November Playwrighting 27: Untitled College Play

This is something that has been rattling around in my head a long time. Why all these scenes about proposals in this month's plays---I have no idea why. 

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Untitled College Play

Setting text: A Union College dorm room in Barbourville, Ky, 1946. There is a dressing table with a mirror and a padded stool. Two single beds. It is neat and tidy.

MARIE is brushing her hair when GEORGINA ENTERS.

                                 GEORGINA

You’re going to go bald if you just sit there brushing your hair!

                                MARIE

I’m thinking.

                                 GEORGINA

Marie, you’ve got to tell him something so he can move on.

                                MARIE

Move on? My, we are sure of what I’m going to say.

                                 GEORGINA

Well, isn’t it the what sixth time he’s proposed in a month?

                                MARIE

Something like that.

                                 GEORGINA

Marie! You like it.

                                MARIE

Of course I do.

                                GEORGINA

Then why do you keep turning him down?

                                MARIE

I’m not. I’m postponing letting him know.

                                 GEORGINA

Because?

                                MARIE

He improves a little bit each time. Soon, it will be perfect!

                                 GEORGINA

Marie!

                                MARIE

Georgina!

                                 GEORGINA

You’re evil.

                                MARIE

No, not.

                                GEORGINA

So, do you want to marry him? I thought you said he was an oddball that you couldn’t be yoked to.

                                MARIE

I’ve refined my thoughts about him. He’s an acquired taste.

                                 GEORGINA

Is that what you call it?

                                MARIE

A little rough around the edges, but I can knock those off with a little shaping.

                                 GEORGINA

Oh, brother, not you, too.

                                MARIE

What are you saying?

                                 GEORGINA

Every woman on this campus is so ready to jump into marriage, but don’t see who it is that is proposing.

                                MARIE

I see him.

                                 GEORGINA

You see the proposal as you want it to be, perfect, is what you just said, nothing about him except for reshaping him. Who are you? Dr. Frankenstein? And he’s a project to bring to life, you want him to be? You know how that turned out.

                                    MARIE

I know him. We’ve spent a lot of time together this past month.

                                 GEORGINA

And that’s just it. How long have you been stepping out?

                                MARIE

If you count when we met, it will be about two months.

                                 GEORGINA

That first month, you hardly talked to him, and he spent the month asking if you would go out with him.

                                MARIE

I had to think.

                                 GEORGINA

If you have to think this much about it, he isn’t for you.

                                MARIE

Says who?

                                GEORGINA

Says me! You are smarter than this.

                                MARIE

You’re saying I’m not smart if I say yes?

                                GEORGINA

Yes!

                                MAIRE

You are jealous.

                                GEORGINA

Of what? Living a boring life tethered to a drip?

                                MARIE

He’s not a drip! I find him more and more fascinating.

                                GEORGINA

Do you hear yourself? You are convincing yourself into this and this isn’t a walk in the park for one night. This is for life! This is your life!

                                MARIE

I know!

                                GEORGINA

You haven’t said yes yet. Why?

 

 

November Playwrighting 26: Crash Sights #4

 (SECILY bends to pick up the ring as headlights swerve, brake sounds)

                                                    JEREMY

Secily!

(Scream and blackout)

                                                OLD SECILY

I can’t.

                                                OLD JEREMY

We got through it.

                                            OLD SECILY

You got through it. I…

                                            OLD JEREMY

I thought I would lose you, but I didn’t. We didn’t.

                                            OLD SECILY

I wanted to return to Italy, but this I could not.

                                            OLD JEREMY

I knew if you went, I’d never see you again. I had to see you through this if there was to be an us.

                                            OLD SECILY

Too hard, Darling, no.

                                            OLD JEREMY

Let’s continue.

(the scene shifts SECILY is in a wheelchair, and JEREMY ENTERS holding a breakfast tray)

                                            JEREMY

You’re up and in your chair. Going somewhere? You can’t go anywhere before you’ve had your breakfast!

                                            SECILY

No.

                                            JEREMY

No breakfast? That is the most important meal of the day.

                                            SECILY

No. Go.

                                            JEREMY

Go? Go where, Sweetheart?

                                            SECILY

(words slurred) Sweet…no, no, no. I go.

