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. 

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                                    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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

November Playwrighting 18: Grief, Bird, Sister play scene 3 beginning

 I really need to come up with a title for this play. Is it a full play? Not sure yet. Fleshing out the story and characters at the same time, and timid to really get stuff going, but the end of this scene did not go where I thought it would. Something is there.

_______________________________________

Scene 3: Lamps on in the living room with more boxes in various conditions. There are three wine glasses and a bottle of wine on the coffee table.

(SHEILA ENTERS and puts down a box. KATIE ENTERS and moves the same box. JAMIE ENTERS with an ( other box, sets it down, sees the box that KATIE just moved, and starts to move it)

                        KATIE

Ut-huh.

(points)

                        SHEILA

No, don’t listen to her. I want it there.

                         KATIE                   

That makes no sense.

                        SHEILA

My house, it makes sense to me!

                           JAMIE

Whatever.

(JAMIE sets down the box where it was and sits on the couch)

Are we done yet?

                        SHEILA

Halfway.

(groans)

                        JAMIE

If I’d known Sutton had all this crap…

(KATIE gives her a look)

Sorry, I mean stuff stored in every nook and cranny of this house, I …

                        SHEILA

Yes, what would you do?

                        JAMIE

I’d… I don’t know. This is overwhelming.

                        SHEILA

Yes, it is. You don’t need to add to it.

                        JAMIE

Sorry.

                        KATIE

Sorry.

                        SHEILA

Why are you apologizing?

                        KATIE

I was thinking the same thing. I knew Sutton had a lot of interests, but all these boxes and who knew you had so many little storage spaces in this house!

                        SHEILA

Yep, they don’t make them like this anymore. This was pre-1950 and you didn’t want anything to be left out of show, so there are spaces everywhere to shove things.

                        JAMIE

Boy, he shoved a lot in there. Wow, I mean the stuff! The boxes filled with CDs and pictures. What is this one anyway?

(hands her a picture)

                        SHEILA

Let me see. That is pre-Sammy. We are in Rome, I think.

                        JAMIE

She says it so casually, Rome. I’ve never been to Rome.

                        KATIE

And yet you’re never home when I call you.

                        JAMIE

I don’t travel to Rome, but I do get in my car and go places.

                        KATIE

I don’t.

                        SHEILA

You used to.

                        KATIE

I did.

                        SHEILA

I thought I’d never get caught up with your list of places you’d been.

                        KATIE

Then you met Sutton and went even further.

                        SHEILA

We did, didn’t we?

                        JAMIE

Pre-Sammy.

                          SHEILA

No, he went with us when he was portable.

                        JAMIE

Portable, what’d ya do, shove him in your suitcase?

                    SHEILA

No!

                        KATIE

(looking at a picture) Here, here’s him portable. Aw, it looks like he’s asleep in that big backpack thing Sutton would wear. Where are you?

                        SHEILA

Probably taking the picture. I took many of these. Sutton just liked the pictures and having them taken. I took them. He put these with his stuff because it got too many pictures to keep track of once Sammy got bigger. I threw them in boxes, and he was tired of tripping over them.

                        JAMIE

Where was this? Sutton doesn’t look happy.

                        SHEILA

No, he doesn’t. Oh, because Sammy had just broken his glasses and we were in a remote little town in Spain. It was siesta and I was trying to take their picture and Sammy was not having it. Sutton swung him up over his head because he could always get him to laugh doing that, and he said, “Take the picture quick!” I was still using film and had to finish changing it out. By the time we tried it again, Sammy had Sutton’s glasses in his chubby little hand and threw them hard on the cobblestone.

                        KATIE

Oh, no!

                        SHEILA

Oh, yes, we heard them crack just as I took this picture. He was so mad. Well, as mad as you can be at a two-year-old that you adore. Getting his glasses fixed, though, was another adventure during siesta time in Spain, with very little Spanish between us.

                        JAMIE

It is a great picture. No, I mean it!

                        SHEILA

Ok.

