CHAPTER

Acting
4

No role is too
small. In this
scene from Julius
Caesar, the varied
responses of the
crowd members to
Caesar’s death give
the scene more
depth. One can see
Mark Antony,
played by Al
Pacino, judging the
crowd’s mood and
planning how to
manipulate it.

A cting is a question of absorbing other

people’s personalities and adding some
of our own experience.
—PAUL NEWMAN, ACTOR
96
SETTING THE SCENE
Focus Questions
What special terminology is used in acting?
What are the different types of roles?
How do you create a character?
What does it mean to act?

Vocabulary
emotional or straight parts master gesture
subjective acting character parts inflection
technical or objective acting characterization subtext
leading roles primary source substitution
protagonist secondary sources improvisation
antagonist body language paraphrasing
supporting roles

S o now you’re ready to act! For most students of drama,

this is the moment you have been waiting for. You probably
share the dream of every actor to create a role so convincing
that the audience totally accepts your character as real, for-
getting that you are only an actor playing a part.

You must work hard to be an effective actor, but acting

should never be so real that the audience loses the theatrical illu-
sion of reality. Theater is not life, and acting is not life. Both are
illusions that are larger than life. If both theater and acting are
too real, the illusion is destroyed and replaced by what is normal.
Onstage, the normal can be boring.
 Restraint can some-
times be the best
method for conveying
strong emotion.
Notice how John
Malkovich in True
West uses his arms,
back, and facial
expression to create a
sense of restraint.

Shakespeare’s Advice to Actors

Some classic lessons in dramatic art come from one of the world’s most
famous actor-dramatists, William Shakespeare. They were given as advice
to actors in Act III, Scene 2, of Hamlet.

IN SHAKESPEARE’S WORDS IN MODERN WORDS

Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced Speak the lines of the author as written, dis-
it to you, trippingly on the tongue: but if you tinctly and fluently, with an understanding
mouth it, as many of your players do, I had of their meaning.
as lief the town-crier spoke my lines. Nor do
not saw the air too much with your hand, Do not use elaborate and artificial gestures.
thus, but use all gently; for in the very tor- Keep energy in reserve in order to build to an
rent, tempest, and, as I may say, the whirl- emotional climax smoothly and effectively.
wind of passion, you must acquire and beget
a temperance that may give it smoothness.
O, it offends me to the soul to hear a robus- Do not resort to farfetched action or noise
tious periwig-pated fellow tear a passion to simply to please unintelligent and unappre-
tatters, to very rags, to split the ears of the ciative onlookers.
groundlings, who for the most part are capa-
ble of nothing but inexplicable dumb-shows
and noise: I would have such a fellow
whipped for o’erdoing Termagant; it out-
herods Herod: pray you, avoid it.
98
Interpreting the Drama

The Special Language of Acting
Very early in the rehearsal process, you will also begin hearing a number of
theater expressions. To work comfortably and efficiently onstage, you
must become familiar with these expressions. Those most often used in
connection with acting are listed and defined in the following chart.
ad-lib to improvise stage business or conversation
at rise who and what are onstage when the curtain opens
back or backstage the area behind the set or that part of the stage that is not visible
to the audience, including dressing rooms, shops, and offices
bit part an acting role with very few lines
blocking yourself getting behind furniture or other actors so that you cannot be
seen by the audience
building a scene using dramatic devices, such as increased tempo, volume, and
emphasis, to bring a scene to a climax
business any specific action (other than changing location) performed on
the stage, such as picking up a book or turning on a televi-
sion set
C the symbol used to identify the center of the stage
countercross a movement in a direction opposite to a cross to balance the
stage picture
cover to obstruct the view of the audience; use of ad-lib to cover an
unexpected, unwanted event during a performance
cross the movement by an actor from one location onstage to another
cue the last words, action, or technical effect that immediately pre-
cedes any line or business; a stage signal
curtain the curtain or drapery that shuts off the stage from the audi-
ence; when written in all capital letters in a script, it indi-
cates that the curtain is to be closed
cut to stop action; to omit
cut in to break into the speech of another character
down or downstage the part of the stage toward the audience
dressing the stage as a technical term, placing furnishings, pictures, and similar
items to complete and balance a set; keeping the stage pic-
ture balanced during the action
enter to move onto the stage
exit or exeunt to leave the stage
feeding giving lines and action in such a way that another actor can
make a point or get a laugh

Acting
99
 foil an acting role that is used for personality comparison, usually
with the main character
hand props items (properties) such as tools, weapons, or luggage carried
onstage by an individual player
hit to emphasize a word or line with extra force
holding for laughs waiting for the audience to quiet down after a funny line or
scene
leading center the body part or feature used by an actor to lead movements;
often used to reflect a character’s major personality trait
left and right terms used to refer to the stage from an actor’s point of view,
not from that of the audience
master gesture a distinctive action that serves as a clue to a character’s
personality
milk to draw the maximum response from the audience from comic
lines or action
off or offstage off the visible stage
on or onstage on the visible stage
overlap to speak when someone else is speaking
pace the movement or sweep of the play as it progresses
personal props small props that are usually carried in an actor’s costume, such
as money, matches, a pipe, or a pen
places the stage command for actors to take their positions at the
opening of an act or scene
plot to plan stage business, as to plot the action; to plan a speech
by working out the phrasing, emphasis, and inflections
pointing lines emphasizing an idea
principals the main characters in a play or the named characters in a
musical
properties or props all the stage furnishings, including furniture and those items
brought onstage by the actors
ring up to raise the curtain
role scoring the analysis of a character
script scoring or the marking of a script for one character, indicating interpreta-
scripting tion, pauses, phrasing, stress, and so on
set the scenery for an act or a scene
set props properties placed onstage for the use of actors
sides half-sheet pages of a script that contain the lines, cues, and
business for one character
stealing a scene attracting attention from the person to whom the audience’s
interest legitimately belongs
subtext the unstated or “between the lines’’ meaning that an actor
must draw from the script
tag line the last speech in an act or a play, usually humorous or clever

100
Interpreting the Drama

taking the stage giving an actor the freedom to move over the entire stage area,
usually during a lengthy speech
tempo the speed at which the action of a play moves along
timing the execution of a line or a piece of business at a specific
moment to achieve the most telling effect
top to make a line stronger than the line or lines preceding it by
speaking at a higher pitch, at a faster rate, or with greater
volume and emphasis
up or upstage the area toward the rear of the stage—away from the audience
upstaging improperly taking attention from an actor who should be the
focus of interest
walk-on a small acting part that has no lines
warn cue notification of an upcoming action or cue; usually indicated in
the promptbook

Application
ACTIVITIES

1. Choose a scene from Part 2, and analyze the setting and stage
directions. With a partner or small group, act out the scene,
focusing on the movements onstage. Decide when you should
use the different techniques, such as the cross and countercross.
Have the audience evaluate your stage movements and tell how
the movements affect the meaning of your presentation. Also,
the audience should note if anyone stole the scene or upstaged
another actor.
2. In a small group, create a comic script that contains motivated
characters, conflict, and a resolution. Include the different tech-
niques used in comedy. Make sure you include a character with
a humorous master gesture.
3. With a partner, choose one of the monologues from Part 2.
Decide who will be the director and who will be the actor. The
director will need to inform the actor, using the terminology
given, of the different things he or she needs to do.

Acting
101

Approaches to Acting
There are two major approaches to acting. In the first, emo-

▼
tional or subjective acting, actors play their parts in such a way
CUE that they actually weep, suffer, or struggle emotionally in front
of the audience. As nearly as they can, they become the parts
Aim for a balanced they play and experience all that their characters experience. In
approach to a role. If the second, technical or objective acting, performance is based
you lose yourself in the on acting technique. In this approach, an actor analyzes the
character you portray, play’s structure and the personalities of the characters. The
an uneven and uncon- actor then uses the learned skills of acting, movement, speech,
trolled performance and interpretation to create the role. Emotional response is not
could result. If your allowed to interfere with the creation of the role. Instead, con-
approach to characteri- scious technical control is responsible for the results. The actor
zation is too technical, does not actually live the part but acts it so well that the illu-
an artificial, shallow, sion of living the part is created. In the emotional approach,
and unconvincing por- personal inner reactions form the actor’s emotional response.
trayal could result. In the technical approach, the process of study, analysis, and
creative imagination forms the assumed personality.
There is much to be said for both approaches to acting. Today, how-
ever, most actors use a combination of the two. It is therefore best to iden-
tify yourself with your part so that you can interpret it naturally, simply,
and spontaneously. At the same time, use your technical training to
achieve a clear-cut, convincing, and consistent characterization.
“The Method” is the most discussed and influential acting theory
today. It was formulated by Russian
actor and director Konstantin Stanis-
lavski. He explained his theories
on the art of acting and offered practi-
cal exercises in the techniques of vocal
and bodily expression in his books
My Life in Art, An Actor Prepares,
Building a Character, and Creating a
Role. His ideas greatly influenced the
theater in the twentieth century.
Many people have misinterpreted
Stanislavski’s theories by placing too
much emphasis on the actor’s use of

THEATER HISTORY
Method actors tap their own emotions and chan-
nel them through their characters. Konstantin
Stanislavski was the father of Method acting.

102
Interpreting the Drama

self-analysis and personal emotional experience in creating a role.
As a result, many so-called “Method” actors become so involved
with their inner resources that they fail to communicate to the
audience. Their speech is often slovenly and their actions over-
done. They make the mistake of believing that emotional identifi-
F ROM
THE PROS
”Imagination, indus-
cation with a character is more important than learning the lines
try, and intelli-
as written or responding alertly to others onstage.
gence—‘the three
Stanislavski’s so-called “magic if” should be most helpful to
I’s‘—are all indis-
you in creating a character. Stanislavski advised that actors should
pensable to the
use their full powers of concentration to ask what they would do if
actor, but of these
the events in the play were actually happening and they were inti-
three the greatest
mately involved in these events. For example, ask yourself, “If I
is, without doubt,
were Abigail in the courtroom scene in The Crucible, how would I
imagination.“
feel as Proctor accused me of being a witch? How would I react?
What would I do to stop him?” In answering questions such as —ELLEN TERRY, ACTOR
these, actors analyze both their inner natures and their characters’
inner natures. Only then can an actor use the technical resources
of voice and body movement to accurately interpret the likely reactions of
the character. This analysis can also lead to a deeper understanding of the
play itself.
In approaching a role, it is helpful to consider the types of roles typi-
cally employed by a playwright. The main characters in a play are referred

In an early rehearsal, these students work with few props in order to more fully concen-
trate on developing their characters.

Acting
103
 to as the leading roles. They include the protagonist, who must solve the
problem that arises in the play or be defeated in the conflict. There is often
an antagonist, who opposes the goals of the protagonist. Other leading
roles are the juvenile, the term for a young male lead between the ages of
sixteen and thirty, and the ingenue (än
•je•noo´
¯ ), a young female lead. The
leads are referred to as the principals. While many inexperienced actors
are often disappointed if they are not cast in leading roles, supporting roles
are often more challenging and demanding. The challenge of a role lies in
the type of person to be portrayed, not in how long or short the part might
be. One of the most important supporting roles is that of the foil, a char-
acter with whom another character, usually the protagonist, is compared.
There can be more than one foil in a play.
Both leading and supporting roles can be either straight or character
parts. The actors chosen for straight parts usually resemble in appearance
and personality the characters the playwright had in mind. Actors chosen
for roles that match their own voices, personalities, and appearances are
said to be cast by type. Character parts will almost always include some
distinguishing trait, idiosyncrasy, or personality type. This distinguishing
feature might be either
An actor who is cast physical or psychological.
by type brings a
sturdy realism to his
These parts demand a high
or her role. George degree of acting ability.
Rose’s whiskers, phys- Such roles rarely resemble
ical appearance, and
their actors in either
natural poise make
him perfect for his appearance or personality.
role as the eccentric Some actors become
Major-General Stanley identified with a certain
in Gilbert and
Sullivan’s The Pirates personality—the girl next
of Penzance. door, the business tycoon,
the confused fool, or the
faithful companion. Cast-
ing someone over and over
again in the same kind of
role is called typecasting.
There is a difference
between typecasting and
casting by type. If a role
calls for a man with a
Santa-Claus-like build and
the actor chosen happens
to be a portly, white-
bearded gentleman in his
late sixties, the director

104
Interpreting the Drama

has probably cast by type. However, if a similarly built man with dark hair
and beard has been cast in his last twenty roles as a “heavy,” this actor has
very likely been typecast as a villain.
An actor who has only a few lines is said to have a bit part. An actor
who appears briefly onstage with no lines at all has a walk-on part. These
minor roles demand as much careful attention to detail as supporting roles.
The difference lies only in the number of lines and scenes involved.

Application
ACTIVITY

Recall a serious movie or play you have seen recently. List the leading
roles and identify the protagonist, antagonist, supporting roles, and
other types of roles you recognize. Analyze the actors chosen for these
roles and decide if they are straight parts or character parts.

Characterization
For you as an actor, the creative process of characterization should occur
in two stages. First, you attempt to grasp the fundamental personality of a
part. Then, you project that personality to the audience in such a way that
your character becomes a living, convincing human being.
Characterization is the substance of acting. Therefore, it is your
responsibility as an actor to increase your knowledge of the lives and emo-
tions of real people in order to understand how they respond and behave.
The constant study of human beings both in real life and in literature is
one of your major responsibilities as an actor. It is an unending source of
material and inspiration upon which to draw.
Successful projection of character depends on the skillful use of tech-
niques. It also depends on insights into a character’s behavior and the abil-
ity to express those insights in interpreting the character. The successful
blending of technique and interpretation comes only with continued
analysis of character and script and with the rehearsing and portrayal of
varied roles.
Experience will teach you to use and to master some of the charac-
teristics of acting. You will learn the use of pause—a lull, or stop, in dia-
logue or action—in order to sustain emotion while the voice and body are
still. You will learn how to communicate originality, a freshness of act-
ing style that colors and characterizes the work of every distinguished

Acting
105
 dramatic artist. You will learn to apply versatility—the ability to change
style or character with ease—which always surprises and delights. These
are some of the means that experienced actors use as they interpret the
characters they portray.

STUDYING THE PLAY

Before you can understand and interpret a role faithfully, you must study
the play closely. Usually the entire script is read through at the first
rehearsal. Some directors choose to read the entire play to the cast. Others
Actors must develop prefer to have the actors read their assigned parts, although the director
their characters in might also participate in the reading. This reading should bring out the
relation to their set-
ting so that props like
author’s purpose and theme. It should also identify the protagonist’s main
antique telephones problems and the structure of the plot, especially how it builds to a climax
feel as natural as and holds interest to the end. Pay close attention not only to your own
what they really own.
lines but also to those lines about your character that are spoken by oth-
These actors seem
strikingly at home in ers. Note the shifting of moods throughout the play and how your charac-
this scene from the ter is affected by them.
1940s. You will obviously want to
know what kind of person you
are in the play and why you
behave as you do. You will also
want to understand what your
character wants and what stands
in the way of getting it. Pay par-
ticular attention to what your
character does; characters reveal
themselves in what they do as
well as in what they say. Note
any changes that take place in
your character during the play.
If the setting of a play is
unfamiliar, study the place and
the historical period. Learn all
you can from books and pictures
and, if possible, from people
who have visited the place. Try
to enter into the atmosphere of
the location. If your character
speaks a local dialect, try to talk
to people from the locality or lis-
ten to recordings of speakers
from the area. Notice their pro-

106
Interpreting the Drama

 ▼ CUE
When studying your
nunciation and their inflections. You might also want to read
other plays by the same playwright or by other playwrights of the character, ask the fol-
same era or geographical region. Look up historical references and lowing questions:
check the meanings of unfamiliar words.
• What does the
author say about
DEVELOPING A CHARACTER SKETCH your character in the
stage directions?
You will find it helpful to write a character sketch or brief biog-
raphy of your character to supply information not provided in the • What do your charac-
script. Go through the play thoroughly and look for clues to the ter’s lines reveal?
character you are to portray.
• What do other char-
You can summarize your character sketch by listing the
acters say about your
traits, behaviors, and motivations under several headings, such as
character?
the following:
• How do other charac-
ters respond to your
PLAY: The Miracle Worker
character?
CHARACTER: Annie Sullivan

MENTAL EMOTIONAL BEHAVIOR MOTIVATIONS PHYSICAL

TRAITS TRAITS TRAITS
Intelligent A strange mix Willing to Determined Eyes sensitive
Not well of patience confront her to get through to light
educated and impatience employer to Helen Strong enough
Strong-willed Tried to Believed one to carry Helen
Outspoken separate “connection’’ was Hands very
“teaching’’ from all it would take communicative
“feeling”

Ask and answer some basic questions about your character: What is
my character’s purpose? What is my character’s function in the play? Am
I playing a protagonist, an antagonist, or a foil? Is my character there for
comic relief? What does my character want to do? What does my charac-
ter want to be? What is my character’s goal in the play as a whole and in
each particular scene? State the answers to the last question in the form of
a verb, such as get even, deceive, trap, vindicate, or liberate.
As you complete your character sketch and become better acquainted
with your part, ask yourself more questions:
• How well adjusted to others is my character?
• Is my character shy or uninhibited?
• How intelligent is my character?
• In what ways has environment influenced my character?

Acting
107
 Actors who per-
formed in Our
Country’s Good had
to understand how
both upper and
lower class British
during Australia’s
colonization dressed,
thought, and spoke.
Such mastery requires
intensive rehearsal
so that the actors’
appearance, behavior,
and speech do not
seem artificial.

• What are my character’s particular problems?

• Is my character meeting or avoiding responsibilities? How and why?
• How does my character react to all of the other characters in the play?
• Does my character unknowingly avoid the main issues in situations?
• Is my character cynical, talkative, rowdy, tense, aggressive, charming,
friendly, fearful, envious, courageous, or idealistic? Why?
The answers to questions such as these will allow you to understand
more fully your character’s personal and social background.

Application
ACTIVITY

Watch a first-class actor at work on the stage, in a motion picture, or

on television. Then do the following:
1. Write a character sketch similar to one an actor might have
written when preparing for this role.
2. What elements of the performance indicate the actor has
researched the place and period in which the play takes place?

SCORING A ROLE
Role scoring is a helpful process in character analysis. The process consists
of answering a series of questions. If you take the time to answer these
questions, you will unlock important information about your character.
108
Interpreting the Drama
 ROLE SCORING QUESTIONS

1. How does the title of the play relate to your character?

2. What is your character’s main sense of urgency? What strong
impulse motivates your character to act?
3. If your character has a secret, what is it?
4. What rhythm might you associate with your character?
5. What sound might you associate with your character? (Sighing,
wheezing, and grunting are sounds that might be associated with
a character.)
6. What is your character’s master gesture?
7. What is your character’s leading center? (The head? The heart?
The stomach?)
8. What color might you associate with your character? Why?
9. What object might you associate with your character? Why?
10. What animal might you associate with your character? Why?
11. What are your character’s two primary senses?
12. Does your character “mask,” or cover up, feelings and behaviors?
If so, what does your character mask?
13. Does your character have a sense of humor? Is this sense of humor
used in a positive or negative way?
14. In real life, would you be your character’s friend? Why or why not?
15. What is your character’s most positive trait?
16. What is your character’s status in the world? Does your character
have money and power?
17. What are your character’s major wants and desires?
18. What is your character’s major objective for each scene in which
he or she appears?
19. How does your character go about achieving those major objectives?
20. What is your character’s life objective?
21. How does your character go about achieving his or her life objective?
22. Has your character changed by the end of the play? If so, in what
ways?

Acting
109
 Here two actors in Julius Caesar hold a pause, building the scene’s suspense and adding
impact to the words that will follow.

SCORING A SCRIPT
You score a script by marking the pauses, pitch levels, emphasis, speed of
delivery, phrasing, pronunciation, character revelation, movement, stage
business, and any special function a given line or direction might have
within the context of the play. Scoring a script is another useful tool in char-
acter analysis. The term comes from a musical score, which has similar
markings to indicate tempo, rhythm, pauses, style, and interpretation. In its
simplest form, a scored script may be marked to show only pronunciation,
pauses, emphasized words and phrases, movement, and stage business.
There are no hard-and-fast rules for script scoring, nor is there any
agreement about what symbols or marks should be used to score a script.
Actors are free to use any personal marking system that will be of help
to them.

110
Interpreting the Drama

 Motivation: Self-interest and
revenge. Marullus and Flavius
were tribunes of the slain
Marullus Pompey. They fear the loss of
democracy in Rome.
Wherefore rejoice? What conquest brings he home? Pointing to decorated statues
PP "Why are you celebrating?"
What tributaries follow him to Rome, "What is Caesar's
conquest – victories over
To grace in captive bonds his chariot- wheels? Rome's enemies or over
You blocks, you stones, you worse than senseless things! Pompey, Rome's friend?"
tributaries = captives
O you hard hearts, you cruel men of Rome,
Irony: Common people will react
Knew you not Pompey? Many a time and oft in a similar manner after
Caesar’s death.
Have you climb’d up to walls and battlements,
To towers and windows, yea, to chimney-tops, chimney tops (Shakespeare’s
London, not Rome)
Your infants in your arms, and there have sat
The live-long day with patient expectation,
To see great Pompey pass the streets of Rome

from: Julius Caesar

Symbol Key
slight pause speed up reading
1-second pause slow down reading
2-second pause rising inflection
phrase falling inflection
simple stress laugh line
greater stress character line
greatest stress plot line
pitch level rising theme line
pitch level falling paraphrase

Acting
111
 ercises Script Scoring
Ex
Work with a partner to do the following: reading a scored script differs from read-
ing an unmarked script.
1. Prepare two copies of the script on page
111, but do not include the scoring sym- 4. Study the scored copy and discuss any
bols on one copy. One of you reads the variations that might be made and any
script without the scoring; the other other symbols that might be used to
studies the scoring and then reads the mark the pauses, pitch levels, and
script, using the notations. emphasis. Using your personalized set of
symbols, use the unmarked copy of the
2. Trade roles and read the script again.
script to create your own scoring.
3. Discuss which reading sounded more
interesting and believable. Discuss how

Application
ACTIVITY
Working with a partner, choose one of the monologues on pages 232
through 245. Study the background situation provided for the mono-
logue. Individually score the script, using the symbols on page 111 or
your own set of marks. Pay particular attention to pauses, emphasis,
and speed of delivery. When both you and your partner have finished,
present your monologues to each other. Discuss the differences in
delivery and how those differences affected the meaning conveyed.

Building Up Your Part

There are two stages in building up your part. The first stage begins when
the director gives the cast his or her own view of the play, its characters
and their relationships, its theme, and its style. Then, as you study the play
and the characters, you develop your own concept of the part.
It is often best not to see a motion picture or stage production of a
play in which you are preparing to appear. If you do, you are likely to find
yourself copying another actor’s mannerisms rather than developing your
own understanding of the role and the play. To build a characterization,
choose a person you know who is similar to the character you are playing.

112
Interpreting the Drama

The faces of Kevin
Kline as Hamlet and
Dana Ivey as Gertrude
reflect the depth to
which they have inter-
nalized their roles in
this production of
Hamlet. A deep under-
standing of how a
character thinks and
feels allows an actor
to respond believably
to any situation in a
play.

This individual becomes your primary source. Study and adopt this per-
son’s posture, movements, habits, and voice inflections. In many situa-
tions, you might choose more than one primary source and combine char-
acteristics from all. The books that you read to help shed light on your
character are your secondary sources. They are helpful, but good actors
must always refer to life itself for appropriate models.
The second stage begins as you go to rehearsals with the entire cast
under the director’s guidance. It is during these rehearsals, as you react to
others and incorporate the principles of acting, that your character devel-
ops into a living person. To avoid conflicts, differences in interpretations
should be discussed with the director as soon as possible.
Once you have settled on the general interpretation of your part, you
must then grow into it physically, intellectually, and emotionally. Your
character’s actions and speech are your means of making that character
real to your audience. Voice, movements, and imagination are the tools
you will use to make your character come alive on the stage.

SIXTEEN KEYS TO CHARACTERIZATION

Each of these keys should help you as you learn to develop the characters
you play.
1. Internalizing When actors internalize a character, they develop a deep
personal understanding of what the character is really like. The actor
has already studied the play carefully, answered the questions Who?
What? and Why? about the character, written a character sketch, and
scored the role. Having done all these things, the actor knows how the
character thinks and feels.
Once the character has been internalized, an actor develops the
ability to respond in character to any given situation. An actor’s inter-
pretation of a line and the reaction to the words or actions of other char-
acters are all in a state of readiness. In the event of a dropped line or

Acting
113
 Phyllis Frelich as Sarah
Norman and John
Rubinstein as James
Leeds in Children of
a Lesser God appear
to be completely
absorbed by their
conversation. This
level of concentration
holds the audience’s
interest and makes
the story come alive.

other unplanned mistake, an actor who is deeply in character will

improvise a response in character.
2. Externalizing Externalization is the process by which the true per-
sonality of a character is made visible to an audience. This is done
through careful interpretation, nonverbal expression, voice quality,
pitch, rate, and physical action. For example, in The Caine Mutiny
Court Martial, Captain Queeg’s conviction that he is being persecuted
is externalized through the ball bearings that he carries in his pocket.
Whenever the captain becomes nervous and panicky, he removes the
ball bearings from his pocket and begins fidgeting with them in his
hand. As a result, the audience can see evidence of the inner man break-
ing down.
3. Concentrating Concentration is the ability to direct all your
thoughts, energies, and skills into what you are doing at any single
moment. It often helps to remember that every line comes from the
middle of some larger thought. Lines are not isolated and independent
from other thoughts and actions. As an actor, you must learn how to
concentrate simultaneously on character, lines, and action. You must
sustain that concentration through each performance and over the
length of the production’s run.
4. Observing The fourth key to characterization is observation. Observe
people carefully, noting how they communicate fine shades of emo-
tions. Notice in particular how they use their small facial muscles.
Notice also their distinguishing physical characteristics and their
unique voice and diction patterns. Do what most professional actors
do: begin an actor’s notebook and record your observations. Also,
include pictures of real people that you might want to use as makeup
models in the future. Record comments and suggestions made by direc-
tors and other actors. As you become more skilled in observation, you
will begin to see the many subtle things people do that reveal their
inner thoughts and feelings.
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Interpreting the Drama
5. Emotional Memory Emotional memory is the recalling of specific
emotions that you have experienced or observed. You have directly or
indirectly experienced fear, joy, jealousy, timidity, anger, love, and many
more emotions. However, emotions may need to be adjusted to fit your
character, situation, time, and environment. As an actor, you draw on
those emotional memories to give life to the characters that you play.
Keep in mind, however, that people can experience more than one level
of emotion at a time. A person, for example, is sometimes happy and
sad at the same time. The expression of conflicting emotions is chal-
lenging. When a part calls for the expression of conflicting emotions,
you must reach into your emotional memory bank to determine how to
show the audience the tug-of-war between the two feelings.
6. Projecting Once inner feelings are externalized, they must then be
projected to the audience. Projection is the sixth key to characteriza-
tion. Strong volume is a part of projecting, but projection is more than
loudness. Projection is “reaching out” to the last person in the last row
of a distant balcony. You project your character through dialogue and
focused action that seems larger than life. This projection of character
“across the footlights’’ generates the empathy between actor and audi-
ence that is the heart of theater.

Projection is as much
about drawing your
audience to you as it
is about extending
yourself to your audi-
ence. This actor in
FOB, a play written by
David Henry Hwang,
uses his hands and
facial expression to
reach everyone in the
theater.

Acting
115
 7. Motivating Motivation is the why of characterization. To be believ-
able your character’s behavior must be driven by an inner force. The
inner force is intent. Intent is what the character wants to do.
Motivation is why the character wants to do it. Motivations impelling
a character to act are influenced by personal convictions, mind-set,
self-interest, past experience, situation, environment, friends, and
loved ones. Good acting always makes a character’s motivation clear
to an audience.
8. Stretching a Character Ordinary personalities onstage are very lim-
ited and rather boring. Stretching a character is the eighth key to char-
acterization. Stretching a character is the process of making a role
unique, individual, and interesting. The process should result in a
character who is noticeably different from the other characters in a
play. In stretching a character, an actor’s aim is not to create an unbe-
lievable exaggeration but to identify the character’s primary personal-
ity trait and then to emphasize it. If the actor is portraying a villain, for
example, he or she might develop and emphasize the cruelty that is
the character’s primary personality trait. Even if a character is
stretched only slightly, the result can be a characterization that the
audience will long remember. There is an old saying in theater: “A
tenth of an inch makes a difference.”
9. The Consistent Inconsistency The ninth key to characterization is
called the consistent inconsistency. This key has to do with a special
personality trait of a character that the actor chooses to emphasize. That
trait is the character’s inconsistency, the thing that makes him or her
different from others. It might be a dialect, a limp, an arrogance, or a
cackling laugh. Once it is chosen, it must not be dropped, even for a line
or two. If the dialect slips away, if the limp shifts to the other leg, if the
arrogance is mellowed, or if the cackle loses its fiendish quality, the
characterization is bound to suffer. Actors, especially beginning actors,
must strive to be consistent with their characters’ inconsistencies.
10. Playing the Conditions The tenth key to characterization is playing
the conditions. The conditions are the elements of time, place,
weather, objects, and the state of the individual. These conditions
affect the manner in which characters meet their objectives and deal
with obstacles. Time can be the hour of the day, the day itself, the
month, year, or season. The place can be indoors or outdoors, familiar
or unfamiliar, threatening or comforting. The weather may be hot or
cold, sunny or rainy, calm or blustery. Objects may be familiar or unfa-
miliar, in adequate supply or scarce, in working order or broken. The
state of the individual may be extremely fatigued or well rested,
wounded or healed, freezing or sweltering, healthy or ill. Actors must

116
Interpreting the Drama

 keep all of these conditions in mind as they interpret their characters,
for each of these conditions can influence the way a character
responds.
11. Playing the Objectives The eleventh key to characterization is play-
ing the objectives. This includes all of the ways and means that
a character uses to reach a goal. The method used to attain a
goal might be a physical act, such as a slap, a kick, or a kiss. It
might be a mental act, such as a decision, a deliberate strategy,
or an assumption. The method used might also be an object,
such as a gun, a key, or a secret code. It might also be an action,
F ROM
THE PROS
”Continue searching
such as writing a letter, making a phone call, or planting an
harder, deeper,
explosive device. An actor must be completely familiar with a
faster, stronger, and
character’s objectives and must be totally aware of all the
louder and knowing
means that the character uses to reach them. An actor must
that one day, you’ll
also know how the character will respond if the objectives are
be called upon to
achieved or if they are not.
use all that you’ve
12. Playing the Obstacles The twelfth key to characterization is amassed in the
playing the obstacles or, in other words, facing each crisis or process.“
obstacle that stands in the way of an objective as the character
—JODIE FOSTER, ACTOR
would face it. An actor must note carefully how the personal- AND DIRECTOR
ity of the character deals with these situations. For example, an
actor must notice whether a character tackles an obstacle head
on by considering it thoughtfully or whether the character ignores it,
denies that it exists, transfers it to someone else, loses control,
becomes rattled, or runs away from it. Each personality approaches a
similar obstacle differently. You must know your character’s response
so that it can be forcefully communicated to an audience.
13. Playing the Object Not to be confused with “playing the objective,’’
playing the object has to do with how an actor uses objects onstage to
project character. These objects may be costume accessories, general
props, furniture, tools, or weapons. We learn much from the way a
character holds a phone, uses a knife and fork, or flutters a fan. Objects
can be used to “set’’ or emphasize a line in the script. This can be
accomplished through preceding action, interrupted action, or
concluding action. An actor using preceding action might jab a log
with a poker before delivering a line. With interrupted action, an actor
having a cup of tea might lift the cup as if to take a sip, but just before
the cup reaches the lips, hesitate, lower the cup, and deliver a line. The
interruption of the flow of action causes the audience to focus on the
line. A judge who bangs a gavel after saying, “Case dismissed,’’ is using
concluding action.

Acting
117
When an actor seems
in control of his or her
character, using no
more energy than
each scene requires,
the audience is more
deeply moved when
the climax finally
comes.

14. Energy Energy is the fuel that drives acting, both individual perfor-
mance and group performance. Energy enlivens a performance, makes
forceful character portrayal possible, and creates greater empathy
between the actor and the audience. Physical energy produces the
freshness, sparkle, and spontaneity on which theater depends. The
finest actors learn how to control energy and how to conserve it.
Because most plays build steadily to a major climax, the key scenes of
most characters occur well along in the play. Every performer must
therefore control the use of energy and save some for important scenes.
15. Focus Focus directs the actor’s attention, action, emotion, or line
delivery to a definite target. There are many forms of focus. Internal
focus on character includes focus on thought. Focus on scene concen-
trates on the central idea toward which a scene moves. Focus on stage
position turns a scene in and concentrates audience attention on the
key player in a scene. Visual focus that an actor creates with the eyes
leads the audience to concentrate on the object of the actor’s gaze.
Vocal focus projects the voice to the members of the audience farthest
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Interpreting the Drama
 from the stage or bounces a line off another player and then out to the
audience. Focus of feeling exists when an actor concentrates on a phys-
ical or emotional pain. This focus of feeling is called the point of pain.
If the character has a physical pain in the chest, the actor focuses on
the specific spot where the pain exists—the chest. If the character is
suffering from a broken heart, the hurt is focused on the heart.
The playwright’s writing, the director’s staging, and the actor’s
delivery of lines can all create focus. The main responsibility for focus-
ing attention, however, is the actor’s. By stressing particular lines, ges-
tures, mannerisms, facial expressions, or behaviors, the actor focuses
audience attention on the key ideas of theme, plot, or characterization.
16. Uniqueness The final key to characterization is uniqueness. Every
actor who plays a character should be unique in that role, not merely
a close copy of someone else. Each actor and each director will have a
different picture of the play and its characters. The director envisions
each character as part of the total production. Within the director’s
image of a character, the actor must shape a personality that is special
unto itself.

Elements of characterization, such as character stretching and focus, are often

inseparable. The intense focus of Cleavon Little and Judd Hirsch in this scene
from I’m Not Rappaport helps them stretch their characters.

Acting
119
 The father in Fences,
played by John Amos,
shares a quiet mo-
ment with his son.
Sometimes subtlety
produces the best dra-
matic effect, espe-
cially when an actor
has fully built up a
character.

Application
ACTIVITY
Choose a familiar character from a well-known play you have studied
but have never seen performed. It might be a tragic figure from
Shakespeare or another play you have read in a literature class. Decide
on a primary source, a person you know who you feel is similar to the
character in this play. Make a list of traits from your primary source
that you could adapt to the character. You might list them under the
following headings: posture, movements, habits, vocal inflections.

Physical Acting
According to the experts, the majority of our daily communication occurs
through physical action. This nonverbal communication is often called
body language. Physical acting relies on body language. It allows actors to
communicate far more than the words of a script alone can convey.
Beginning actors generally rely too heavily on the voice; most new actors
need to work on and improve their physical acting.
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Interpreting the Drama
GESTURE
To get some idea of how people use their bodies, it is helpful to imagine
that each of us operates within a bubble. This bubble is an imaginary cir-
cle that people establish around themselves. Imagine that each

▼
character portrayed on the stage is surrounded by a personal bub-
ble in which he or she “lives.” The size of each bubble is deter- CUE
mined by the personality of the character. Shy, withdrawn, and
frail personalities have small bubbles. Swaggering, bold, and dar- The size of the imagi-
ing personalities have large bubbles. Since customary gestures are nary bubbles that sur-
made within the bubble, less forceful characters do not really round us is cultural
need much room for their uncertain movements. More forceful as well as individual.
characters, on the other hand, often need bubbles that are large Americans tend to
enough to contain the arms fully extended. Audiences are very define their space like
much aware of the bubble space. They realize at once that when this:
two personal bubbles overlap, there is likely to be either a con- • Six feet or more is
frontation or an embrace. “formal.’’
As you work on your physical acting, you will want to • Three to five feet is
develop a master gesture, a distinctive action that serves as a clue “friendly.’’
to a character’s personality. The master gesture might be a pecu- • Less than two feet is
liar walk or laugh or some other recognizable form of behavior. “intimate.’’
Even the position of your feet while you are standing, walking, or
sitting can be a master gesture. Without being aware
Almost every character onstage begins movement or of it, people guard
“leads” with a part of the body that is appropriate for the charac- their bubbles. (This is
ter’s personality. A lead looks as if a string attached to a part of often apparent in
the body is pulling that part away from the other parts. The crowded elevators and
movement of the leading center can be either slight or exagger- buses.)
ated, depending on the character and the style of the play. The
body part that a character leads with is determined by the character’s major
personality trait. For example, if you are playing an intelligent person, lead
with the forehead. If you are playing a haughty character, lead with the
chin, face slightly tilted upward. Brave characters might lead with the
chest, and well-fed characters might lead with the stomach.

COMMON ONSTAGE MOVEMENTS

Certain movements onstage are so common that all actors must master
them. Among these are entering, exiting, crossing, sitting, and standing.
Because entrances introduce your character into a scene, you must
prepare for them long before you come onstage. Plan exactly how you wish
to appear. Pay particular attention to your posture. Remember that posture
will be determined by your character’s age, mood, and attitude toward the

Acting
121
 Entrances can be
tricky, particularly
when they involve
many actors. Each
actor must have his or
her own sense of pur-
pose and at the same
time be able to coor-
dinate the entrance
with others.