                                            JEREMY

(puts down tray) We’ve talked about this. You can’t just go. You have a while yet to heal. You can’t travel in this condition.

                                        SEICILY

I kn…kn…kn…know! I n…n…n…eed m..m..m..y m…m…m…other.

                                        JEREMY

She’ll be here in a couple of days. I made sure of it.

                                        SECILY

N..nooot here. H…h..h…ere not h…h…h…ome.

                                        JEREMY

It isn’t, but it could be. Secily, it was an accident. We’ll get past this. All of this will be a distant memory someday.

                                        JEREMY

No! Go home! Non capisci! Non capisci cosa voglio!

                                        JEREMY

See? Better that you speak in Italian. The doctor said that could help and your mother will be able to speak with you.

                                   SECILY

Non capisci!’

                                  JEREMY

The “no” I get. Say the other slowly and I’ll look it up.

                                SECILY

No capisci. Per capire.

(JEREMY has the Italian language dictionary off the side table)

                                JEREMY

Per “to” and cap..cap..capire. Oh. Secily. I am doing all I can to understand. When that car hit you, my world stopped. The woman I love could have died in front of me in that instant, but you didn’t. You didn’t. You are still here. We are still, I think, in love. You will heal and we’ll have everything. You and I...

                                SECILY 

No, no. no! J...j...j... Jeremy go!

                                JEREMY

No. I can’t. I won’t. I need you, and you need me.

                                SECILY

No.

                                JEREMY

This is what love is, Secily. Not all the other stuff. We have to hold on.

                                SECILY

No.

                                JEREMY

I’ll go for now, but know I am here and not going anywhere.

(Blackout on scene)

November Playwrighting 25: Angles Weep No More but maybe they should weep?

 I've hit some kind of wall where I know I'm just spinning my wheels in these scenes, not progressing, and part of it is the time I have or don't have right now. I need space to clear my head about the plot now that I've torn it apart and am trying to patch it back together. I don't know where to go. So, I just get something down on a page each night, hoping something will occur to my characters to say. I keep on swimming!

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                    PEARL

How are you? What are you?

                                                JANIS

The fuck I know. He never had a heart, so that makes sense.

                    JIM

You don’t know. This. This takes power. Unimaginable power to bring us here, living yet not.

                    PEARL

Yeah, man, this is…

                    JIM

I can make the earth stop in
its tracks. I made the
blue cars go away.

I can make myself invisible or small.
I can become gigantic & reach the
farthest things. I can change
the course of nature.
I can place myself anywhere in
space or time.
I can summon the dead.
I can perceive events on other worlds,
in my deepest inner mind,
& in the minds of others.

I can

I am

                    PATTY

Who do you think you are, God?

                    JIM

Maybe. I wrote that long before this rebirth, and here I am.

                    JANIS

I think this has nothing to do with you. It is bigger, man, we are a tiny drop in the universe.

                    JIM

Not me.

                    JANIS

All of us! (to PEARL) Why are you here?

                    PEARL

Here, man?

                    JANIS

Yes!

                    PEARL

Here? Here! Because I got hit over the head by her!

                    JANIS

(to GABRIELLE) Why are you here?

                    GABRIELLE

Because I work here.

                    JIM

Do you? Did you dig my grave?

                  GABRIELLE

Non!

                   JANIS

Why did you hit her?

                                        GABRIELLE

I thought they were going to steal from Jim Morrison’s grave or were stealing from it.

                JIM

Of course! I have the good stuff brought to me even in death!

(JIM begins sorting through the things on his grave)

                JANIS

So, you work around his grave all the time. You were here stealing?

                PATTY

This is ridiculous! We weren’t stealing we are here looking for a geo cache and Pearl wanted to stop by Jim’s grave to.. to… why were we here because the clue didn’t mention him or a man at all.

               JIM

You wanted to bring me something?

                                PATTY and PEARL

No!

November Playwrighting 24: Angels Weep No More scene

 I've lost track of where in the play this goes. I'm just writing scenes now, and I'll figure it out later.

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(ENTER JIM MORRISON)

                                JIM

(loud singing) Come on! Come on!

