Post by nightwing on Nov 19, 2005 19:50:20 GMT -5
Okay, this is written in the form of a play, but I wanted to get you guys to give me your thoughts and opinions on it. Thanks in advance!
Here's the first two pages of it. Anymore of it will cost you guys $5.95.
Four platforms are on stage with no light currently on the set. All four characters- ALEX, AMY, SARAH, and MATT- are on stage, one on each platform. Lights come up on ALEX. He is sitting on his platform.
Yeah, I don’t know… I just couldn’t take it anymore. She would always talk about what a ‘good guy’ my dad was. My dad… He would beat my mom and she would praise him for it. I never knew anything about it until just a week or so ago. I mean, how she could live with it for so long, without ever saying anything. And then, a couple days ago, she was just…gone. I had come home from work the other day and found a note on my bed. “Sorry sweetie, I just can’t take it anymore.” That was it. And just like that, she was gone. I mean, yeah, she went through a lot, but then she turned and just left me there, with him. I decided that I could go get an apartment, with what little money I had, and take all my things with me. So, I left.
Lights flash onto SARAH’s platform. She seems really upbeat and positive about something. She talks into a cell phone.
…Yeah, and guess what? Me and my parents are going to be at the movie premiere next week for my birthday! I know! I’m so totally psyched about it too. I mean, (lowering voice) did you hear that Brad Pitt is supposed to be there. Yes way! It’s just going to be so awesome. I can’t believe that my parents got the tickets for it! Seriously, how unbelievably cool is that? Well hey, I have to go. My parents are taking me out to dinner tonight. Yeah, I know. Alright, laters.
Lights flash onto AMY’s platform. She seems to be in distress. She is talking to a group of invisible people on stage.
I’m a twenty-four year old single mother. My daughter, Michelle, is already seven years old. Back when I was still in high school, my junior year to be exact, I had been walking from my work, back to my apartment. (Pause) That’s when it happened. (Pause) I had just been walking through the alleyway a few blocks from the apartment, taking it as a shortcut home when two guys, in their mid-to-late twenties, attacked me, and then they raped me. They just… (Pause) After it happened, I was knocked out. When I came to, I remember it was dark, and I ran home. My parents kept yelling at me, for running so late, not picking up my brother after his soccer practice, for not calling… (Pause) Then I told them what had happened. I just, yelled it back in their faces. Maybe I did it to make me feel a little better, knowing that I had turned it back on them. Anyways, my dad picked up the phone and called the police. I just remember that they had said that they couldn’t do anything about it. It had been too long ago, they had too many other cases, this, that, and the other. He started cussing the police lady out on the phone, for not trying to do anything about it. (Pause) Needless to say, that didn’t help them do anything about it, (sarcastically) but I guess it made him feel better.
Lights flash from AMY’s platform to MATT’s platform. MATT is wearing Army fatigues. He has a sling, or a brace, on his right arm.
I’m twenty-seven years old. I had enlisted in the Army right after I graduated from high school. Been in for nine years now, I just made Staff Sergeant a couple of months ago. You’re all probably wondering, ‘why is this guy here’ or ‘what’s he trying to say?” Maybe even ‘hurry up and get to the point.’ The reason that I’m here is to tell you about my time, that I spent overseas in Iraq. When I had gone over there, I thought ‘this is going to be a walk in the park’ and that nothing would happen to me. The thing that people seem to not realize is what these people go through over there, day in and day out. Then, just to top it all off, you have the people there that decide to fight back against us. I just think to myself, what are you fighting for? I mean, the US military is over there to help set up a new government. But the insurgents that are trying to kill us, what are they fighting for? If they just stopped fighting us, we’d get out of there a lot faster. (Pause) I just don’t get it.
Lights flash from MATT’s platform back to SARAH’s platform. The once happy teenager we had seen before doesn’t seem to exist anymore. It is the day of her sixteenth birthday at this point.
Today is my sixteenth birthday. (Pause) I was supposed to go to the premiere today with my... (Pause) well, with them. So I came home from school today, no one was home, and I figured I ought to get dressed up for the movie. Then I sat down in the living room, watching TV, waiting for (Pause) them to get home. Then a knock came from the door. I got up and had gone to open the door. Two guys in suits were standing there. One of them had asked me who I was and where ‘they’ were. I told them my name, and then they told me their news. ‘Your parents have been worried about you.’ They pointed to a couple that had just gotten out of their car, across the street. (Pause) At first I just told them that they must have the wrong house. I mean, those weren’t my parents. Then they… I mean, my actual parents, had told me what had happened. When I was two years old, I had been out playing in the backyard. Apparently the fence was broken down and our house looked all white-trash, and then a truck had pulled up, with the two people that I had assumed for so many years were my parents, and they kidnapped me. (Pause) I told them that they were nuts, just totally insane and had gotten the wrong girl. But they had showed me a picture of me, with them, when I was about two years old. I just, (Pause) I just, I couldn’t believe it.
Thanks for any input you give me on this. I might try to post a character list up in a little bit here.