                        JAMIE

He didn’t always seem normal, normal and this one of him angry seems human.

                        SHEILA

No more wine for you!

                        KATIE

No, I get what she means. Sorta. Sutton was…

                        JAMIE

Not normal.

                        KATIE

She doesn’t mean, not normal bad.

                        JAMIE

Right, good, just not normal.

                       SHEILA

I’m cutting you both off.

(SHEILA scoops up the wine glasses and takes them into the kitchen)

                    KATIE

Way to go, Miss subtle.

                    JAMIE

Well, I was trying to.

                    KATIE

Why couldn’t you just come out and ask her?

                    JAMIE

I don’t see you broaching the subject.

                    KATIE

“Angry is a good look on your husband”, by the way, he’s not “normal”. Not subtle just making it weirder.

                    JAMIE

Either shut up or put up. You’re not doing any better! Your turn!

(SHEILA re-enters carrying snacks)

 

 

November Playwriting 17: Angels Weep No More continued end of scene 2ish

I guess Snark was a palate cleanser, and now back to comedy!

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                                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?

              GABREILLE

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 a 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.

November Playwrighting 16: Snark

 Empty tonight as I have an early morning IEP, and I've had my head in that. Too tired to write and no time. So, they said if we had to we could submit something ridiculous in a lights up, something happens on stage, and then lights down if we had to one night. This is that night! The prompt was "snark". I did write a musical on "The Hunting of the Snark" by Lewis Caroll, but that would be cheating. So here is my answer to the prompt and especially for my sister Kathy, who introduced me to this terrible earworm!

Snark

Setting: Bare wooden stage. Ragged curtain. ENTER BOY IN SHARK COSTUME. Spotlight up.

(SHARK BOY waves fins and clears his throat to sing)

                                SHARK BOY

Baby snark! Doot, doot, doot, doot, doot, do!

(SOMEONE from the audience throws a starfish at him.)

Hey!

                                AUDIENCE MEMBER

Anything but that!

(SHARK BOY hesitates)

                                SHARK BOY

Baby! Snark!

                                AUDIENCE MEMBER

Boo! You can’t even get it right! Not that I want to hear that horrible earworm. Really, you got anything else?

(SHARK BOY thinks and shrugs his shoulders)

                                AUDIENCE MEMBER

How about (sings the JAWS theme)?

(SHARK BOY shrugs his shoulders again)

Can’t even identify! Unbelievable! Do you know what you are supposed to be?

                                SHARK BOY

A snark!

                                AUDIENCE MEMBER

Shark not snark! S.H.A.R.K Shark.

                                SHARK BOY

Baby snark! Doot, doot, doot, doot, do, do!

(AUDIENCE MEMBER charges the stage as DADDY SHARK ENTERS, singing. AUDIENCE MEMBER tries to clear the stage as a ridiculous number of PEOPLE IN SHARK COSTUMES flood the stage, singing, drowning out the protests of the AUDIENCE MEMBER. The AUDIENCE MEMBER gives up and leaves the auditorium through the house loudly protesting as HAPPY SHARKS party with a wild version of the Baby Shark song, slowly EXIT the stage, celebrating. SHARK BOY waves as he is the last to EXIT the stage)

                                SHARK BOY

Baby Shark!

(Spotlight out. END OF PLAY)

 

November Playwrighting 15: Grief Bird Play end of scene 2

                                 JAMIE

It doesn’t snow here that often, does it?

                                SHEILA

No, it doesn’t. Rarely.

(SAMMY ENTERS)

I can’t hardly remember the last time we had a really deep snow. Morning, Sweetheart.

                                SAMMY

The deepest snow event began on Monday, February 11, 2019. 20.2 recorded during the month at Sea-Tac airport.

                                JAMIE

That’s a lot of snow!

                                KATIE

I don’t think of you getting snow like that.

                                SAMMY

It was the seventh most snow in one month since 1895.

                                KATIE

Who keeps track of that?