                                JANIS

Oh, come on, man, why’d you have to go and ruin it?

                                JIM

Ah, you missed me!

                                JANIS

No.

                                JIM

Let’s sing! Everybody now!

                                JANIS

Stop it!

                                PEARL

Oh, oh, this is wild!

                                JANIS

You’re telling me.

                                PATTY

No kidding. What’s the ruse?

                                JIM

You think this is some kind of joke? The joke’s on me then because I’m supposed to be dead! Oh, and Janis here has been dead even longer!

                                PATTY

We know. We’re standing by your grave.

                                    JIM

Can we step a little further away from that?

                                    JANIS

Why? Afraid it might grab ya and swallow you whole? Already done that.

                                    JIM

It ain’t got me no more!

                                    GABRIELLE

Why? How can you be there and here?

                                        JIM

I don’t know, and I don’t fuckin’ care. All I know is I’m alive, baby! Whoo!

                GABRIELLE

Impossible!

(GABRIELLE grabs JIM by the shoulders to listen to his heart)

                                        JIM

What the… well, I didn’t expect you, little lady, to…

                                    GABRIELLE

(slaps his hands)

Attend. No heart.

                                    PATTY

(shoves GABRIELLE aside, listens to his heart)

Really?

                JIM

This is more like it.

                                        PATTY

Then how?

                PEARL

(to JANIS) My I?

                                        JANIS

Knock yourself out.

(PEARL listens to JANIS’ heart)

 

                 PEARL

How are you? What are you?

                                        JANIS

The fuck I know. What are any of us? Why do we exist? We are mucking up everything by being here. Most of humanity is clinging on by their fingernails, waiting, hoping or something better to come along before we die. And some of us live hard and die young because the wait was still too long. Too many people are tearing at our existence until we are scraps of nothing good. We sing out our angsts, and no one hears it; they just sing along.

 

November Playwrighting 23: Angles Weep No More (again)

(GABRIELLE ENTERS out of breath)

                                                        GABRIELLE

Me neither!

                       JANIS             

Why are you chasing me so hard?

                                                    GABRIELLE

You run fast and you don’t belong here.

                       JANIS

How does Jim get to be here and I don’t belong? He’s a terrible human being.

                                                GABRIELLE

That is a misconception.

                                                JANIS

Ha! You’re trippin’. He is despicable.

                                                PEARL

B..b…b..b..bad to the bone! That’s why we love him! And you!

                    JANIS

I was nothing like him. He hits on anything that moves. I clobbered him the first time I met him and tonight was the second time.

                                        PATTY

You hit him hard! Where is he anyway?

                                        GABRIELLE

Chez pas. We thought if we found you, he would appear again.

                                        JANIS

I don’t want to be near him.

                                        PATTY

Then why did you return?

                                        JANIS

I have no fucking clue. I was somewhere and then ripped away from there to blow into here. I wasn’t given a lot of warning.

                                        PEARL

No, why did you come back here to us tonight? You ran.

                                    JANIS

Ah, yes. I was scared that this was all just a bad trip, you know. The more I’m awake though, the more I remember or see. And I heard my song, so I had to sing it! Nice pipes!

                                    PEARL

Thanks, it calms me down.

                                    JANIS

Mmmmmm. .. I get that.

                                    GABRIELLE

Oui, l’amour et le coeur.  It opens the heat to sing.

                                    JANIS

Heavy.

                                GABRIELLE

(sings) I'll say come on, come on
Come on, come on

… And take it!

                                JANIS

 (sings) Take another little piece of my heart now, baby

                PEARL

 (sing chant) Oh, oh, break it!

                                        JANIS

(sings) Break another little bit of my heart now, darling, yeah

                PEARL and PATTY

 (sing chant) Oh, oh, have a!

                                    JANIS and GABRIELLE

(sings) Have another little piece of my heart now, baby

Well you know you got it, child
If it makes you feel good

                                JANIS

(sings)  I need you to come on

            JANIS, GABRIELLE, PEARL and PATTY

 come on
Come on, come on

(ENTER JIM MORRISON)

                                JIM

(loud singing) Come on! Come on!