CUE ▼
Be sure that hand
other characters onstage. Be sure that every detail of your cos-
tume and makeup is exactly as it should be and that you have all
necessary hand props.
props are where they You must always plan your entrance so that you have
are supposed to be so enough time to come onstage and speak exactly on cue. If the set
you will not be worry- has steps that you must climb or walk down when making your
ing about them appearance, be sure to walk up or down them carefully. Think
onstage. As you wait about where your character was and what your character was
for your entrance, do doing before your entrance. Know exactly why you are entering.
not stand in front of a If you have a line to say upon entering and if the action of the play
backstage light, or you permits it, pause in the doorway and deliver the line. Such a
will cast your shadow pause can be very effective. If several characters enter together
onstage. Also, be sure and one of them is speaking, the character who is speaking
that you do not block should enter last so that he or she does not have to turn to talk
the exit for other to the others.
actors. Exits are as important as entrances. Plan ahead for them.
Always leave the stage in a definite state of mind and with a def-
inite place to go. If you have an exit line or a reason to turn back, turn on
the balls of your feet and deliver the line or glance pointedly, still holding
the doorknob.

122
Interpreting the Drama

Application
ACTIVITIES

1. Imagine the personal bubbles around the characters described

below. Then act out a scene in which they board a crowded,
standing-room-only bus.
• A boisterous salesperson who enjoys being around people on
the way home from a very successful day selling appliances
• A shy librarian on the way to a lecture on bird watching who
wants to read a book while riding the bus
• A high school football star known for his bone-crushing tack-
les and all-around rough play
• A wealthy business owner who usually rides a chauffeured
limousine to her office and is not used to standing and having
all types of people bump against her
2. Decide on an appropriate “lead’’ for each of the following char-
acters. Then act out that character as he or she begins to cross
an intersection as the “Don’t Walk’’ sign changes to “Walk.’’ Frankenstein’s mon-
ster leads with his
• A highly respected literary scholar from a prestigious university bent arm, suggesting
• The star dancer from a professional ballet troupe a defensive attitude.
His facial expression
• An overweight accountant and posture suggest
• The lead guitarist for a popular rock group that despite his size,
he is mentally inca-
pable of dealing with
his predicament.
 Onstage movement sends messages to the audience. You will recall
that a movement from one stage position to another is called a cross. In gen-
eral, actors usually move in gently curving patterns that resemble an S
unless the movement is agitated or urgent. The curved pattern allows actors
to open up or face the audience more easily. It also suggests that the stage
space, which in reality is about one and a half times as large as the actual
space being represented, is more similar to the actual space. It is always more
forceful to move toward the audience or other characters than to move
away. Standing is more forceful than sitting. Therefore, seated characters
must expend more energy to build a scene.
The movement of two characters requires special consideration. Such
scenes must be carefully rehearsed to be sure that one actor does not cover
the other and also to be sure that both do not hold the same position for
too long or use similar gestures. When one character moves, the stage pic-
ture loses its balance. Therefore, for each cross onstage, there is usually a
movement in the opposite direction by another character. This is called a
countercross. It does not have to cover a distance equal to the first move-
ment. Crossing and countercrossing are important parts of rehearsing, and
they must be carefully worked out so they look natural onstage. It is
always best not to move on important lines, either your own or those of
another character, because movement distracts the audience from the
words spoken. Try to cross between speeches on a definite piece of busi-
ness. Countercross easily and naturally when giving way to someone else.

The Actors’ Positions

A
B

curtain line curtain line

Audience

COUNTERCROSS
When character A crosses from the UR position to DL, character B will move from UL to DR to
balance the stage, to offset the movement of A, and to avoid being blocked by A’s new position.

Full Three-quarter Profile Three-quarter Full

front front back back

Decreasing Emphasis

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Interpreting the Drama

 Rules of Stage Movement

DO . . . DON’T . . .
Do open a door using the hand nearest the Don’t block an exit while waiting to enter
hinges, and close it with the other hand. the stage or stand in front of a backstage
Do enter the stage with your upstage foot light that might cast your shadow
first, so your body is turned downstage. onstage.

Do cross downstage of furniture or char- Don’t move during important lines, a

acters who are standing. laugh line, or while the audience is
laughing.
Do cross upstage of seated characters.
Don’t cover your face with your hands or
Do make gestures with the upstage arm, with a prop.
and make turns toward the front.
Don’t cross your knees or feet or spread
Do move forward on the upstage foot, and your feet apart with the knees together
kneel on the downstage knee. unless your character would do so.
Do sit with your feet and knees together Don’t grab the arms of a chair to push
unless you are playing a character who yourself up unless your character would
would sit otherwise, such as a child. do so.
Do stay in character when leaving the
stage until you are out of sight of the
audience.

The movements associated with sitting and rising must be done nat-
urally and effectively. Continually practice crossing to a chair or a sofa and
sitting down in character until it feels comfortable and becomes natural.
Avoid looking back for the chair or the sofa before you sit. Locate the edge
of the chair or the sofa with the back of the calf of your leg. Then sit down,
remaining in character as you do so. When rising, put one foot slightly in
front of the other and push yourself up with the back foot, letting the chest
lead. To make rising easier, sit on the front half of a chair or a sofa.

ercises Entrances and Exits or Movement

Ex
Practice these stage movements with a partner.
1. Actor A enters from stage left and stands exiting stage left, the actors ad-lib
at center stage. Then Actor B enters from a conversation.
stage right and stands slightly upstage of 2. Practice sitting and rising from different
Actor A. Actor A crosses to stage right. types of chairs and in different charac-
Then Actor B countercrosses. Both actors ters. As one of you practices, the other
turn and look offstage right. While can critique the performance.

Acting
125
STAGE POSITIONS AND GROUPING
The positions and grouping of actors onstage are very important because
they convey the spirit of a situation without any lines being spoken. There
are four basic staging techniques:
1. An actor is said to “cheat out’’ when he or she pivots the torso and
turns the face toward the audience. Two actors may “cheat out”
when they “share a scene.” You “share a scene’’ equally with another
actor when you stand or sit parallel to each other. A shared scene
should be played three-quarter front or in profile. A profile is rather
weak, however, because it does not allow the audience to see your
face. Also, a profile scene is a confrontation-type scene. It can be
played for only a short time before the audience expects a strong
emotional reaction, such as a fight or
an embrace.
2. An actor is “giving the scene’’ when
he or she crosses downstage and then
turns slightly upstage toward the
other actor. This shifts the audience’s
attention to the upstage actor.
3. Actors who are not the key charac-
ters in a scene are said to be “turning
the scene in’’ when they shift the
angle of their bodies upstage and look
directly at the scene’s key character.
This focuses the attention of the
audience on the center of the action.
4. An actor who turns away from the
audience into a three-quarter back or
full back position draws attention
away from himself or herself. This
is called “taking yourself out of a
scene.’’

Peter O’Toole and Joyce Redman, playing

Professor Higgins and his mother in Pygmalion,
demonstrate cheating out. The way they lean
toward each other, with his arm behind her, indi-
cates a bond between the characters.
 An actor can be emphasized simply by his or her position onstage.
One technique that works well is to position the important character at
the highest point of a triangle formed by actors, furniture, or other set
pieces at the downstage “corners.’’ Frames, such as doorways and arch-
ways, also set off an actor. Similarly, elevations such as platforms, steps,
and landings give a character dominance over other actors onstage.
Because people in Western societies are conditioned to move their eyes
from left to right, down right is a stronger stage position in Western
theater than down left.
A character who is upstage of another is usually dominant.
Therefore, the term upstaging is used for scene-stealing when an actor
intentionally moves upstage drawing attention away from the focus of the
scene. Actors who keep the stage picture in mind allow the audience to
see the performance clearly. They will not cover other actors, huddle in
tight groups, stand in straight lines, or take an emphasized position at an
inappropriate time.

Application
ACTIVITIES

Work in groups to deliver the following lines, using the staging tech-
nique indicated.
1. Move downstage and cheat out saying, “I knew I should never
have trusted him.”
2. As Actor A gives the scene, Actor B upstage says, “I have come
to an important decision.”
3. Several actors turn the scene in as an upstage actor says, “Who
among you will challenge my claim?”

STAGE BUSINESS
Stage business is an essential part of acting and involves the use of hand
props, costume props, stage props, other actors, and even parts of the set
(doors, windows, lighting fixtures, and so forth). How you handle a cup and
saucer, a pair of glasses, or a handkerchief will, of course, vary from char-
acterization to characterization. It takes training and a lot of practice to
handle props well. This is especially true of such historical props as
swords, fans, parasols, canes, and swagger sticks. If such items are not

Acting
127
128
Interpreting the Drama
 ▼
handled properly, their use will appear awkward and distracting
and the audience will focus on the props instead of on the actor CUE
using them. Stage business, such as writing a letter, drinking
from a cup, or stirring a fire, demands concentration and much When You Eat Onstage
practice before it looks natural. Good stage business aids a char- • To avoid choking, do
acterization and enhances an entire production. Too much stage not eat or drink any
business, however, especially that which is out of character and more than is neces-
nonmotivated, is meaningless and even distracting. sary and do not
Eating and drinking onstage present special problems. Real deliver lines with
food is rarely used onstage, so an actor needs imagination to con- food in your mouth.
vince an audience that the food or drink is real. When you drink • Cups, utensils, and
onstage, think about what the real drink is like. If you are sup- foods that have been
posed to be drinking a cup of cocoa, think about how hot it is. If in contact with your
it is really hot, you will sip it carefully. If it is lukewarm, you mouth must be dis-
might gulp it down before it gets colder. Does it have a marsh- posed of properly.
mallow on top? How full is the cup? When you eat onstage and
dark bread has been substituted for steak, imagine what kind of
steak it is, how it has been cooked, and whether it is tender and
juicy or tough and dry.

Live props can be

either impressive if
handled well or unin-
tentionally comic if
handled poorly. Here,
Carol Channing suc-
cessfully works with
pigeons in a scene
from Sugar Babies.

Acting
129
 SPECIAL STAGE TECHNIQUES
Two areas of stage technique deserve particular attention: combat and
romance. The former includes delivering blows, pulling hair, and choking.
The latter focuses primarily on the stage kiss.

Stage Combat Stage combat requires considerable training and practice.

Only a few general principles will be given here. Most important, most
stage combat is noncontact. If the combat is executed properly, the audi-
ence responds as if actual physical contact had taken place. Combat should
never be treated as a game, and participants should always take care of
their partners.
There are three stages to most combat:
1. The Preparation—usually an action opposite to the direction of the
blow, such as the drawing back of the fist
2. The Blow—the execution of the blow, jab, or pull
3. The Reaction—a combination of sound, physical response, and freeze
Both actors should take in air before a blow is delivered so that both
can respond vocally to the assault. Immediately following and timed to
coincide with the landing of the blow is a second sound called a knap, a
sliding, slapping sound or clap. The knap is usually made by the deliverer
of the blow, who may hit his or her own chest with the free hand. It is not
the sound of a closed fist hitting the palm. The knap should not be seen by
the audience, except in commedia dell’arte, where seeing the knap is part
of the comedy. There must be a slight pause after each hit of combat reg-
isters with the audience. The actor who receives the blow reacts immedi-
ately with both facial expression and body movement, freezes, and then
lets air out with a pained sound.
Pulling the hair and choking are also used in stage combat. To create
the illusion of pulling hair, an actor holds a closed fist against the back of
the victim’s head. The actor whose hair is being pulled distorts the face in
anguish, twists the body in pain, and produces a sound of suffering. This is
all that is necessary to convince the audience that the hair has been pulled.
Choking, whether with two hands from the front or with the arm from the
back, can be very dangerous if not done properly. It is best done by placing
the hands or forearm on the collarbone instead of on the neck itself. The
victim then reaches up and pulls the hands or forearm of the attacker
toward him or her, thereby controlling the pressure. At the same time, the
actor doing the choking pulls the hands or forearm away from the victim
as the victim grimaces in pain.

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Interpreting the Drama

Romantic Scenes Romantic Kissing scenes are
scenes require careful rehearsal. often altogether
silent, with just two
They should be rehearsed pri- actors onstage. Try to
vately with the director before imagine beforehand
they are attempted in rehearsals how this will be, so
that when the
with the entire cast. moment actually
There are four key parts comes you won’t
to a successful stage kiss: (1) seem surprised.
proper foot position; (2) correct
body position; (3) exact time count; and (4) a smooth
break. The script or the director will tell you what
kind of kiss is needed in the scene—a motherly
peck or a romantic embrace. The first part is getting
into the embrace. The woman usually faces the
audience with her feet about six inches apart. The
man then steps toward the woman on the foot clos-
est to her, puts that foot between her feet and
swings around so that they end up facing each other.
Body position is the second part of a stage kiss.
For most romantic kisses little or no light should be
seen between the couple. The woman should be fac-
ing the audience, and the man should be facing her,
his back squarely toward the audience. The couple
should decide ahead of time which way they will tilt
their heads—to the right or to the left. The couple
does not have to make any actual physical contact
at all; many professional actors do not. Correct foot
and body position give the illusion of a real kiss.
The third and most important part of the kiss is the count. A
sweet romantic kiss lasts one second; a reasonably romantic kiss
lasts two seconds; and a very romantic kiss lasts from three to
five seconds. Anything over five seconds will usually cause the
▼ CUE
One of the most
wrong audience response. expressive parts of a
Perhaps the most difficult part of the stage embrace is the stage kiss is the
parting or separation of the couple. First, it must be done with the woman’s hands
same emotional value as the kiss established, usually a smooth embracing the man’s
slow release. Second, it is important for the couple to maintain back. Because the man
physical contact with the hands until the “break”—the actual sep- has his back to the
aration. To do this, the couple slowly pulls apart while sliding audience, this is what
their hands down each other’s arms. The break may occur at the the audience sees.
forearms, or the couple may continue until they are holding
hands. Then they may step away from each other, gently releasing
their hands.

Acting
131
 for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf is a choreo-
poem—a dramatic performance that blends poetry, dance, and stories. Actors communicate
to the audience using a combination of vocal tone, word meanings, and movement.

Vocal Acting
Your voice is one of the strongest instruments you have for creating a
character. In addition to the principles of voice and diction that you
studied in the previous chapter, certain principles of vocal behavior affect
characterization.

PITCH AND INFLECTION

Most characters can be classified as either “pitch up” or “pitch down” per-
sonalities. Pitch-down characters are self-assured, dominating, authorita-
tive, and overbearing, whereas pitch-up characters lack confidence and
tend to be fearful, intimidated, seeking, or confused.
Closely related to the general rising and falling pitch patterns are the
four inflections—rising, falling, sustained, and circumflex. Rising inflec-
tion is used to indicate questioning, surprise, or shock. Falling inflection
usually signals the end of a statement. It is also used to express depression,
finality, or firmness. Sustained inflection—staying on the same note—sug-
gests calmness, decisiveness, or steadiness of purpose. Circumflex inflec-

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Interpreting the Drama

tion is the intonation of two or more vowel sounds for what ordinarily is a
single vowel sound. This inflection allows an actor to suggest a change in
meaning of a word or to stress a particular meaning. This twisting of sound
can alter the literal meaning of a word and even reverse the meaning
entirely. One of the best known examples of the circumflex inflection is
found in Marc Antony’s funeral oration in Julius Caesar. Each time
Antony says the word honorable, he inflects the vowel sounds more and
more until the word suggests the meaning “dishonorable.”

ercises Inflection
Ex
1. Say the following lines, using the inflec- 2. Say the following lines. Inflect the
tion indicated in parentheses. underlined vowels with a circumflex.
• It was you! (rising inflection) • She is so grateful.
• What’s the use? (falling inflection) • It hurts a lot.
• I have made up my mind. This is how • It’s so strange.
we’re going to do it. (sustained inflection) • Look at those flames!
• Surely, you’re not going to go out in this • See, I told you she was surprised.
weather. (rising inflection)
• I’m sorry, but I just can’t allow you to
copy my notes. (falling inflection)

VOCAL RESPONSE
When you rehearse alone, you may guess how lines will be deliv-
▼ CUE
Never become so
ered by other actors. But when you go into rehearsal, you may locked into how you
find that your planned delivery does not match up with that of deliver certain lines
the other actors. For example, if someone shouts at you, you that you are unable to
instinctively want to shout back. As a scene builds, the volume respond to the lines
levels usually become louder and louder. If the pace of a conver- given by other actors.
sation quickens, you naturally tend to speak more rapidly. As an
actor, you must respond to the emotion, pitch, and volume levels of the
other actors onstage. However, you must always do so within the person-
ality and mind-set of the character you are playing. Some personalities will
respond to a given situation in a manner that is almost directly opposite to
the way in which most people respond. While most characters will raise
the volume of their voices in response to shouting, a particular character
might whimper in response. You must not allow the flow of emotion from
other characters to pull you out of your own characterization.

Acting
133

Getting Onstage
You have been given a part. Now it is time to put all you have learned to
work in the day-to-day business of preparing for opening night. There are
lines to be memorized, characters to be analyzed, and techniques to be
refined.

MEMORIZING YOUR LINES

A chief responsibility that follows getting a part is memorizing your lines.
Lines must be learned according to the director’s schedule. Directors real-
ize that an actor is severely limited as long as the script is still in hand.
Therefore, the sooner the lines are memorized, the sooner the actor is free
to concentrate on the action and to respond naturally to the other actors.
There are two approaches to memorizing. Whole-part memorization
requires the actor to read through the whole play several times. The actor
then reads a complete act several times, followed by several readings of
those scenes in which the actor appears. The actor focuses on individual
lines only after whole units of the play are firmly in mind. This method
develops an internal feel for the entire play and for the other characters.
The second method is called part-whole memorization. In this
approach the actor studies the script line-by-line until it is memorized.
This method has a number of disadvantages. First, since each line is
learned by itself, the risk of forgetting exists with each line.
CUE ▼
Unless the director says
Second, the play may seem very fragmented in the early
rehearsals, since the differences between memorized lines
and still-to-be-memorized lines are rather dramatic. Finally,
otherwise, lines should actors who have memorized line by line tend to focus more
always be memorized on cues for their lines than on the meaning of the other char-
exactly as written. acters’ lines.
Sometimes beginning
actors complain that READING BETWEEN THE LINES
they don’t like a line or
that a line doesn’t
The author supplies the character’s words in the text of the
sound right. With few
script. You, the actor, must supply the subtext. The subtext
exceptions, the prob-
is the “meaning between the lines”—what is implied but not
lem is with the actor.
directly stated. The subtext is what your character thinks but
The line or lines that
does not say.
the actor is complaining
Actors should know what their characters are thinking
about will sound right
when they are onstage and even what they are thinking off-
once the actor gets
stage. Many actors write out a complete subtext. They then
more into character.
think as their character would think while other actors are
delivering their lines.

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Interpreting the Drama

 A play, of course, is not a real-life situation. It is the illusion of real
life. “Forgetting what you know’’ helps you maintain this illusion. After
studying and rehearsing a play over and over, you get to know things your
character really wouldn’t know. For example, you know how things are
going to turn out, you know the content of conversations that your char-
acter did not participate in, and you know what takes place when your
character is not onstage. To create the illusion of reality in a convincing
manner, you must “remember to forget” all of these things.
Another way of putting it is to say you are “playing the moment.’’
Playing the moment means that you respond to each line, each action, and
each character in the permanent present time that theater demands. The
theater lives in the permanent “now,” and you must not anticipate what
is about to happen. An actor who plays the moment never turns to a phone
before it actually rings and never opens a door before the knock. Beginning
actors must remember not to shift emotions before the onstage action
makes the emotional shift understandable. Maintain the “illusion of the
first time” and the air of suspense that keeps the audience wondering what
will happen next.
Although actors must play the moment, “working backwards’’ is a
helpful technique. This means that although you will not give away a

An actor can say much while remaining silent. In this scene from King Lear, the facial
expressions of the two men and Lear’s outstretched arm reveal a powerful subtext.

Acting
135
 character’s future actions, you will find ways of making those actions
believable when they do occur. You must know where a character is
headed and then work backwards to prepare an audience. If a somewhat
villainous character will undergo a change of heart and show mercy
instead of pure vengeance, disclose the possibility of this change early by
emphasizing certain lines, by actions, or by tone of voice. Such a charac-
ter, for example, might show an obvious compassionate side to an acquain-
tance or loved one early in the play. Audiences enjoy surprises but will not
accept dramatic character changes for which they are not prepared.

Application
ACTIVITIES

1. Working with a partner, choose one of the scenes in Part 2 and

read it aloud before studying it. Then review the scene and write
the subtext for your respective character. Present the scene
again, paying particular attention to the increased meaning this
performance contains.
2. Practice delivering each of these lines, using the subtext stated
in parentheses:
• “Thanks a lot!’’ (That was absolutely no help!)
• “I’m so happy you were able to come tonight.’’ (I thought
you’d never get here.)
• “There is no cause for alarm. Everything is under control.’’ (I
hope that keeps everyone calm until I figure out what to do.)
• “Sure, now you want me to be your friend.’’ (You weren’t very
friendly to me before I won the lottery.)
• “Oh! What a lovely outfit. It must have cost you a great deal
of money.” (You certainly spend your money foolishly!)
• “Oh! What a lovely outfit. It must have cost you a great deal
of money.” (I wish I could afford to spend such an amount on
clothes.)
• “Oh! What a lovely outfit. It must have cost you a great deal
of money.” (That is one of the ugliest outfits I have ever seen,
regardless of how much you paid for it.)
• “Oh! What a lovely outfit. It must have cost you a great deal
of money.” (You are such a show-off. You can’t afford such
things.)

136
Interpreting the Drama


Acting Techniques
No actor could possibly have experienced every emotion demanded by the
roles he or she assumes. Most actors, however, have developed certain
techniques for portraying such emotions. One such technique is called
substitution. An actor might be faced with the challenge of playing the role
of a parent who has to watch his or her own child die. The actor may never
have been a parent and may never have experienced the death of any loved
one. However, the actor might have experienced the death of a beloved pet.
In playing the scene, the actor recalls the death of the pet and therefore
uses a similar experience to help capture and project the emotional
response called for in the scene.
Another useful technique is improvisation, the impromptu portrayal
of a character without preparation or rehearsal. This technique is particu-
larly useful when you are working on a period play or any play that has
lines or actions far removed from your personal experience.
You can improvise once you know your character rather well, under-
stand the general content of the lines and the reasons for the actions, and Raul Julia portrays
Othello, a character
grasp the objectives and obstacles of a scene. If you are working alone, you whose own jealousy
can carry on a one-sided conversation that parallels the script. In a cast destroys his happi-
improvisation, you can play the whole scene. Under these circumstances, ness. For the perfor-
mance to work, the
improvisation often allows you to understand more clearly how your char- audience must feel
acter feels and what the other characters are feeling. It frequently enables Othello’s bewildered
you to see how the scene should be built when you return to the script. suspicion and all-
consuming rage.

Acting
137
 In Cats the actors crouch on their haunches and use their hands like paws. The right mix-
ture of human and animal characteristics in roles such as these can be most effective.

Sometimes it is helpful to play certain roles as animal personalities.

A particular mannerism associated with an animal’s physical or vocal
characteristics can sometimes be carried over to an actor’s portrayal of a
role. Various animals have physical actions and produce vocal sounds that
can be worked into roles. This technique works especially well for chil-
dren’s theater. Some animal types that especially lend themselves to cer-
tain roles include the lion, bear, wolf, fox, rabbit, dog, cat, donkey, ele-
phant, monkey, gorilla, turtle, alligator, snake, owl, vulture, chicken, duck,
parrot, fly, and butterfly. Ben Jonson’s Volpone is an example of a play writ-
ten with animal personalities in mind. This same technique can be
extended to other nonhuman types, such as androids, the Tin Woodsman
and Scarecrow of Oz, robots, and other inanimate objects.
Scripts often include incomplete lines or one-sided telephone conver-
sations. These must be practiced carefully, for to handle them correctly
demands precise timing. There are two types of incomplete lines—cut-off
lines and fade-off lines. Cut-off lines are lines that are interrupted by
another speaker. In most scripts, cut-off lines are indicated by a dash (—).
An actor who has a cut-off line should imagine what the rest of the line
138
Interpreting the Drama
would be if it weren’t cut off and should finish the line mentally. The actor
who creates the cut-off line by interrupting must decide on a cue word
ahead of the cut-off in order to interrupt at the right time.
cue word cut-off imagined finish



















MARY I don’t care if — (she does leave.)
JANE What do you mean you don’t care!
In a fade-off line, the speaker trails off rather than finishing the line.
Sometimes the speaker expects an interruption that does not come.
Sometimes the meaning is so obvious that it is pointless to express it. In
most scripts, a fade-off line is indicated by a series of dots (. . . .).
MARY I knew it was wrong all along, but . . . .
JANE (after an awkward pause) It’s all right, Mary. It’s all over now.
Phone conversations are common onstage. To make them believable,
you should include legitimate pauses during the other party’s words. If
your part includes a phone conversation, it is always best to write out the
conversation that occurs on the other end of the line. You can then mem-
orize it and repeat it silently in between your spoken lines.
MIKE Hello? [Hello, Mike?] Yeah, this is Mike. Who’s this? [Mike,
this is Bill—you know, Mary’s fiancé?] Oh, yeah—Bill. What can I
do for you? [Well, I just wanted you to know that it’s off. It’s all
over between us—Mary and me—you understand?] What? Oh,
yeah, sure. It’s over. I understand.
To have natural-seem-
ing telephone conver-
sations onstage, lis-
tening is as important
as talking. By portray-
ing a good listener,
you make not only
your own character
but also the character
you are talking to real
for the audience.

Acting
139
 ercises Acting Techniques
Ex
1. Explain one or more techniques you 2. Write a script for the other voice in the
might use to prepare for one of these following telephone conversation. Then
roles: practice reading just the original script.
Compare several interpretations of these
• An astronaut attempting to return to
lines and assess the effect of the other
Earth discovering that the rockets are
voice on the interpretation.
inoperable
• A foreign visitor who is unable to Hello?
speak or write English arriving at Yeah, this is the Smiths’.
Kennedy International Airport No, she is away at the moment.
• A convicted murderer being led to the Really! I had no idea.
electric chair Of course, I’ll give her a message.
• A fourteenth-century physician treat- You want her to report at eight o’clock
ing a patient Monday morning.
• An unscrupulous poker player dealing Sure thing! Thanks for calling. Bye.
crooked hands to three unsuspecting
players

Communicating Onstage
The lines spoken in a play combine with the action to communicate a
playwright’s meaning and style as well as to reveal the characters and their
emotions. Lines must coordinate with actions in order to tell the complete
story. Speech, however, must never be lost or blurred by movements or it
will lose its impact and meaning.

KEY LINES
Significant lines must be heard by each person in the audience no matter
where that person is seated. You should mark the significant lines plainly
on your script as soon as you have studied every situation carefully.
Recheck them after the first rehearsals, when movements will be deter-
mined. Avoid practicing inflections until action is set, for after they
become automatic, it is difficult to change them.
A rapid picking up of cues must be established as early in rehearsals
as possible. The cues should be memorized along with the lines. Many
beginning actors wait for their cue before they show any facial or bodily
reaction. Your face should respond during the other person’s lines. You will
then be ready to speak on cue. A good technique is to take a breath during
the cue. Failure to pick up cues quickly causes many amateur performances
140
Interpreting the Drama
 ▼
to drag in spite of painstaking rehearsals. The loss of only a frac-
tion of a second before each speech slows the action dramatically. CUE
The ad-lib is an emergency measure that should be used
only to avoid a dead silence. If it is necessary to ad-lib, the lines In crowd scenes or
must be spoken as though they were a part of the script without scenes that portray a
any change in volume or inflection. If one actor forgets lines large social gathering,
or begins a speech ahead of the appropriate point in the action entire background con-
and skips important information, the other actors have to versations are often
ad-lib the missing information while carrying on the conversa- improvised. These
tion naturally. must never drown
Pointing lines means placing the emphasis on exactly the out the lines of the
right word and timing the rate and pauses so that the audience speaker who is carrying
gets the full emotional impact. A useful technique to use when the scene. Frequently,
you are uncertain how a line should be delivered is paraphrasing. reciting the alphabet
Paraphrasing is simply figuring out the meaning of the line and quietly, with appropri-
stating it in your own words. Since the vocal patterns for similar ate inflections, can be
thoughts are almost identical, the vocal pattern of your para- used in background
phrasing and that of the line will be very much alike. This exercise groupings to suggest
gives you a very good idea of how the line should be delivered. conversation.
Pointing lines is particularly essential in comedy; getting
laughs in the right places makes or breaks a scene. Actors must work
together to build up to the laugh line, so feeding cues properly is essential.
Unless the preceding line or word leads to the point of the joke, the joke
will fall flat. You can watch people in comic sketches on television leading
into laughs. Notice how they combine pausing in the right place with
facial expressions to help get laughs. They do this without stealing the

Raul Julia dresses as a

woman in Where’s
Charlie? For comic
dialogue, timing and
rate are everything.
Unless they are nearly
perfect, the punch
lines become pre-
dictable and go flat.
 scene from the actor who should have it. In a play on the stage, it is inex-
cusable for the actor feeding the line or the actor making the point to
laugh, although this is often done on television.
Key lines frequently include a person’s name. How a person’s name is
spoken shows how the speaker feels about another character at a given
moment. A name can be uttered with love, hatred, envy, flirtatiousness, or
in any of countless ways that express how the speaker feels about the per-
son. One reason playwrights use names so frequently in dialogue is to clar-
ify a speaker’s feelings. The position of a name in a line determines
whether the pitch will rise or fall. (That is why actors should not change
the position of a name in a line.) Playwrights also have reasons for placing
oh’s or well’s or similar “sound words” at the beginning of lines and sen-
tences. These terms serve as vocal transitions that allow an actor to raise
or lower the pitch level of the lines without interfering with the meaning
of key words.

ercises Delivering Lines

Ex
1. Read these lines. Note how the pitch So Romeo would, were he not Romeo
changes with the position of the name. call’d,
Retain that dear perfection which he owes
“Tom, I can’t understand how you could
Without that title: Romeo, doff thy name,
have done such a thing.”
And for that name, which is no part of
“I can’t understand how you could have thee,
done such a thing, Tom.” Take all myself.
“I can’t understand, Tom, how you could
3. Read these sentences. Note how the use
have done such a thing.”
of the sound word allows you to change
2. Study the following speech from the pitch level while keeping the mean-
Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Then ing of the key words.
paraphrase it and practice reading both
(In shock) Oh, how awful for you!
your paraphrase and the original speech.
(In disgust) Well, I always said he’d turn
JULIET ‘Tis but thy name that is my enemy; out bad.
Thou art thyself, though, not a Montague. (In admiration) My, that’s a gorgeous
What’s Montague? It is nor hand nor foot, jacket!
Nor arm, nor face, [nor any other part] (In polite agreement) Yes, I would like
Belonging to a man. O, be some other another cup of tea.
name! (In reserved dismay) Oh, dear, did I do
What’s in a name? That which we call a something wrong?
rose (In mild denial) Well, no, I wouldn’t say
By any other name would smell as sweet; that.

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Interpreting the Drama

 ▼
PLAYING COMEDY
Much of the success of comedy depends on the comic mood that
CUE
the cast establishes. The cast must always communicate enjoy- Theater people often
ment as they maintain the fast pace that comedy requires. say, “No two audiences
Individual actors must keep in mind a few techniques for playing are alike!” This is prob-
comedy successfully. ably most true of com-
edy audiences. One
• Lift the end of a punch line and leave it hanging, or play it
night a line might get a
“flat,” or deadpan, in order to say to the audience, “Laugh
faint chuckle, and the
now.”
next night the same
• Clinch the punch line with a facial or bodily reaction. It
line is greeted with a
is helpful to develop an air of innocence; comic characters
roar of laughter. Some
are often naive.
audiences will laugh at
Learn to feed a line to a fellow performer so that the other almost nothing, while
actor can catch it in midair and clinch the laugh on the following others seem never to
line. Remember that laugh lines are usually short and that their stop laughing.
length is determined by sounds as much as by words. A line too
long or too short will kill a laugh. This is one major reason actors are told
over and over again to deliver comic lines exactly as they are written.
Adding or omitting one word can lose the laugh that the line is designed to
get.
Topping becomes a particularly important factor in comedy. Actors
top each other through increased volume, higher pitch, faster tempo, or
greater emphasis. When a comic actor breaks a topping sequence, however,
he or she may get a laugh through a sudden change of pitch, by saying the
line in an almost expressionless manner, or with a look or gesture that
seems inconsistent with the character or the situation. Remember, timing
must be perfect or the laugh can easily be killed. Comedians even learn
how to “milk” audiences for laughs by adding some exaggerated bits of
business to their punch lines.
Beginning actors often fail to hold for laughs. Even after weeks of
rehearsal during which many hours are spent picking up cues, beginning
performers may rush from line to line without giving the audience an
opportunity to react by laughing. An audience will naturally silence itself
to hear lines. An actor must anticipate where the audience is likely to
laugh and then be prepared to freeze until the laughter dies naturally. The
actor must listen for the laugh curve. This begins with the laughter of
those members of the audience who catch on more quickly. The laughter
then swells more rapidly as others join in, for laughter is contagious, until
a peak is reached. Just after the peak, the laughter will start to fade. At this
instant the actor with the “cut-in” line must kill the laughter. Usually the
first part of the cut-in line is not all that important to the play. Its main

Acting
143
 Laugh Curve
Peak of
Laughter

“Shaking”
Laughter Sound
Builds
Cut-in Line
or
Movement
Normal Actors freeze;
Audience Laughter
Sound Level Begins

purpose is to silence the audience. It is important that an audience not be

allowed to “laugh itself out.” If it did, its members would then sit back
relaxed, satisfied, and willing to wait a while before being entertained
again. The pace of the comedy would then be seriously slowed.

LAUGHTER AND TEARS

Comedies as well as other forms of drama sometimes require the actors
themselves to laugh. The best approach is to observe laughter closely, both
in real life and on stage and television. Pay particular attention to unusual
laughs. There are many kinds, including uproarious guffaws, artificial sim-
perings, musical ripples, hysterical gurgles, and sinister snorts. The first
step in learning to laugh is to pant like a dog. Tighten your abdominal mus-
cles as you exhale and relax them as you inhale. On your first try, you
might only make faces, because you will probably try to say “ha” when

Laughter is a good
way to encourage
audience empathy
with your character.
Characters who laugh
often seem more lik-
able and more well-
rounded than those
who do not.

144
Interpreting the Drama

 To appear natural, an actor’s level of grief must be appropriate for the situation.
Death scenes, such as this one from Amadeus, require the greatest display of
grief.

you are drawing in the breath instead of when you are expelling it in sharp,
quick spurts. As you practice, literally “laugh until your sides ache.”
In order to master the laugh, you must first relax and then let your-
self go. Take the vowel combinations heard in laughter—”ha-ha-ha, ho-ho-
ho, he-he-he, heh-heh-heh”—and say them in rapid succession with sharp
contractions of the abdominal area. Do not stop or become self-conscious.
Crying onstage is much easier than laughing. The breathing tech-
nique for crying is much the same as that for laughing. Gasp for breath,
flexing the abdominal muscles in short, sharp movements. Words are often
spoken on the gasping breath, so you must be careful to keep the meaning
clear by not obscuring the key words. In sobbing without words, try using
different vowel sounds through the gasps. Intensify and prolong the sounds
to avoid monotony. Occasional indrawn and audible breaths for the “catch
in the throat” are effective. “Swallowing tears” is simulated by tightening
the throat muscles and really swallowing. In uncontrolled or hysterical
crying, the vowel sounds will be stronger. If words are needed, they will be
greatly intensified. When you are crying, your entire body should react.
Your shoulders will shake and heave. Facial expression is most important.
An appropriate expression can be created by puckering the eyebrows, bit-
ing the lips, and twisting the features to obtain the necessary effect.
Acting
145
 Application
ACTIVITIES

1. Practice laughing like the following people: a giggling child on

the telephone; a rude actor in a comic television show; a very
polite woman reacting to a joke she has heard many times; a vil-
lain who has at last captured the hero; a miser gloating over a
box of money; an elementary school student seeing a friend trip
over a brick.
2. Say the lines below, accompanying each with laughter as (a) a
five-year-old child; (b) a teenager; (c) a middle-aged conservative
person; (d) an elderly, wealthy person.
“That’s the silliest thing I’ve ever heard.”
“Look at that crazy monkey!”
“But that’s so embarrassing!”
3. Read the following passages from Shakespeare, accompanying
the lines with appropriate laughter.
a. FROM As You Like It
JAQUES A fool, a fool!—I met a fool i’ the forest,
A motley fool; a miserable world!
b. FROM As You Like It
CELIA O wonderful, wonderful, and most wonderful, wonder-
ful, and yet again wonderful!
c. FROM The Merchant of Venice
GRATIANO Let me play the fool,
With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come.
4. Practice sobbing like each of the following: a young child who
has lost his or her only stuffed animal; a husband at the bed of
his sick wife, who is asleep; a spoiled child having a tantrum; a
hysterical driver after a serious automobile accident; an elderly
person alone on a holiday.
5. Read the following passage. Cry through the words, but be care-
ful to keep the meaning clear.
FROM Pearls by Dan Totheroh
(A young girl has just learned that her brother is a thief.)
POLLY I can’t believe it. I can’t—I can’t—He’s only a little boy—
just a kid.