                                SAMMY

Climate scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

                                JAMIE

And they did this since the 1800s?

                                   SAMMY

Yes. Tracking began in 1870.

                                JAMIE

How in the hell…

                                SAMMY

Aunt Jamie, please.

                                JAMIE

Sorry, Sammy. This information is somewhat surprising to me and I forgot myself. I’ll do better.

                                KATIE

Well, after that bit of information, I guess I won’t hope for a snowball fight with you anytime soon! What does everyone want for breakfast? Pancakes?

                                SAMMY

No.

                                KATIE

Ok. How about…

                                SHEILA

I got it. Sammy, waffles or toast?

                                SAMMY

You chose.

                                SHEILA

Ok, sure.

                                KATIE

Then pancakes it is!

                                SAMMY

No!

                                KATIE

Waffles are almost pancakes.

                                   JAMIE

With that logic, pancakes are nearly waffles too. Let him have what he wants. Waffles are fine.

                                SHEILA

It will be fine. They share a lot of the same ingredients and I think I have enough for both. You too went overboard on the groceries yesterday.

                                KATIE

We just wanted to help.

                                SHEILA

And you did! Thank you! I wasn’t complaining.

                                JAMIE

Of course not. Just a lot of stuff. Got it.

                                SHEILA

Small kitchen, and it is just the two of us.

                                    KATIE

Four of us.

                                    SHEILA

For now.

                                    JAMIE

We aren’t cutting and running anytime soon.

                                    SHEILA

Sure.

                                    JAMIE

We care. We are staying.

                                    SAMMY

Staying? Forever?

                                    KATIE

Not forever.

                                    JAMIE

But, for a little while.

                                    SAMMY

What is your timeline?

                                    SHEILA

We haven’t discussed it, Sammy. I called and they came.

                                    KATIE

Yes and here we are ready for breakfast! Getting those pancakes…I mean waffles ready for all of us. Here. Now.

                                    SHEILA

I could split the batter and, with a few tweaks, do some of each. No biggie.

                                    KATIE

Waffles aren’t fluffy.

                                    SAMMY

Yes. They are not.

                                SHEILA

That’s the appeal, right, Sammy?

                                SAMMY

Yes!

                                KATIE

Oh.

                                JAMIE

It’s food we are hungry and we’ve got a plan, so let’s do it! Katie and I can get this done. Sheila, you and Sammy relax. Breakfast will be served shortly.

                                SAMMY

Too much.

                                JAMIE

Do you mean too soon, Sammy?

                                SAMMY

No. Too much.

(JAMIE and KATIE EXIT to the kitchen to cook. SAMMY comes over to his Mom and scoots in beside her. SHE covers him with the blanket)

                                SHEILA

Bright eyes, are you awake?

                                SAMMY

My eyes are open.

                                SHEILA

Yes, but did you sleep?

                                SAMMY

You asked if I was awake, Mama.

                                SHEILA

I heard you up till very late, well, early this morning.

                                SAMMY

Cannot sleep.

                                SHEILA

Me either.

                                    SAMMY

Aunt Katie snores loud.

                                    SHEILA

Yes, I can hear her upstairs too when everything is quiet at night.

                                SAMMY

Too loud.

                                SHEILA

But she stops and starts, but then she was quiet and you were still up and around. Anything I can do for you?

(SAMMY cuddles closer)

Hey, hey remember you’re bigger than me. Put your head here. Ok, better?

(No reply but takes her hand, like he’s examining it)

I used to take my Mama’s hand and turn it over looking at it just like you do. I had her hands memorized. The way they felt and all the rough or smooth spots. I thought about what they held or did during the day. Your hands have outgrown mine with your long fingers compared to my short stubby ones. But, you’ll not really outgrow this, will you?

(SAMMY takes his blanket and moves to another chair by himself. KATIE ENTERS)

                                KATIE

We’ve got bacon or sausage. Which do you want?

                                SHEILA AND SAMMY

Bacon!

(Lights down for END of SCENE 2)