 

November Playwrighting 22: Angels Weep No More little scene piece

                                 PEARL

Sorry? It was the only… She was the guiding me. You called me a stumble butt? I stumbled with her giving me the path, man. She really gave me the path and now she’s gone. Oh, Janis, where have you gone?

                                PATTY

That’s a good question and add why are you here?

                                PEARL

You mock!

                                PATTY

You invite it.

              PEARL

Fuck. You don’t get it. I’m serious now. We are in deep shit! In Pere Lachaise, the largest cemetery in Paris, with no clue where to go next.

                                PATTY

We have a clue, and you said you knew where to go that Janis was guiding you!

                                PEARL

That was my inner Janis, but now she’s out running around! You lost her!

                                PATTY

I didn’t lose her, I fell, it was an accident and after that she…she…suddenly appeared out of thin air.

                                PEARL

She did.

                                PATTY

With Jim.

                                PEARL

Uh-huh.

                                PATTY

Uh-huh. You don’t think….

                                PEARL

Shhh… I’m thinking. (sings) Oh Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz?
My friends all drive Porsches, I must make amends
Worked hard all my lifetime, no help from my friends
So, oh, Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz?

(JANIS ENTERS singing)

                                JANIS

Oh, Lord, won't you buy me a night on the town?
I'm counting on you Lord, please don't let me down
Prove that you love me and buy the next round
Oh, Lord, won't you buy me a night on the town?
Everybody

                                PATTY

Wow.

                                PEARL

Yeah, man, wow.

                                JANIS

I know what ya mean. This is crazy, man! Guess the good Lord took me seriously. Just not how I pictured it.

                                PEARL

Me neither.

(GABRIELLE ENTERS out of breath)

                                GABRIELLE

Me neither!

Novermber Playwrighting 21: Bird, Grief, Sister play

 (SHEILA re-enters carrying snacks)

                                SHEILA

Your turn for what?

(JAMIE and KATIE look at each other intensely)

What are you up to?

                                KATIE

My turn to do the dishes!

                                JAMIE

Hey!

(KATIE EXITS to the kitchen, sticking her tongue out at JAMIE)

                                SHEILA

Wow, I’ve never had anyone who argued over doing the dishes in this household. In fact, when Sutton and I were newlyweds, I got him that magnet on the fridge.

                                JAMIE

Oh yeah, classy.

                                SHEILA

He thought it was funny. I’d just point to it when fed up with the stack and then he’d pitch in and do a load.

                                JAMIE

What does it say, exactly?

                                SHEILA

No woman ever shot a man while he was doing the dishes.

                                JAMIE

He would think that was funny.

                                SHEILA

I thought it was funny that all I had to do was point at it, but the mountain of dishes in the sink didn’t seem to motivate him or anyone else, for that matter. I’m still trying to teach Sammy how to wash dishes or cook, or clean.

                                JAMIE

Yeah. How’s that going? When he was younger, he wouldn’t touch anything slimy or …

                                SHEILA

It’s not. I’ve tried rubber gloves or plastic gloves, but he won’t wear them. He doesn’t mind gardening gloves and digging in the dirt outside as long as the dirt is dry and not sticky but food on plates, forget it!

                                JAMIE

And the smells.

                                SHEILA

Yeah, that overwhelms him, so dishes are still a non-starter with him. We’re working on it in therapy.

                                JAMIE

You do dishes in therapy?

                                SHEILA

Yes, and anything else he needs to work on to function.

                                JAMIE

What about emotional stuff? I thought that was what therapy was for.

                                SHEILA

It is, but he’ll work on other stuff too, as long as we go somewhere besides here or his therapist can come here and work with him.

                                JAMIE

That’s got to be expensive!

                                SHEILA

It is, but worth it.

                                JAMIE

Really, when he still can’t do the dishes.

                                SHEILA

You don’t get it. We… he is closer than he’s ever been to being able to do it and that’s progress.

                                JAMIE

Speaking of progress and Sammy, what is going to happen with him?

                                SHEILA

What do you mean?

                            JAMIE

Wasn’t Sutton the main caretaker?

                                SHEILA

No. We both were…are… Sammy can do a lot of things on his own.

                                JAMIE

Sure. Sure.

                                SHEILA

He gets up, rides the bus, gets to work and back on his own.