146
Interpreting the Drama


Accents and Dialects
National and regional speech differences are evident in the pronunciation
and selection of words and in the inflection of sentences. Train your ears
to catch changes in quality, pitch, timing, stress, and rhythm and the occa-
sional substitutions and omissions of sounds.
When you are beginning work with a role involving a dialect shift in
English, nothing can take the place of listening to people who use the
dialect until you catch the inflections, omissions, and patterns of sounds.
You might find recordings helpful, however, because you can play them
again and again.
There are also a
few good books
that will help you
with dialects,
idioms, and collo-
quial speech. A
dialect that is too
precise, however,
can be very distract-
ing to an audience.
Dialects used on-
stage are rarely
authentic but are
accepted stage ver-
sions of dialects.

When you speak in a

dialect, it is important
to make the words
recognizable.
Sometimes it helps to
face the audience so
they can watch your
mouth form the
words. These actors in
Fiddler on the Roof
must enunciate all the
more carefully
because their beards
and mustaches inter-
fere with lip-reading
by audience members.

Acting
147
 ENGLISH
British English is the basis for so-called stage diction. It can be heard in
BBC dramas on television or on recordings made by such actors as
Laurence Olivier, John Gielgud, or Edith Evans.
The British use a higher tonal pitch and a much wider range than
Americans. There are also a number of important differences in pronunci-
ation. Here are five such differences. Refer to the chart on page 85 for help
with pronunciations.
1. The a in words like basket, aunt, banana, and laugh is pronounced ä
instead of ă as in American English.
2. The final vowel in words like Tuesday, nobody, and certainly is pro-
nounced ı̆.
3. The vowel sound in the word been is ı̆; the vowel sound in either and
neither is ı̄, while the vowel in the second syllable of again is pro-
nounced ĕ.
4. The first syllable is stressed in many words, such as secretary,
library, and necessary (sĕk•rŭ•trı̆; lı̄•brı̆; nĕ•sŭ•srı̆). Note that in such
words as secretary and necessary, the last two syllables are run
together in their pronunciation.
5. The r sound is dropped after a vowel or when it is the final sound. So
father becomes fä’ the; never becomes nĕ’ ve; and park becomes päk.
An r between vowels or a doubled r is trilled. You hear this in such
words as very, orange, marry, and courage.
Cockney, a distinct version of British English, is difficult to master,
yet it is one of the most common stage dialects. Note the unusual pro-
nunciations used in Cockney. The Cockney dialect commonly drops ini-
tial and final consonants from words.

Word Standard Pronunciation Cockney Dialect

place plās plı̄s

ice ı̄s ois
know nō nou
right rı̄t rŏ(t)
habit hăb’ ı̆t ăbı̆(t)
home hōm ōm

The Irish dialect, on the other hand, is a lilting one, marked by much
variety in pitch and inflection and a pace that is a little faster than
American speech.
148
Interpreting the Drama
 Note the vowel changes in these Irish pronunciations:

Word Standard Pronunciation Irish Dialect

fine fı̄n foin

when hwĕn hwı̆n
one wŭn w¯oon
love lŭv oov
l¯
deal dēl dāl
you yoo¯ yŭh

American English dialects vary in practically every state in the

United States, but there are a few distinguishing characteristics that apply
to whole areas. As a general rule, the farther a person is from an urban area,
the slower and more nasal the speech. Southern and Western accents are
known for their drawl—speaking slowly and inflecting the vowels (chang-
ing the tone or pitch of the voice). The various Southern accents have vow-
els that are rich and round. The long i often becomes ä in words like I, my,
and like, and a final er nearly disappears. So “I like that view over yonder”
might become “Äh läk that vē¯ oo ovä yŏnde.’’ Other commonly used
American stage dialects are those from Brooklyn, New Jersey, and Boston.

EUROPEAN ACCENTS
European accents are too difficult to imitate without listening to people
who use them habitually. A few suggestions may be helpful.
Italian is exceedingly musical and patterned with many inflections.
The occasional ŭh sound added to consonant sounds is most pleasing, as in
soft-uh-ting (soft thing) or fruit-uh-stand, and I gottuh as in T. A. Daly’s
delightful poem, “I gotta love for Angela, I love Carlotta, too.” All of Daly’s
poems offer excellent phrasing and pronunciations; he uses dä for the, ā for
ē, and adds uh’s between words.
The German accent is definitely gutteral; many of the sounds are
made with the back of the tongue. V takes the place of w, d is used for t,
and p is used for b.
Swedish is inclined to be high in pitch with recurring rising inflec-
tions and a flat tone that is not nasal. The o˘ o is pronounced oo,¯ so good
rhymes with food. The voiced th becomes d, so that is pronounced dăt. A
w becomes v, so wet is pronounced vĕt, and j becomes y as in yŭst
for just.
All the European accents are based on the inflections, rhythms, and
word order of the original language. These frequently differ very much

Acting
149
 from those of the English language. Authors can give some help in writing
passages, but listening to people and recordings is essential to an actor
learning the accents.
The popularity of Fiddler on the Roof and Neil Simon’s comedies
have increased the popularity of Yiddish, which is a mixture of High
German and Hebrew. It is the American stage Yiddish that actors should
know. The pitch is much higher than American speech, often rising into a
falsetto and seldom dropping to low pitch levels. Most sentences end with
a rising pitch. The quality is quite nasal, and the pace is fairly slow.
In general, accents are difficult to master. However, there are often
many roles for actors who can handle accents well. Stage accents are seldom
authentic. Many authentic accents would be too difficult to understand.
Some stage accents are more a theatrical convention than an imitation of
the real thing.

rcises Dialect
Exe
Read the following lines in the dialect indicated.
1. My aunt will arrive at the library on 3. I figure we’ll see your father tomorrow.
Tuesday. (British English) (Southern United States)
2. My love for you will never die. (Irish) 4. I have a place close to home. (Cockney)

Rehearsing
Rehearsals are essential for full development of a play’s unity, timing, and
characterization. Rehearsals allow the director to shape the play, and the
actors to develop their characters by interacting with one another.

PREPARING FOR A PRODUCTION

Actors should come to rehearsals prepared to rehearse by using the meth-
ods that the director prefers. Directors are different. Some directors will
block one movement at a time. Other directors will have the actors write
down the blocking for a page or scene and then have them walk through
the scene. Still other directors will have actors move as they feel motivated
to move and then correct awkward moves. Always bring a script to
rehearsal so you can write the blocking, the stage business, and the direc-
tor’s comments on the script in pencil.

150
Interpreting the Drama

 In early rehearsals, when the script is still
being memorized, an actor can request a
prompt for a forgotten line by saying “line” or
“prompt” or by snapping a finger. The director
may specify the method before the first
rehearsal.
Actors should clearly mark all of their
lines in the script. If rented scripts are used, the
markings should be made only with a soft lead
pencil. If the scripts have been purchased,
underlining the character’s name or highlight-
ing the lines are the preferred methods.
Underlining all of a character’s lines makes a
script too difficult to read. A different color can
be used to mark movement or stage business or
to note interpretation. Many directors prefer to
number each speech on the page consecutively
so that page and line numbers can easily be
referred to in critiques and written notes.
Actors should always be prepared for fre-
quent interruptions by the director during
rehearsals. This is especially true of the early These actors are hav-
ing an early rehearsal
rehearsals. As rehearsals progress, lines should be so well memorized that with only a few
a director can say, “Start with ‘and furthermore.’” The actor should be able props. At this point
to pick up the line at just that point. the relationships and
habits are formed
It is during rehearsals that the tempo of a play is set. The rapid
that will later shape
pick-up of cues determines the play’s tempo. If the tempo is slower than it the production.
should be, the delay is probably caused by slight pauses between speeches.
During rehearsals actors must learn to come in on another actor’s final
word without a pause.
At rehearsals it makes sense to wear clothing that is generally related
to your character’s personality. Avoid styles that are entirely out of keep-
ing with your character. Wear clothes that are like those your character
might choose. They will help to put you in the right mood for a scene.
Shoes are very important, for your movements are greatly affected by
footwear. Men should wear suit jackets if their characters would wear
them. This will allow them to get the feel of wearing a coat. Too often an
actor who starts wearing a jacket at dress rehearsal will jam his hands into
the coat pockets or grab awkwardly at the lapels. Women should wear
appropriate rehearsal jewelry but should remove any bracelets, necklaces,
or watches that are entirely out of character. A long necklace might tempt
them to fidget. It is helpful to wear a skirt of the same length the costume
will be or even a hoop if a hoop skirt will be worn.

Acting
151
 If a cast works closely together at rehearsals, the members will expe-
rience the joy that real teamwork brings. As lines are tossed back and forth
appropriately, the members will feel the different personalities reacting to
one another and begin to understand that acting is a cooperative experi-
ence. Discovering how personality plays upon personality in a scene is
what makes rehearsing worthwhile.
Stage techniques must become automatic and subconscious during
rehearsals and performances. If you follow a daily practice schedule for as
long as you are involved in dramatics, you will establish stage techniques
and keep your body and voice at their best. The following chart outlines a
series of exercises recommended for daily use. The instructions for these
exercises are found in chapters 2 and 3.

DAILY PRACTICE
BODY EXERCISES VOCAL EXERCISES
Deep breathing Relaxing the entire body
Loosening up: stretching, Yawning to relax throat
bending, twisting Jaw exercises
Pantomime exercises Lip exercises
Posture exercises Babbling
Shaking hands vigorously Humming
Opening and closing fists Breathing and counting
Moving fingers as in Tongue twisters
five-finger exercises Chanting lines of poetry
Rotating hands in circles Reading stories aloud
from the wrists
Moving arms from elbow
in circles
Moving entire arms in circles
Using body and arm gestures to
show pleading, fear, and
commanding

As you study theater more deeply, audition for all kinds of parts, and
spend a number of weeks at rehearsals, it is easy to focus exclusively on
yourself and on what progress you are making. You must remember, how-
ever, that actors perform for an audience and gain empathy from an audi-
ence. Actors must always keep the interests, needs, and enjoyment of the
audience uppermost in their minds.
The individuals who make up your audience are auditory, visual, and
kinesthetic people. Some will respond more to what they hear. Others will
respond more to what they see, and still others will respond more to the
152
Interpreting the Drama
kinds of physical action with which they identify. Therefore, in order to
appeal as strongly as you can to all of the members of your audience, your
acting must be a blending of sound, sight, and action.

Adapting to the Arena and

Thrust Stages
Everything an actor says or does onstage must be done with an awareness
of the physical dimensions of the stage itself. The position of an actor in
relation to the audience profoundly affects his or her speech, movement,
exits, entrances, and even the lighting. In order to achieve the best pro-
ductions possible, actors involved in productions on arena and thrust
stages need to rehearse diligently. Because of the special conditions
imposed by these two types of stages, the acting and staging differ from
those required by the more traditional proscenium stage. The experience
gained through rehearsing becomes crucial.
When a play is acted in
the round, the audi-
ence is very close to
the performers. This
scene from a stage
adaptation of
Voltaire’s Candide
shows audience inter-
action with arena stag-
ing.

Acting
153
 Learning to act on an arena or stage “in the round’’ is now becoming
a necessary part of dramatic training. The open stage, surrounded on four
sides by seats, results in close contact between actors and spectators.
Arena staging demands careful planning and rehearsing. The director can-
not depend heavily on a set for effects, and the audience is so close that
every detail of costumes, furniture, and lighting must be right. The acting
area must be lighted by spotlights that do not hit any member of the audi-
ence in the eyes. Acts can be ended by blacking out the lights
CUE ▼
Because there are no
or by incorporating exits into the play’s action. Either will take
the place of the usual stage curtain. The furniture must not
block the action from any side, and scenes must be arranged so
upstage/downstage or that they can be seen from all angles.
right/left directions in The director must plan to keep the actors moving and
arena staging, the act- speaking as they cross and countercross rather than have them
ing areas must be iden- seated for long periods of time. Keeping the actors in motion
tified in a different allows their faces and voices to carry the meaning of the play
manner. Here are two to everyone. The actors often face each other offset by at least
popular systems: two feet so that the audience can always see the face of one
actor. If possible, the director must plan the action so that it can
Clock References be seen from all sides at once.
The twelve o’clock posi- The arena stage places more demands on the actors than
tion is assigned. From the proscenium stage does. Each actor must be continually con-
there, all of the other scious of being surrounded by spectators who must see and
directions are worked hear everything. Actors must speak very clearly and project
out according to the their words so that everyone in the audience can hear even
position of the num- when the actors turn away. Very accurate pointing of lines and
bers on a clock’s face. accenting of key words must combine with a few clear-cut ges-
Quadrants The stage tures that are effective from every angle. With the audience so
is divided into four close, artificiality or exaggeration becomes so apparent that all
quadrants. These quad- sense of reality is lost. Also, fidgeting and aimless gestures are
rants are named far more irritating at close range.
according to compass Plays for an arena production must be carefully selected.
locations, such as NE, Entrances and exits are sometimes difficult in arena staging
SE, SW, NW, or by the because actors can be seen long before they reach the acting
numbers 1 through 4 or area and for some time after they exit from the stage. Entrances
the letters A through D. must permit effective approaches for actors before they speak,
and exits must allow for convenient departures. Actions and
lines must be suitable for the close attention of the audience. Sofas,
benches, and low-backed chairs must be appropriate as a background for
the actors since there is minimal scenery. A suitable play in the round can
move spectators deeply when it is well done. A production that might be
acceptable on the regular stage might be a failure in the round.

154
Interpreting the Drama

 Thrust staging offers some of the advantages of both the proscenium
stage and the arena. The thrust, sometimes called horseshoe staging, uses
a low platform surrounded on three sides by the audience.
Since the thrust has a back wall, many plays requiring scenery that
would be difficult, if not impossible, on an arena stage can be presented.
Entrances can come from the back wall as well as from the three sides of
the thrust. Much of the action needs to take place mid-stage; otherwise,
the audience sitting on the sides will see only the backs of the actors.
When there is a large cast, as in a musical, the chorus members must be
placed in a curved V—the opposite of proscenium blocking.
The flexibility and intimacy of the thrust have made it a very popu-
lar type of staging. It works well in a large classroom, and if the audience
does not exceed two hundred, a thrust arrangement can be set up on the
stage, in a gym, or in a lunchroom.
This scene from
Where’s Charlie?
shows successfully
blocked thrust stag-
ing. At least one
actor faces each side
of the stage, thus
drawing the audi-
ence into the action.

Acting
155

















CHAPTER

Summary
4 REVIEW
Summarize the chapter by answering the following questions.
and Key 1. What advice do directors often give to beginning actors?
Ideas
2. Who was Konstantin Stanislavski? What is his “magic if”?
3. What information should be in a character sketch?
4. What are role scoring and script scoring? How does each help an actor?
5. Describe at least five keys to characterization.
6. What is a cross? Why is a cross usually followed by a countercross?
7. Name at least three Dos and three Don’ts of stage movement.
8. What are three rules for eating onstage?
9. What are some techniques for playing comedy?

Discussing 1. Compare the emotional, subjective approach to acting to the techni-

Ideas cal, objective approach. How would an actor use each approach to
prepare for the part of a mother whose child is missing?
2. Discuss the different types of roles and why each type of role is
important in a play.
3. Choose a role you have played or would like to play. Explain how
you would use any or all of the sixteen keys to characterization to
build your role.
4. What demands do arena and thrust stages place on actors?

FOCUS ON Evaluating Theater

Learning to evaluate, or judge, live theater, why not? With your partner, discuss your
film, and television will make your viewing response. Then summarize your evaluation
more enjoyable and will help you develop in a short paper. Try to repeat this process
as a cast member. Get in the habit of any time you view a student or professional
making precise, specific observations about production.
the productions you view. Think about the Learning from the Critics Critics—those
play itself, the set design, the direction, and who review and analyze drama—open readers’
the acting. minds to creative and lively interpretations.
Judging a Play With a partner, view a live Find two pieces of criticism about a live
theater, film, or television production. Then theater, film, or television production that
evaluate the play itself as well as the set you’ve seen. Then give the class a short pre-
design, direction, and acting. Were the play sentation comparing and contrasting the
and its various elements effective? Why or pieces of criticism.

156
Interpreting the Drama

 REVIEW WORKSHOP

ACTING

INDEPENDENT create a scene around it. Think of a master

leading gesture and a leading center that
ACTIVITIES will provide clues to your character’s per-
sonality and situation. For example, if you
Observation While watching television, chose the action verb defend, you might
observe an actor very closely. Pay attention fend off a slavering pit bull with an arm
to the way he or she walks, talks, moves, outstretched to protect the face and body.
smiles, laughs, sits down, stands up, and so Act out the scene for your classmates and
forth. Imitate the person for the class and see if they can figure out what is happening.
ask class members whom you are imitating.
Externalization Choose an action verb,
such as fight, confess, attack, or collide, and

Cooperative Concentration
Learning The Mirror is a Across the History Choose your
Activities classic comedy CURRICULUM favorite historical
routine. Working Activities character and prepare
with a partner, improvise a character to portray that person
watching his or her moving image in a in a play. Using the questions on page 109,
mirror. Move together as though you are write a description of your characterization of
one person. After receiving feedback the person. Include a character sketch (refer to
from your classmates, try the scene pages 107–108.)
again to improve both your concentra- Foreign Language Imagine that you are a
tion and synchronicity. brash, self-confident, somewhat obnoxious
Stage Position and Movement With tourist in a foreign country. You are intent on
two or three classmates, develop a scene communicating with the residents regardless of
in which the characters have a conflict: your ignorance of the language. Ask a classmate
a parent and children, a supervisor and to play the role of the resident of the country.
employees, a coach and players or a simi- Then act out a scene in which you attempt to
lar relationship. Work out the conflict communicate with the native resident by speak-
and its resolution onstage, making sure ing English with a foreign accent mixed with an
that every player is visible to the audi- occasional foreign word.
ence at all times. You will need to make
some decisions about sharing the scene
or giving the scene.
 Theater Etiquette


Successful performances are possible only if
everyone—the actors, the director, the stage
crew, and even the audience—shows proper respect
for everyone involved. Achieving the best results is
possible only in an environment of personal responsibility
and mutual respect.
Often theater etiquette is nothing more than showing com-
mon courtesy. However, theater presents some unique situa-
tions, ones where the ground rules for interacting with others
might not always be clear. The following guidelines to behavior
will make it possible for everyone involved in a performance to
enjoy the theater experience.

THE ACTORS
• Arrive at rehearsals and makeup calls on time.
• Learn lines, business, and blocking on schedule.
• Never peek through the curtains before (when the audience is present)
or during a performance.
• Do not remove your makeup until after the curtain call. Never
mingle with members of the audience or leave the theater while in
costume or makeup.
• Do not change lines or stage business or tell others to do so unless the
change has been approved by the director.
• Subordinate yourself to the performance by accepting your role and the
costume, hairstyle, and makeup that go with it.
• Never knowingly upstage other performers. Be careful not to do it acci-
dentally, either.
• Be attentive and receptive to the director’s comments, and make an
honest effort to make requested adjustments.
• Do not borrow another actor’s makeup.
• Promptly report any damage to costumes or props before leaving the
theater after each performance.

158
Interpreting the Drama

• Join the audience in applauding the musicians at the end of a musical’s

curtain call.
• Always show your appreciation to the director, the crews, and any
other staff members associated with the production.
• Offer to assist the stage crew whenever possible.

EVERYONE ASSOCIATED WITH THE

PRODUCTION
• Respect and encourage the contributions of each member of the cast
and crew by complimenting good rehearsals, effective lighting, skillful
costuming, and creative construction and design.
• Unless you are on the props crew, do not handle the props or sets.
• Know emergency procedures and the locations of firefighting equip-
ment, the exits, and the fire alarms.
• Respect those who want to carry on theater traditions
even though these traditions might seem like supersti-
tions to you.
• After the show, make any presentations or recognitions
for outstanding contributions at a time when everyone
associated with the performance can be present.
• Post-performance cast parties should involve only those
who worked on the show.

A successful produc-
tion depends on
cooperation among
the cast, the crews,
and the director.

159
 THE AUDIENCE


• Arrive early enough to be seated before the lights dim.
• At a musical, it is customary to applaud as the conductor approaches
the podium.
• When the curtain goes up, if the set pleases you, compliment the
designer and crew by applauding.
• Do not talk or make noises with food or drink items.
• Silence any phones, pagers, or watches before the performance begins.
• Leave the theater during a performance only out of necessity.
• Applaud an especially fine scene or individual performance only
in cases of rare “show stoppers,” and reserve standing ovations for
truly outstanding performances.
• Presentations of flowers, gifts, or similar recognitions are usually made
offstage; exceptions should have the approval of the director or the
stage manager.
• Never be openly critical of a performance.

An appreciative, courteous audience contributes to the success of a production.

160


Part
TWO

A Treasury of
Scenes and
Monologues Gaining experience by

reading scenes and

monologues helps

aspiring actors

develop poise and

acting skills.

(Play: Oh, Coward)

161
 SCENES
Oh, that she knew she were!
for One Man She speaks, yet she says nothing; what of that?
Her eye discourses. I will answer it.—
and One Woman I am too bold, ‘tis not to me she speaks.
Two of the fairest stars in all the heaven,

Having some business, do entreat her eyes
To twinkle in their spheres till they return.
What if her eyes were there, they in her head?
Romeo and Juliet The brightness of her cheek would shame
by William Shakespeare (1594–5) those stars,
As daylight doth a lamp; her eyes in heaven
Characters: ROMEO—A Montague, he is an Would through the airy region stream so bright
impulsive young aristocrat who has fallen in That birds would sing and think it were not
love with the daughter of the Capulets, a family night.
despised by the Montagues. See, how she leans her cheek upon her hand!
JULIET—A Capulet, she is a romantic and some- O, that I were a glove upon that hand,
what headstrong aristocrat. That I might touch that cheek!
Situation: The action takes place in Verona, JULIET Ay me!
Italy. Young Romeo and Juliet have fallen in
ROMEO She speaks!
love at a masked ball, only to discover that they
O, speak again, bright angel! For thou art
are members of two families that despise each
As glorious to this night, being o’er my head,
other. In this scene, Romeo hides in the orchard
As is a winged messenger of heaven
below Juliet’s bedroom window. Romeo
Unto the white-upturned wond’ring eyes
expresses his love for Juliet, and then he over-
Of mortals that fall back to gaze on him
hears Juliet expressing her love for him.
When he bestrides the lazy-pacing clouds
[Capulet’s orchard. ROMEO advances from And sails upon the bosom of the air.
the wall.]
JULIET O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art
ROMEO He jests at scars that never felt thou Romeo?
a wound. Deny thy father and refuse thy name,
(Juliet appears above at her window.) Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love
But soft! What light through yonder window And I’ll no longer be a Capulet.
breaks?
ROMEO (Aside) Shall I hear more, or shall I
It is the east, and Juliet is the sun!
speak at this?
Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,
Who is already sick and pale with grief JULIET ’Tis but thy name that is my
That thou, her maid, art far more fair than she. enemy.
Be not her maid, since she is envious; Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.
Her vestal livery is but sick and green, What’s a Montague? It is nor hand, nor foot,
And none but fools do wear it; cast it off. Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part
It is my lady, O, it is my love! Belonging to a man. Oh, be some other name!

162
Scenes and Monologues

What’s in a name? That which we call a rose name, should your answers be what a really
By any other name would smell as sweet; affectionate mother requires. Do you smoke?
So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call’d,
JACK Well, yes, I must admit I smoke.
Retain that dear perfection which he owes
Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name, LADY BRACKNELL I am glad to hear it. A
And for thy name, which is no part of thee, man should always have an occupation of
Take all myself. some kind. There are far too many idle men

in London as it is. How old are you?
JACK Twenty-nine.
LADY BRACKNELL A very good age to be
The Importance of Being married at. I have always been of opinion that
Earnest a man who desires to get married should
by Oscar Wilde (1895) know either everything or nothing. Which do
you know?
Characters: LADY BRACKNELL—She is an
JACK (After some hesitation) I know noth-
elderly English woman who is neither deep nor
ing, Lady Bracknell.
subtle. Her ideas about what makes a suitable
husband are extremely rigid. LADY BRACKNELL I am pleased to hear it.
JACK—Jack Worthing is superficial, flippant, flir- I do not approve of anything that tampers
tatious, dishonest, witty, charming, and entirely with natural ignorance. Ignorance is like a del-
self-serving. icate exotic fruit; touch it and the bloom is
Situation: In this satirical farce, Wilde ridicules gone. The whole theory of modern education
the social attitudes of nineteenth-century is radically unsound. Fortunately in England,
England. The action takes place in a fashion- at any rate, education produces no effect
able apartment in London. Lady Bracknell whatsoever. If it did, it would prove a serious
interviews Jack for the position of danger to the upper classes, and probably lead
son-in-law. to acts of violence in Grosvenor Square. What
is your income?
LADY BRACKNELL (Sitting down) You
can take a seat, Mr. Worthing. (Looks in her JACK Between seven and eight thousand
pocket for a notebook and pencil) a year.

JACK Thank you, Lady Bracknell, I prefer LADY BRACKNELL (Makes a note in her
standing. book) In land, or in investments?

LADY BRACKNELL (Pencil and notebook JACK In investments, chiefly.

in hand) I feel bound to tell you that you are LADY BRACKNELL That is satisfactory.
not down on my list of eligible young men, What between the duties expected of one dur-
although I have the same list as the dear ing one’s lifetime, and the duties exacted from
Duchess of Bolton has. We work together, in one after one’s death, land has ceased to be
fact. However, I am quite ready to enter your either a profit or a pleasure. It gives one posi-

Scenes for One Man and One Woman
163

tion, and prevents one from keeping it up. Tories. They dine with us. Or come in the
That’s all that can be said about land. evening, at any rate. Now to minor matters.
Are your parents living?
JACK I have a country house with some
land, of course, attached to it, about fifteen JACK I have lost both my parents.
hundred acres, I believe; but I don’t depend on
LADY BRACKNELL To lose one parent, Mr.
that for my real income. In fact, as far as I can
Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune; to
make out, the poachers are the only people
lose both looks like carelessness. Who was
who make anything out of it.
your father? He was evidently a man of some
LADY BRACKNELL A country house! How wealth. Was he born in what the Radical
many bedrooms? Well, that point can be papers call the purple of commerce, or did he
cleared up afterwards. You have a town house, rise from the ranks of the aristocracy?
I hope? A girl with a simple, unspoiled nature,
JACK I am afraid I really don’t know. The
like Gwendolen, could hardly be expected to
fact is, Lady Bracknell, I said I had lost my
reside in the country.
parents. It would be nearer the truth to say
JACK Well, I own a house in Belgrave that my parents seem to have lost me . . .
Square, but it is let by the year to Lady I don’t actually know who I am by birth.
Bloxham. Of course, I can get it back when- I was . . . well, I was found.
ever I like, at six months’ notice.
LADY BRACKNELL Found!
LADY BRACKNELL Lady Bloxham? I don’t
JACK The late Mr. Thomas Cardew, an old
know her.
gentleman of a very charitable and kindly dis-
JACK Oh, she goes about very little. She is a position, found me, and gave me the name
lady considerably advanced in years. Worthing, because he happened to have a
first-class ticket for Worthing in his pocket at
LADY BRACKNELL Ah, now-a-days that is
the time. Worthing is a place in Sussex. It is a
no guarantee of respectability of character.
seaside resort.
What number in Belgrave Square?
LADY BRACKNELL Where did the charita-
JACK 149.
ble gentleman who had a first-class ticket for
LADY BRACKNELL (Shaking her head) this seaside resort find you?
The unfashionable side. I thought there was
JACK (Gravely) In a hand-bag.
something. However, that could be easily
altered. LADY BRACKNELL A hand-bag?
JACK Do you mean the fashion, or the side? JACK (Very seriously) Yes, Lady Bracknell. I
was in a hand-bag—a somewhat large, black
LADY BRACKNELL (Sternly) Both, if nec-
leather hand-bag, with handles to it—an ordi-
essary, I presume. What are your politics?
nary hand-bag, in fact.
JACK Well, I am afraid I really have none.
LADY BRACKNELL In what locality did
I am a Liberal Unionist.
this Mr. James, or Thomas, Cardew come
LADY BRACKNELL Oh, they count as across this ordinary hand-bag?

164
Scenes and Monologues

JACK In the cloak-room at Victoria Station. our daughter—a girl brought up with the
It was given to him in mistake for his own. utmost care—to marry into a cloak-room, and
form an alliance with a parcel? Good morn-
LADY BRACKNELL The cloak-room at
ing, Mr. Worthing!
Victoria Station?
(LADY BRACKNELL sweeps out in majestic
JACK Yes. The Brighton line. indignation.)
LADY BRACKNELL The line is immaterial. JACK Good morning!
Mr. Worthing, I confess I feel somewhat
bewildered by what you have just told me. To
be born, or at any rate bred, in a hand-bag,
whether it had handles or not, seems to me to

display a contempt for the ordinary decencies
of family life that remind one of the worst
excesses of the French Revolution. And I pre- Whose Life Is It Anyway?
sume you know what that unfortunate move- by Brian Clark (1978)
ment led to? As for the particular locality in
which the hand-bag was found, a cloak-room Characters: MRS. BOYLE—A social worker,
at a railway station might serve to conceal a she tries to do her job in a caring but profes-
social indiscretion—has probably, indeed, sional way.
been used for that purpose before now—but it KEN HARRISON—A car accident has left him par-
could hardly be regarded as an assured basis alyzed from the neck down. Depressed and bit-
for a recognized position in good society. ter, he wants to be allowed to die.
Situation: The scene takes place in a private
JACK May I ask you then what you would
hospital room.
advise me to do? I need hardly say I would do
anything in the world to ensure Gwendolen’s MRS. BOYLE Why don’t you want any
happiness. more treatment?
LADY BRACKNELL I would strongly advise KEN I’d rather not go on living like this.
you, Mr. Worthing, to try and acquire some
MRS. BOYLE Why not?
relations as soon as possible, and make a defi-
nite effort to produce at any rate one parent, KEN Isn’t it obvious?
of either sex, before the season is quite over.
MRS. BOYLE Not to me. I ‘ve seen many
JACK Well, I don’t see how I could possibly patients like you.
manage to do that. I can produce the hand-bag
KEN And they all want to live?
at any moment. It is in my dressing-room at
home. I really think that should satisfy you, MRS. BOYLE Usually.
Lady Bracknell.
KEN Why?
LADY BRACKNELL Me, sir! What has it to
MRS. BOYLE They find a new way of life.
do with me? You can hardly imagine that I
and Lord Bracknell would dream of allowing KEN How?

Scenes for One Man and One Woman
165

MRS. BOYLE You’ll be surprised how many KEN What is there to see?
things you will be able to do with training
MRS. BOYLE We can’t just stop treatment,
and a little patience.
just like that.
KEN Such as?
KEN Why not?
MRS. BOYLE We can’t be sure yet. But I
MRS. BOYLE It’s the job of the hospital to
should think that you will be able to operate
save life, not to lose it.
reading machines and perhaps an adapted
typewriter. KEN The hospital’s done all it can, but it
wasn’t enough. It wasn’t the hospital’s fault;
KEN Reading and writing. What about arith-
the original injury was too big.
metic?
MRS. BOYLE We have to make the best of
MRS. BOYLE (Smiling) I dare say we could
the situation.
fit you up with a comptometer if you really
wanted one. KEN No. “We” don’t have to do anything. I
have to do what is to be done and that is to
KEN Mrs. Boyle, even educationalists have
cash in the chips.
realized that the three r’s do not make a full
life. MRS. BOYLE It’s not unusual, you know,
for people injured as you have been, to suffer
MRS. BOYLE What did you do before the
with this depression for a considerable time
accident?
before they begin to see that a life is possible.
KEN I taught in an art school. I was a
KEN How long?
sculptor.
MRS. BOYLE It varies.
MRS. BOYLE I see.
KEN Don’t hedge.
KEN Difficult, isn’t it? How about an elec-
trically operated hammer and chisel? No, MRS. BOYLE It could be a year or so.
well. Or a cybernetic lump of clay?
KEN And it could last for the rest of my life.
MRS. BOYLE I wouldn’t laugh if I were you.
MRS. BOYLE That would be most unlikely.
It’s amazing what can be done. Our scientists
are wonderful. KEN I’m sorry, but I cannot settle for that.
KEN They are. But it’s not good enough, you MRS. BOYLE Try not to dwell on it. I’ll see
see, Mrs. Boyle. I really have absolutely no what I can do to get you started on some
desire at all to be the object of scientific virtu- occupational therapy. Perhaps we could make
osity. I have thought things over very care- a start on the reading machines.
fully. I do have plenty of time for thinking and
KEN Do you have many books for those
I have decided that I do not want to go on liv-
machines?
ing with so much effort for so little result.
MRS. BOYLE Quite a few.
MRS. BOYLE Yes, well, we shall have to see
about that. KEN Can I make a request for the first one?

166
Scenes and Monologues

MRS. BOYLE If you like. LIZZIE—Lizzie Curry is a strong yet incomplete
woman. She is twenty-seven years old and has
KEN “How to be a sculptor with no hands.”
never loved or been loved. She yearns for
MRS. BOYLE I’ll be back tomorrow with romance but feels she must conceal her long-
the machine. ings, given her situation, under the guise of
being a good-natured tomboy.
KEN It’s marvelous, you know.
Situation: The following exchange takes place
MRS. BOYLE What is? on a summer day in a western state suffering
KEN All you people have the same tech- from drought. Starbuck has arrived out of the
nique. When I say something really awkward blue claiming he could bring rain for a fee. He
you just pretend I haven’t said anything at all. is presently boarding with the Curry family.
You’re all the bloody same . . . Well, there’s Lizzie has brought bed linens out to the
another outburst. That should be your cue to bunkhouse.
comment on the light-shade or the color of STARBUCK What are you scared of?
the walls.
LIZZIE You! I don’t trust you!
MRS. BOYLE I’m sorry if I have upset you.
STARBUCK Why? What don’t you trust
KEN Of course you have upset me. You and about me?
the doctors with your appalling so-called pro-
fessionalism, which is nothing more than a LIZZIE Everything! The way you talk, the
series of verbal tricks to prevent you relating way you brag—why, even your name.
to your patients as human beings. STARBUCK What’s wrong with my name?
MRS. BOYLE You must understand; we LIZZIE It sounds fake! It sounds like you
have to remain relatively detached in order made it up!
to help . . .
STARBUCK You’re darn right! I did make
KEN That’s all right with me. Detach your- it up.
self. Tear yourself off on the dotted line that
divides the woman from the social worker, LIZZIE There! Of course!
and post yourself off to another patient. STARBUCK Why not? You know what
name I was born with? Smith! Smith, for the
love of Mike, Smith! Now what kind of han-

dle is that for a fella like me? I needed a name

that had the whole sky in it! And the power
The Rainmaker of a man! Star-buck! Now there’s a name—
by N. Richard Nash (1954) and it’s mine.

Characters: STARBUCK—Bill Starbuck is big, LIZZIE No, it’s not. You were born Smith—
but lithe and agile. He is a mixture of loud brag- and that’s your name.
gart and gentle dreamer. He carries a short hick- STARBUCK You’re wrong, Lizzie. The
ory stick, which is his weapon, his magic wand. name you choose for yourself is more your

Scenes for One Man and One Woman
167

own than the name you were born with. And PETER—Peter Van Daan is an awkward sixteen-
if I was you I’d choose another name than year-old. He is angry and frustrated with the
Lizzie. powerlessness and injustice of his situation.

LIZZIE Thank you—I’m very pleased with it. Situation: This play, based on historical fact,
was inspired by Anne’s diary, which was pub-
STARBUCK Oh, no you ain’t. You ain’t lished after her death. Anne was in fact eventu-
pleased with anything about yourself. And I’m ally taken to a German concentration camp
sure you ain’t pleased with “Lizzie.” where she died at age fifteen. Only her father
LIZZIE I don’t ask you to be pleased with it, survived. This excerpt occurs at almost the end
Starbuck. I am. of the play. It is February 1944, World War II is
in progress, and the Frank and the Van Daan
STARBUCK Lizzie? Why, it don’t stand for families are hiding from the Nazis on the top
anything. floor of a warehouse in Amsterdam, Holland.
LIZZIE It stands for me! Me! I’m not the The three rooms and a small attic are sparsely
Queen of Sheba—I’m not Lady Godiva—I’m furnished, and all of the windows have black-
not Cinderella at the Ball. out curtains. There is immense tension. Anne
tries to comfort Peter.
STARBUCK Would you like to be?
ANNE (Looking up through skylight) Look,
LIZZIE Starbuck, you’re ridiculous! Peter, the sky. What a lovely day. Aren’t the
STARBUCK What’s ridiculous about it? clouds beautiful? You know what I do when it
Dream you’re somebody—be somebody! But seems as if I couldn’t stand being cooped up
Lizzie? That’s nobody! So many millions of for one more minute? I think myself out. I
wonderful women with wonderful names! think myself on a walk in the park where I
(In an orgy of delight) Leonora, Desdemona, used to go with Pim. Where the daffodils and
Carolina, Paulina! Annabella, Florinda, the crocus and the violets grow down the
Natasha, Diane! (Then, with a pathetic little slopes. You know the most wonderful thing
lift of his shoulders) Lizzie. about thinking yourself out? You can have it
any way you like. You can have roses and vio-
lets and chrysanthemums all blooming at the

same time. . . . It’s funny. . . . I used to take it

all for granted . . . and now I’ve gone crazy
The Diary of Anne Frank about everything to do with nature. Haven’t
dramatized by Frances Goodrich and Albert you?
Hackett (1954) from the book Anne Frank: PETER (Barely lifting his face) I’ve just gone
Diary of a Young Girl crazy. I think if something doesn’t happen
soon . . . if we don’t get out of here . . . I can’t
Characters: ANNE—Anne Frank is a fourteen- stand much more of it!
year-old. She is self-controlled, lively, polite,
optimistic, curious, creative, and compassionate. ANNE (Softly) I wish you had a religion,
Peter.

