice.
By the numbers:
Permanent set pieces: 7 — never move
Rolling pieces: 6 on casters, plus 3 lightweight hand props — moved in 10–15 seconds each
Stagehands required: 2 minimum
Target transition time: 15 seconds maximum
Cast size: 8–12 actors, several roles doubled
Production history: none to date — this would be a premiere
This is a play built for exactly the kind of stage a university performing arts center or black-box theater provides: flexible lighting, a projection system, and a student or ensemble cast hungry for roles with real dramatic weight.
Full script, one-page synopsis, and full production design plan available on request.