                                JAMIE

He does?

                                SHEILA

Yes. He has for a year now.

                                JAMIE

That’s great! I thought Sutton was driving him in.

                                SHEILA

No. Occasionally. He liked to sometimes when things were slow, he’d take him in because he talks more in the car. It was their time to talk about something besides birds or weather. He could ask him things in the car and he’d answer. 

November Playwrighting 19 & 20: Angels Weep No More another chunk

I wrote this morning too and sent it in, but didn't post it for the chunk on the 19th. So, here's tonight's offering, continuing the scene. I think altogether it is 7 pages, just spilling over into the 8th page barely. Not bad. Maybe I'll finish at least this play by the end of the month if I don't get too distracted. 

___________________________________

                                    GABRIELLE

Step backwards.

(PEARL literally does step back)

Non, not what I mean to do that. Go back to what you were doing when Jim appear. Where were you?

(PEARL goes to where she was. Then she moves and moves again)

You don’t know?

                                        PEARL

No. Someone bashed me over the head and I can’t think!

                GABRIELLE

Je suis désolé.

                                    PEARL

Sorry?

                                    GABRIELLE

Oui, sorry.

                 PEARL

What? Oh, you did this?

                                        GABRIELLE

Oui, sorry. I do my job.

                  PEARL

Your job is to hurt people while their backs are turned?

                                        GABRIELLE

Non. Non. My job is to protect people who come here and destroy and graffiti and wreck the resting space of so many that did not ask you to do that. Not even Jim!

                                        PEARL

Jim is not resting! Jim is up and horny and taking a walk for all we know!

                 GABRIELLE

Non. Impossible!

                                    PEARL

Which part?

                                    GABRIELLE

All!

(THEY are nose to nose when PEARL starts to swoon again)

Sit, sit, sit, sit, sit!

(GABRIELLE lowers her down to sit)

                                            PEARL

Thank you.

                                                GABRIELLE

De rien. Now, we think of this different. Where was your friend?

                                                PEARL

Patty? She was…was…was… there. We both were, I think.

(GABRIELLE inspects JIM’S grave)

                                                GABRIELLE

Aha! There is blood!

                                                PEARL

Blood, are you sure?

                    GABRIELLE

And you are the only one bleeding, so logic says it is your blood.

                                            PEARL

But I was nowhere near there when you hit me.

                                            GABRIELLE

True, I hit you over here.

                                                PEARL

Was that after or before Jim poofed into existence?

                                                GABRIELLE

Chez pas.

                                                    PEARL

Great. And we have blood but don’t know whose it or why. We thought we saw Jim Morrison and Janis Joplin…alive? Dead? Both? You don’t think they’d eat our brains, do you?

                                                    GABRIELLE

Non. They are not… what do you call them…zombies.

                                                        PEARL

How do you know that? They could be!

                                                            GABRIELLE

They walked with purpose. They were not rotten. They drank from that bottle and Janis

(makes pop sound with her mouth)

Jim and he passed out! All very human-like things. They seem alive, yes?

                        PEARL

Yes! But how could they?

                                                    GABRIELLE

I do not know, but I do not know what happens to us when we shed the mortal coil that binds us to this life. Look around you? Maybe this is a city of people waiting to wake and live a second time! Who knows.

                                                    PEARL

That’s heavy, man. Now you sound religious or something.

                                                    GABRIELLE

Or something, oui.

                                                        PEARL

How long have you worked here?

                                                        GABRIELLE

Many years. Too many. We become friends in the nights. I walk and talk to them.

                        PEARL

Than you should know Jim and why he is walking and talking tonight.

                        GABRIELLE

No, he never before did. You, wake the dead.

                                                        PEARL

No. No! How do you know that? This is a huge cemetery and maybe he goes for a walk every night.

                                                        GABRIELLE

Not possible.

                                                        PEARL

It is possible. We saw it. Unless…No, I haven’t been doing any drugs. I’m clean. And you and me, and Patty saw it.

                        GABRIELLE

Group, how do you call it… dream…

                        PEARL

Hallucination?

                        GABRIELLE

That. It is a thing, non?

                        PEARL

Only if there is a gas leak or something. Any gas lines running under these graves?