168
Scenes and Monologues



PETER (Bitterly) No, thanks. Not me.
ANNE Oh. I don’t mean you have to be Barefoot in the Park
Orthodox . . . or believe in heaven and hell by Neil Simon (1963)
and purgatory and things. . . . I just mean
some religion . . . it doesn’t matter what. Just Characters: CORIE—She is young and
to believe in something! When I think of all optimistic.
that’s out there . . . the trees . . . and flowers . . . PAUL—He is a conservatively dressed, serious
and seagulls . . . when I think of the dearness young lawyer.
of you, Peter . . . and the goodness of the peo- Situation: Paul and Corie are newlyweds. The
ple we know . . . Mr. Kraler, Miep, Dirk, the scene occurs in a large, unfurnished, one-room
vegetable man, all risking their lives for us apartment on the top floor of an old brown-
every day. . . . When I think of these good stone in Manhattan. It is a cold February after-
things, I’m not afraid any more. . . . I find noon, and Paul has just climbed five flights of
myself, and God, and I . . . stairs to the apartment Corie rented for them.

PETER (Impatiently, as he gets to his feet) CORIE The furniture will be here by five.
That’s fine! But when I begin to think, I get They promised.
mad! Look at us, hiding out for two years.
PAUL (Dropping affidavits into case, looks
Not able to move! Caught here like . . . wait-
at his watch) Five? . . . It’s five-thirty. (Crosses
ing for them to come and get us . . . and all
to bedroom stairs) What do we do, sleep in
for what?
Bloomingdale’s tonight?
ANNE We’re not the only people that’ve
CORIE They’ll be here, Paul. They’re proba-
had to suffer. There’ve always been people
bly stuck in traffic.
that’ve had to . . . sometimes one race . . .
sometimes another . . . and yet . . . PAUL (Crossing up to bedroom) And what
about tonight? I’ve got a case in court tomor-
PETER (Sitting on upstage end of bed) That
row. Maybe we should check into a hotel?
doesn’t make me feel any better!
(Looks into bedroom)
ANNE I know it’s terrible, trying to have
CORIE (Rises and moves towards PAUL)
any faith . . . when people are doing such hor-
We just checked out of a hotel. I don’t care if
rible . . . (Gently lifting his face) but you
the furniture doesn’t come. I’m sleeping in
know what I sometimes think? I think the
my apartment tonight.
world may be going through a phase, the way
I was with Mother. It’ll pass, maybe not for PAUL Where? Where? (Looks into bath-
hundreds of years, but some day. . . . I still room, closes door, and starts to come back
believe, in spite of everything, that people are down the steps) There’s only room for one in
really good at heart. the bathtub. (He suddenly turns, goes back up
steps and opens door to the bathroom.)
Where’s the bathtub?
CORIE (Hesitantly) There is no bathtub.

Scenes for One Man and One Woman
169

PAUL No bathtub? PAUL Where is he?
CORIE There’s a shower . . . CORIE In Florida! . . . There’s a handy
man that comes Mondays, Wednesdays, and
PAUL How am I going to take a bath?
Fridays.
CORIE You won’t take a bath. You’ll take a
PAUL You mean we freeze on Tuesdays,
shower.
Thursdays, and Saturdays?
PAUL I don’t like showers. I like baths.
CORIE He’ll be here in the morning.
Corie, how am I going to take a bath?
PAUL (Moving R.) And what’ll we do
CORIE You’ll lie down in the shower and
tonight? I’ve got a case in court in the morning.
hang your feet over the sink. . . . I’m sorry
there’s no bathtub, Paul. CORIE (Moves to PAUL ) Will you stop say-
ing it like you always have a case in court in
PAUL (Closes door, and crosses down into
the morning. This is your first one.
the room) Hmmmm . . . Boy, of all the nights
. . . (He suddenly shivers.) It’s freezing in here. PAUL Well, what’ll we do?
(He rubs his hands.) Isn’t there any heat?
CORIE The furniture will be here. In the
CORIE Of course there’s heat. We have a meantime I can light the stove and you can
radiator. sit over the fire with your law books and a
shawl like Abraham Lincoln. (Crosses to the
PAUL (Gets up on steps and feels radiator)
Franklin Stove and gets matches from the top
The radiator’s the coldest thing in the room.
of the stove)
CORIE It’s probably the boiler. It’s probably
PAUL Is that supposed to be funny? (Begins
off in the whole building.
to investigate small windows)
PAUL (Putting on gloves) No, it was warm
CORIE No. It was supposed to be nasty. It
coming up the stairs. (Goes out door into
just came out funny. (She strikes match and
hall) See . . . It’s nice and warm out here.
attempts to light the log in stove. PAUL tries
CORIE Maybe it’s because the apartment is the windows.) What are you doing? (Gives up
empty. attempting to light log)
PAUL The hall is empty too but it’s warm PAUL I’m checking to see if the windows
out here. are closed.
CORIE (Moves to the stove) It’ll be all right CORIE They’re closed. I looked.
once I get a fire going.
PAUL Then why is it windy in here?
PAUL (Goes to phone) A fire? You’d have to
CORIE (Moves R. to PAUL) I don’t feel a
keep the flame going night and day. . . . I’ll
draft.
call the landlord.
PAUL (Moves away from windows) I didn’t
CORIE (Putting log into stove) He’s not
say draft. I said wind . . . There’s a brisk,
home.
northeasterly wind blowing in this room.

170
Scenes and Monologues

CORIE You don’t have to get sarcastic. CORIE They’re wrong as often as they’re
right.
PAUL (Moving up into the kitchen area) I’m
not getting sarcastic, I’m getting chapped lips. PAUL I’m going to be shoveling snow in my
(Looking up, he glimpses the hole in the sky- own living room.
light.)
CORIE It’s a little hole.
CORIE How could there be wind in a closed
PAUL With that wind it could blow six-foot
room?
drifts in the bathroom. Honestly, Corie, I
PAUL How’s this for an answer? There’s a don’t see how you can be so calm about all
hole in the skylight. (He points up.) this.
CORIE (She looks up, sees it and is obvi- CORIE Well, what is it you want me to do?
ously embarrassed by it.) Gee, I didn’t see
PAUL Go to pieces, like me. It’s only natural.
that before. Did you?
PAUL (Moves to ladder) I didn’t see the
apartment before.

CORIE (Defensively. Crosses to the railing
and gets her coat) All right, Paul, don’t get
Harvey
by Mary Chase (1943)
upset. I’m sure it’ll be fixed. We could plug it
up with something for tonight.
Characters: VETA—Veta Simmons is over-
PAUL (Gets up on ladder) How? How? wrought. She wants Dr. Sanderson to commit
That’s twenty feet high. You’d have to fly over her brother, Elwood, to a mental hospital so
in a plane and drop something in. that she can entertain her friends without
being embarrassed by him.
CORIE (Putting on coat) It’s only for one
SANDERSON—A psychiatrist, he believes Veta is
night. And it’s not that cold.
having a nervous breakdown.
PAUL In February? Do you know what it’s Situation: The scene takes place in Dr.
like at three o’clock in the morning? In Sanderson’s office.
February? Ice-cold freezing.
VETA Doctor—everything I say to you is
CORIE It’s not going to be freezing. I called confidential? Isn’t it?
the weather bureau. It’s going to be cloudy
with light s—(She catches herself and looks SANDERSON That’s understood.
up.) VETA Because it’s a slap in the face to
PAUL What? ( CORIE turns away.) everything we’ve stood for in this community
What? . . . A light what? the way Elwood is acting now.

CORIE Snow! SANDERSON I am not a gossip, Mrs.

Simmons. I am a psychiatrist.
PAUL (Coming down ladder) Snow?? . . .
It’s going to snow tonight? . . . In here?

Scenes for One Man and One Woman
171

VETA Well—for one thing—he drinks. picked up in these bars, of whom you disap-
prove?
SANDERSON To excess?
VETA (Patiently) Doctor—I’ve been telling
VETA To excess? Well—don’t you call it
you. Harvey is a rabbit—a big white rabbit—
excess when a man never lets a day go by
six feet high—or is it six feet and a half?
without stepping into one of those cheap tav-
Heavens knows I ought to know. He’s been
erns, sitting around with riffraff and people
around the house long enough.
you never heard of? Inviting them to the
house—playing cards with them—giving SANDERSON (Regarding her narrowly)
them food and money. And here I am trying Now, Mrs. Simmons, let me understand
to get Myrtle Mae started with a nice group of this—you say—
young people. If that isn’t excess I’m sure I
VETA (Impatient) Doctor—do I have to keep
don’t know what excess is.
repeating myself? My brother insists that his
SANDERSON I didn’t doubt your state- closest friend is this big white rabbit. This rab-
ment, Mrs. Simmons. I merely asked if your bit is named Harvey. Harvey lives at our
brother drinks. house. Don’t you understand? He and Elwood
go every place together. Elwood buys railroad
VETA Well, yes, I say definitely Elwood
tickets, theater tickets, for both of them. As I
drinks and I want him committed out here per-
told Myrtle Mae—if your uncle was so lone-
manently, because I cannot stand another day
some he had to bring something home—why
of that Harvey. Myrtle and I have to set a place
couldn’t he bring home something human? He
at the table for Harvey. We have to move over
has me, doesn’t he? He has Myrtle Mae,
on the sofa and make room for Harvey. We
doesn’t he? (She leans forward.) Doctor—(She
have to answer the telephone when Elwood
rises to him. He inclines toward her.) I’m going
calls and asks to speak to Harvey. Then at the
to tell you something I’ve never told anybody
party this afternoon with Mrs. Chauvenet
in the world before. (Puts her hand on his
there—We didn’t even know anything about
shoulder) Every once in a while I see that big
Harvey until we came back here. Doctor, don’t
white rabbit myself. Now isn’t that terrible?
you think it would have been a little bit kinder
I’ve never even told that to Myrtle Mae.
of Mother to have written and told me about
Harvey? Be honest, now—don’t you? SANDERSON (Now convinced. Starts to
rise) Mrs. Simmons—
SANDERSON I really couldn’t answer that
question, because I— VETA (Straightening)And what’s more—
he’s every bit as big as Elwood says he is.
VETA I can. Yes—it certainly would have.
Now don’t ever tell that to anybody, Doctor.
SANDERSON This person you call I’m ashamed of it. (Crosses to C., to chair R.
Harvey—who is he? of desk)
VETA He’s a rabbit. SANDERSON (Crosses to VETA) I can see
that you have been under a great nervous
SANDERSON Perhaps—but just who is he?
strain recently.
Some companion—someone your brother has

172
Scenes and Monologues

VETA Well—I certainly have. Situation: This play has just one set, a dining
room. The playwright portrays dining rooms as
SANDERSON Grief over your mother’s
symbolic of the changing lifestyle of the
death depressed you considerably?
American upper middle class. In this play the
VETA (Sits chair R. of desk) Nobody knows dining room was once the center of family life
how much. but is now neglected and cluttered.

SANDERSON Been losing sleep? ARTHUR The dining room.

VETA How could anybody sleep with that SALLY Yes. . . .
going on?
ARTHUR Notice how we gravitate right to
SANDERSON (Crosses to back of desk) this room.
Short-tempered over trifles?
SALLY I know it.
VETA You just try living with those two
ARTHUR You sure mother doesn’t want
and see how your temper holds up.
this stuff in Florida?
SANDERSON (Presses buzzer) Loss of
SALLY She hardly has room for what she’s
appetite?
got. She wants us to take turns. Without
VETA No one could eat at a table with my fighting.
brother and a big white rabbit. Well, I’m fin-
ARTHUR We’ll just have to draw lots then.
ished with it. I’ll sell the house—be appointed
conservator of Elwood’s estate, and Myrtle SALLY Unless one of us wants something,
Mae and I will be able to entertain our friends and one of us doesn’t.
in peace. It’s too much, Doctor. I just can’t
ARTHUR We have to do it today.
stand it.
SALLY Do you think that’s enough time to
divide up a whole house?

ARTHUR I have to get back, Sal. (He looks

in the sideboard.) We’ll draw lots and then go
The Dining Room through the rooms taking turns. (He brings
by A. R. Gurney Jr. (1982)
out a silver spoon.) Here. We’ll use this salt
spoon. (He shifts it from hand to hand behind
Characters: ARTHUR—With his father dead
his back, then holds out two fists.) Take
and his mother now living in Florida, Arthur
your pick. You get the spoon, you get the
needs to divide his parents’ belongings between
dining room.
himself and his sister.
SALLY—Arthur’s sister, Sally has adult children SALLY You mean you want to start here?
but still reverts to childish behavior in her ARTHUR Got to start somewhere. (SALLY
brother’s presence. She wants the dining room looks at his fists. )
furnishings partly because they remind her of
her happy, secure childhood and partly because SALLY (Not choosing) You mean you want
her brother wants them. the dining room?

Scenes for One Man and One Woman
173

ARTHUR Yeah. back again; then holding out his fists) I don’t
want to fight. Which hand? (SALLY starts to
SALLY What happened to the stuff you had?
choose, then stops.)
ARTHUR Jane took it. It was part of the set-
SALLY Are you planning to put it in storage?
tlement.
ARTHUR I might.
SALLY If you win, where will you put it?
SALLY I checked on that. That costs an arm
ARTHUR That’s my problem, Sal.
and a leg.
SALLY I thought you had a tiny apartment.
ARTHUR So does shipping it to Denver.
ARTHUR I’ll find a place. (He holds out his fists.)
SALLY I mean your children won’t want it. SALLY (Almost picking a hand, then stop-
ping) I know what will happen if you win.
ARTHUR Probably not.
ARTHUR What?
SALLY Then where on earth? . . .
SALLY You’ll end up selling it.
ARTHUR Come on, Sal. Choose.(He holds
out his fists again. She starts to choose.) You ARTHUR Selling it?
don’t want it.
SALLY That’s what will happen. It will kick
SALLY Of course I want it. around for a while, and you’ll end up calling a
furniture dealer.
ARTHUR I mean you already have a per-
fectly good dining room. ARTHUR I am absolutely amazed you’d
say that.
SALLY Not as good as this.
SALLY I don’t want to fight, Arthur.
ARTHUR You mean you want two dining
rooms? ARTHUR Neither do I. Maybe we should
defer the dining room. (He starts for door,
SALLY I’d give our old stuff to Debbie.
stage right.)
ARTHUR To Debbie?
SALLY (Following him) Maybe we should.
SALLY She’s our oldest child.
ARTHUR Selling the dining room? Is that
ARTHUR Does Debbie want a dining room? what you told mother I’d do?
SALLY She might. SALLY (Following him out) I told her I’d
give you the piano if I can have the dining
ARTHUR In a condominium?
room. . . .
SALLY She might.
ARTHUR I’ll be lucky if I keep this spoon.
ARTHUR In Denver?
SALLY I’ll give you the piano and the coffee
SALLY She just might, Arthur. table if I can have the dining room.
ARTHUR (Shuffling the spoon behind his

174
Scenes and Monologues



for you, and it comes with home fries and cof-
The Breakfast Special fee. Or French toast, if you want.
by Matthew Calhoun (1984) CUSTOMER What?

Characters: WAITRESS—She is in her early WAITRESS This is a diner, not a French

twenties and has little interest in being a cookbook place. We don’t have robin eggs.
waitress. You can get a Denver omelette, if you want.
CUSTOMER—He is a well-dressed young man in CUSTOMER This is a diner, as you said. I’d
his late twenties. like to dine. I don’t understand your attitude.
Situation: The characters are in a dingy diner
WAITRESS We don’t have liqueurs. We got
on the Lower East Side in New York City.
O.J. or grapefruit juice.
WAITRESS Menu, sir?
CUSTOMER This is New York City, lady.
CUSTOMER No thanks. I know just what Can’t I get breakfast?
I want.
WAITRESS Pancakes? Tomato juice? Cold
WAITRESS Uh huh? cereal? We got that.
CUSTOMER A robin egg omelette topped CUSTOMER Where am I, in primitive colo-
with coriander made French style—red caviar nial New England where all they know how
in that, and a licorice liqueur, please. to fix is turkey and succotash?
WAITRESS Huh? WAITRESS It’s summer. We don’t have a
Thanksgiving menu till November.
CUSTOMER Yes, all that and some Wonder
Bread toast with wild gooseberry preserves. CUSTOMER Don’t you have anything here?
Shave the crusts, please.
WAITRESS (Shrugging) Yankee bean soup.
WAITRESS We don’t have that . . . here.
CUSTOMER OK, OK, bring me a menu. I’ll
CUSTOMER No Wonder Bread? You should eat that.
try it. That cheap, synthetic texture provides
WAITRESS There are some nice more
a delightful contrast to some of the more
exotic restaurants in Midtown. You can get
docile of the wild preserves. Wild raspberry
the D train right over . . .
needs more of a . . .
CUSTOMER I don’t want to take a subway
WAITRESS We don’t have those.
to get a little breakfast. I’m not on a safari
CUSTOMER You mentioned that. Make it here. I don’t want to have to hunt lion to get a
wild blackberry then, and put it on Arnold bite to eat.
brick oven white. Broil it, though, please. It
WAITRESS Lion?
makes a subtler taste, broiled.
CUSTOMER I suppose next you’ll be telling
WAITRESS We don’t have that stuff. We
me I can’t get a little fresh squeezed tangerine
have scrambled or fried, or we could poach it
juice here.

Scenes for One Man and One Woman
175

WAITRESS The restaurant two doors north’ll CUSTOMER Rye. (Beat; worriedly) If I’m
give you fresh squeezed O.J. if you want. not imposing.
CUSTOMER I’m sure they could give me WAITRESS Rye. Coffee?
bubble gum freshly garnered from under their
CUSTOMER Sure.
tables, too, but I don’t want that.
WAITRESS OK, then. (She starts to exit.)
WAITRESS You are being entirely unreason-
able. A small, unassuming, lower East Side CUSTOMER Oh!
diner and you come in here and expect Julia
WAITRESS What?
Child to cater to your every whim. You get
eggs here. You get toast. You get home fries. CUSTOMER Could I maybe have a table
You can have a donut if you want. Glazed or here, to eat off of?
plain. That’s what you get. If you don’t like it,
WAITRESS A table, sir?
then go hire a cook and a butler and live in a
mansion on a hill somewhere. OK? CUSTOMER Well there’s two chairs here,
but no table. I hate to eat off my lap.
CUSTOMER (Momentarily stunned) You’re
right. I expect too much out of life. I always WAITRESS Couldn’t you just pull up the
have. I’m a bit neurotic that way. I just want other chair?
things right, that’s all. But I have no right to CUSTOMER Well . . . (Short pause)
force my outlandish expectations on others.
(Stands, hugs her) Thanks for the outburst. WAITRESS Maybe we should just come
A fella has to be put in his place sometimes. to your house and serve you breakfast in
(Sits) Bring me the breakfast special. Whatever bed, huh?
it is. Thanks. CUSTOMER (Embarrassed) OK. Sorry. (He
WAITRESS You can’t have the special pulls up the chair.) Chair will be fine.
because it’s 11:02. You can only get it before WAITRESS You can pick up breakfast in the
11. You should have ordered it when you sat kitchen in about twenty minutes.
down.
CUSTOMER Twenty minutes? For eggs?
CUSTOMER You’re right. My fault. Two
fried eggs, then. That’ll be fine. WAITRESS Whadaya think, sir, we’re gonna
have a foreman whip the cook to work at
WAITRESS White, whole wheat or rye? superhuman speed to kill himself on your
CUSTOMER You have whole wheat eggs? eggs? You’ve got a chair, sir. You think we get
to sit down?
WAITRESS (Irritated) Toast.
CUSTOMER But there’s no customers here!
CUSTOMER Oh, I see. Anything’s fine.
Anything that’s easiest. WAITRESS Cook’s a freelance writer. He
writes comedy skits as he works. Slows him
WAITRESS White? down a little. What are you, anti-art?

176
Scenes and Monologues

CUSTOMER And what did you mean pick ney, she is lonely. Many of the distant villagers
it up in the kitchen? think she is a witch and believe she turns her
visitors into flowers that she keeps in a vase.
WAITRESS In twenty minutes. Kitchen’s
MAN—Wearing a sword, the man seems to be a
over there, right past the communal bath-
soldier but has no mission, no assignment.
room.
Situation: Chinese American playwright David
CUSTOMER Aren’t you going to bring it Henry Hwang has modeled this short play on
to me? Japanese ghost stories. As in those traditional
WAITRESS What am I, your slave? Would tales, his play lets the audience decide whether
you show a little initiative around here? the characters are humans or spirits. In this
scene, the man happens upon the woman’s hut.
CUSTOMER (Getting up) I’m leaving. He is puzzled by her solitary life, but stays on as
WAITRESS It’s about time. Robin egg her guest.
omelette. [Evening. Woman warms tea for man. Man
CUSTOMER Eat off chairs. rubs himself, trying to get warm.]

WAITRESS Wild gooseberry jam. MAN You are very kind to take me in.

CUSTOMER Twenty minutes so the moron WOMAN This is a remote corner of the
can write comedy skits. world. Guests are rare.

(The following dialog is spoken MAN The tea—you pour it well.

simultaneously.) WOMAN No.
WAITRESS Red caviar. Licorice liqueur. MAN The sound it makes—in the cup—
Shave the crusts. Cook it French style. Wants very soothing.
a table. Expects me to wait on him.
WOMAN That is the tea’s skill, not mine.
CUSTOMER Pick it up myself in the (She hands the cup to him.) May I get you
kitchen past the communal bathroom. Don’t something else? Rice, perhaps?
even have Wonder Bread toast. Wants me to
take a subway for breakfast. Don’t even have MAN No.
tangerine juice! (Lights fade to end scene) WOMAN And some vegetables?
MAN No, thank you.

WOMAN Fish? (Pause) It is at least two days

walk to the nearest village. I saw no horse.
The Sound of a Voice You must be very hungry. You would do a
by David Henry Hwang (1984) great honor to dine with me. Guests are rare.

Characters: WOMAN—In a remote corner of MAN Thank you.

a forest lives a Japanese woman in a small hut. (Woman gets up, leaves. Man gets up, walks
With no neighbors nearer than two days’ jour- to the kitchen door, listens. The room is

Scenes for One Man and One Woman
177

sparsely furnished, except for one shelf on MAN Oh.
which stands a vase of brightly colored flow-
WOMAN I notice, but I don’t keep track.
ers. The flowers stand out in sharp contrast to
(Pause) May I bring out more?
the starkness of the room. He crosses to the
vase of flowers. He touches them. Quickly, MAN More? No. No. This was wonderful.
he takes one of the flowers, hides it in his
WOMAN I have more.
clothes. The woman re-enters. She carries a
tray with food.) MAN Really—the best I’ve had.
WOMAN Please. Eat. It will give me great WOMAN You must be tired. Did you sleep
pleasure. in the forest last night?
MAN This—this is magnificent. MAN Yes.
WOMAN Eat. WOMAN Or did you not sleep at all?
MAN Thank you. (He motions for the MAN I slept.
woman to join him.)
WOMAN Where?
WOMAN No, thank you.
MAN By a waterfall. The sound of the water
MAN This is wonderful. The best I’ve put me to sleep. It rumbled like the sounds of
tasted. a city. You see, I can’t sleep in too much
silence. It scares me. It makes me feel that I
WOMAN You are reckless in your flattery,
have no control over what is about to happen.
sir. But anything you say, I will enjoy hearing.
It’s not even the words. It’s the sound of a WOMAN I feel the same way.
voice, the way it moves through the air.
MAN But you live here—alone?
MAN How long has it been since you last
WOMAN Yes.
had a visitor?
MAN It’s so quiet here. How can you sleep?
(Pause)
WOMAN Tonight, I’ll sleep. I’ll lie down in
WOMAN I don’t know.
the next room, and hear your breathing
MAN Oh? through the wall, and fall asleep shamelessly.
There will be no silence.
WOMAN I lose track. Perhaps five months
ago, perhaps ten years, perhaps yesterday. I MAN You’re very kind to let me stay here.
don’t consider time when there is no voice in
WOMAN This is yours. (She unrolls a mat.)
the air. It’s pointless. Time begins with the
entrance of a visitor, and ends with his exit. MAN Did you make it yourself?

MAN And in between? You don’t keep track WOMAN Yes. There is a place to wash
of the days? You can’t help but notice— outside.

WOMAN Of course I notice. MAN Thank you.

178
Scenes and Monologues

WOMAN Good night. Situation: This play by Cherokee playwright
Lynn Riggs is set in 1900 in Indian Territory,
MAN Good night. (He starts to leave.)
which will become part of the state of
WOMAN May I know your name? Oklahoma in just seven years. Rodgers and
Hammerstein based their popular musical
MAN No. I mean, I would rather not say. If I
Oklahoma! (1943) on Green Grow the Lilacs.
gave you a name, it would only be made up.
Curly and Laurey are on opposite sides of the
Why should I deceive you? You are too kind
cowhand-farmer feud that divides Indian
for that.
Territory, but politics won’t keep him from pur-
WOMAN Then what should I call you? suing her. In the scene below, Curly has already
Perhaps—”Man Who Fears Silence”? rented a fancy surrey to take Laurey to a dance,
but he hasn’t yet asked her if she’ll go with him.
MAN How about, “Man Who Fears
Women”? [The door slides back, and LAUREY comes
out. She is a fair, spoiled, lovely young girl
WOMAN That name is much too common.
about eighteen in a long white dress with
MAN And you? many ruffles. She sees CURLY.]
WOMAN Hanako. LAUREY Oh! Thought you was somebody.
(To AUNT ELLER) Is this all that’s come a-
MAN That’s your name?
callin’ and it a’ready ten o’clock of a Satiddy
WOMAN It’s what you may call me. mornin’?
MAN Good night, Hanako. You are very CURLY (Sullenly) You knowed it was me
kind. ‘fore you opened the door.
WOMAN You are very smart. Good night. LAUREY No sich of a thing.
CURLY You did, too! You heared my voice

and knowed it was me.

LAUREY I did not, I tell you! Heared a voice
Green Grow the Lilacs a-talkin’ rumbly along with Aunt Eller. And
by Lynn Riggs (1930) heared someone a-singin’ like a bull-frog in a
pond—
Characters: LAUREY—An orphan who lives
CURLY I don’t talk rumbly. And I don’t sing
on her aunt’s farm, Laurey dreams of pretty,
like no bull-frog—
elegant surroundings but knows firsthand
the hardships of farm living. LAUREY Bull-frog in a pond, I told you. But
CURLY—A rowdy cowhand who claims to be how’d I know it was you, Mr. Curly McClain?
the best bronco buster and bulldogger in seven- You ain’t so special. All men sounds alike
teen counties, Curly finds himself attracted to me.
to Laurey.

Scenes for One Man and One Woman
179

CURLY (Doggedly) You knowed it was me, LAUREY Whur’d you git sich a rig at? (With
so you set in there a-thinkin’ up sump’n mean explosive laughter) Anh, I bet he’s went and
to say. I’m a good mind not to tell you nuthin’ h’ard it over to Claremore, thinkin’ I’d go
about the play-party now. You c’n jist stay at with him!
home, for yer tongue. Don’t you tell her whur
CURLY ‘S all you know about it—
it is, Aunt Eller. Me’n you’ll go and leave her
at home. LAUREY (Jeering) Went and h’ard it! Spent
all his money h’arin’ a rig, and now ain’t got
LAUREY If you did ast me, I wouldn’t go
nobody to ride in it.
with you. Besides, how’d you take me? You
ain’t bought a new buggy with red wheels CURLY Have, too! Did not h’ar it. Made the
onto it, have you? whole thing up outa my head—
CURLY No, I ain’t. LAUREY What! Made it up?
LAUREY And a spankin’ team with their CURLY Dashboard and all!
bridles all jinglin’?
LAUREY (Flying at him) Oh! Git outa the
CURLY No. house, you! Aunt Eller, make him git hisself
outa here ‘fore I take a stove arn to him!
LAUREY ‘Spect me to ride on behind ole
Tellin’ me lies—!
Dun, I guess. You better ast that ole
Cummins girl you’ve tuck sich a shine to, CURLY (Dodging her) Makin’ up a few—
over acrost the river. Look out, now! Makin’ up a few purties ain’t
agin no law ‘at I know of. Don’t you wish
CURLY If I was to ast you, they’d be a way
they was sich a rig, though? Nen you could go
to take you, Miss Laurey Smarty.
to the party and do a hoe-down till mornin’ ‘f
LAUREY Oh, they would? you was a mind to. Nen drive home ‘th the
sun a-peekin’ at you over the ridge, purty and
CURLY A bran’ new surrey with fringe on
fine.
the top four inches long—and yeller! And two
white horses a-rarin’ and faunchin’ to go! LAUREY I ain’t wantin’ to do no hoe-down
You’d shore ride like a queen settin’ up in till mornin’. And whut would I want to see
that carriage! Feel like you had a gold crown the sun come up fer, a-peekin’ purty and
set on yer head, ‘th diamonds in it big as fine—alongside of you, anyhow?
goose eggs.
LAUREY Look out, you’ll be astin’ me in a
minute!
CURLY I ain’t astin’ you, I’m tellin’ you.
And this yere rig has got four fine side-cur-
tains, case of a rain. And isinglass winders to
look out of! And a red and green lamp set on
the dashboard, winkin’ like a lightnin’ bug!

180
Scenes and Monologues

 ISMENE I thought about it all night long.
SCENES Antigone, you’re mad.

for Two Women ANTIGONE Am I?

ISMENE We cannot do it.

ANTIGONE Why not?
ISMENE Creon will have us put to death.
Antigone ANTIGONE Of course he will. That’s what
translated from the French play he’s here for. He will do what he has to do,
written by Jean Anouilh in 1943 and we will do what we have to do. He is
bound to put us to death. We are bound to go
Characters: ISMENE—(pronounced
˘z•mā´•nē) out and bury our brother. That’s the way it is.
The older sister of Antigone, she is trying to What do you think we can do to change it?
keep Antigone from an action that would mean
certain death. ISMENE (Releases ANTIGONE’S hand;
ANTIGONE—(pronounced ăn•tı̆g´• •nē) She is a
e draws back a step) I don’t want to die.
passionate young woman who will not compro- ANTIGONE I’d prefer not to die, myself.
mise her principles, even if she must die for
them. ISMENE Listen to me, Antigone. I thought
about it all night. I’m older than you are. I
Situation: At the time this was written and
always think things over and you don’t. You
first produced, France was under German occu-
are impulsive. You get a notion in your head
pation. Although this text could not be explicit
and you jump up and do the thing straight off.
since it had to be approved by German censors,
And if it’s silly, well, so much the worse for
a French audience would identify with
you. Whereas, I think things out.
Antigone; the French, too, were being promised
happiness if they surrendered their consciences ANTIGONE Sometimes it is better not to
and sold their souls. Anouilh’s play is based on think too much.
the Sophocles tragedy of the same name.
ISMENE I don’t agree with you! Oh, I know
Antigone’s two brothers, Eteocles and Polynices,
it’s horrible. And I pity Polynices just as much
competed for power after the death of their
as you do. But all the same, I sort of see what
father, Oedipus, the king of Thebes. The strug-
Uncle Creon means.
gle resulted in the brothers killing each other.
The current king of Thebes, Creon, has ruled ANTIGONE I don’t want to “sort of see”
that only Eteocles shall be given a burial, while anything.
Polynices will be left to rot where he lies.
ISMENE Uncle Creon is the king. He has to
Antigone has decided to disobey Creon’s law.
set an example!
ISMENE Antigone, I’ve thought about it ANTIGONE But I am not the king; and I
a lot. don’t have to set people examples. Little
ANTIGONE Have you? Antigone gets a notion in her head—the nasty

Scenes for Two Women
181

brat, the wilful, wicked girl; and they put her AMANDA—Amanda Wingfield raised her chil-
in a corner all day, or they lock her up in the dren, Tom and Laura, alone. She is a woman
cellar. And she deserves it. She shouldn’t have of great but confused vitality. Uninten-
disobeyed! tionally cruel at times, Amanda means well.

ISMENE There you go, frowning, glowering, Situation: The Wingfield apartment is at the
wanting your own stubborn way in everything. back of a lower-middle-class tenement. This is a
Listen to me. I’m right oftener than you are. memory play, so the scene should be dimly lit,
sentimental, and not realistic.
ANTIGONE I don’t want to be right!
LAURA Hello, Mother, I was—
ISMENE At least you can try to understand.
(She makes a nervous gesture toward the
ANTIGONE Understand! The first word I chart on the wall. AMANDA leans against
ever heard out of any of you was that word the shut door and stares at LAURA with a
“understand.” Why didn’t I “understand” that martyred look.)
I must not play with water—cold, black, beau-
tiful flowing water—because I’d spill it on the AMANDA Deception? Deception?
palace tiles. Or with earth, because earth dirt- (She slowly removes her hat and gloves, con-
ies a little girl’s frock. Why didn’t I “under- tinuing the sweet suffering stare. She lets
stand” that nice children don’t eat out of the hat and gloves fall on the floor—a bit
every dish at once; or give everything in their of acting.)
pockets to beggars; or run in the wind so fast
that they fall down; or ask for a drink when LAURA (Shakily) How was the D.A.R.
they’re perspiring; or want to go swimming meeting? (AMANDA slowly opens her purse
when it’s either too early or too late, merely and removes a dainty white handkerchief
because they happen to feel like swimming. which she shakes out delicately and deli-
Understand! I don’t want to understand. cately touches to her lips and nostrils.) Didn’t
There’ll be time enough to understand when you go to the D.A.R. meeting, Mother?
I’m old. . . . If I ever am old. But not now. AMANDA (Faintly, almost inaudibly)—
No—No. (Then more forcibly) I did not have
the strength—to go to the D.A.R. In fact, I did

not have the courage! I wanted to find a hole

in the ground and hide myself in it forever!
The Glass Menagerie
by Tennessee Williams (1945) (She crosses slowly to the wall and removes
the diagram of the typewriter keyboard. She
Characters: LAURA—Laura has grown up to
holds it in front of her for a second, staring at
be a very shy young woman largely as a result
it sweetly and sorrowfully—then bites her lips
of her embarrassment over a deformed foot.
and tears it in two pieces.)
Her escape from her handicap is a collection of LAURA (Faintly) Why did you do that,
delicate glass animals that she tends lovingly. A Mother? (AMANDA repeats the same proce-
loner, Laura is as fragile as her glass menagerie.

182
Scenes and Monologues

dure with the chart of the Gregg Alphabet.) said. We don’t have any such student enrolled
Why are you— at the school!
I assured her she did, that you have been
AMANDA Why? Why? How old are you,
going to classes since early in January.
Laura?
“I wonder,” she said, “if you could be talk-
LAURA Mother, you know my age. ing about the terribly shy little girl who
dropped out of school after only a few days’
AMANDA I thought that you were an adult;
attendance?” “No,” I said, “Laura, my daugh-
it seems that I was mistaken.
ter, has been going to school every day for the
(She crosses slowly to the sofa and sinks past six weeks!”
down and stares at LAURA.) “Excuse me,” she said. She took the atten-
dance book out and there was your name,
LAURA Please don’t stare at me, Mother.
unmistakably printed, and all the dates you
(AMANDA closes her eyes and lowers her were absent until they decided that you had
head. Count ten.) dropped out of school.
AMANDA What are we going to do, what is I still said, “No, there must have been some
going to become of us, what is the future? mistake! There must have been some mix-up
in the records?”
(Count ten.) And she said, “No—I remember her per-
LAURA Has something happened, Mother? fectly now. Her hands shook so that she could-
(AMANDA draws a long breath and takes n’t hit the right keys! The first time we had a
out the handkerchief again. Dabbing process) speed-test, she broke down completely—was
Mother, has—something happened? sick at the stomach and almost had to be car-
ried into the wash-room! After that morning
AMANDA I’ll be all right in a minute, I’m she never showed up any more. We phoned
just bewildered—(Count five.)—by life. . . . the house but never got any answer”—while I
LAURA Mother, I wish that you would tell was working at Famous and Barr, I suppose,
me what’s happened. demonstrating those—Oh!
I felt so weak I could barely keep on my
AMANDA As you know, I was supposed to feet!
be inducted into my office at the D.A.R. this I had to sit down while they got me a glass
afternoon. But I stopped off at Rubicam’s of water!
Business College to speak to your teachers Fifty dollars’ tuition, all of our plans—my
about your having a cold and ask them what hopes and ambitions for you—just gone up
progress they thought you were making down the spout, just gone up the spout like that.
there. (LAURA draws a long breath and gets awk-
LAURA Oh . . . wardly to her feet. She crosses to the victrola
and winds it up.) What are you doing?
AMANDA I went to the typing instructor
and introduced myself as your mother. She LAURA Oh! (She releases the handle and
didn’t know who you were. Wingfield, she returns to her seat.)