Here's the first two pages of it. Anymore of it will cost you guys $5.95.
Story of Our Lives
by: Richard Stutheit
by: Richard Stutheit
Four platforms are on stage with no light currently on the set. All four characters- ALEX, AMY, SARAH, and MATT- are on stage, one on each platform. Lights come up on ALEX. He is sitting on his platform.
ALEX (Upset, confused)
Yeah, I don’t know… I just couldn’t take it anymore. She would always talk about what a ‘good guy’ my dad was. My dad… He would beat my mom and she would praise him for it. I never knew anything about it until just a week or so ago. I mean, how she could live with it for so long, without ever saying anything. And then, a couple days ago, she was just…gone. I had come home from work the other day and found a note on my bed. “Sorry sweetie, I just can’t take it anymore.” That was it. And just like that, she was gone. I mean, yeah, she went through a lot, but then she turned and just left me there, with him. I decided that I could go get an apartment, with what little money I had, and take all my things with me. So, I left.
Lights flash onto SARAH’s platform. She seems really upbeat and positive about something. She talks into a cell phone.
SARAH (Excited)
…Yeah, and guess what? Me and my parents are going to be at the movie premiere next week for my birthday! I know! I’m so totally psyched about it too. I mean, (lowering voice) did you hear that Brad Pitt is supposed to be there. Yes way! It’s just going to be so awesome. I can’t believe that my parents got the tickets for it! Seriously, how unbelievably cool is that? Well hey, I have to go. My parents are taking me out to dinner tonight. Yeah, I know. Alright, laters.
Lights flash onto AMY’s platform. She seems to be in distress. She is talking to a group of invisible people on stage.
AMY
I’m a twenty-four year old single mother. My daughter, Michelle, is already seven years old. Back when I was still in high school, my junior year to be exact, I had been walking from my work, back to my apartment. (Pause) That’s when it happened. (Pause) I had just been walking through the alleyway a few blocks from the apartment, taking it as a shortcut home when two guys, in their mid-to-late twenties, attacked me, and then they raped me. They just… (Pause) After it happened, I was knocked out. When I came to, I remember it was dark, and I ran home. My parents kept yelling at me, for running so late, not picking up my brother after his soccer practice, for not calling… (Pause) Then I told them what had happened. I just, yelled it back in their faces. Maybe I did it to make me feel a little better, knowing that I had turned it back on them. Anyways, my dad picked up the phone and called the police. I just remember that they had said that they couldn’t do anything about it. It had been too long ago, they had too many other cases, this, that, and the other. He started cussing the police lady out on the phone, for not trying to do anything about it. (Pause) Needless to say, that didn’t help them do anything about it, (sarcastically) but I guess it made him feel better.
Lights flash from AMY’s platform to MATT’s platform. MATT is wearing Army fatigues. He has a sling, or a brace, on his right arm.
MATT
I’m twenty-seven years old. I had enlisted in the Army right after I graduated from high school. Been in for nine years now, I just made Staff Sergeant a couple of months ago. You’re all probably wondering, ‘why is this guy here’ or ‘what’s he trying to say?” Maybe even ‘hurry up and get to the point.’ The reason that I’m here is to tell you about my time, that I spent overseas in Iraq. When I had gone over there, I thought ‘this is going to be a walk in the park’ and that nothing would happen to me. The thing that people seem to not realize is what these people go through over there, day in and day out. Then, just to top it all off, you have the people there that decide to fight back against us. I just think to myself, what are you fighting for? I mean, the US military is over there to help set up a new government. But the insurgents that are trying to kill us, what are they fighting for? If they just stopped fighting us, we’d get out of there a lot faster. (Pause) I just don’t get it.
Lights flash from MATT’s platform back to SARAH’s platform. The once happy teenager we had seen before doesn’t seem to exist anymore. It is the day of her sixteenth birthday at this point.
SARAH (Visibly upset)
Today is my sixteenth birthday. (Pause) I was supposed to go to the premiere today with my... (Pause) well, with them. So I came home from school today, no one was home, and I figured I ought to get dressed up for the movie. Then I sat down in the living room, watching TV, waiting for (Pause) them to get home. Then a knock came from the door. I got up and had gone to open the door. Two guys in suits were standing there. One of them had asked me who I was and where ‘they’ were. I told them my name, and then they told me their news. ‘Your parents have been worried about you.’ They pointed to a couple that had just gotten out of their car, across the street. (Pause) At first I just told them that they must have the wrong house. I mean, those weren’t my parents. Then they… I mean, my actual parents, had told me what had happened. When I was two years old, I had been out playing in the backyard. Apparently the fence was broken down and our house looked all white-trash, and then a truck had pulled up, with the two people that I had assumed for so many years were my parents, and they kidnapped me. (Pause) I told them that they were nuts, just totally insane and had gotten the wrong girl. But they had showed me a picture of me, with them, when I was about two years old. I just, (Pause) I just, I couldn’t believe it.
Copyright © 2005-2006 Stutheit Publications
Thanks for any input you give me on this. I might try to post a character list up in a little bit here.