                        GABRIELLE

Non.

(PATTY ENTERS running with a first aid kit)

                        PATTY

Did… did.. …go by..there?

                        PEARL

Did they?

                                                    PATTY

Her! It’s her!

                                                        PEARL

This is real.

                        PATTY

Janis was right in front of me! Lost her!

                                                            PEARL

Where?

(PEARL stands up fast and starts to sink as GABRIELLE catches her)

                        GABRIELLE

I go. My job. Where?

                        PATTY

There, I think?

(GABRIELLE EXITS)

She’s fast!

                                                        PEARL

You’re not kidding. She tore outta here before like a bat outta… maybe she is coming from hell? Do you think she’d be in hell.

                        PATTY

I don’t know if there is a hell, a real one. Is this real?

(PATTY starts fixing PEARL’S head or handing her bandages and things as she turns away)

                        PEARL

The guard and I were just talking about that.

                        PATTY

What’s her name?

                        PEARL

Who? You know Janis.

                        PATTY

No, the guard. What’s her name?

                        PEARL

I don’t know.

                        PATTY

That is so you. In those ten minutes or so, I was gone you probably learned her shoe size, where she lives, and her philosophy about life, but not her name. The basics elude you.

                        PEARL

Not true, man! I told you the story of my name, right?

                        PATTY

Several times. You don’t know mine, do you?

                        PEARL

Sure, I do. Your mom’s mom liked Patty Duke!

                        PATTY

No! Who is Patty Duke?

                        PEARL

You know, the Patty Duke show! She stood on the stairs (sings) “Cousin’s identical cousins.” She played both the part of Patty and her cousin, who was from somewhere with an accent. British, I think.

                        PATTY

When was this show?

                        PEARL

The fifties? No, must have been the sixties, cause all those shows I watched in the seventies growing up, and grandma used to sit with me. An old show, but she was… well, it was kinda cool how she’d flip back and forth in her accent, and this was before all these special effects that are so mind-blowing nowadays.

                        PATTY

Yeah. I saw this movie once that wait a minute, mind-blowing special effects! Could this be for the finale? There is no Jim or Janice, but just actors and a hoax or, is it? Is it something to throw us off?

                        PEARL

     Hey man, you might be onto something! But why run away? What is the point?

                        PATTY

There are written clues to find the cache, we know, but why not other clues!

                        PEARL

I don’t know, man. Jim and Janice were never in Paris at the same time until now.

                        PATTY

Are you sure, sure, sure?

                        PEARL

I’m pretty sure Morrison moved here after Janice kicked off.

                        PATTY

Did they like each other?

                        PEARL

It was pretty much like we witnessed tonight what was said when they met for the first and I think the only time. Janice hit him over the head with a bottle that night, too!

                        PATTY

Oh.

                        PEARL

The guard lady..person…she was trying to figure out why they appeared. She had me retracing our steps, but we didn’t find nothin’, except some fresh blood.

                        PATTY

Yeah, that’s mine.

                        PEARL

You’re bleeding too?

                        PATTY

Don’t focus on it, or I’ll lose it again. I was just forgetting about all this.. stuff. That’s what took me so long, as I had to fix up my hand too, see?

(Holds up bandaged hand)

                        PEARL

What happened? Did you lose a finger?

                        PATTY

No, I cut it on… never mind.

(PEARL is looking around where the blood was found)

                        PEARL

There’s nothing sharp over here. Hang on.

(PEARL picks up a broken piece of the vial)

This looks just like… Patty, where is the vial? Are you wearing it?

                       PATTY

Not exactly.

                                                        PEARL

That is my one precious thing, and she guides us. If we don’t have that vial, we are flying blind here!

                                                                PATTY

No… that isn’t true! We’ve got an actor or special effect Janis to guide us.

                            PEARL

No, no we don’t because she ran off.

                                                                PATTY

The guard will find her! She went in the right direction. I saw her! I was chasing her!

                            PEARL

And you lost her, and what happened to her ashes in the vial?

                            PATTY

Remember, we went to hide and you were and I was and then we were…I broke it on Jim’s headstone. I’m sorry. I didn’t know it was still in my hand when we heard the noise and I panicked. I’m so sorry.