Scenes for Two Women
183

AMANDA Laura, where have you been you get that awful suffering look on your
going when you’ve gone out pretending that face, like the picture of Jesus’ mother in the
you were going to business college? museum!
LAURA I’ve just been going out walking. AMANDA Hush!
AMANDA That’s not true. LAURA I couldn’t face it!
LAURA It is. I just went walking. (Pause. A whisper of strings)
AMANDA Walking? Walking? In winter? AMANDA (Hopelessly fingering the huge
Deliberately courting pneumonia in that light pocketbook) So what are we going to do the
coat? Where did you walk to, Laura? rest of our lives? Stay home and watch the
parades go by? Amuse ourselves with the
LAURA All sorts of places—mostly in the
glass menagerie, darling? Eternally play those
park.
worn-out phonograph records your father left
AMANDA Even after you’d started catching as a painful reminder of him.
that cold? We won’t have a business career—we’ve
given that up because it gave us nervous indi-
LAURA It was the lesser of two evils,
gestion! (Laughs wearily) What is there left
Mother. I couldn’t go back up. I—threw up—
but dependency all our lives? I know so well
on the floor!
what becomes of unmarried women who
AMANDA From half past seven till after aren’t prepared to occupy a position. I’ve seen
five every day you mean to tell me you such pitiful cases in the South—barely toler-
walked around in the park, because you ated spinsters living upon the grudging patron-
wanted me to think that you were still going age of sister’s husband or brother’s wife!—
to Rubicam’s Business College? stuck away in some little mouse-trap of a
room—encouraged by one in-law to visit
LAURA It wasn’t as bad as it sounds. I went
another—little birdlike women without any
inside places to get warmed up.
nest—eating the crust of humility all their
AMANDA Inside where? life!
LAURA I went in the art museum and the Is that the future that we’ve mapped out for
birdhouses at the Zoo. I visited the penguins ourselves? I swear it’s the only alternative I
every day! Sometimes I did without lunch and can think of! It isn’t a very pleasant alterna-
went to the movies. Lately I’ve been spending tive, is it? Of course—some girls do marry.
most of my afternoons in the Jewel-box, that (LAURA twists her hands nervously.) Haven’t
big glass house where they raise the tropical you ever liked some boy?
flowers. LAURA Yes. I liked one once. (Rises) I came
AMANDA You did all this to deceive me, across his picture a while ago.
just for deception? (LAURA looks down.) AMANDA (With some interest) He gave
Why? you his picture?
LAURA Mother, when you’re disappointed, LAURA No, it’s in the year-book.

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AMANDA (Disappointed) Oh—a high- AMANDA Yes? (Crossing to photograph)
school boy.
LAURA (In a tone of frightened apology)
LAURA Yes. His name was Jim. (LAURA I’m—crippled!
lifts the heavy annual from the claw-foot
AMANDA Nonsense! Laura, I’ve told you
table.) Here he is in The Pirates of Penzance.
never, never to use that word. Why, you’re not
AMANDA (Absently) The what? crippled, you just have a little defect—hardly
noticeable, even! When people have some
LAURA The operetta the senior class put
slight disadvantage like that, they cultivate
on. He had a wonderful voice and we sat
other things to make up for it—develop
across the aisle from each other Mondays,
charm—and vivacity—and—charm! That’s all
Wednesdays and Fridays in the Aud. Here
you have to do! (She turns again to the photo-
he is with the silver cup for debating! See
graph.) One thing your father had plenty of—
his grin?
was charm!
AMANDA (Absently) He must have had a
jolly disposition.

LAURA He used to call me—Blue Roses.
AMANDA Why did he call you such a Wine in the Wilderness
name as that? by Alice Childress (1969)
LAURA When I had that attack of pleuro-
Characters: CYNTHIA—She is a college-edu-
sis—he asked me what was the matter when I
cated social worker in her early twenties who
came back. I said pleurosis—he thought I said
has befriended Tommy.
Blue Roses! So that’s what he always called
TOMMY—She is a factory worker with an
me after that. Whenever he saw me, he’d
eighth-grade education. She wears artistically
holler, “Hello, Blue Roses!” I didn’t care for
mismatched clothes.
the girl that he went out with. Emily
Meisenbach. Emily was the best-dressed girl Situation: This comedy-drama is set in a one-
at Soldan. She never struck me, though, as room apartment in a Harlem tenement build-
being sincere. . . . It says in the Personal ing. The room is in a state of artistic disorder,
Section—they’re engaged. That’s—six years decorated with pictures and ornaments from a
ago! They must be married by now. variety of cultures. Bill Jameson, an artist friend
of Cynthia’s, is looking for an African American
AMANDA Girls that aren’t cut out for busi- woman to model for him. Tommy has just the
ness careers usually wind up married to some look he needs. Cynthia wants to protect Tommy
nice man. (Gets up with a spark of revival) from getting emotionally involved with Bill,
Sister, that’s what you’ll do! knowing that he is interested in Tommy as a
(LAURA utters a startled, doubtful laugh. She model, not as a woman.
reaches quickly for a piece of glass.) CYNTHIA (A bit uncomfortable) Oh,
LAURA But, Mother— Honey, . . . Tommy, you don’t want a poor
artist.

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185

TOMMY Tommy’s not lookin’ for a meal else and there are other factors . . .
ticket. I been doin’ for myself all my life. It
TOMMY (Sits facing CYNTHIA) What’s
takes two to make it in this high-price world.
wrong with me?
A black man see a hard way to go. The both
of you gotta pull together. That way you CYNTHIA I don’t know what you mean.
accomplish.
TOMMY Yes you do. You tryin’ to tell me
CYNTHIA I’m a social worker . . . and I see I’m aimin’ too high by lookin’ at Bill.
so many broken homes. Some of these men!
CYNTHIA Oh, no my dear.
Tommy, don’t be in a rush about the marriage
thing. TOMMY Out there in the street, in the bar,
you and your husband were so sure that he’d
TOMMY Keep it to yourself, . . . but I was
like me and want to paint my picture.
thirty my last birthday and haven’t even been
married. I coulda been. Oh, yes, indeed, CYNTHIA But he does want to paint you,
coulda been. But I don’t want any and every- he’s very eager to . . .
body. What I want with a no-good piece-a
TOMMY But why? Somethin’ don’t fit right.
nothin’? I’ll never forget what the Reverend
Martin Luther King said . . . “I have a dream.” CYNTHIA (Feeling sorry for TOMMY) If
I like him sayin’ it ‘cause truer words have you don’t want to do it, just leave and that’ll
never been spoke. (Straightening the room) be that.
I have a dream, too. Mine is to find a man TOMMY Walk out while he’s buyin’ me
who’ll treat me just half-way decent . . . just what I ask for, spendin’ his money on me?
to meet me half-way is all I ask, to smile, be That’d be too dirty. (Looks at books. Takes
kind to me. Somebody in my corner. Not to one from shelf) Books, books, books every-
wake up by myself in the mornin’ and face where. “Afro-American History.” I like that.
this world all alone. What’s wrong with me, Cynthia? Tell me, I
CYNTHIA About Bill, it’s best not to ever won’t get mad with you, I swear. If there’s
count on anything, anything at all, Tommy. somethin’ wrong that I can change, I’m ready
to do it. Eighth grade, that’s all I had of
TOMMY (This remark bothers her for a
school. You a social worker, I know that mean
split second but she shakes it off.) Of course,
college. I come from poor people. (Examining
Cynthia, that’s one of the foremost rules of
the book in her hand) Talkin’ ‘bout poverty
life. Don’t count on nothin’!
this and poverty that and studyin’ it. When
CYNTHIA Right, don’t be too quick to put you in it you don’t be studyin’ ‘bout it.
your trust in these men. Cynthia, I remember my mother tyin’ up her
stockin’s with strips-a rag ‘cause she didn’t
TOMMY You put your trust in one and got
have no garters. When I get home from school
yourself a husband.
she’d say, . . . “Nothin’ much here to eat.”
CYNTHIA Well, yes, but what I mean is . . . Nothin’ much might be grits, or bread and
Oh, you know. A man is a man and Bill is coffee. I got sick-a all that, got me a job. Later
also an artist and his work comes before all for school.

186
Scenes and Monologues



CYNTHIA The Matriarchal Society.
TOMMY What’s that? Butterflies Are Free
by Leonard Gershe (1969)
CYNTHIA A Matriarchal Society is one in
which the women rule . . . the women have Characters: MRS. BAKER—She is a well-
the power . . . the women head the house. dressed, attractive woman who is highly protec-
TOMMY We didn’t have nothin’ to rule tive of her adult son, Don, who is blind.
over, not a pot nor a window. And my papa JILL—Jill is nineteen years old, a would-be
picked hisself up and run off with some fin- actress with a delicate, little-girl quality and
ger-poppin’ woman and we never hear another long hair. She is always hungry. Jill and Don are
word ‘til ten, twelve years later when a under- neighbors who have become very close.
taker call up and ask if Mama wants come Situation: The scene is set in 1969 in Don
claim his body. And don’cha know, mama Baker’s apartment. Don has not lived on his
went on over and claim it. A woman need a own for very long.
man to claim, even if it’s a dead one. What’s
MRS. BAKER (Mumbling to herself) Mrs.
wrong with me? Be honest.
Benson!!!
CYNTHIA You’re a fine person . . .
JILL (Opening her door) Yes?
TOMMY Go on, I can take it.
MRS. BAKER (Is startled for a moment, but
CYNTHIA You’re too brash. You’re too recovers, quickly. In friendly tones) Could you
used to looking out for yourself. It makes us come in for a moment, Mrs. Benson?
lose our femininity . . . It makes us hard . . . it
JILL (Uneasily) Well, I have my audition. I
makes us seem very hard. We do for ourselves
should leave in about fifteen minutes. I don’t
too much.
know New York and I get lost all the time.
TOMMY If I don’t, who’s gonna do for me?
MRS. BAKER (Ingratiatingly. Steps toward
CYNTHIA You have to let the black man JILL a bit) Don’t you worry. I’ll see that you
have his manhood again. You have to give it get off in time. (JILL enters, reluctantly,
back, Tommy. stands behind table) I thought you and I
might have a little talk. You know—just girls
TOMMY I didn’t take it from him, how I’m
together. Please sit down. (JILL remains
gonna give it back?
standing, avoiding too close contact with
MRS. BAKER.) Would you like a cup of cof-
fee? Tea?
JILL No, thank you . . . (Crosses off plat-
form to L. of sofa) but if that apple is still
there.
MRS. BAKER (Crosses to refrigerator, gets
apple and lettuce on plate, crosses to sink)
I’m sure it is.

Scenes for Two Women
187

JILL (Crosses between sofa and coffee table really pretty. I think I’m interesting-looking
to ladder, sits on step) Where’s Don? and in certain lights I can look sort of . . .
lovely . . . but I’m not pretty.
MRS. BAKER Shopping. (Washes apple and
polishes it with dish towel) You must be so MRS. BAKER (Crosses with lettuce, sits C.
careful to wash fruits and vegetables, you sofa) Nonsense! You’re extremely pretty.
know. They spray all those insecticides on
JILL (Laugh) No, I’m not.
everything now. I’m not at all sure the bugs
aren’t less harmful. (Crosses to JILL with MRS. BAKER Yes, you are.
apple) I like apples to be nice and shiny.
JILL (Turns, leans on post) No, I’m not. I’ve
(Holds the apple out to JILL, who looks at it
got beady little eyes like a bird and a figure
and then at MRS. BAKER oddly)
like a pogo stick. (Waits for a reaction from
JILL This reminds me of something. What MRS. BAKER. There isn’t one.) Well? Aren’t
is it? you going to deny you said that?
MRS. BAKER I have no idea. MRS. BAKER (Unperturbed) How can I,
dear? Obviously, you heard it.
JILL You . . . handing me the apple . . . nice
and shiny. . . . Oh, I know! Snow White. JILL (Crosses above director’s chair) There
Remember when the witch brought her the are plenty of true things you can put me
poisoned apple? Oh, Mrs. Baker, I’m sorry. I down with. You don’t have to put me down
didn’t mean that the way it sounded. I know with lies.
you’re not a witch.
MRS. BAKER You know what I like about
MRS. BAKER Of course not. And I know you?
you’re not Snow White.
JILL Uh-huh. Nothing.
JILL (Takes the apple, rises, crosses below
MRS. BAKER Oh yes. I like your honesty . . .
MRS. BAKER, through kitchen to D.L. post)
your candor. You’re really quite a worldly
I may have to wait hours before I read. I’ll
young woman, aren’t you, Mrs. Benson?
probably starve to death before their eyes.
JILL I suppose I am. (Crosses above “pic-
MRS. BAKER (Crosses to kitchen, takes let-
nic,” away from MRS. BAKER) I wish you
tuce, picks off a few pieces, washes them,
wouldn’t call me Mrs. Benson.
puts them on plate) You’re going to get that
part, you know. MRS. BAKER Isn’t that your name . . . Mrs.
Benson?
JILL What makes you so sure?
JILL But you don’t say it as though you
MRS. BAKER Well, you’re a very pretty girl
mean it.
and that’s what they want in the theatre,
isn’t it? MRS. BAKER I’m sorry. Why don’t I call
you Jill? That’s more friendly . . . and I’ll try
JILL (Crosses below to D.R. post, away
to say it as though I mean it. Now, Jill. (JILL—
from MRS. BAKER) Today you have to have
R. turn, back to audience) . . .
more than a pretty face. Anyway, I’m not

188
Scenes and Monologues

MRS. BAKER I was interested in seeing though I mean it?
what you and Donny might have in common.
JILL He hates being called Donny.
He likes you very much.
MRS. BAKER (Crosses to sofa, pillows at
JILL (Crosses U. end of coffee table) And
each end, crosses to counter, puts cloth on it)
I like him very much. He may very well be
He’s never mentioned it.
the most beautiful person I’ve ever met. Just
imagine going through life never seeing any- JILL Of course, he has. (Crosses off platform
thing . . . not a painting . . . or a flower . . . or to D. end of sofa) You just didn’t listen. There
even a Christmas card. I’d want to die, but are none so deaf as those who will not hear.
Don wants to live. I mean really live . . . You could make up a lot of those, couldn’t
(Crosses onto platform to above table) and he you? There are none so lame as those who
can even kid about it. He’s fantastic. will not walk. None so thin as those who will
not eat . . .
MRS. BAKER Then you would want what’s
best for him, wouldn’t you? MRS. BAKER (Crosses off platform to U.C.)
Do you think it’s a good idea for Donny to
JILL (Crosses U.S. end of coffee table) Now,
live down here alone?
we’re getting to it, aren’t we? Like maybe
I should tell him to go home with you. Is JILL I think it’s a good idea for Don to live
that it? wherever he wants to . . . and he’s not alone.
I’m here.
MRS. BAKER Donny was happy at home
until Linda Fletcher filled him with ideas MRS. BAKER (Crosses U. end of coffee
about a place of his own. table) For how long? Have you got a lease on
that apartment?
JILL (Crosses through kitchen to above
table) Maybe you just want to believe that he JILL No.
can only be happy with you, Mrs. Baker. Well,
MRS. BAKER So, you can leave tomorrow if
there are none so blind as those who will not
you felt like it.
see. (Crosses D.L. post) There. I can quote
Dylan Thomas AND Little Donny Dark. JILL That’s right.
MRS. BAKER (Rises, takes lettuce to MRS. BAKER You couldn’t sustain a mar-
counter) You constantly astonish me. riage for more than six days, could you?
JILL Well . . . we women of the world JILL (Upset. Crosses D.R.) My marriage
do that. doesn’t concern you.
MRS. BAKER (Crosses to “picnic,” picks up MRS. BAKER It didn’t concern you much,
pillows and cloth, folds cloth) Funny how either, did it?
like Linda you are. Donny is certainly consis-
JILL Yes, it did!
tent with his girls.
MRS. BAKER (Crosses above director’s
JILL Why do you call him Donny?
chair) Have you thought about what marriage
MRS. BAKER It’s his name. Don’t I say it as to a blind boy might be like? . . . You’ve seen

Scenes for Two Women
189

Donny at his best—in this room, which he’s was Linda Fletcher—not you— (MRS. BAKER
memorized . . . and he’s memorized how turns and looks at JILL slowly.) who gave him
many steps to the drugstore and to the deli- the thing he needed most—confidence in him-
catessen . . . but take him out of this room self. (Crossing away L.) You’re always
or off this street and he’s lost . . . he panics. dwelling on the negative—always what he
Donny needs someone who will stay with needs, never what he wants . . . always what
him—and not just for six days. he can’t do, never what he can. (Crosses D.
end of sofa) What about his music? Have you
JILL You can stop worrying, Mrs. Baker.
ever heard the song he wrote? I’ll bet you didn’t
Nothing serious will develop between Don
even know he could write songs! (Crosses
and me. I’m not built that way.
above table) You’re probably dead right about
MRS. BAKER But Donny is built that way. me. I’m not the ideal girl for Don, but I know
one thing—neither are you!! And if I’m going
JILL Oh, please—we’re just having kicks.
to tell anyone to go home, it’ll be you, Mrs.
MRS. BAKER Kicks! That’s how it started Baker. YOU go home!! (Turns and exits into
with Linda—just kicks . . . but Donny fell in her apartment, closing door behind her. MRS.
love with her . . . and he’ll fall in love with BAKER watches her go.)
you. Then what happens?
JILL (Crosses below to D. end of sofa) I

don’t know!!
MRS. BAKER (Crosses U. end of sofa) Then Romeo and Juliet
don’t let it go that far. Stop now before you by William Shakespeare (1595–6)
hurt him.
JILL What about you? Aren’t you hurting Characters: JULIET—Juliet is a young aristo-
him? crat who is romantic, stubborn, and indepen-
dent. She and Romeo have just been secretly
MRS. BAKER I can’t. I can only irritate him. married by Friar Laurence, and she is waiting to
You can hurt him. The longer you stay the hear when Romeo will arrive.
harder it will be for him when you leave. Let NURSE—An elderly woman, the nurse is a
him come with me and you go have your cross between Juliet’s nanny and a doting
kicks with someone who won’t feel them grandparent.
after you’ve gone!!
Situation: In this scene, the nurse arrives with
JILL I’m not so sure you can’t hurt him. the rope that Romeo was to use to climb to
Maybe more than anybody. (Crosses above Juliet’s room, but Romeo has just killed Juliet’s
table) I think you deserve all the credit you cousin Tybalt and has been banished from the
can get for turning out a pretty marvelous city. The nurse is upset, and Juliet has trouble
guy—but bringing up a son—even a blind understanding what has happened.
one—isn’t a lifetime occupation. (MRS.
JULIET O, here comes my nurse,
BAKER turns U., away from JILL.) Now the
And she brings news; and every tongue that
more you help him, the more you hurt him. It
speaks

190
Scenes and Monologues

But Romeo’s name speaks heavenly eloquence. Vile earth, to earth resign; end motion here;
(NURSE enters with cords.) And thou and Romeo press one heavy bier!
JULIET Now, nurse what news? What has NURSE O Tybalt! Tybalt, the best friend I
thou there? the cords had!
That Romeo bid thee fetch? O courteous Tybalt! honest gentleman!
That ever I should live to see thee dead!
NURSE (Throwing them down) Ay, ay, the
cords. JULIET What storm is this that blows so
contrary?
JULIET Ay me! what news? why dost thou
Is Romeo slaughter’d, and is Tybalt dead?
wring thy hands?
My dear-loved cousin, and my dearer lord?
NURSE Ay, well-a-day! he’s dead, he’s dead, Then, dreadful trumpet, sound the general
he’s dead. doom!
We are undone, lady, we are undone! For who is living, if those two are gone?
Alack the day! he’s gone, he’s kill’d, he’s dead!
NURSE Tybalt is gone, and Romeo ban-
JULIET Can heaven be so envious? ished;
Romeo that kill’d him, he is banished.
NURSE Romeo can,
Though heaven cannot: O Romeo, Romeo! JULIET O God! did Romeo’s hand shed
Who ever would have thought it? Romeo! Tybalt’s blood?
JULIET What devil art thou, that dost tor- NURSE It did, it did; alas the day, it did!
ment me thus?
JULIET O serpent heart, hid with a flower-
This torture should be roar’d in dismal hell.
ing face!
Hath Romeo slain himself? say thou but ‘I,’
Did ever dragon keep so fair a cave?
And that bare vowel ‘I’ shall poison more
Beautiful tyrant! fiend angelical!
Than the death-darting eye of cockatrice:
Dove-feather’d raven! wolvish-ravening lamb!
I am not I, if there be such an I;
Despised substance of divinest show!
Or those eyes shut, that make thee answer ‘I.’
Just opposite to what thou justly seem’st,
If he be slain, say ‘I’; or if not, no:
A damned saint, an honourable villain!
Brief sounds determine of my weal or woe.
O nature, what hadst thou to do in hell,
NURSE I saw the wound, I saw it with mine When thou didst bower the spirit of a fiend
eyes,— In mortal paradise of such sweet flesh?
God save the mark!—here on his manly Was ever book containing such vile matter
breast: So fairly bound? O, that deceit should dwell
A piteous corse, a bloody piteous corse; In such a gorgeous palace!
Pale, pale as ashes, all bedaub’d in blood,
NURSE There’s no trust,
All in gore-blood: I swounded at the sight.
No faith, no honesty in men; all perjured,
JULIET O, break, my heart! poor bankrupt, All forsworn, all naught, all dissemblers.
break at once! Ah, where’s my man? give me some aqua
To prison, eyes, ne’er look on liberty! vitae:

Scenes for Two Women
191

These griefs, these woes, these sorrows make Was woe enough, if it had ended there:
me old. Or, if sour woe delights in fellowship
Shame come to Romeo! And needly will be rank’d with other griefs,
Why follow’d not, when she said ‘Tybalt’s
JULIET Blister’d be thy tongue
dead,’
For such a wish! he was not born to shame:
Thy father, or thy mother, nay, or both,
Upon his brow shame is ashamed to sit;
Which modern lamentation might have
For ‘tis a throne where honour may be
moved?
crown’d
But with a rearward following Tybalt’s death,
Sole monarch of the universal earth.
‘Romeo is banished,’ to speak that word,
O, what a beast was I to chide at him!
If father, mother, Tybalt, Romeo, Juliet,
NURSE Will you speak well of him that All slain, all dead. ‘Romeo is banished!’
kill’d your cousin? There is no end, no limit, measure, bound,
In that word’s death; not words can that woe
JULIET Shall I speak ill of him that is my
sound.
husband?
Where is my father, and my mother, nurse?
Ah, poor my lord, what tongue shall smooth
thy name, NURSE Weeping and wailing over Tybalt’s
When I, thy three-hours wife, have corse:
mangled it? Will you go to them? I will bring you thither.
But, wherefore, villain, didst thou kill my
JULIET Wash they his wounds with tears:
cousin?
mine shall be spent
That villain cousin would have kill’d my
When theirs are dry, for Romeo’s banishment.
husband:
Take up those cords: poor ropes, you are
Back, foolish tears, back to your native spring;
beguiled,
Your tributary drops belong to woe,
Both you and I; for Romeo is exiled:
Which you, mistaking, offer up to joy.
He made you for a highway to my bed;
My husband lives, that Tybalt would have
But I, a maid, die maiden-widowed.
slain;
Come, cords, come, nurse: I’ll to my wedding-
And Tybalt’s dead, that would have slain my
bed;
husband:
And death, not Romeo, take my maidenhead!
All this is comfort; wherefore weep I then?
Some word there was, worser than Tybalt’s NURSE Hie to your chamber: I’ll find
death, Romeo
That murder’d me: I would forget it fain; To comfort you: I wot well where he is.
But, O, it presses to my memory, Hark ye, your Romeo will be here at night:
Like damned guilty deeds to sinners’ minds: I’ll to him; he is hid at Laurence’ cell.
‘Tybalt is dead, and Romeo—banished;’
JULIET O, find him! give this ring to my
That ‘banished,’ that one word ‘banished’
true knight,
Hath slain ten thousand Tybalts. Tybalt’s
And bid him come to take his last farewell.
death

192
Scenes and Monologues



tonight was true, Kate. I wish to God you said
Brighton Beach Memoirs it years ago.
by Neil Simon (1982) KATE What would I do without you? Who
else do I have to talk to all day? What friends
Characters: KATE—Kate is about forty. She is do I have in this neighborhood? Even the
a very generous woman who is also outspoken Murphys across the street are leaving.
on occasion. She has few friends.
BLANCHE—She is a thirty-eight-year-old widow BLANCHE You and I never had any troubles
and Kate’s sister. She and her two daughters live before tonight, Kate. . . . It’s the girls I’m
with Kate and her family. thinking of now. We have to be together. The
three of us. It’s what they want as much as
Situation: The play is set in September 1937 in
I do.
a house close to Brighton Beach in Brooklyn,
New York. It is an ethnically diverse, lower- KATE Alright. I’m not saying you shouldn’t
middle-class area. Kate and Blanche have had have it. But you’re not going to find a job
an argument over household expenses, and overnight. Apartments are expensive. While
Blanche has decided to move elsewhere with her you’re looking, why do you have to live with
girls. This scene takes place a couple of hours strangers in Manhattan Beach?
after their argument.
BLANCHE Louise isn’t a stranger. She’s a
KATE Is she alright? good friend.
BLANCHE Yes. KATE To me good friends are strangers. But
sisters are sisters.
KATE She’s not angry anymore?
BLANCHE I’m afraid of becoming comfort-
BLANCHE No, Kate. No one’s angry any-
able here. I don’t get out now, when will I
more. I just explained everything to Nora. The
ever do it?
girls will help you with all the housework
while I’m gone. Laurie’s strong enough to do KATE The door is open. Go whenever you
her share. I’ve kept her being a baby long want. When you got the job, when you find
enough. the apartment, I’ll help you move. I can look
with you. I know how to bargain with these
KATE They’ve never been any trouble to
landlords.
me, those girls. Never.
BLANCHE (Smiles) You wouldn’t mind
BLANCHE I’ll try to take them on the
doing that?
weekends if I can . . . It’s late. We could both
use a good night’s sleep. (She starts out of KATE They see a woman all alone, they take
the room.) advantage of you . . . I’ll find out what they’re
asking for the Murphy place. It couldn’t be
KATE Blanche! . . . Don’t go! (BLANCHE
expensive, she never cleaned it.
stops.) I feel badly enough for what I said.
Don’t make me feel any worse. BLANCHE How independent can I become
if I live right across the street from you?
BLANCHE Everything you said to me

Scenes for Two Women
193

KATE Far enough away for you to close your Daisy enters a contemplative mood.
own door, and close enough for me not to feel
DAISY I feel so ugly, Nana.
so lonely. (BLANCHE looks at her with great
warmth, crosses to KATE and embraces her. NANA (Sitting down beside her) What are
They hold on dearly.) you talking about? You’re a beautiful girl.

BLANCHE If I lived on the moon, you DAISY I know what I look like.
would still be close to me, Kate.
NANA Silly Daisy.
KATE I’ll tell Jack. He wouldn’t go to sleep
DAISY Don’t call me that. I hate that name.
until I promised to come up with some good
news. NANA It’s a beautiful name. A beautiful
flower. A flower that grows in the wild.
BLANCHE I suddenly feel so hungry.
DAISY He loves me, he loves me not, he
KATE Of course. You haven’t had dinner.
loves me, he loves me not. And all that’s left
Come on. I’ll fix you some scrambled eggs.
is that horrible little thing in the middle. It’s
BLANCHE I’ll make them. I’m an indepen- ugly—a daisy with all its petals gone.
dent woman now.
NANA It’s a survivor. That’s what I always
KATE With your eyes, you’ll never get the felt. A yellow sun. A yellow star. (There is a
eggs in the pan. long pause.)
DAISY (Quietly) Nana, let me see. (Very
soft) Let me see it, Nana. Show it to me.

(Slowly, NANA pulls back her sleeve, holds

out her arm.) Remember when I was little
I Love You, I Love You Not and I asked you?
by Wendy Kesselman (1988)
NANA You were so tiny. Not even three.
“What’s that?” you said. (Imitating DAISY at
Characters: DAISY—Daisy is a typical adoles-
three) “What’s that, Nana?” (She laughs
cent who is on a roller coaster of emotions. She
softly.) And month after month, year after
is insecure, and Nana is the one person with
year went by, and it was always, “Nana, what
whom she feels she can freely express herself.
is that? Why do you wear that? Why do you
NANA—(pronounced Nahnah) Daisy’s grand-
have that on your arm?” (She pauses.) And
mother, Nana is a survivor of the Holocaust. She
then one day, I was putting some dishes up on
understands the mood swings Daisy is going
the shelf, when I felt those huge eyes staring
through, and she always provides a listening ear
at me. And I heard, “Nana—”
and unconditional love.
Situation: This play is set in the present in a DAISY (Breaking in. Slowly) “Are you sure
country house, where Daisy is visiting Nana for you didn’t do anything wrong to make them
the weekend. Daisy’s parents will be picking her do that to you?” (She leans closer and
up shortly. It has been an emotional visit. In this touches NANA’S arm. Quietly reading the
scene, the conversation turns more reflective as number out loud.) A. A is for Auschwitz.

194
Scenes and Monologues



knees, and I seen two women, and three
Riders to the Sea women, and four women coming in, and they
by John M. Synge (1904) crossing themselves, and not saying a word. I
looked out then, and there were men coming
Characters: MAURYA—An old woman of the after them, and they holding a thing in the half
Irish peasant class whose family have always of a red sail, and water dripping out of it—it
been fishers, Maurya lives in a cottage on an was a dry day, Nora—and leaving a track to
island off the west coast of Ireland. the door. . . . (. . . men carry in the body of
NORA—Maurya's daughter, she is a teenager. To Bartley, laid on a plank, with a bit of sail
play her takes a focus on silent but eloquent over it, and lay it on the table.) . . . They're
sorrow and sympathy, for she has but one all gone now, and there isn't anything more
speech. the sea can do to me . . . I'll have no call now
to be up crying and praying when the wind
Situation: Maurya's son Michael has recently
breaks from the south, and you can hear the
died at sea, as have all of the men in Maurya's
surf is in the east, and the surf is in the west,
life. Now Bartley, her only surviving son, has
making a great stir with the two noises, and
insisted on sailing to the mainland in bad
they hitting one on the other. I'll have no call
weather to sell two horses. Pursuing Bartley to
now to be going down and getting Holy Water
the shore, Maurya sees the image of Michael
in the dark nights after Samhain, and I won't
riding one of the horses. Upset, she returns to
care what way the sea is when the other
the house, fearing the worst for Bartley.
women will be keening. Give me the Holy
MAURYA (In a low voice, but clearly) . . . Water, Nora, there's a small sup still on the
Bartley will be lost now, and let you call in dresser. (Nora gives it to her.)
Eamon and make me a good coffin out of the
MAURYA (Drops Michael's clothes across
white boards, for I won't live after them. I’ve
Bartley's feet, and sprinkles the Holy Water
had a husband, and a husband's father, and six
over him) It isn't that I haven't prayed for
sons in this house—six fine men, though it
you, Bartley, to the Almighty God. It isn't
was a hard birth I had with every one of them
that I haven't said prayers in the dark night
and they coming to the world—and some of
till you wouldn't know what I’d be saying;
them were found and some of them were not
but it's a great rest I'll have now, and it's time
found, but they're gone now the lot of them.
surely. It's a great rest I'll have now, and great
. . . There were Stephen, and Shawn, were
sleeping in the long nights after Samhain, if
lost in the great wind, and found after in the
it's only a bit of wet flour we do have to eat,
Bay of Gregory of the Golden Mouth, and
and maybe a fish that would be stinking. (She
carried up the two of them on the one plank,
kneels down again, crossing herself and say-
and in by that door. . . . There was Sheamus
ing prayers under her breath.) . . .
and his father, and his own father again, were
lost in a dark night, and not a stick or sign NORA (In a whisper . . . ) She's quiet now
was seen of them when the sun went up. and easy; but the day Michael was drowned
There was Patch after was drowned out of a you could hear her crying out from this to the
curagh that turned over. I was sitting here spring well. It's fonder she was of Michael,
with Bartley, and he a baby, lying on my two and would anyone have thought that? . . .
Scenes for Two Women
195
MAURYA (Puts the empty cup mouth ball helmet for her own protection. Nell is
downwards on the table, and lays her hands allowing Louise’s medicine to wear off a little so
together on Bartley's feet) They're all together that Louise will be able to communicate with
this time, and the end is come. May the Billie, who is coming to visit. As the numbing
Almighty God have mercy on Bartley's soul, effects of the medicine diminish, Louise
and on Michael's soul, and on the souls of responds to Nell’s reminiscence with haiku,
Sheamus and Patch, and Stephen and Shawn which Nell records.
(Bending her head); and may He have mercy
NELL You were born in early winter. John
on my soul, Nora, and on the soul of every
and I planned it that way. I couldn’t imagine
one left living in the world. . . . Michael has a
having a baby in the summertime. It gets so
clean burial in the far north, by the grace of
sticky in August, humid. A breech baby. You
the Almighty God. Bartley will have a fine
tried to back into the world. I remember, the
coffin out of the white boards, and a deep
doctor had to pull you out. It was night when
grave surely. What more can we want than
they finally brought you to me.
that? No man at all can be living for ever, and
we must be satisfied. (She kneels down again LOUISE November evening.
and the curtain falls slowly.) Blackbirds scull across the moon.
My breath warms my hands.
(Nell writes haiku, then checks what she has

written, holding the paper two inches from

her eyes.)

Haiku NELL John said you were too beautiful to

by Katherine Snodgrass (1988) live. It was true. You and Bebe together, you
were like china dolls. Delicate, perfect. And
Characters: NELL—In her fifties, Nell is a then . . . I sensed it that day when I saw
widow with two daughters, Billie (the older) and you through the window. Billie was on the
Louise (the younger). She is losing her eyesight. swingset, and you were there. Outside. She
LOUISE—Louise, in her twenties, lives at home was in red, and you had on that blue jumpsuit,
with her mother, because of a serious mental the corduroy one with the zipper. The ball lay
condition that makes her incapable of coping beside you and that Mama doll that winked.
with reality. Her behavior is violent and destruc- You were so quiet. You’d stared before, of
tive when not controlled by medicine. However, course, when something fascinated you, as all
the medicine hinders her ability to think. She children do when they . . . as all children do.
often communicates by haiku—a verse form But this time, you were . . . different. I called
that requires seventeen syllables. for you to come inside. Lulu, come inside and
Situation: The scene takes place in the living have some lunch! But you didn’t hear me.
room. Nell has a noticeable bruise on her wrist, Bebe, bring Lulu and come inside! I went out
and Louise has a bandage on her forehead, then. I had to get down on my knees beside
both injuries apparently caused by one of you. I touched your hair and then your face.
Louise’s violent rages. Louise is wearing a foot- I held up that Mama-doll, but you stared

196
Scenes and Monologues

through it in a way that . . . Funny, I don’t Indian dance.” (Louise joins in.) “All of them
remember being afraid. I remember the look Indians, all of them Indians dance around
on Bebe’s face. Lulu’s tent.” (Like a drum) “Here come a
Lulu! Here come a Lulu! Here come a Lulu!”
LOUISE Chainmetal swings clanging
(They laugh, remembering.)
In the empty school yard.
Silent summer rain. LOUISE Icy branches bend,
Breaking over stones.
(Nell writes haiku. She goes through same
I hear my dead father laugh.
process as before.)
NELL Do you know, I used to cry when

school ended? It’s true! I used to cry on the
last day of school every year. My mother
thought I was crazy. I’d come dragging my
On Golden Pond
book bag over the fields, my face all wet.
by Ernest Thompson (1979)
And my momma! . . . Nellie, she’d say . . .
LOUISE Nellie, she’d say . . . (Nell looks Characters: ETHEL—Ethel Thayer, Chelsea’s
sharply at Louise.) You’re the strangest girl I mother, is an intelligent, sixty-nine-year-old,
ever did see! middle-class American.
CHELSEA—Chelsea is forty-two, athletic-looking,
NELL Yes, that’s what she said. Are you
and tanned. She is a nervous type with a dark
tired?
sense of humor. She has had an unhappy child-
LOUISE No, no. Tell me again about John. hood and is divorced.
NELL You look tired. Situation: It is early morning in August at the
Thayers’ summer lakeside home in Maine.
LOUISE Please. You haven’t talked about Chelsea’s friend Bill has a thirteen-year-old son,
John in a long time. Billy, who has been staying with Chelsea’s par-
NELL John. All right then. John was tall and ents while she and Bill traveled to Europe.
thin like Icabod Crane, only not so scared. Chelsea has come to take Billy home.

LOUISE John wasn’t scared of anything. ETHEL How’d you get here?

NELL He wasn’t scared of anything, not CHELSEA I rented a car. A Volare. It’s made
John. He had a big, strong jaw and a tuft of by Plymouth. I got it from Avis. (She walks to
yellow hair that stood up on his head, as ETHEL. They embrace.) They do try hard.
yellow . . . ETHEL You’re not supposed to come till the
LOUISE . . . as Mr. Turner’s daffodils. fifteenth.

NELL At least. And he would take you on CHELSEA Today’s the fifteenth.
his knee. Do you remember the song he used ETHEL No!
to sing? (Nell clears her throat and sings.)
“Here come a Lulu! Here come a Lulu to the CHELSEA ‘Fraid so.

Scenes for Two Women
197

ETHEL Well. No wonder you’re here. ETHEL (Enters) I’ve got the perker going.
See the boys?
CHELSEA Still have the kid or did you
drown him? CHELSEA Yes. What are they doing out
there? It’s starting to rain.
ETHEL Still have him.
ETHEL Ah, well. I told Norman not to go.
CHELSEA Are he and Norman asleep?
The loons have been calling for it. I’m afraid
ETHEL You must be joking. They’re out on Norman doesn’t give them much credence.
the lake already, antagonizing the fish. Still
CHELSEA They’re going to get drenched.
have Bill or did you drown him?
ETHEL I think between the two of them
CHELSEA Still got him. But he’s not with
they have sense enough to come in out of the
me. He went back to the coast. He had a
rain. At least I hope they do.(A moment
mouth that needed looking into.
passes as they look out at the lake.) Isn’t it
ETHEL Oh. You must have left Boston at beautiful?
the crack of dawn.
CHELSEA (She nods and looks at ETHEL.)
CHELSEA I left Boston in the middle of the Look at you. You’ve had that robe for as long
night. I felt like driving. I didn’t feel like get- as I can remember.
ting lost, but it worked out that way.
ETHEL (She tries to arrange it.) It looks like
ETHEL If you’d come more often, you it, doesn’t it?
wouldn’t get lost.
CHELSEA It looks great.
CHELSEA You’re right. If I promise to come
(She stares at ETHEL. She steps to her and
more often will you give me a cup of coffee?
hugs her emphatically.)
ETHEL All right. I could do that. Yes. You
ETHEL You’re in a huggy mood today.
must have had a lovely time in Europe. You
What’s the matter?
look wonderful.
CHELSEA You seem different.
(She exits to the kitchen.)
ETHEL You mean old.
CHELSEA I do? I did. I had a lovely time.
(Peers out at the lake) CHELSEA I don’t know.
ETHEL (Offstage) I always thought Norman ETHEL Well, that’s what happens if you live
and I should travel, but we never got to it long enough. You end up being old. It’s one of
somehow. I’m not sure Norman would like the disadvantages of a long life. I still prefer it
Europe. to the alternative.
CHELSEA He wouldn’t like Italy. CHELSEA How does it really make you
feel?
ETHEL (Offstage) No?
ETHEL Not much different. A little more
CHELSEA Too many Italians.
aware of the sunrises, I guess. And the sunsets.

198
Scenes and Monologues

CHELSEA It makes me mad. CHELSEA Does Billy put the worm on the
hook by himself?
ETHEL Ah, well, it doesn’t exactly make
me want to jump up and down. ETHEL I’m really not sure.
(CHELSEA hugs ETHEL again.)
CHELSEA I hope so. You lose points if you
Oh, dear. They’re not digging the grave yet.
throw up, I remember that. I always apolo-
Come sit down. You must be exhausted.
gized to those nice worms before I impaled
(ETHEL sits. CHELSEA wanders.) them. Well, they’ll get even with me some-
day, won’t they?
CHELSEA Have Billy and Norman gotten
along all right? ETHEL You’re beginning to sound an awful
lot like your father.
ETHEL Billy is the happiest thing that’s hap-
pened to Norman since Roosevelt. I should CHELSEA Uh oh. (Changing direction)
have rented him a thirteen-year-old boy Thank you for taking care of Billy.
years ago.
ETHEL Thank you. I’m glad it gives us
CHELSEA You could have traded me in. another chance to see you. Plus, it’s been a
(ETHEL laughs.) Billy reminds me of myself tremendous education. Norman’s vocabulary
out there, way back when. Except I think he will never be the same but that’s all right.
makes a better son than I did.
ETHEL Well, you made a very nice daughter.

Scenes for Two Women
199

 SCENES
GRANDPA I don’t believe in it.
for Two Men HENDERSON Well—you own property,
don’t you?
GRANDPA Yes, sir.

HENDERSON And you receive a yearly
income from it?

You Can’t Take It with You GRANDPA I do.

by Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman (1936) HENDERSON Of—(He consults his
records.)—between three and four thousand
Characters: HENDERSON—Mr. Henderson is dollars.
employed by the Internal Revenue Service to
collect past-due taxes. GRANDPA About that.
GRANDPA—This is a man at peace with him- HENDERSON You’ve been receiving it for
self. Physically, he is a wiry little man of about years.
seventy-five years with a youthful face.
GRANDPA I have. 1901, if you want the
Situation: The action takes place in the
exact date.
Vanderhof home on the Upper West Side of
Manhattan. It is a house filled with family HENDERSON Well, the Government is
where anything goes. Grandpa Vanderhof only concerned from 1914 on. That’s when
has never filed an income tax return, and the income tax started. (Pause)
Henderson calls on Grandpa to collect the
GRANDPA Well?
past-due taxes.
HENDERSON Well—it seems, Mr.
HENDERSON (Pulling a sheaf of papers
Vanderhof, that you owe the Government
from his pocket) Now, Mr. Vanderhof, (A
twenty-four years’ back income tax. Now,
quick look toward hall) we’ve written you
Mr. Vanderhof, you know there’s quite a
several letters about this, but have not had
penalty for not filing an income tax return.
any reply.
GRANDPA Look, Mr. Henderson, let me
GRANDPA Oh, that’s what those letters
ask you something.
were.
HENDERSON Well?
[ESSIE (Sitting on couch R.) I told you they
were from the government.] GRANDPA Suppose I pay you this money—
mind you, I don’t say I’m going to pay it—but
HENDERSON According to our records,
just for the sake of argument—what’s the
Mr. Vanderhof, you have never paid an
Government going to do with it?
income tax.
HENDERSON How do you mean?
GRANDPA That’s right.
GRANDPA Well, what do I get for my
HENDERSON Why not?
money? If I go to Macy’s and buy something,

200
Scenes and Monologues

there it is—I see it. What’s the Government HENDERSON (Business of a look at
give me? GRANDPA. With murderous calm, crosses
and places his hands on table) There are
HENDERSON Why, the Government gives
forty-eight states—see? And if there weren’t
you everything. It protects you.
Interstate Commerce, nothing could go from
GRANDPA What from? one state to another. See?
HENDERSON Well—invasion. Foreigners GRANDPA Why not? They got fences?
that might come over here and take every-
HENDERSON (To GRANDPA) No, they
thing you’ve got.
haven’t got fences. They’ve got laws!
GRANDPA Oh, I don’t think they’re going (Crossing up to arch L.) My . . . , I never
to do that. came across anything like this before!
HENDERSON If you didn’t pay an income GRANDPA Well, I might pay about sev-
tax, they would. How do you think the enty-five dollars, but that’s all it’s worth.
Government keeps up the Army and Navy?
HENDERSON You’ll pay every cent of it,
All those battleships . . .
like everybody else! And let me tell you
GRANDPA Last time we used battleships something else! You’ll go to jail if you don’t
was in the Spanish-American War, and what pay, do you hear that? That’s the law, and if
did we get out of it? Cuba—and we gave that you think you’re bigger than the law, you’ve
back. I wouldn’t mind paying if it were some- got another think coming. You’re no better
thing sensible. than anybody else, and the sooner you get
that through your head, the better . . . you’ll
HENDERSON Sensible? Well, what about
hear from the United States Government,
Congress, and the Supreme Court, and the
that’s all I can say. . . (The music has
President? We’ve got to pay them, don’t we?
stopped. He is backing out of the room.)
GRANDPA Not with my money—no, sir.
GRANDPA (Quietly) Look out for those
HENDERSON (Furious. Rises, picks up snakes.
papers) Now wait a minute! I’m not here to
(HENDERSON, jumping, off L.)
argue with you. (Crossing L.) All I know is
that you haven’t paid an income tax and

you’ve got to pay it!

GRANDPA They’ve got to show me.
HENDERSON (Yelling) We don’t have to
No Time for Sergeants
by Ira Levin and Mac Hyman (1955)
show you! I just told you! All those buildings
down in Washington, and Interstate
Characters: WILL STOCKDALE—He is a pri-
Commerce, and the Constitution!
vate in the United States Army who has no
GRANDPA The Constitution was paid for idea that his observations are funny and per-
a long time ago. And Interstate Commerce— ceptive. He is naive, forthright, and sensible.
what is Interstate Commerce, anyhow? PSYCHIATRIST—He is a somewhat cartoonish

Scenes for Two Men
201

army psychiatrist who is too easily frustrated PSYCHIATRIST (Pause, staring) You don’t
and too quick to diagnose. mind if someone says something bad about
Situation: The action takes place on a U.S. Georgia?
Army base in 1955. Will’s unusual behavior has WILL I ain’t heared nobody say nothin’ bad
disrupted Army routine, so his sergeant has about Georgia.
sent him to the base psychiatrist with the hope
that grounds can be found for transferring Will PSYCHIATRIST What do you think I’ve
elsewhere. been saying?

[PSYCHIATRIST, a major, signs and stamps WILL Well, to tell you the truth, I ain’t
a paper before him, then takes form from been able to get too much sense out of it.
WILL, seated next to desk. PSYCHIATRIST Don’t you know?
looks at form, looks at WILL. A moment of PSYCHIATRIST Watch your step, young
silence] man. (Pause) We psychiatrists call this atti-
WILL I never have no dreams at all. tude of yours “resistance.”

PSYCHIATRIST (A pause. He looks care- WILL You do?

fully at WILL, looks at form.) Where you PSYCHIATRIST You sense that this inter-
from, Stockdale? view is a threat to your security. You feel
WILL Georgia. yourself in danger.

PSYCHIATRIST That’s . . . not much of a WILL Well, kind of I do. If’n I don’t get clas-
state, is it? sified Sergeant King won’t give me the wrist
watch. (PSYCHIATRIST stares at WILL
WILL Well . . . I don’t live all over the state. uncomprehendingly.) He won’t! He said I
I just live in this one little place in it. only gets it if I’m classified inside a week.
PSYCHIATRIST That’s where “Tobacco PSYCHIATRIST (Turns forlornly to papers
Road” is, Georgia. on desk. A bit subdued) You get along all
WILL Not around my section. (Pause) right with your mother?
Maybe you’re from a different part than me? WILL No, sir, I can’t hardly say that I do—
PSYCHIATRIST I’ve never been there. PSYCHIATRIST (Cutting in) She’s very
What’s more I don’t think I would ever want strict? Always hovering over you?
to go there. What’s your reaction to that?
WILL No, sir, just the opposite—
WILL Well, I don’t know.
PSYCHIATRIST She’s never there.
PSYCHIATRIST I think I would sooner
live in the rottenest pigsty in Alabama or WILL That’s right.
Tennessee than in the fanciest mansion in all PSYCHIATRIST You resent this neglect,
of Georgia. What about that? don’t you?
WILL Well, sir, I think where you want to
live is your business.
202
Scenes and Monologues
WILL No, I don’t resent nothin’. will only talk about what I want to talk
about, do you understand?
PSYCHIATRIST (Leaning forward pater-
nally) There’s nothing to be ashamed of, WILL Yes, sir.
son. It’s a common situation. Does she ever
PSYCHIATRIST Now then—your father.
beat you?
(Quickly) Living?
WILL No!
WILL Yes, sir.
PSYCHIATRIST (Silkily) So defensive. It’s
PSYCHIATRIST Do you get along with
not easy to talk about your mother, is it.
him okay?
WILL No, sir. She died when I was borned.
WILL Yes, sir.
PSYCHIATRIST (A long, sick pause) You
PSYCHIATRIST Does he ever beat you?
. . . could have told me that sooner . . .
WILL You bet!
WILL (Looks hang-dog. PSYCHIATRIST
returns to papers. WILL glances up at him.) PSYCHIATRIST Hard?
Do you hate your mama? (PSYCHIATRIST’S
WILL And how! Boy, there ain’t nobody can
head snaps up, glaring.) I figgered as how you
beat like my Pa can!
said it was so common . . .
PSYCHIATRIST (Beaming) So this is
PSYCHIATRIST I do not hate my mother.
where the antagonism comes from! (Pause)
WILL I should hope not! (Pause) What, You hate your father, don’t you?
does she beat you or somethin’?
WILL No . . . I got an uncle I hate! Every
PSYCHIATRIST (Glares again, drums his time he comes out to the house he’s always
fingers briefly on table. Steeling himself, wantin’ to rassle with the mule, and the
more to self than WILL) This is a transfer- mule gets all wore out, and he gets all wore
ence. You’re taking all your stored up antago- out . . . Well, I don’t really hate him; I just
nisms and loosing them in my direction. ain’t exactly partial to him.
Transference. It happens every day . . . .
PSYCHIATRIST (Pause) Did I ask you
WILL (Excited) It does? To the Infantry? about your uncle?
PSYCHIATRIST (Aghast) The Infantry? WILL I thought you wanted to talk about
hatin’ people.
WILL You give Ben a transfer, I wish you’d
give me one too. I’d sure love to go along PSYCHIATRIST (Glares, drums his fingers,
with him. retreats to form. Barely audible) Now—girls.
How do you like girls?
PSYCHIATRIST Stop! (The pause is a long
one this time. Finally PSYCHIATRIST points WILL What girls is that, sir?
at papers.) There are a few more topics we
PSYCHIATRIST Just girls. Just any girls.
have to cover. We will not talk about trans-
fers, we will not talk about my mother. We WILL Well, I don’t like just any girls.

Scenes for Two Men
203

There’s one old girl back home that ain’t got to the barracks some night. The younger fel-
hair no longer than a hounddog’s and she’s lows there is always tellin’ spicy stories and
always— all like that.
PSYCHIATRIST No! Look, when I say girls
I don’t mean any one specific girl. I mean

girls in general; women, sex! Didn’t that
father of yours ever sit down and have a talk
with you? Dial M for Murder
by Frederick Knott (1952)
WILL Sure he did.
PSYCHIATRIST Well? Characters: MAX—Max is a friend of Tony’s
wife, Margot. He is a writer of mysteries and
WILL Well what?
has a vivid imagination.
PSYCHIATRIST What did he say? TONY—Tony is a former professional tennis
player who married Margot for her money.
WILL (With a snicker) Well, there was this
one about these two travelin’ salesmen that Situation: Tony wanted to inherit his wife’s
their car breaks down in the middle of this money, so he persuaded an old college friend,
terrible storm— Swann, to murder her. Instead, Margot killed
Swann in self-defense. She was convicted of
PSYCHIATRIST Stop! Swann’s murder and sentenced to death. Max
WILL —so they stop at this farmhouse has a plan to free Margot, but it requires Tony’s
where the farmer has fourteen daughters who help.
was— MAX Tony, I take it you’d do anything—to
PSYCHIATRIST Stop! save her life?

WILL You heared it already? TONY (Surprised) Of course.

PSYCHIATRIST (Writing furiously on MAX Even if it meant going to prison for

form) No, I did not hear it already . . . several years?

WILL Well, what did you stop me for? It’s a TONY (After a pause) I’d do absolutely
real knee-slapper. You see, the fourteen anything.
daughters is all studyin’ to be trombone play- MAX I think you can—I’m certain. (Slowly)
ers and— If you tell the police exactly the right story.
PSYCHIATRIST (Shoving form at WILL) TONY The right story?
Here. Go. Good-by. You’re through. You’re
normal. Good-by. Go. Go. MAX Listen, Tony. I’ve been working this
out for weeks. Just in case it came to this. It
WILL (Takes the form and stands, a bit may be her only chance.
confused by it all) Sir, if girls is what you
want to talk about, you ought to come down TONY Let’s have it.

204
Scenes and Monologues

MAX You’ll have to tell the police that lesson.
you hired Swann to murder her. (Long pause.
TONY But I can’t say that I wrote those
TONY can only stare at MAX.)
blackmail notes.
TONY (Rises) What are you talking about?
MAX Why not? No one can prove that you
MAX It’s all right, Tony—I’ve been writing didn’t. (TONY thinks it over.)
this stuff for years. I know what I’m doing.
TONY All right. I stole her bag and black-
Margot was convicted because no one would
mailed her. What else?
believe her story. Prosecution made out that
she was telling one lie after another—and the MAX You kept my letter and planted it on
jury believed him. But what did this case Swann after he’d been killed.
amount to? Only three things. My letter—her
TONY Wait a minute—when could I have
stocking, and the idea that, because no key
done that?
was found on Swann, she must have let him
in herself. (Pause) Now Swann is dead. You MAX After you got back from the party
can tell any story you like about him. You and before the police arrived. At the same
can say that you did know him. That you’d time you took one of Margot’s stockings from
met him, and worked out the whole thing the mending basket and substituted it for
together. Now the blackmail. Swann was whatever Swann had used. (TONY thinks
only suspected of blackmail for two reasons. it over.)
Because my letter was found in his pocket
TONY Max, I know you’re trying to help
and because you saw him the day Margot’s
but—can you imagine anyone believing this?
bag was stolen.
MAX You’ve got to make them believe it.
TONY Well?
TONY But I wouldn’t know what to say.
MAX You can now tell the police that you
You’d have to come with me.
never saw him at Victoria. That the whole
thing was an invention of yours to try and MAX No. I couldn’t do that. They know
connect him with the letter. the sort of stuff I write. If they suspected
we’d talked this out they wouldn’t even lis-
TONY But the letter was found in his
ten. They mustn’t know I’ve been here.
pocket.
TONY Max! It’s ridiculous. Why should I
MAX Because you put it there.
want anyone to murder Margot?
TONY (Pause) You mean I should pretend
MAX Oh, one of the stock motives. Had
that I stole her handbag?
Margot made a will? (Pause)
MAX Sure. You could have.
TONY I—yes, I believe she had.
TONY But why?
MAX Are you the main beneficiary?
MAX Because you wanted to find out who
TONY I suppose so.
was writing to her. When you read my letter
you were so mad you decided to teach her a MAX Well, there you are.

Scenes for Two Men
205

TONY But thousands of husbands and ALGERNON My dear fellow, Gwendolen is
wives leave money to each other, without my first cousin; and before I allow you to
murdering each other. The police wouldn’t marry her, you will have to clear up the
believe a word of it! They’d take it for exactly whole question of Cecily.
what it is. A husband desperately trying to
JACK Cecily! What on earth do you mean?
save his wife.
What do you mean, Algy, by Cecily! I don’t
MAX Well, it’s worth a try. They can’t hang know anyone by the name of Cecily.
you for planning a murder that never came
ALGERNON (To butler) Bring me that ciga-
off. Face it. The most you’d get would be a
rette case Mr. Worthing left in the smoking-
few years in prison.
room the last time he dined here.
TONY Thanks very much.
JACK Do you mean to say you have had
MAX . . . And you’d have saved her life. my cigarette case all this time? I wish to
That doesn’t seem too big a price. goodness you had let me know. I have been
writing frantic letters to Scotland Yard about
it. I was very nearly offering a large reward.

ALGERNON Well, I wish you would

offer one. I happen to be more than usually
The Importance hard up.
of Being Earnest JACK There is no good offering a large
by Oscar Wilde (1895)
reward now that the thing is found.
Characters: ALGERNON—A fashionable ALGERNON (Taking case from butler) I
member of the British upper class, Algernon think it rather mean of you, Ernest, I must
occupies himself dining with friends, attending say. However, it makes no matter, for now
plays and operas, and avoiding his tailor and that I look at the inscription inside, I find
hatter, whose bills he never pays. that the thing isn’t yours after all.
JACK—Known to Algernon as Ernest, Jack is
JACK Of course it is mine. You have seen
unable to keep his private affairs to himself in
me with it a hundred times, and you have no
the face of Algernon’s probing curiosity.
right whatsoever to read what is written
Situation: This play, Oscar Wilde’s master- inside. It is a very ungentlemanly thing to
piece, is partly high comedy and partly farce. read a private cigarette case.
To satirize the shallow attitudes of the British
aristocracy during the reign of Queen Victoria, ALGERNON Yes, but this is not your ciga-
Wilde created characters who take themselves rette case. This cigarette case is a present
seriously even though the audience sees how from someone of the name of Cecily, and you
trivial their interests are. In this scene Algernon said you didn’t know anyone of that name.
begins to unravel Jack’s secret: he has been JACK Well, if you want to know, Cecily
maintaining two identities. happens to be my aunt.
ALGERNON Your aunt!

206
Scenes and Monologues

JACK Yes. Charming old lady she is, too. JACK Well, my name is Ernest in town and
Lives at Tunbridge Wells. Just give it back to Jack in the country, and the cigarette case
me, Algy. was given to me in the country.
ALGERNON But why does she call herself ALGERNON Yes, but that does not
little Cecily if she is your aunt and lives at account for the fact that your small Aunt
Tunbridge Wells? “From little Cecily with Cecily, who lives in Tunbridge Wells, calls
her fondest love.” you her dear uncle. Come, old boy, you had
much better have the thing out at once.
JACK My dear fellow, what on earth is
there in that? Some aunts are tall, some JACK My dear Algy, you talk exactly as if
aunts are not tall. That is a matter that you were a dentist. It is very vulgar to talk
surely an aunt may be allowed to decide for like a dentist when one isn’t a dentist. It pro-
herself. You seem to think that every aunt duces a false impression.
should be exactly like your aunt! That is
ALGERNON Well, that is exactly what
absurd! For Heaven’s sake give me back my
dentists always do. Now, go on! Tell me the
cigarette case.
whole thing.
ALGERNON Yes. But why does your aunt
JACK —Well, old Mr. Thomas Cardew,
call you her uncle? “From little Cecily, with
who adopted me when I was a little boy,
her fondest love to her dear Uncle Jack.”
made me, in his will, guardian to his grand-
There is no objection, I admit, to an aunt
daughter, Miss Cecily Cardew. Cecily, who
being a small aunt, but why an aunt, no mat-
addresses me as her uncle, from motives of
ter what her size may be, should call her own
respect that you could not possibly appreci-
nephew her uncle, I can’t quite make out.
ate, lives at my place in the country, under
Besides, your name isn’t Jack at all; it is
the charge of her admirable governess, Miss
Ernest.
Prism.
JACK It isn’t Ernest; it’s Jack.
ALGERNON Where is that place in the
ALGERNON You have always told me it country, by the way?
was Ernest. I have introduced you to every-
JACK That is nothing to you, dear boy.
one as Ernest. You answer to the name of
You are not going to be invited. I may
Ernest. You look as if your name was Ernest.
tell you candidly that the place is not
You are the most earnest-looking person I
in Shropshire.
ever saw in my life. It is perfectly absurd
your saying that your name isn’t Ernest. It’s ALGERNON I suspected that, my dear fel-
on your cards. Here is one of them. “Mr. low.—Now go on. Why are you Ernest in
Ernest Worthing, B.4, The Albany.” I’ll keep town and Jack in the country?
this as a proof that your name is Ernest if
JACK My dear Algy, when one is placed in
ever you attempt to deny it to me, or to
the position of guardian, one has to adopt a
Gwendolen or to anyone else.
very high moral tone on all subjects. It’s one’s

Scenes for Two Men
207

duty to do so. And as a high moral tone can work so hard.
hardly be said to conduce very much to
STAN (Hits his pillow with his fist) Oh,
either one’s health or happiness, in order to
God! . . . Did Mom say anything about me?
get up to town I have always pretended to
About how I lost my salary?
have a younger brother of the name of Ernest,
who lives at the Albany, and gets into the EUGENE You told her? Why did you tell
most dreadful scrapes. There, my dear Algy, her? I came up with twelve terrific lies for
is the whole truth, pure and simple. you. (STANLEY opens up his drawer, puts on
a sweater.)
ALGERNON The truth is rarely pure and
never simple. STAN How much money do you have?
EUGENE Me? I don’t have any money.

STAN (Puts another sweater over the first

one) The hell you don’t. You’ve got money in
your cigar box. How much do you have?
Brighton Beach Memoirs
by Neil Simon (1982) EUGENE I got a dollar twelve. It’s my life’s
savings.
Characters: EUGENE—Almost fifteen years
STAN Let me have it. I’ll pay it back, don’t
old, he is innocent, generous, and sentimental.
worry. (He puts a jacket over sweaters, then
STAN—Stan, Eugene’s older brother, is eigh-
gets a fedora from closet and puts it on.
teen years old. He has been working to help
EUGENE takes cigar box from under his
support the family, and he is much more
bed, opens it.)
mature and hardened than Eugene.
Situation: The play is set in September 1937 EUGENE What are you putting on all those
in a house close to Brighton Beach in Brooklyn, things for?
New York. It is an ethnically diverse, lower- STAN In case I have to sleep out tonight.
middle-class area. Stan has decided to leave I’m leaving, Gene. I don’t know where I’m
home because he is ashamed of losing his going yet, but I’ll write to you when I get
week’s pay—$17.00—in a poker game. there.
EUGENE Aunt Blanche is leaving. EUGENE You’re leaving home?
STAN (Sits up) For where? STAN When I’m gone, you tell Aunt
EUGENE (Sits on his own bed) To stay Blanche what happened to my salary. Then
with some woman in Manhattan Beach. She she’ll know why Mom was so angry. Tell her
and Mom just had a big fight. She’s going to please not to leave because it was all my
send for Laurie and Nora when she gets a job. fault, not Mom’s. Will you do that? (He takes
coins out of cigar box.)
STAN What did they fight about?
EUGENE I have eight cents worth of
EUGENE I couldn’t hear it all. I think Mom stamps, if you want that too.
sorta blames Aunt Blanche for Pop having to

208
Scenes and Monologues

STAN Thanks. (Picks up a small medal) STAN Because of me, the whole family is
What’s this? breaking up. Do you want Nora to end up
like one of those cheap boardwalk girls?
EUGENE The medal you won for the hun-
dred yard dash two years ago. EUGENE I don’t care. I’m not in love with
Nora anymore.
STAN From the Police Athletic League.
I didn’t know you still had this. STAN Well, you should care. She’s your
cousin. Don’t turn out to be like me.
EUGENE You gave it to me. You can have
it back if you want it. EUGENE I don’t see what’s so bad about
you.
STAN It’s not worth anything.
STAN (Looks at him). . . Take care of your-
EUGENE It is to me.
self, Eug. (They embrace. He opens the door,
STAN Sure. You can keep it. looks around, then back to EUGENE.) If you
ever write a story about me, call me Hank. I
EUGENE Thanks . . . Where will you go?
always liked the name Hank. (He goes, clos-
STAN I don’t know. I’ve been thinking ing the door behind him.)
about joining . . . the army. Pop says we’ll be
at war in a couple of years anyway. I could be
a sergeant or something by the time it starts.

EUGENE If it lasts long enough, I could join
too. Maybe we can get in the same outfit.
Fences
by August Wilson (1985)
STAN You don’t go in the army unless they
come and get you. You go to college. You Characters: CORY—Cory Maxson is an aspiring
hear me? Promise me you’ll go to college. football player hoping to win a college scholar-
ship. A typical teenager, he is ambitious and
EUGENE I’ll probably have to stay home
optimistic, but not always sensible or reliable.
and work, if you leave. We’ll need the money.
TROY—Born to a sharecropper who was an
STAN I’ll send home my paycheck every angry failure of a man, Troy Maxson tries hard
month. A sergeant in the army makes real to be a responsible family man and a good
good dough . . . Well, I better get going. father to Cory. He is large, has big hands, and is
EUGENE (On the verge of tears) What do fifty-three years old.
you have to leave for? Situation: Written by an African American
playwright, this play is set in 1957 and concerns
STAN Don’t start crying. They’ll hear you.
the Maxsons, who live in an ancient two-story
EUGENE They’ll get over it. They won’t brick house set off a small alley in a big-city
stay mad at you forever. I was mad at you neighborhood. Cory is helping his dad make a
and I got over it. fence for their yard but gets sidetracked, a
habit of his, as he tries to convince Troy that
they should buy a television set.

Scenes for Two Men
209

[CORY takes the saw and begins cutting the roof . . . and whatever else go wrong around
boards. TROY continues working. There is a here. Now if you had two hundred dollars,
long pause.] what would you do . . . fix the roof or buy
a TV?
CORY Hey, Pop . . . why don’t you buy a TV?
CORY I’d buy a TV. Then when the roof
TROY What I want with a TV? What I
started to leak . . . when it needed
want one of them for?
fixing . . . I’d fix it.
CORY Everybody got one. Earl, Ba
TROY Where you gonna get the money
Bra . . . Jesse!
from? You done spent it for a TV. You gonna
TROY I ain’t asked you who had one. I say sit up and watch the water run all over your
what I want with one? brand new TV.
CORY So you can watch it. They got lots of CORY Aw, Pop. You got money. I know
things on TV. Baseball games and everything. you do.
We could watch the World Series.
TROY Where I got it at, huh?
TROY Yeah . . . and how much this TV
CORY You got it in the bank.
cost?
TROY You wanna see my bankbook? You
CORY I don’t know. They got them on sale
wanna see that seventy-three dollars and
for around two hundred dollars.
twenty-two cents I got sitting up in there.
TROY Two hundred dollars, huh?
CORY You ain’t got to pay for it all at one
CORY That ain’t that much, Pop. time. You can put a down payment on it and
carry it on home with you.
TROY Naw, it’s just two hundred dollars.
See that roof you got over your head at night? TROY Not me. I ain’t gonna owe nobody
Let me tell you something about that roof. nothing if I can help it. Miss a payment and
It’s been over ten years since that roof was they come and snatch it right out your house.
last tarred. See now . . . the snow come this Then what you got? Now, soon as I get two
winter and sit up there on that roof like it is hundred dollars clear, then I’ll buy a TV.
. . . and it’s gonna seep inside. It’s just gonna Right now, as soon as I get two hundred and
be a little bit . . . ain’t gonna hardly notice it. sixty-four dollars, I’m gonna have this roof
Then the next thing you know, it’s gonna be tarred.
leaking all over the house. Then the wood rot
CORY Aw . . . Pop!
from all that water and you gonna need a
whole new roof. Now, how much you think TROY You go on and get you two hundred
it cost to get that roof tarred? dollars and buy one if ya want it. I got better
things to do with my money.
CORY I don’t know.
CORY I can’t get no two hundred dollars. I
TROY Two hundred and sixty-four
ain’t never seen two hundred dollars.
dollars. . . cash money. While you thinking
about a TV, I got to be thinking about the

210
Scenes and Monologues

TROY I’ll tell you what . . . you get you a REPORTER That’s all right. I’ll make it.
hundred dollars and I’ll put the other hundred (With some clumsiness, he gets to his feet.)
with it. There I am.
CORY Alright, I’m gonna show you. GUERRILLA I offered to untie your hands.
TROY You gonna show me how you can REPORTER I’d just as soon you didn’t.
cut them boards right now. When you know that you can trust me, then
untie my hands. I’d let you take the hood off.
GUERRILLA (Takes the hood off) Tell me


why you think that we should trust you.
REPORTER I’m no threat to you. I’ve never
How I Got That Story
done you any harm.
by Amlin Gray (1979)
GUERRILLA No harm?
Characters: GUERRILLA—He is an informa-
REPORTER I guess I’ve wasted your muni-
tion officer in a guerrilla uprising fighting for
tions. Part of one of your grenades wound up
political power. Cold and direct, he has known
imbedded in my derriere—my backside.
nothing but war his entire life.
REPORTER—In his late twenties, he is a former GUERRILLA I speak French as well as
journalist who has been taken hostage by the English. You forget—the French were here
guerrilla insurgents. Afraid for his life, he tries before you.
to persuade the guerrilla that he poses no
REPORTER Yes.
threat.
Situation: This play is set in a fictional south- GUERRILLA You told us that you came
east Asian country called Am-Bo Land, where here as a newsman.
the United States is supporting the government REPORTER Right.
in a war against guerrilla insurgents.
GUERRILLA You worked within the sys-
[A small, bare hut. The REPORTER is sleep-
tem of our enemies and subject to their
ing on the floor. His head is covered by a
interests.
black hood and his hands are tied behind his
back. A GUERRILLA Information Officer REPORTER Partly subject.
comes in carrying a bowl of rice.]
GUERRILLA Yet you say that you have
GUERRILLA Stand up, please. never done us any harm.
REPORTER (Coming awake) What? REPORTER All I found out as a reporter
was I’d never find out anything.
GUERRILLA Please stand up.
GUERRILLA Do we pardon an enemy
REPORTER It’s hard with hands behind the
sniper if his marksmanship is poor?
back.
REPORTER Yes, if he’s quit the army.
GUERRILLA I will untie them.

Scenes for Two Men
211

GUERRILLA Ah, yes. You are not a news- GUERRILLA You have no right to be here
man now. even for a minute. Not to draw one breath.
REPORTER That’s right. REPORTER You have no right to tell me
that. I’m here. It’s where I am.
GUERRILLA What are you?
GUERRILLA We are a spectacle to you. A
REPORTER What am I? (The GUERRILLA
land in turmoil.
is silent.) I’m what you see.
REPORTER I don’t have to lie to you. Yes,
GUERRILLA What do you do?
that attracts me.
REPORTER I live.
GUERRILLA Yes. You love to see us kill
GUERRILLA You live? each other.
REPORTER That’s all. REPORTER No. I don’t.
GUERRILLA You live in Am-Bo Land. GUERRILLA You said you didn’t have
to lie.
REPORTER I’m here right now.
REPORTER I’m not. It does—excite me
GUERRILLA Why?
that the stakes are life and death here. It
REPORTER Why? You’ve got me prisoner. makes everything—intense.
GUERRILLA If you were not a prisoner, GUERRILLA The stakes cannot be life and
you would not be here? death unless some people die.
REPORTER No. REPORTER That’s true. But I don’t make
them die. They’re dying anyway.
GUERRILLA Where would you be?
GUERRILLA You just watch.
REPORTER By this time, I’d be back in
East Dubuque. REPORTER That’s right.
GUERRILLA You were not leaving when GUERRILLA Your standpoint is aesthetic.
we captured you.
REPORTER Yes, all right, yes.
REPORTER I was, though. I was leaving
GUERRILLA You enjoy our situation here.
soon.
REPORTER I’m filled with pain by things
GUERRILLA Soon?
I see.
REPORTER Yes.
GUERRILLA And yet you stay.
GUERRILLA When?
REPORTER I’m here.
REPORTER I don’t know exactly.
GUERRILLA You are addicted.
Sometime.
REPORTER Say I am, then! I’m addicted!
GUERRILLA Sometime.
Yes! I’ve said it! I’m addicted!
REPORTER Yes.
212
Scenes and Monologues
GUERRILLA Your position in my country GUERRILLA Your former employers have
is morbid and decadent. It is corrupt, reac- not made the separation public. We have
tionary, and bourgeois. You have no right to made our offer public. You will not be aban-
live here. doned in the public view. It would not be
good business.
REPORTER This is where I live. You can’t
pass judgment. REPORTER (Truly frightened for the first
time in the scene) Wait. You have to think
GUERRILLA I have not passed judgment.
this out. A hundred thousand dollars is too
You are useless here. A man must give some-
much. It’s much too much. You might
thing in return for the food he eats and the
get ten.
living space he occupies. This is not a moral
obligation but a practical necessity in a soci- GUERRILLA We have demanded one
ety where no one is to be exploited. hundred.
REPORTER Am-Bo Land isn’t such a soci- REPORTER They won’t pay that. Take ten
ety, is it? thousand. That’s a lot to you.
GUERRILLA Not yet. GUERRILLA It is. But we have made our
offer.
REPORTER Well, I’m here right now. If
you don’t like that then I guess you’ll have REPORTER Change it. You’re just throwing
to kill me. away money. Tell them ten. They’ll never
pay a hundred thousand.
GUERRILLA We would kill you as we
pick the insects from the skin of a valuable GUERRILLA We never change a bargaining
animal. position we have once set down. This is
worth much more than ten thousand dollars
REPORTER Go ahead, then. If you’re going
or a hundred thousand dollars.
to kill me, kill me.
REPORTER Please—
GUERRILLA We are not going to kill you.
GUERRILLA Sit down.
REPORTER Why not?
REPORTER (Obeys, then, quietly) Please
GUERRILLA For a reason.
don’t kill me.
REPORTER What’s the reason?
GUERRILLA Do not beg your life from me.
GUERRILLA We have told the leadership The circumstances grant your life. Your
of TransPanGlobal Wire Service when and employers will pay. You will live.
where to leave one hundred thousand dollars
REPORTER You sound so sure.
for your ransom.
GUERRILLA If we were not sure we would
REPORTER Ransom? TransPanGlobal?
not waste this food on you. (He pushes the
GUERRILLA Yes. bowl of rice towards the REPORTER.)
REPORTER But that’s no good. I told you, REPORTER How soon will I know?
I don’t work there anymore.
Scenes for Two Men
213
 GUERRILLA Soon. Ten days. VOICE Who’s out there?
REPORTER That’s not soon. FIRST MAN (Turns from audience, moves
Upstage Right) Me! (YOUNG MAN enters,
GUERRILLA This war has lasted all my
Stage Right. He holds M-1 rifle trained on
life. Ten days is soon. (Untying the
FIRST MAN)
REPORTER’S hands) You will be fed on what
our soldiers eat. You will think that we are YOUNG MAN Hold it there!
starving you, but these are the rations on
FIRST MAN (Drops suitcases, raises arms
which we march toward our inevitable vic-
overhead) Hey, c’mon. Nothin’ in those but
tory. Eat your rice. In three minutes I will tie
the usual junk . . .
you again.
YOUNG MAN Password?
FIRST MAN The password? What password?

YOUNG MAN If you don’t know the pass-

word, you’re a goner . . .
Man with Bags
by Eugène Ionesco (1977) FIRST MAN (False amusement) Oh, well, of
course . . the password! Wow! What’s the mat-
Characters: VOICE—This is an offstage mys-
ter with my brain, huh? I just keep forgetting
tery voice.
everything! Les’see now . . . You’re gonna’
FIRST MAN—He is an innocent traveler who is
hav’ta’ give me a clue . . . OK? Is the password
trying to obtain a guide to lead him out of the
a phrase or actually just a word? I can’t quite
country.
remember.
YOUNG MAN—He is an armed and demanding
aggressor. YOUNG MAN Phrase.
SPHINX—He is an absurd creature who
FIRST MAN (Screams) A fool and his
demands answers to riddle-type questions.
money are soon parted!
[N.B. Voice, Young Man, and Sphinx may all be
played by one actor.] (N.B. stands for nota YOUNG MAN As quickly as water to a
bene, which in Latin means “note well.”) duck’s back. (Drops rifle down to his side;
Situation: The First Man is traveling through smiles) Very good. (Pauses) What’s up?
the country of his birth, which has a dreamlike FIRST MAN You mean I got it?! The pass-
quality. Things happen for no reason. He is word?
harassed by people who take their questions
very seriously. It is as though he were trapped YOUNG MAN What’re’ya’ looking for
in a silly version of the game Jeopardy! in here?
which losers die. In this scene, he is questioned FIRST MAN Here? Oh! Here! A guide. I’d
first by a young man, apparently a guard, and like a guide.
next by a sphinx.
YOUNG MAN Girl guide or boy guide? Or
[Male VOICE calls to FIRST MAN from a whole troop of both?
Offstage Right]

214
Scenes and Monologues

FIRST MAN Cancel the order and send up SPHINX A true genius keeps what for last?
a prune Danish!
FIRST MAN The last word . . . for last:
YOUNG MAN Excuse me? the word.
FIRST MAN Look, I’d like to hire a guide. SPHINX Upper regions of space?
YOUNG MAN What are you looking for? FIRST MAN . . . Ummm . . . Ether.
FIRST MAN Out. That’s what I’m looking SPHINX Musical ending?
for: out. That’s what I want: out. I’d like a
FIRST MAN Coda.
guide, OK? I’ll pay.
SPHINX Tabula-what?
YOUNG MAN You’re gonna have a lot of
trouble finding a guide around these parts . . . FIRST MAN Rasa?
especially for what you want one for . . . Ya’
SPHINX Land of Saint Patrick . . . four
know what I mean? Out is not easy. Not
letters.
here. (Pauses) Anyway, you haven’t finished
your quiz. FIRST MAN Eire.
FIRST MAN My what? SPHINX Brainchild.
YOUNG MAN Quiz. There’s a pop quiz FIRST MAN Thank you.
given at this point. Have you met the Sphinx
SPHINX No, that’s a question!
yet?
FIRST MAN Whether I am?
FIRST MAN If this is s’pose’ta’ be funny, it
isn’t, ya’ know! I mean, I’m not exactly tick- SPHINX Don’t answer a question with a
led by you, your gun, any of it . . . (YOUNG question!
MAN exits, Stage Right) Where’ya’ goin’? FIRST MAN Gim’me an answer then. I’ll
Hey, wait up! (From the same point, a give you a question.
SPHINX enters.)
[N.B. Possible that SPHINX is YOUNG SPHINX Who’s the Sphinx here anyway?
MAN wearing wings and insect-head mask] FIRST MAN You are. You are.
SPHINX Answer my question and answer SPHINX Brainchild. Four letters . . .
it quickly. A true genius keeps what for last?
FIRST MAN I’ve got an idea . . .
FIRST MAN That’s a question?
SPHINX Idea?
SPHINX Answer!
FIRST MAN Right.
FIRST MAN I don’t feel like it. This is
ridiculous! SPHINX Right!

SPHINX It’s your life. FIRST MAN Huh?

FIRST MAN My life? I see. What was the SPHINX Disturb. Four letters.
question again?

Scenes for Two Men
215

FIRST MAN What is it with you and these desired. A brilliant but evil tactician, he is a
four-letter words? So far, this play has been supreme egotist dedicated to revenge.
clean enough for children! Situation: This pivotal scene takes place in
SPHINX Hurry! Disturb! the garden of Othello’s castle headquarters in
Cyprus. Desdemona, Othello’s Caucasian wife,
FIRST MAN Roil. Roil. is speaking with Cassio as Othello and Iago
SPHINX That’s eight letters! enter the garden. Cassio leaves suddenly, and
Iago seizes on this apparently suspicious behav-
FIRST MAN OK. OK. Roil. ior to trap the unsuspecting Othello. After
SPHINX Now that’s twelve letters! Desdemona leaves, Iago fills Othello’s head
with the false idea that Desdemona has
FIRST MAN Roil. betrayed him with Cassio.
SPHINX Good. 1
OTHELLO Excellent wretch ! Perdition
FIRST MAN This is ridiculous. And that’s catch my soul
sixteen letters! But I do love thee! and when I love thee not,
Chaos is come again.
SPHINX OK, here it is: the penultimate
question. A true genius keeps what for last. IAGO My noble lord,—

FIRST MAN I told you that already! The OTHELLO What dost thou say, Iago?
last word. OK, I’m in, right? I passed. IAGO Did Michael Cassio, when you
SPHINX Out of the question. Failed! That’s woo’d my lady,
precisely the point, ducky. A true genius Know of your love?
keeps the last word for last. You didn’t. You OTHELLO He did, from first to last. Why
blew it right off the bat! dost thou ask?
IAGO But for a satisfaction of my thought.
No further harm.

OTHELLO Why of thy thought, Iago?

Othello IAGO I did not think he had been
by William Shakespeare acquainted with her.

Characters: OTHELLO—An African Moor, he OTHELLO O yes; and went between us

is a general on whom the city-state of Venice very oft.
depends. He is respected, courageous, and hap- IAGO Indeed?
pily married. He trusts too easily in his adviser
Iago. OTHELLO Indeed? ay, indeed. Discern’st
IAGO—Iago is an ensign, an honorable but not thou aught in that?
prestigious rank. He resents Cassio’s recent pro- Is he not honest?
motion to lieutenant, a post Iago himself had

216
Scenes and Monologues

IAGO Honest, my lord? OTHELLO I think so too.
OTHELLO Honest? ay, honest. IAGO Men should be what they seem;
Or those that be not, would they might seem
IAGO My lord, for aught I know.
none!
OTHELLO What dost thou think?
OTHELLO Certain, men should be what
IAGO Think, my lord? they seem.
OTHELLO Think, my lord? IAGO Why then, I think Cassio’s an honest
By heaven, he echoes me, man.
As if there were some monster in his thought
OTHELLO Nay, yet there’s more in this.
Too hideous to be shown.—Thou didst mean
I pray thee, speak to me as to thy thinkings,
something.
As thou dost ruminate, and give thy worst of
I heard thee say but now, thou lik’st not that,
thoughts
When Cassio left my wife. What didst not
The worst of words.
like?
2
And when I told thee he was of my counsel IAGO Good my lord, pardon me;
In my whole course of wooing, thou criedst,
Though I am bound to every act of duty,
‘Indeed?’
I am not bound to that all slaves are free to.
And didst contract and purse thy brow
Utter my thoughts? Why, say they are vile
together,
and false;
As if thou then hadst shut up in thy brain
3 As where’s that palace whereinto foul things
Some horrible conceit . If thou dost love me,
Sometimes intrude not? who has a breast so
Show me thy thought.
pure
7
IAGO My lord, you know I love you. But some uncleanly apprehensions
8
Keep leets and law-days, and in session sit
OTHELLO I think thou dost;
With meditations lawful?
And, for I know thou’rt full of love and
honesty, OTHELLO Thou dost conspire against thy
And weigh’st thy words before thou give ‘em friend, Iago,
breath, If thou but think’st him wrong’d, and mak’st
4
Therefore these stops of thine fright me the his ear
more; A stranger to thy thoughts.
For such things in a false disloyal knave
5 IAGO I do beseech you,
Are tricks of custom , but in a man that’s just 9
6 Though I perchance am vicious in my guess
They are close delations , working from the
(As, I confess, it is my nature’s plague
heart
To spy into abuses, and oft my jealousy
That passion cannot rule.
Shapes faults that are not)—I entreat you
IAGO For Michael Cassio, then,
10
I dare be sworn I think that he is honest. From one that so imperfectly conjects,
You’ld take no notice, nor build yourself a
trouble

Scenes for Two Men
217

 11
Out of my scattering and unsure obser- 6 close delations: covert, involuntary accu-
vance. sations
It were not for your quiet nor your good, 7 But: but therein
Nor for my manhood, honesty, or wisdom, 8 leets: synonymous with ‘law-days’ (keep
To let you know my thoughts. leet: hold court)
9 Though: supposing, granting that
OTHELLO Zounds! (What dost thou 10 conjects: imagines
mean?) 11 scattering: random
IAGO Good name in man, and woman, 12 mock...feeds on: tantalizes its victim
dear my lord,
Is the immediate jewel of our souls.
Who steals my purse steals trash. ‘Tis some-
thing, nothing;
‘Twas mine, ‘tis his, and has been slave to
thousands;
But he that filches from me my good name
Robs me of that which not enriches him,
And makes me poor indeed.
OTHELLO By heaven, I’ll know thy
thought.
IAGO You cannot, if my heart were in your
hand;
Nor shall not, whilst ‘tis in my custody.
OTHELLO Ha!
IAGO O beware, my lord, of jealousy!
It is the green-ey’d monster which doth mock
12
The meat it feeds on.

1 wretch: expression of utmost fondness

2 of my counsel: in my confidence
3 conceit: idea
4 stops: pauses, reticences
5 tricks of custom: habitual tricks

218
Scenes and Monologues

 SCENES
ANNE (Singing) “Oh, Hanukkah! Oh,
for Mixed Groups Hanukkah! The sweet celebration.”
MR. FRANK (Rising) I think we should first
blow out the candle; then we’ll have some-
thing for tomorrow night.

MARGOT But, Father, you’re supposed to

let it burn itself out.
The Diary of Anne Frank MR. FRANK I’m sure that God understands
dramatized by Frances Goodrich and Albert shortages. (Before blowing it out) “Praised be
Hackett (1954) from the book Anne Frank: Thou, oh Lord our God, who hath sustained
Diary of a Young Girl us and permitted us to celebrate this joyous
festival.”
Characters: ANNE FRANK—Anne is a
fourteen-year-old. She is lively, polite, optimistic, (He is about to blow out the candle when
and compassionate. suddenly there is a crash of something falling
MR. FRANK—He is a gentle, cultured, middle- below. They all freeze in horror, motionless.
aged man with a trace of a German accent. For a few seconds there is complete silence.
MARGOT FRANK—She is an eighteen-year-old MR. FRANK slips off his shoes. The others
who is quiet and shy. noiselessly follow his example. MR. FRANK
MR. VAN DAAN—He is a tall, dignified man in turns out a light near him. He motions to
his late forties. PETER to turn off the center lamp. PETER
MRS. VAN DAAN—She is a woman in her early tries to reach it, realizes he cannot and gets
forties. up on a chair. Just as he is touching the lamp
MRS. FRANK—She is genteel and reserved. She he loses his balance. The chair goes out from
has a slight German accent. under him. He falls. The iron lamp shade
PETER VAN DAAN—He is a shy and awkward crashes to the floor. There is a sound of feet
sixteen-year-old. below, running down the stairs.)
Situation: This play is based on historical fact MR. VAN DAAN (Under his breath) God
and was inspired by Anne’s diary, which was Almighty! (The only light left comes from the
published after her death. It is the first night of Hanukkah candle. . . . MR. FRANK creeps
the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, the Festival of over to the stairwell and stands listening. The
Lights. World War II is in progress, and the dog is heard barking excitedly.) Do you hear
Frank and the Van Daan families are hiding anything?
from the Nazis on the top floor of a warehouse
MR. FRANK (In a whisper) No. I think
in Amsterdam, Holland. Mr. Frank is at the head
they’ve gone.
of the table and has lit the shammes, or servant
candle. All are dressed in their best; the men MRS. VAN DAAN It’s the Green Police.
wear hats, and Peter wears his cap. They’ve found us.

Scenes for Mixed Groups
219

MR. FRANK If they had, they wouldn’t have Miep or Mr. Kraler comes on Monday morn-
left. They’d be up here by now. ing. We cannot live with this uncertainty.
MRS. VAN DAAN I know it’s the Green MARGOT Don’t go, Father!
Police. They’ve gone to get help. That’s all.
MRS. FRANK Hush, darling, hush. (MR.
They’ll be back!
FRANK slips quietly out, down the steps and
MR. VAN DAAN Or it may have been the out through the door below.) Margot! Stay
Gestapo, looking for papers. close to me. (MARGOT goes to her mother.)
MR. FRANK (Interrupting) Or a thief, look- MR. VAN DAAN Shush! Shush! (MRS.
ing for money. FRANK whispers to MARGOT to get the
water. MARGOT goes for it.)
MRS. VAN DAAN We’ve got to do some-
thing—Quick! Quick! Before they MRS. VAN DAAN Putti, where’s our
come back. money? Get our money. I hear you can buy
the Green Police off, so much a head. Go
MR. VAN DAAN There isn’t anything to
upstairs quick! Get the money!
do. Just wait. (MR. FRANK holds up his hand
for them to be quiet. He is listening intently. MR. VAN DAAN Keep still!
There is complete silence as they all strain to
MRS. VAN DAAN (Kneeling before him,
hear any sound from below. Suddenly ANNE
pleading) Do you want to be dragged off to a
begins to sway. With a low cry she falls to the
concentration camp? Are you going to stand
floor in a faint. MRS. FRANK goes to her
there and wait for them to come up and get
quickly, sitting beside her on the floor and
you? Do something, I tell you!
taking her in her arms.)
MR. VAN DAAN (Pushing her aside) Will
MRS. FRANK Get some water, please!
you keep still? (He goes over to the stairwell
Get some water! (MARGOT starts for
to listen. PETER goes to his mother, helping
the sink.)
her up onto the sofa. There is a second of
MR. VAN DAAN (Grabbing MARGOT) silence, then ANNE can stand it no longer.)
No! No! No one’s going to run water!
ANNE Someone go after Father! Make
MR. FRANK If they’ve found us, they’ve Father come back!
found us. Get the water. (MARGOT starts
PETER (Starting for the door) I’ll go.
again for the sink. MR. FRANK, getting a
flashlight) I’m going down. (MARGOT rushes MR. VAN DAAN Haven’t you done enough?
to him, clinging to him. ANNE struggles to (He pushes PETER roughly away. In his anger
consciousness.) against his father PETER grabs a chair as if to
hit him with it, then puts it down, burying his
MARGOT No, Father, no! There may be
face in his hands. MRS. FRANK begins to pray
someone there waiting. It may be a trap!
softly.)
MR. FRANK This is Saturday. There is no
ANNE Please, please, Mr. Van Daan. Get
way for us to know what has happened until
Father.

220
Scenes and Monologues

MR. VAN DAAN Quiet! Quiet! (ANNE is apartment is home to an African American fam-
shocked into silence. MRS. FRANK pulls her ily: Walter, his mother Lena, his sister Beneatha,
closer, holding her protectively in her arms.) his wife Ruth, and their son Travis.

MRS. FRANK (Softly, praying) “I lift up WALTER (Senselessly) How is school

mine eyes unto the mountains, from whence coming?
cometh my help. My help cometh from the
BENEATHA (In the same spirit) Lovely.
Lord who made heaven and earth. He will not
Lovely. And you know, Biology is the greatest.
suffer thy foot to be moved. He that keepeth
(Looking up at him) I dissected something that
thee will not slumber . . .” (She stops as she
looked just like you yesterday.
hears someone coming. They all watch the
door tensely. MR. FRANK comes quietly in. WALTER I just wondered if you’ve made up
ANNE rushes to him, holding him tight.) your mind and everything.

MR. FRANK It was a thief. The noise must BENEATHA (Gaining in sharpness and
have scared him away. impatience prematurely) And what did I
answer yesterday morning—and the day
MRS. VAN DAAN Thank God.
before that—?
RUTH (Crossing back to ironing board R.,

like someone disinterested and old) Don’t be

so nasty, Bennie.
A Raisin in the Sun BENEATHA (Still to her brother) And the
by Lorraine Hansberry (1959) day before that and the day before that!
WALTER (Defensively) I’m interested in
Characters: BENEATHA—She is about twenty
you. Something wrong with that? Ain’t many
years old, slim, intense, and educated. She is
girls who decide—
going to school to become a doctor at a time
when women weren’t encouraged or expected WALTER and BENEATHA (In unison) —
to pursue such a profession. “to be a doctor.” (Silence)
WALTER—Walter Lee Younger is a lean man in
WALTER Have we figured out yet just
his mid-thirties. He is struggling to retain his
exactly how much medical school is going
self-esteem in the face of family and financial
to cost?
obstacles.
RUTH—She is Walter’s wife, about thirty years BENEATHA (Rises, exits to bathroom.
old, a gentle, maternal woman who looks dis- Knocks on the door) Come on out of there,
appointed. She wants a happier household. please! (Re-enters)
Situation: Written by an African American RUTH Walter Lee, why don’t you leave that
playwright, this play is set in Chicago’s South girl alone and get out of here to work?
Side, sometime after World War II. A cramped

Scenes for Mixed Groups
221

WALTER (Looking at his sister intently) RUTH Oh, Walter—that’s not fair—
You know the check is coming tomorrow.
WALTER It ain’t that nobody expects you to
BENEATHA (Turning on him with a sharp- get on your knees and say thank you, Brother;
ness all her own. She crosses D.R. and thank you, Ruth; thank you, Mama—and
sprawls on sofa.) That money belongs to thank you, Travis, for wearing the same pair of
Mama, Walter, and it’s for her to decide how shoes for two semesters—
she wants to use it. I don’t care if she wants
BENEATHA (In front of sofa, falls on her
to buy a house or a rocket ship or just nail it
knees) WELL—I DO—ALL RIGHT? THANK
up somewhere and look at it—it’s hers. Not
EVERYBODY—AND FORGIVE ME FOR
ours—hers.
EVER WANTING TO BE ANYTHING AT
WALTER (Bitterly) Now ain’t that fine! You ALL—FORGIVE ME, FORGIVE ME! (She
just got your mother’s interests at heart, ain’t rises, crosses D.R. to armchair.)
you, girl? You such a nice girl—but if Mama
RUTH Please stop it! Your Mama’ll
got that money she can always take a few
hear you.
thousand and help you through school too—
can’t she? WALTER (Crosses U.C. to kitchen table.
Ties shoes at chair R. of table)—Who . . . told
BENEATHA I have never asked anyone
you you had to be a doctor? If you so crazy
around here to do anything for me!
‘bout messing around with sick people—then
WALTER No! But the line between asking go be a nurse like other women—or just get
and just accepting when the time comes is big married and be quiet—
and wide—ain’t it!
BENEATHA (Crossing toward L. end of
BENEATHA (With fury) What do you want sofa) Well—you finally got it said—It took
from me, Brother—that I quit school or just you three years but you finally got it said.
drop dead, which! Walter, give up; leave me alone—it’s Mama’s
money.
WALTER (Rises, crosses down back of sofa)
I don’t want nothing but for you to stop acting WALTER HE WAS MY FATHER, TOO!
holy around here—me and Ruth done made
BENEATHA So what? He was mine, too—
some sacrifices for you—why can’t you do
and Travis’ grandfather—BUT the insurance
something for the family?
money belongs to Mama. Picking on me is
RUTH Walter, don’t be dragging me in it. not going to make her give it to you to invest
in any liquor stores—(Sits armchair D.R.
WALTER You are in it—Don’t you get up
Under her breath) And I for one say, God
and go work in somebody’s kitchen for the
bless Mama for that!
last three years to help put clothes on her
back—? (On BENEATHA’S line RUTH crosses U.L. to
closet.)
(BENEATHA rises, crosses, sits armchair
D.R.) WALTER (To RUTH) See—did you hear?—
Did you hear!

222
Scenes and Monologues



RUTH (Crosses D.C. to WALTER with
WALTER’s jacket from the closet) Honey, Letters to a
please go to work. Student Revolutionary
WALTER (Back of sofa, crosses U.C. to by Elizabeth Wong (1989)
door) Nobody in this house is ever going to
understand me. Characters: KAREN—A modern young
Chinese woman, Karen is not content with the
BENEATHA Because you’re a nut. choices she is offered by life in China. As a
WALTER (Stops, turns D.C.) Who’s a nut? young girl, she had witnessed her mother being
captured and executed.
BENEATHA You—You are a nut. Thee is BROTHER—Karen’s brother, a devoted Commu-
mad, boy. nist soldier, believes that the individual is not
WALTER (Looking at his wife and sister important. He proved his loyalty to the state
from the door, very sadly) The world’s most many years ago when he reported his mother
backward race of people, and that’s a fact. for stealing food to feed her children and then
(Exits C.) witnessed her execution.
LU YAN—As married students, Lu Yan and
BENEATHA (Turning slowly in her chair) Karen are active in the student movement for
And then there are all those prophets who democracy.
would lead us out of the wilderness—(Rises,
Situation: In this play, Chinese American play-
crosses U.C. to chair R. of kitchen table. Sits.
wright Elizabeth Wong explores the choices
WALTER slams out of the house.) Into the
that are open to women today in two very dif-
swamps!
ferent cultures. Karen and Lu Yan optimistically
RUTH Bennie, why you always gotta be take part in the student demonstrations for
pickin’ on your brother? Can’t you be a little freedom in Tiananmen Square. Karen has been
sweeter sometimes? corresponding with Bibi, a Chinese American
woman, who writes to her about democracy
(Door opens. WALTER walks in.)
and freedom.
WALTER (To RUTH) I need some money for
[Lights up on BROTHER, LU YAN, and
carfare.
KAREN who are lying on a plateau on a
RUTH (Looks at him, then warms, teasing, mountainside.]
but tenderly) Fifty cents? (She crosses D.L.
KAREN Look at that sky. I see a dragon coil-
front of table, gets her purse from handbag.)
ing ready to spring. I see a water buffalo.
Here, take a taxi.
There’s a big fat lumbering pig. That’s you.
BROTHER I feel restless. It’s funny to feel
so restless.
LU YAN Ask Bibi to send us a copy of this
Bill of Rights.
BROTHER What is this “pursuit of hap-

Scenes for Mixed Groups
223

piness”? Even if I were to have it, I would LU YAN Paris?
not know how to go about this “pursuit of
BROTHER London?
happiness.”
KAREN America.
LU YAN I think to be on Lotus Mountain is
what is meant by “life, liberty and the pursuit LU YAN People would clap and say, “Ahhh,
of happiness.” of course, a Karen original.”
KAREN (To BROTHER) It means even you BROTHER People will say, “How ugly. I
would count for something, you good for will not wear this in a million years.”
nothing.
KAREN I would have a name. Then once I
BROTHER Oh? Who is lazy and who is not? am famous as a clothes designer, I will quit
I have written a novel. and I would do something else. Maybe be a
forest ranger.
LU YAN So why do you hide it?
BROTHER Or a fireman.
BROTHER Because I am a bad novelist.
LU YAN Or an astronaut.
KAREN Well then, your book will be very
popular. BROTHER Or a member of the central
committee.
LU YAN I think I will be a teacher in a
great university. I have already applied for a LU YAN Hah! You must be very old to be a
transfer. member of the central committee.
BROTHER Impossible. KAREN Yes, a fossil. (Beat) Is it possible to
be a somebody?
LU YAN Maybe.
BROTHER Yes, I am a grain of sand!
KAREN If only I could leave my job. I hate
accounting. KAREN A piece of lint.
LU YAN You do? LU YAN Those old men on the central com-
mittee. What do they know about us? Perhaps
BROTHER I didn’t know that.
we should all take up our books and stone the
KAREN Bibi sends me many fashion maga- committee with our new ideas.
zines. Only Bibi knows how I wish to be
BROTHER Lu Yan thinks he can change the
a designer of great fashion for very great
world. But I’m telling you if we are patient, all
ladies.
things will come. (Beat) Things that die allow
BROTHER Burlap sacks for old bags. new things to grow and flourish.
KAREN Lace, all lace and chiffon. KAREN Oh, my brother is a philosopher.
LU YAN You would look beautiful. LU YAN No, he is right. They will die off
and leave us with a nation of students. No
KAREN Not for me. For the people. I would
politicians. Just you and me and Karen.
be a dress designer and go to. . . .

224
Scenes and Monologues

KAREN Three wolves on the mountainside, Situation: This radio play by African American
sitting in the sun. playwright Adrienne Kennedy grew from a time
in her own past when she waited in London for
LU YAN Change is sure to come.
three weeks for her husband to return from
KAREN This is changing me. Africa. In this scene, the two American women,
desperate to escape their nerve-wracking and
(KAREN indicates a small pile of books.)
lonely waiting for even a little while, join a
LU YAN (Looks at the titles) Hemingway. group that meets to read aloud from the classics.
Martin Luther King.
DR. FREUDENBERGER Your sister-in-law
KAREN Bibi sent them to me. And this. and I have had a good talk. I was thinking,
since you’re both here waiting for Professor
(KAREN turns on a tape recorder. The music
Alexander, perhaps you’d welcome a little
is Karen Carpenter’s “We’ve Only Just
diversion. I’d like to invite you both to my
Begun.” They listen.)
home. My wife and I have a dramatic circle.
We’re currently reading Bram Stoker’s
Dracula. Readings will distract you both

while you’re waiting for Professor Alexander.

Suzanne, you could read the role of Lucy, and
The Dramatic Circle
Alice, you might read Mina. My house is in
by Adrienne Kennedy (1992)
the Little Boltons.
Characters: SUZANNE ALEXANDER—Waiting ALICE ALEXANDER Very well. Thank you,
in London for her husband to return from a we are lonely. We know no one here. We’re to
dangerous mission in Africa, Suzanne Alexander see a West African writer, but he’s in Paris.
is plagued with breathlessness, sleepwalking, We will be happy to come to your dramatic
and hysteria. circle.
ALICE ALEXANDER—Helpless to comfort her sis-
DR. FREUDENBERGER Lovely. Please
ter-in-law, Alice Alexander can only accompany
come this evening, you’re nearby. My wife,
her to the American Embassy every day to
Heike, is a translator. She makes tea. We have
inquire about her missing brother and to try to
sherry.
keep up her own optimism.
DR. FREUDENBERGER—A compassionate and ALICE ALEXANDER Thank you.
perceptive physician, Dr. Freudenberger has a
SUZANNE ALEXANDER Thank you.
premonition that Professor Alexander might be
Goodbye, Dr. Freudenberger.
enduring hardships and that his wife Suzanne
might also be victimized. To prepare Suzanne ALICE ALEXANDER Goodbye, Dr.
for the darkness he knows she must face, the Freudenberger.
doctor introduces Suzanne and Alice to the clas-
DR. FREUDENBERGER Oh no, please,
sic novel Dracula. The group reads an excerpt
please. I’m Sebastian.
from Dr. Stewart’s diary in which he goes
through bad times, and a woman, Lucy, is the (Overlapping goodbyes)
victim of an unfair, tragic attack.

Scenes for Mixed Groups
225

ALICE ALEXANDER As we left I heard you so simple a thing? Was it because I hate
Dr. Freudenberger reading the paper I’d you and have hated you all my life? Was it
given him. because I wished to give you pain? Was it that
I wanted now so late revenge for that time
DR. FREUDENBERGER “My life was trans-
when you saved my life from a fearful
formed. Violence flared savagely when mobs
death?’”
appeared and the courtyards of the Tuileries
ran with the blood of Swiss Guards. Danger WOMAN (Reading): “‘Oh, no. Forgive me,’
struck everywhere.” said I. He went on.”
(Music—Wagner chorus. Dramatic circle WOMAN (Reading): “We found the child
greetings) awake.”
ALICE ALEXANDER We arrived at eight DR. FREUDENBERGER “It had had a sleep
for the reading of Dracula. Dr. Freudenberger’s and taken some food and altogether was going
parlor was small and dark with water-stained on well. Dr. Vincent took the bandage from its
gold-and-white wallpaper. His tall wife, throat and showed us the punctures. There
Heike, poured tea. Dr. Freudenberger sat was no mistaking the similarity to those
behind a large desk, we read from crimson which had been on Lucy’s throat. They were
books. He had a giant handwritten script. We smaller and the edges looked fresher, that was
later discovered that all the participants were all. We asked Vincent to what he attributed
his patients. We read sitting in a circle. them and he replied that it must have been a
bite of some animal, perhaps a rat, but for his
(Music and voices in background)
own part he was inclined to think that it was
DR. FREUDENBERGER Ladies and gentle- one of the bats which are so numerous on the
men, please, everyone. We have two new northern heights of London. ‘Out of so many
actors tonight. They’re both from America. harmless ones,’ he said, ‘there may be some
I’ve invited them here to join us while they’re wild specimen from the south of a more
here in England. In fact, both are writers malignant species. Some sailor may have
themselves. Mrs. Alexander, Suzanne, writes brought one home and it managed to escape or
essays and plays and Miss Alexander, Alice, even from the zoological gardens a young one
writes poetry. So, let us begin. may have got loose, or one he bred there from
Dracula, Chapter 15. Dr. Stewart’s diary a vampire. These things do occur, you know.
continued: “For a while sheer anger mastered Only ten days ago a wolf got out, and was, I
me, it was as if he had, during her life, struck believe, traced up in this direction. For a week
Lucy on the face. I smote the table hard and after the children were playing nothing but
rose up as I said to him, ‘Dr. Helsing, are you Red Ridinghood on the heath. And in every
mad?’ He raised his head and looked at me. alley on the place until this bloofer lady scare
And somehow the tenderness of his face came along. Since then it has been quite a gala
calmed me at once. ‘Would that I were. My time with them. Even this poor little mite
madness were easy to bear compared with when he woke up today asked the nurse if he
truth like this. Oh, my friend, why think you might go away.’”
did I go so far round? Why take so long to tell

226
Scenes and Monologues

(Music. Voices) ALICE ALEXANDER Well, we walk all
over, in Primrose Hill, Regent’s Park, along
ALICE ALEXANDER After reading Dracula
Charing Cross Road. After we leave American
we had tea and sherry and listened to music.
Express we take tours of Trafalgar Square.
Dr. Freudenberger pulled his chair next to the
Yesterday we went to Windsor in the rain.
divan.
SUZANNE ALEXANDER Victoria grieved
(Piano music—Chopin)
for Albert there.
DR. FREUDENBERGER Tell me about your
ALICE ALEXANDER In the evenings we
teaching in Ghana.
return on the tour bus to Old Brompton Road
SUZANNE ALEXANDER Oh, we teach and sit by the gas fire and write David.
Césaire, the plays of Wole Soyinka, Chinua
SUZANNE ALEXANDER Where is he?
Achebe and Richard Wright and many other
Where’s my husband?
writers.
DR. FREUDENBERGER Suzanne, you must
DR. FREUDENBERGER And do you write
rest. I’ll walk you both home, you’re just
plays?
along the road. Perhaps I can help you. I know
SUZANNE ALEXANDER My most recent someone at the American Embassy, I’ll ring
play is She Talks to Beethoven, a play set in there tomorrow. Also, another patient’s daugh-
Ghana about a time two years ago when ter has lived in Ghana for years. I’ll talk to
David disappeared. her, but, Suzanne, you must not think of
returning to Ghana. It might kill the baby.
DR. FREUDENBERGER He has disappeared
I forbid it.
before?
SUZANNE ALEXANDER I understand.
SUZANNE ALEXANDER There were
threats against his life, and he disappeared to DR. FREUDENBERGER I’ll go with you
protect me from danger. to talk to the American ambassador tomorrow.
DR. FREUDENBERGER He must love you
a great deal.

SUZANNE ALEXANDER We went to

school together as children. We won the state
reading contest together.
The Mask of Hiroshima
by Ernest Ferlita (1966)
ALICE ALEXANDER After tea we read
Dracula again. Then we started to say good Characters: CHORUS—The chorus is dressed in
night. Sebastian was once more at Suzanne’s black and functions much like the choruses in
side. Greek classics. The chorus recounts the human
side of the dropping of the atomic bomb and
DR. FREUDENBERGER How do you spend
recounts the details of the present.
your days in London?
OKUMA—He is a small Japanese man of sixty.
His wife died seven years ago in the atomic

Scenes for Mixed Groups
227

explosion. He is a tailor and wears a kimono. Then they will have to pass a law against
SHINJI—He is a Japanese man of twenty-nine boys.
who wears Western clothes. He is Okuma’s son- (Quickly)
in-law and a teacher. His wife, Hisa, is pregnant But I’ll have you know I was very glad
and has a fever. when my little Hisa was born.
Situation: The action of the play takes place in Yes, yes, that was a day
Hiroshima, Japan, in 1952, seven years after the oversprinkled with flowers.
city was destroyed by an atomic bomb. There is (There is a rumble of thunder.)
a bare platform at centerstage, and in front of It is going to rain.
the platform is the acting area of dream and (SHINJI moves a couple of paces to see if the
memory. At the start of the play, the characters doctor is on his way, limping slightly.
sit in full view of the audience. The chorus sits OKUMA watches him.)
apart and then approaches the audience. In this OKUMA I am ashamed.
scene, Okuma and Shinji discuss what is best for
Hisa. SHINJI Why?

Chorus Here we are in the city of seven OKUMA I am ashamed that I alone, of
rivers. all my family,
Seven years have passed, seven years passed through that day unhurt.
since that drift of elemental power On you, on Hisa, I see its marks so clearly;
unleashed its light across our sky on my wife it was the mark of death.
to dim the rising sun. Why was I spared?
(OKUMA rises.) What god made me go alone the night before
The man of many moons is Mister Okuma. to see my mother in Mukaihara?
He is a tailor by trade. “Come with me,” I said to my wife.
His daughter Hisa is in bed with a fever, “No,” she said, “they will blow up the train.”
and here he waits, And she begged me not to go.
in the Hospital of the Red Cross. When I got back and found her body,
(SHINJI rises and paces. He walks with a the dark flowers of her kimono
slight limp.) had sucked in the sun
Waiting with Okuma is Shinji Ishikawa. and left their shapes upon her skin.
Shinji is his son-in-law. (SHINJI turns his face away. A clock strikes
He is a teacher. seven.)
He remembers the last time his wife was sick. OKUMA (After the first stroke)
But now there is more to fear, Seven o’clock. Seven is a good number.
for now she is with child. Nothing bad ever
OKUMA I hope it is a boy. happens at seven.

SHINJI I know that’s what Hisa wants.

OKUMA Everybody wants a boy. Some day
it may be possible to decide ahead of time.

228
Scenes and Monologues



(ANNIE goes out. FATHER drinks his orange
The Dining Room juice carefully, and reads his newspaper. A
by A. R. Gurney Jr. (1982) little GIRL sticks her head out through the
dining room door.)
Characters: FATHER—Father insists on proper GIRL Daddy. . . .
speech and behavior from his children and on
perfection from his maid. FATHER Yes, good morning, Lizzie Boo.
ANNIE—Annie, the family maid, is hard-work- GIRL Daddy, could Charlie and me—
ing and polite despite having such a perfection-
ist employer. FATHER Charlie and I. . . .
GIRL—Father’s daughter, she absolutely adores GIRL . . . Charlie and I come out and sit
him. He is affectionate toward her but is contin- with you while you have breakfast?
ually correcting and instructing her.
BOY—Like his sister, he adores his father; and FATHER You certainly may, Lizzikins. I’d
like his sister, he is constantly being corrected be delighted to have the pleasure of your com-
or instructed. pany, provided—
Situation: This play has just one set, a dining GIRL Yippee!
room. In this play, Gurney portrays dining rooms
FATHER I said, PROVIDED you sit quietly,
as symbolic of the changing lifestyle of the
without leaning back in your chairs, and don’t
American upper middle class. Here he portrays
fight or argue.
the dining room as it once was—the center of
family life. GIRL (Calling into kitchen) He says we can!
FATHER Annie. . . . FATHER I said you may, sweetheart.
(ANNIE is almost to the kitchen door.) (The GIRL comes out adoringly, followed by
a little BOY.)
ANNIE Yes, sir. . . .
GIRL (Kissing her FATHER) Good morning,
FATHER Did I find a seed in my orange
Daddy.
juice yesterday morning?
BOY (Kissing him too.) Morning, Dad.
ANNIE I strained it, sir.
(They settle into their seats. ANNIE brings
FATHER I’m sure you did, Annie. Nonethe- out the FATHER’S “breakfast.”)
less I think I may have detected a small seed.
ANNIE Here’s your cream, sir.
ANNIE I’ll strain it twice, sir.
FATHER Thank you, Annie.
FATHER Seeds can wreak havoc with the
ANNIE You’re welcome, sir.
digestion, Annie.
(ANNIE goes out. The children watch their
ANNIE Yes, sir. FATHER.)
FATHER They can take root. And grow. BOY Dad. . . .
ANNIE Yes, sir. I’m sorry, sir. FATHER Hmmm?

Scenes for Mixed Groups
229

BOY When do we get to have fresh cream dining rooms.
on our shredded wheat?
BOY I didn’t mean it as a crack, Dad.
GIRL When you grow up, that’s when.
FATHER Then we’ll ignore it. We’ll go on
FATHER I’ll tell you one thing. If there’s a with our breakfast.
war, no one gets cream. If there’s a war, we’ll (ANNIE comes in.)
all have to settle for top of the bottle.
ANNIE (To GIRL) Your car’s here, Lizzie.
GIRL Mother said she was thinking about For school.
having us eat dinner in here with you every
GIRL (Jumping up) OK.
night.
FATHER (To GIRL) Thank you, Annie.
FATHER Yes. Your mother and I are both
thinking about that. And we’re both looking GIRL Thank you, Annie. . . . (Kisses
forward to it. As soon as you children learn to FATHER) Good-bye, Daddy.
sit up straight. . . . (They quickly do.) . . . then
FATHER Good-bye, darling. Don’t be late.
I see no reason why we shouldn’t all have a
Say good morning to the driver. Sit quietly in
pleasant meal together every evening.
the car. Work hard. Run. Run. Good-bye.
BOY Could we try it tonight, Dad? Could
(GIRL goes off. FATHER returns to his paper.
you give us a test?
Pause. BOY sits watching his FATHER.)
FATHER No, Charlie. Not tonight. Because
BOY Dad, can I read the funnies?
tonight we’re giving a small dinner party. But
I hope very much you and Liz will come FATHER Certainly. Certainly you may.
down and shake hands.
(He carefully extracts the second section and
GIRL I get so shy, Dad. hands it to his son. Both read, the BOY trying
to imitate the FATHER in how he does it.
FATHER Well you’ll just have to learn,
Finally—)
sweetie pie. Half of life is learning to meet
people. FATHER This won’t mean much to you, but
the government is systematically ruining this
BOY What’s the other half, Dad?
country.
(Pause. The FATHER fixes him with a steely
gaze.) BOY Miss Kelly told us about the
government.
FATHER Was that a crack?
FATHER Oh, really. And who is Miss Kelly,
BOY No, Dad. . . .
pray tell?
FATHER That was a crack, wasn’t it?
BOY She’s my teacher.
BOY No, Dad. Really. . . .
FATHER I don’t remember any Miss Kelly.
FATHER That sounded very much like a
BOY She’s new, Dad.
smart-guy wise-crack to me. And people who
make cracks like that don’t normally eat in FATHER I see. And what has she been

230
Scenes and Monologues

telling you? BOY Could we leave a little earlier today?
BOY She said there’s a depression going on. FATHER We’ll leave when we always leave.
FATHER I see. BOY But I’m always late, Dad.
BOY People all over the country are stand- FATHER Nonsense.
ing in line for bread.
BOY I am, Dad. Yesterday I had to walk into
FATHER I see. assembly while they were still singing the
hymn.
BOY So the government has to step in and
do something. FATHER A minute or two late. . . .
(Long pause. Then—)
BOY Everyone looked at me, Dad.
FATHER Annie!
FATHER You tell everyone to concentrate
ANNIE (Coming out of kitchen) Yes, sir. on that hymn.
FATHER I’d very much like some more cof- BOY I can’t, Dad. . . .
fee, please.
FATHER It’s that new stoplight on
ANNIE Yes, sir. Richmond Avenue. It affects our timing.
(ANNIE goes out.)
BOY It’s not just the new stoplight, Dad.
FATHER You tell Miss Kelly she’s wrong. Sometimes I come in when they’re already
doing arithmetic. Miss Kelly says I should
BOY Why?
learn to be punctual.
FATHER I’ll tell you exactly why. If the gov-
FATHER (Putting down paper) Miss Kelly
ernment keeps on handing out money, no one
again, eh?
will want to work. And if no one wants to
work, there won’t be anyone around to sup- BOY She said if everyone is late, no one
port such things as private schools. And if no would learn any mathematics.
one is supporting private schools, then Miss
FATHER Now you listen to me, Charlie.
Kelly will be standing on the bread lines along
Miss Kelly may be an excellent teacher. Her
with everyone else. You tell Miss Kelly that,
factoring may be flawless, her geography
if you please. Thank you, Annie.
beyond question. But Miss Kelly does not
(ANNIE comes in and pours coffee. FATHER teach us politics. Nor does she teach us how
returns to his paper. ANNIE has retreated to to run our lives. She is not going to tell you,
the kitchen. BOY reads his funnies for a or me, to leave in the middle of a pleasant
moment. Then—) breakfast, and get caught in the bulk of the
morning traffic, just so that you can arrive in
BOY Dad. . . .
time for a silly hymn. Long after you’ve for-
FATHER (Reading) Hmmm? gotten that hymn, long after you’ve forgotten
how to factor, long after you’ve forgotten Miss
Kelly, you will remember these pleasant
breakfasts around this dining room table.
Scenes for Mixed Groups
231
 SCENES
makes me—fifty-three?
Monologues Welcome to Amherst. My name is Emily
Elizabeth Dickinson. Elizabeth is for my
for Women Aunt Elisabeth Currier. She’s father’s sister.
Oh, how the trees stand up straight when

they hear Aunt Libbie’s little boots come
thumping into Amherst! She’s the only male
relative on the female side.
The Belle of Amherst Dear Aunt Libbie.
by William Luce (1978) But I don’t use my middle name any-
more—since I became a poet.
Character: EMILY—Emily is the historical char- Professor Higginson, the literary critic,
acter Emily Dickinson, a well-known nine- doesn’t think my poems are—no matter. I’ve
teenth-century poet. In this scene she is fifty- had seven poems published—anonymously, to
three. She has auburn hair parted in the be sure. So you see why I prefer to introduce
middle and drawn back to the nape of her myself to you as a poet.
neck. She is wearing a simple, white, full- Here in Amherst, I’m known as Squire
length dress. She is a recluse who possesses Edward Dickinson’s half-cracked daughter.
tremendous inner strength. Well, I am! The neighbors can’t figure me
out. I don’t cross my father’s ground to any
Situation: This one-character play takes place
house or town. I haven’t left the house for
in the Dickinson household in Amherst,
years.
Massachusetts. This monologue, set in 1883,
opens the play. Emily has invited the audience The Soul selects her own Society—
to tea. Then—shuts the Door.
(EMILY turns to the window, still holding
EMILY (She enters, carrying the teapot. She
the cake.)
calls back over her shoulder.) Yes, Vinnie, I
Why should I socialize with village gos-
have the tea, dear!
sips? There goes one of them now—Henrietta
(She places the tea on the tea cart, then Sweetser—everyone knows Henny. She’d
looks up wide-eyed at the AUDIENCE. even intimidate the anti-Christ. Look at her!
Slowly she picks up a plate with slices of She’s strolling by the house, trying to catch a
dark cake on it, walks shyly downstage, and glimpse of me. Would you like that?
extends it to the AUDIENCE.) So I give them something to talk about.
This is my introduction. Black cake. My I dress in white all year around, even in
own special recipe. winter. “Bridal white,” Henny calls it.
Forgive me if I’m frightened. I never see
(She mimics back-fence gossips.)
strangers and hardly know what I say. My sis-
ter, Lavinia—she’s younger than I—she says “Dear, dear! Dresses in bridal white, she
I tend to wander back and forth in time. does, every day of the blessed year. Year in,
So you must bear with me. I was born year out. Disappointed in love as a girl, so I
December tenth, eighteen thirty, which hear. Poor creature. All so very sad. And her

232
Scenes and Monologues

sister Lavinia, a spinster too. Didn’t you shabby. In this scene, Mama finds a good use
know? Oh, yes. Stayed unmarried just to be for a large share of the insurance money she
at home and take care of Miss Emily. Two received at her husband’s death.
old maids in that big house. What a lonely
MAMA (Crosses R. to WALTER) Listen to
life, to shut yourself away from good people
me now. I say I been wrong, son. That I been
like us.”
doing to you what the rest of the world been
Indeed!
doing to you. (She turns off radio) Walter—
You should see them come to the door,
(She stops and he looks up slowly at her and
bearing gifts, craning their necks, trying to
she meets his eyes evenly.) what you ain’t
see over Vinnie’s shoulder. But I’m too fast
never understood is that I ain’t got nothing,
for them. I’ve already run upstairs two steps
don’t own nothing, ain’t really wanted noth-
at a time. And I hide there until they leave.
ing that wasn’t for you. There ain’t nothing
You can imagine what they make of that!
as precious to me—there ain’t nothing worth
One old lady came to the door the other
holding on to, money, dreams, nothing else—
day to get a peek inside. I surprised her by
if it means—if it means it’s going to destroy
answering the door myself. She stammered
my boy. (Crosses U.R.C. to buffet for her
something about looking for a house to buy.
pocketbook and money. He watches her
(Mischievously) without speaking or moving.) I paid the man
thirty-five hundred dollars down on the
To spare the expense of moving, I
house. That leaves sixty-five hundred dollars.
directed her to the cemetery.
Monday morning I want you to take this
money and take three thousand dollars and
put it in a savings account for Beneatha’s

medical schooling.
(WALTER rises, crosses U.C.)
A Raisin in the Sun
by Lorraine Hansberry (1959) The rest you put in a checking account—
with your name on it. And from now on any
Character: MAMA—In her early sixties, Lena penny that comes out of it or that go in it is
Younger is graceful, soft-spoken, and strong, for you to look after. For you to decide. (Puts
both physically and emotionally. She wants her money on coffee table and drops her hands a
children, Walter and Beneatha, to be self-confi- little helplessly) It ain’t much, but it’s all I
dent and well-respected, and she knows she got in the world and I’m putting it in your
must be the first one to make them feel that hands. I’m telling you to be the head of this
way. family from now on like you supposed to be.
Situation: Written by an African American
playwright, this play is set in Chicago’s South
Side sometime after World War II. The apart-
ment that the Youngers—an extended African
American family—live in is cramped and

Monologues for Women
233



mean, I never heard of a girl who failed
The Effects of Gamma absolutely everything regardless of what she
Rays on Man-in-the-Moon was suffering from. I suppose I should say
Marigolds recovering from . . . (Pause) Oh, I’ll tell you
by Paul Zindel (1970) why I’m calling. It’s about those seeds you
gave Matilda. She’s had them in the house for
Character: BEATRICE—Beatrice Hunsdorfer, a while now and they’re starting to grow.
a widow, is the anxious mother of two high Now she tells me they had been exposed to
school students, named Ruth and Matilda. radioactivity and I hear such terrible things
about radioactivity that I naturally associate
Situation: This scene takes place in the
radioactivity with sterility, and it positively
kitchen of Beatrice’s house, which was con-
horrifies me to have those seeds in my living
verted from a vegetable store. She is calling
room. Couldn’t she just grow plain marigolds
her daughter’s science teacher, Mr. Goodman,
like everyone else? (Pause) Oh . . . (Pause) It
to question the safety of a project he has
does sound like an interesting project . . .
assigned.
(Pause) No, I’m afraid that at this very
BEATRICE Mr. Goodman please. (Pause) moment I don’t know what a mutation is.
How would I know if he’s got a class? (She (Pause) Mr. Goodman . . . Mr. Goodman! I
finds a cigarette next to the hot plate.) Hello, don’t want you to think I’m not interested but
Mr. Goodman? Are you Mr. Goodman? Oh, I please spare me definitions over the phone. I’ll
beg your pardon, Miss Torgersen. Yes, I’ll wait. get down to the library next week and pick
(She lights her cigarette.) Couldn’t you find me out some little book on science and then
him, Miss Torgersen? (Pause) Oh! Excuse I’ll know all about mutations . . . (Pause)
me, Mr. Goodman, how are you? I’ll bet No, you didn’t insult me, but I just want
you’ll never guess who this is . . . It’s Mrs. you to know I’m not stupid . . . I just thought
Hunsdorfer—remember the frozen foods? You prevention was better than a tragedy, Mr.
know, Ruth tells me she’s your new secretary, Goodman. I mean, Matilda has enough to
and I certainly think that’s a delight. (She worry about without sterility. (She rises, picks
picks up the phone, crosses to U. of the up the phone, crosses R. and returns the
kitchen table, puts the phone on the table, phone to its shelf.) Well, I was just concerned,
and sits.) You were paying so much attention but you’ve put my poor mother’s heart at
to Matilda that I’ll bet Ruth just got jealous. ease. You know, really, our high schools need
She does things like that, you know. I hope more exciting young men like you, I really
she works hard for you, although I can’t imag- mean that. Really, I do. Goodbye, Mr.
ine what kind of work Ruth could be doing in Goodman. (She hangs up the phone, and then
that great big science office. She’s a terrible turns front.)
snoop . . . (Pause) The attendance? Isn’t that
charming. And the cut cards! Imagine. You
trust her with . . . Why I didn’t know she
could type at all . . . imagine. (Pause) Of
course, too much work isn’t good for anybody,
either. No wonder she’s failing everything. I

234
Scenes and Monologues





I Remember Mama The Taming of the Shrew
by John van Druten (1944) by William Shakespeare (1592)

Character: KATRIN—Katrin is a petite blonde Character: KATHERINE—newly married

in her early twenties. Situation: Katherine's husband has just
Situation: This monologue opens the play and instructed her to tell her headstrong women
functions as a prologue. The play takes place in friends what they owe their husbands.
and around San Francisco in 1910. Seated at a Katherine (ironically?) does just that.
desk facing the audience, Katrin is writing a
KATHERINE: Thy husband is thy lord, thy
reminiscence of her childhood.
life, thy keeper,
KATRIN (Reading) “For as long as I could Thy head, thy sovereign; one that cares for
remember, the house on Streiner Street had thee,
been home. Papa and Mama had both been And for thy maintenance commits his body
born in Norway, but they came to San To painful labour both by sea and land,
Francisco because Mama’s sisters were here. To watch the night in storms, the day in cold,
All of us were born here. Nels, the oldest and Whilst thou liest warm at home, secure and
the only boy—my sister Christine—and the safe;
littlest sister, Dagmar.” (She puts down her And craves no other tribute at thy hands
manuscript and looks out front.) It’s funny, But love, fair looks and true obedience;
but when I look back, I always see Nels and Too little payment for so great a debt.
Christine and myself looking almost as we do Such duty as the subject owes the prince
today. I guess that’s because the people you see Even such a woman oweth to her husband;
all the time stay the same age in your head. And when she is froward, peevish, sullen,
Dagmar’s different. She was always the baby— sour,
so I see her as a baby. Even Mama—it’s funny, And not obedient to his honest will,
but I always see Mama as around forty. She What is she but a foul contending rebel
couldn’t always have been forty. (She picks up And graceless traitor to her loving lord?
her manuscript and starts to read again.) I am ashamed that women are so simple
“Besides us, there was our boarder, Mr. Hyde. To offer war where they should kneel for
Mr. Hyde was an Englishman who had once peace,
been an actor, and Mama was very impressed Or seek for rule, supremacy and sway,
by his flowery talk and courtly manners. He When they are bound to serve, love and obey.
used to read aloud to us in the evenings. But . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
first and foremost, I remember Mama.” My mind hath been as big as one of yours,
My heart as great, my reason haply more,
To bandy word for word and frown for frown;
But now I see our lances are but straws,
Our strength as weak, our weakness past
compare,

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235

That seeming to be most which we indeed using a tone. Why do you two always say the
least are. exact same thing? I mean, always.
Then vail your stomachs, for it is no boot,
DAISY (After a pause) I’ll practise, okay?
And place your hands below your husband's
(Pause) I’ll eat. (Pause) I’m already eating.
foot:
(She grabs a piece of cake and stuffs it into
In token of which duty, if he please,
her mouth.) I’m eating, I’m eating. (Pause)
My hand is ready; may it do him ease.
No, I didn’t. (Pause) Uh . . . (Looking at
Nana) “ANNA KARENINA.” (Pause) Just
a few. Not many. (Pause, looking at the

books.) About twenty. (Pause) They’re not

dirty. (Pause) They’re not old. (Pause, picking
I Love You, I Love You Not up an ancient book whose pages are falling
by Wendy Kesselman (1988) out) Well, maybe just a little old. (Pause) I
have room. (Pause) On the top shelf. (Pause)
Character: DAISY—Daisy is a typical adoles- The very top. (Pause) I know I can get them
cent who is on a roller coaster of emotions. She out of the library. (Mumbling half to herself)
feels that her parents are overbearing and that It’s just not the same.
they do not understand her.
Situation: This play is set in the present in a

country house, where Daisy is visiting her
grandmother, Nana, for the weekend. Nana
buys old classic books for Daisy. In this scene, Fences
Daisy’s parents have called to make sure she is by August Wilson (1985)
eating correctly and doing her homework.

[Light comes up on DAISY, talking on the Character: ROSE—She is a forty-three-year-

phone.] old woman, devoted to her husband Troy and
their son, Cory.
DAISY I hear. (Long pause) I hear you.
Situation: Written by an African American
(Pause) I hear you, Ma. (Pause) Okay. (Pause)
playwright, this play is set in 1957. It is the
Okay. (Pause) I said okay, didn’t I? (Pause)
story of the Maxsons, who live in an ancient
O-KAY. (Pause) I’m sorry. (Pause) I said I
two-story brick house set off a small alley in a
was sorry. (Pause) I said it, didn’t I? Didn’t I?
big-city neighborhood. Just before this mono-
Didn’t I just say it? (Pause) Well I did. (Pause)
logue, Rose told her husband that she knows
Well maybe you didn’t hear me. (Pause) I’m
about his affair with another woman.
not. (Pause) I’m not, Ma. (Pause) I’m not
using a tone. (Pause) I am listening. (Pause) ROSE I been standing with you! I been right
I—yes I am. (Pause) I am, I am. (Pause) Ma here with you, Troy. I got a life too. I gave
please. (Pause) Oh please don’t. (Pause) Don’t eighteen years of my life to stand in the same
put him on. (Pause) Ma, do you have—Hi. spot with you. Don’t you think I ever wanted
(Pause) Fine. How are you? (Pause) Of course other things? Don’t you think I had dreams
I heard her. I just talked to her. I am not and hopes? What about my life? What about

236
Scenes and Monologues

me. Don’t you think it ever crossed my mind verbal. She is not intimidated by reality.
to want to know other men? That I wanted Situation: Set in modern-day Manhattan,
to lay up somewhere and forget about my this scene focuses on Trudy, a bag lady who
responsibilities? That I wanted someone to wanders through the city’s streets verbalizing
make me laugh so I could feel good? You not her thoughts. This monologue opens the
the only one who’s got wants and needs. But I one-woman play.
held on to you, Troy. I took all my feelings,
my wants and needs, my dreams . . . and I TRUDY Here we are, standing on the
buried them inside you. I planted a seed and corner of
watched and prayed over it. I planted myself “Walk, Don’t Walk.”
inside you and waited to bloom. And it didn’t You look away from me, tryin’ not to catch
take me no eighteen years to find out the soil my eye,
was hard and rocky and it wasn’t never gonna but you didn’t turn fast enough, did you?
bloom. You don’t like my raspy voice, do you?
But I held on to you, Troy. I held you I got this raspy voice
tighter. You was my husband. I owed you ‘cause I have to yell all the time
everything I had. Every part of me I could ‘cause nobody around here ever
find to give you. And upstairs in that room . . . LISTENS to me.
with the darkness falling in on me . . . I gave
everything I had to try and erase the doubt You don’t like that I scratch so much; yes,
that you wasn’t the finest man in the world. and excuse me,
And wherever you was going . . . I wanted to I scratch so much
be there with you. Cause you was my hus- ‘cause my neurons are
band. Cause that’s the only way I was gonna on fire.
survive as your wife. You always talking And I admit my smile is not at its Pepsodent
about what you give . . . and what you don’t best
have to give. But you take too. You take . . . ‘cause I think my
and don’t even know nobody’s giving! caps must’ve somehow got
osteoporosis.

And if my eyes seem to be twirling around

like fruit flies—
the better to see you with, my dears!
The Search for Signs
Look at me,
of Intelligent Life
you mammalian-brained LUNKHEADS!
in the Universe I’m not just talking to myself. I’m talking to
by Jane Wagner (1986)
you, too.
And to you
Character: TRUDY—Insane is the first adjec-
and you
tive that comes to mind when describing this
and you
bag lady. The truth is, Trudy is madly sane. She
and you and you and you!
is brilliantly perceptive, very funny, and highly

Monologues for Women
237

 SCENES
I dream—and I forget . . . And then I see
Monologues The shadow of my profile on the wall!

for Men

Julius Caesar
Cyrano de Bergerac by William Shakespeare (1599)
by Edmond Rostand (1897)
Character: MARK ANTONY–A close friend
Character: CYRANO DE BERGERAC—Captain and political ally of Julius Caesar's, Antony
of the Cadets of Gascoyne, Cyrano is the great- knows that Caesar did not want to be king of
est swordsman in France, able to defeat a hun- Rome.
dred enemies singlehandedly. He is also a wit, a Situation: Caesar has been assassinated for
poet, and a philosopher, generous and honor- political reasons. His assassins, who include
able. All of these impressive qualities, however, Brutus, have allowed Antony to speak at
seem to be overshadowed by his astonishingly Caesar's funeral on the condition that he say
large nose. nothing to make the crowd riot against the
Situation: This monologue is part of a scene assassins, who control Rome now that Caesar is
in which Cyrano confesses to his friend, Le Bret, dead. Antony wants to see Caesar's assassins
that he loves Roxanne. Le Bret tells Cyrano to brought to justice.
reveal his love to Roxanne and assures Cyrano MARK ANTONY Friends, Romans,
that he is a hero in her eyes. Cyrano responds countrymen, lend me your ears;
with this speech. I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.
CYRANO My old friend—look at me, The evil that men do lives after them;
And tell me how much hope remains for me The good is oft interred with their bones;
With this protuberance! Oh I have no more So let it be with Caesar. The noble Brutus
Illusions! Now and then—bah! I may grow Hath told you Caesar was ambitious:
Tender, walking alone in the blue cool If it were so, it was a grievous fault,
Of evening, through some garden fresh with And grievously hath Caesar answer'd it.
flowers Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest—
After the benediction of the rain; For Brutus is an honourable man;
My poor big devil of a nose inhales So are they all, all honourable men—
April . . . and so I follow with my eyes Come I to speak in Caesar's funeral.
Where some boy, with a girl upon his arm, He was my friend, faithful and just to me:
Passes a patch of silver . . . and I feel But Brutus says he was ambitious;
Somehow, I wish I had a woman too, And Brutus is an honourable man.
Walking with little steps under the moon, He hath brought many captives home to
And holding my arm so, and smiling. Then Rome,

238
Scenes and Monologues

Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill: This was the most unkindest cut of all;
Did this in Caesar seem ambitious? For when the noble Caesar saw him stab,
When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath Ingratitude, more strong than traitors' arms,
wept: Quite vanquish’d him: then burst his mighty
Ambition should be made of sterner stuff: heart;
Yet Brutus says he was ambitious; And, in his mantle muffling up his face,
And Brutus is an honourable man. Even at the base of Pompey's statua,
You all did see that on the Lupercal Which all the while ran blood, great Caesar
I thrice presented him a kingly crown, fell.
Which he did thrice refuse: was this ambition? O, what a fall was there, my countrymen!
Yet Brutus says he was ambitious; Then I, and you, and all of us fell down,
And, sure, he is an honourable man. Whilst bloody treason flourish'd over us.
I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke, O, now you weep; and, I perceive, you feel
But here I am to speak what I do know. The dint of pity: these are gracious drops.
You all did love him once, not without cause: Kind souls, what, weep you when you but
What cause withholds you then, to mourn behold
for him? Our Caesar's vesture wounded? Look you
O judgement! thou art fled to brutish beasts, here,
And men have lost their reason. Bear with Here is himself, marr’d, as you see, with trai-
me: tors.
My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar,
[At the play's end, Antony stands over the
And I must pause till it come back to me.
body of Brutus, who has fallen on his sword
[later in the same funeral oration] in remorse for his part in Caesar's murder.]
If you have tears, prepare to shed them now.
This was the noblest Roman of them all:
You all do know this mantle: I remember
All the conspirators save only he
The first time ever Caesar put it on;
Did that they did in envy of great Caesar;
'Twas on a summer's evening, in his tent,
He only, in a general honest thought
That day he overcame the Nervii:
And common good to all, made one of them.
Look, in this place ran Cassius’ dagger
His life was gentle, and the elements
through:
So mix’d in him that Nature might stand up
See what a rent the envious Casca made:
And say to all the world 'This was a man!'
Through this the well-beloved Brutus stabb'd;
And as he pluck’d his cursed steel away,
Mark how the blood of Caesar follow'd it,
As rushing out of doors, to be resolved
If Brutus so unkindly knock'd, or no;
For Brutus, as you know, was Caesar's angel:
Judge, O you gods, how dearly Caesar loved
him!

Monologues for Men
239



finest any woman in the world . . . This gor-
geous satin chick is . . . is . . . black velvet
moonlight . . . an ebony queen of the uni-
verse . . . (TOMMY can hardly believe her
Wine in the Wilderness ears.) One look at her and you go back to
by Alice Childress (1969) Spice Islands . . . She’s Mother Africa . . . you
flip, double flip. She has come through every-
Character: BILL—A confident artist, Bill thing that has been put on her . . . (He unveils
Jameson is preparing for an exhibition. the gorgeous woman he has painted . . .
Situation: This comedy-drama is set in a one- “Wine in the Wilderness.” TOMMY believes
room apartment in a Harlem tenement build- he is talking about her.) Regal . . . grand . . .
ing. The apartment is in a state of artistic disor- magnificent, fantastic . . . You would vote her
der, decorated with pictures and ornaments the woman you’d most like to meet on a
from a variety of cultures. Bill is preparing a desert island, or around the corner from any-
triptych (three paintings that combine to form where. She’s here with me now . . . and I
one work) for an upcoming exhibition. In the don’t know if I want to show her to you or
following scene, Bill is about to start painting a anybody else . . . I’m beginnin’ to have this
woman named Tommy when a phone call from deep attachment . . . She sparkles, man,
his agent delays him. Unbeknownst to her, Harriet Tubman, Queen of the Nile . . .
Tommy represents Bill’s image of a lost and sweetheart, wife, mother, sister, friend. . . .The
abandoned African American woman. night . . . a black diamond . . . A dark, beauti-
BILL . . . (Phone rings. He finds an African ful dream . . . A cloud with a silvery lining . . .
throwcloth and hands it to her.) Put this on. Her wrath is a storm over the Bahamas.
Relax, don’t go way mad, and all the rest-a “Wine in the Wilderness” . . . The memory of
that jazz. Change, will you? I apologize. I’m Africa . . . the now of things . . . but best of all
sorry. (He picks up the phone.) Hello, sur- and most important . . . She’s tomorrow . . .
vivor of a riot speaking. Who’s calling? she’s my tomorrow . . .
(TOMMY retires behind the screen with
the throw. During the conversation she
undresses and wraps the throw around her.
We see TOMMY and BILL, but they can’t see
each other.) Sure, told you not to worry. I’ll
be ready for the exhibit. If you don’t dig it,
don’t show it. Not time for you to see it yet.
Yeah, yeah, next week. You just make sure
your exhibition room is big enough to hold
the crowds that’s gonna congregate to see this
fine chick I got here. (This perks TOMMY’s
ears up.) You ought to see her. The finest
black woman in the world . . . No, . . . the

240
Scenes and Monologues



There’s an empty place next to her on the
bench. There’s no reason why I couldn’t just
You’re a Good Man, go over and sit there. I could do that right
Charlie Brown now. All I have to do is stand up. (He stands.)
by Clark Gesner, based on the comic strip I’m standing up. (He sits.) I’m sitting down.
Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz (1968) I’m a coward. I’m so much of a coward she
wouldn’t even think of looking at me. She
Character: CHARLIE BROWN—Although hardly ever does look at me. In fact, I can’t
Charlie Brown is a bright young boy, he remember her ever looking at me. Why
lacks self-confidence. He often feels lonely, shouldn’t she look at me? Is there any reason
depressed, and sorry for himself. in the world why she shouldn’t look at me?
Situation: This monologue is set in a typical Is she so great and am I so small that she
American school yard during lunchtime. couldn’t spare one little moment just to
. . . (He freezes.) She’s looking at me. (In
CHARLIE BROWN I think lunchtime is terror he looks one way, then another.)
about the worst time of the day for me. She’s looking at me.
Always having to sit here alone. Of course,
sometimes mornings aren’t so pleasant, (His head looks all around, frantically trying
either—waking up and wondering if anyone to find something else to notice. His teeth
would really miss me if I never got out of clench. Tension builds. Then, with one
bed. Then there’s the night, too—lying there motion, he pops the paper bag over his head.)
and thinking about all the stupid things I’ve
done during the day. And all those hours in

between—when I do all those stupid things.
Well, lunchtime is among the worst times of
the day for me.
Well, I guess I’d better see what I’ve got. A Thousand Clowns
(He opens the bag, unwraps a sandwich, and by Herb Gardner (1961)
looks inside.) Peanut butter. (He bites and
chews.) Some psychiatrists say that people Character: MURRAY—Murray Burns is in his
who eat peanut butter sandwiches are lonely. mid-thirties and used to write for a television
I guess they’re right. And if you’re really situation comedy. He has been unemployed
lonely, the peanut butter sticks to the roof of since he quit that job.
your mouth. (He munches quietly, idly fin-
Situation: Murray has a one-room, second-
gering the bench.) Boy, the PTA sure did a
floor apartment on the Lower West Side of
good job of painting these benches. (He looks
Manhattan. Murray’s older brother, Arnold,
off to one side.) There’s that cute little red-
acts as Murray’s agent. Here, Murray confronts
headed girl eating her lunch over there. I
his brother, whom he considers a prize example
wonder what she’d do if I went over and
of a total conformist.
asked her if I could sit and have lunch with
her. She’d probably laugh right in my face. MURRAY Oh, Arnie, you don’t understand
It’s hard on a face when it gets laughed in. any more. You got that wide stare that people

Monologues for Men
241



stick in their eyes so nobody’ll know their
head’s asleep. You got to be a shuffler, a
moaner. You want me to come sit and eat Man of La Mancha
fruit with you and watch the clock run out. The book for this musical was
You start to drag and stumble with the rotten written by Dale Wasserman (1966).
weight of all the people who should have
been told off, all the things you should have Character: CERVANTES—A tall, thin man in
said, all the specifications that aren’t yours. his late forties, Cervantes displays a gentle
The only thing you got left to reject is your courtliness. He is so honest that he is almost
food in a restaurant if they do it wrong and self-destructive. Cervantes’s life is a catalog of
you can send it back and make a big fuss catastrophe, and yet he never gives up hope or
with the waiter. (MURRAY turns away from loses his sense of wonder at the world.
ARNOLD, goes to window seat, sits down.) Situation: This musical play is an adaptation
Arnold, five months ago I forgot what day it of Don Quixote by Cervantes. Born in 1547,
was. I’m on the subway on my way to work Cervantes was a contemporary of Shakespeare.
and I didn’t know what day it was and it Cervantes’s Don Quixote, set in Spain at the
scared the hell out of me. (Quietly) I was sit- end of the sixteenth century, is about an ideal-
ting in the express looking out the window istic knight whom everyone believes is insane.
same as every morning watching the local In this scene, set in a prison cell in the city of
stops go by in the dark with an empty head Seville, Cervantes muses about what madness
and my arms folded, not feeling great and not actually is.
feeling rotten, just not feeling, and for a
minute I couldn’t remember, I didn’t know, CERVANTES I have lived nearly fifty years,
unless I really concentrated, whether it was a and I have seen life as it is. Pain, misery,
Tuesday or a Thursday—or a—for a minute it hunger . . . cruelty beyond belief. I have heard
could have been any day, Arnie—sitting in the singing from taverns and the moans from
the train going through any day—in the dark bundles of filth on the streets. I have been a
through any year—Arnie, it scared the hell soldier and seen my comrades fall in battle . . .
out of me. (Stands up) You got to know what or die more slowly under the lash in Africa. I
day it is. You got to know what’s the name of have held them in my arms at the final
the game and what the rules are with nobody moment. These were men who saw life as it
else telling you. You have to own your days is, yet they died despairing. No glory, no gal-
and name them, each one of them, every one lant last words . . . only their eyes filled with
of them, or else the years go right by and confusion, whimpering the question: “Why?”
none of them belong to you. I do not think they asked why they were
dying, but why they had lived. (He rises, and
through the following speech moves into the
character of DON QUIXOTE.) When life
itself seems lunatic, who knows where
madness lies? Perhaps to be too practical
is madness. To surrender dreams—this may
be madness. To seek treasure where there is

242
Scenes and Monologues

only trash. Too much sanity may be mad- whole time it’s been up here. So why you
ness. And maddest of all, to see life as it is wanna stand in my way? See, you just look-
and not as it should be. ing at the sentimental value. See, that’s good.
That’s alright. I take my hat off whenever
somebody say my daddy’s name. But I ain’t
gonna be no fool about no sentimental value.

The Piano Lesson
You can sit up here and look at the piano for
the next hundred years and it’s just gonna be
a piano. You can’t make more than that.
by August Wilson (1990)
Now I want to get Sutter’s land with that
piano. I get Sutter’s land and I can go down
Character: BOY WILLIE—He is a thirty-year-
and cash in the crop and get my seed. As
old man who has an infectious grin and a boy-
long as I got the land and the seed then I’m
ishness that is apt for his name. He is brash,
alright. I can always get me a little something
impulsive, talkative, and somewhat crude in
else. Cause that land give back to you. I can
speech and manner.
make me another crop and cash that in. I still
Situation: Boy Willie needs cash so that he got the land and the seed. But that piano
can buy some land that has just been put on don’t put out nothing else. You ain’t got
the market. After not having seen his sister for nothing working for you. Now, the kind of
three years, he arrives at her house at five man my daddy was he would have under-
o’clock in the morning and tries to persuade stood that. I’m sorry you can’t see it that
her to sell her piano. way. But that’s why I’m gonna take that
BOY WILLIE Now, I’m gonna tell you the piano out of here and sell it.
way I see it. The only thing that make that
piano worth something is them carvings Papa
Willie Boy put on there. That’s what make


it worth something. That was my great-
grandaddy. Papa Boy Charles brought that
piano into the house. Now, I’m supposed to A Few Good Men
build on what they left me. You can’t do by Aaron Sorkin (1990)
nothing with that piano sitting up here in the
house. That’s just like if I let them watermel- Character: JESSEP—In his forties, Jessep is a
ons sit out there and rot. I’d be a fool. Alright lieutenant colonel who is devoted to the
now, if you say to me, Boy Willie, I’m using Marine Corps.
that piano. I give out lessons on it and that
Situation: Jessep is giving testimony at the
help me make my rent or whatever. Then
court-martial of two marines charged with
that be something else. I’d have to go on and
unofficially disciplining another marine so vio-
say, well, Berniece using that piano. She
lently that the marine being disciplined died.
building on it. Let her go on and use it. I got
This type of internal, unofficial discipline is
to find another way to get Sutter’s land. But
known as a “Code Red.” Jessep has just been
Doaker say you ain’t touched that piano the
told to tell the truth about “Code Red.”

Monologues for Men
243



JESSEP Captain, for the past month, this
man has attempted to put the Marine Corps
on trial. I think somebody . . . better address My Children! My Africa!
this question or people are liable to start lis- by Athol Fugard (1989)
tening to him.
[KAFFEE: Why is it impossible—?] Character: MR. M—A schoolteacher in a
[JESSEP: Because you can’t handle it, son. black township in South Africa, Mr. M is a truly
You can’t handle the truth. You can’t handle inspiring teacher who helps young people navi-
the sad but historic reality.] gate the treacherous waters of apartheid.
[KAFFEE: What reality are you referring to, Situation: After learning that his brightest
Colonel?] students have organized an illegal political
action committee, Mr. M reports them to the
JESSEP We live in a world that has walls.
police.
And those walls have to be guarded by men
with guns. Who’s gonna do it? You? (To Sam) MR. M We were on our way to a rugby
You, Lt. Weinberg? I have a greater responsi- match at Somerset East. The lorry stopped at
bility than you can possibly fathom. You weep the top of the mountain so that we could
for Santiago, and you curse the Marines. You stretch our legs and relieve ourselves. It was a
have that luxury. The luxury of the blind. The hard ride on the back of that lorry. The road
luxury of not knowing what I know: That hadn’t been tarred yet. So there I was, ten
Santiago’s death, while tragic, probably saved years old and sighing with relief as I aimed
lives. And my existence, while grotesque and for the little bush. It was a hot day. The sun
incomprehensible to you . . . saves lives. You right over our heads . . . not a cloud in the
can’t handle it. Because deep down, in places vast blue sky. I looked out . . it’s very high up
you don’t talk about, you want me on that there at the top of the pass . . . and there it
wall. You need me there. We use words like was, stretching away from the foot of the
honor, code, loyalty. We use these words as a mountain, the great pan of the Karoo . . .
backbone to a life spent defending something. stretching away forever, it seemed, into
You use them as a punchline. I have neither the purple haze and heat of the horizon.
the time nor the inclination to explain myself Something grabbed my heart at that moment,
to a man who rises and sleeps under the blan- my soul, and squeezed it until there were
ket of the very freedom I provide, then ques- tears in my eyes. I had never seen anything
tions the manner in which I provide it. I’d pre- so big, so beautiful in all my life. I went to
fer you just said thank you and went on your the teacher who was with us and asked him:
way. Otherwise, I’d suggest you pick up a “Teacher, where will I come to if I start walk-
weapon and stand a post. ing that way” . . . and I pointed. He laughed.
“Little man,” he said, “that way is north. If
you start walking that way and just keep on
walking, and your legs don’t give in, you will
see all of Africa! Yes, Africa, little man! You
will see the great rivers of the continent: the
Vaal, the Zambesi, the Limpopo, the Congo

244
Scenes and Monologues

and then the mighty Nile. You will see the has in his arms my real birthright. I saw him
mountains: the Drakensberg, Kilimanjaro, on the television in the Reverend Mbop’s
Kenya and the Ruwenzori. And you will lounge. An Ethiopian tribesman, and he was
meet all our brothers: the little Pygmies of carrying the body of a little child that had
the forests, the proud Masai, the Watusi . . . died of hunger in the famine . . . a small bun-
tallest of the tall and the Kikuyu standing on dle carelessly wrapped in a few rags. I couldn’t
one leg like herons in a pond waiting for a tell how old the man was. The lines of
frog.” “Has teacher seen all that?” I asked. despair and starvation on his face made him
“No,” he said. “Then how does teacher know look as old as Africa itself.
it’s there?” “Because it is all in the books and He held that little bundle very lightly as
I have read the books and if you work hard in he shuffled along to a mass grave, and when
school, little man, you can do the same with- he reached it, he didn’t have the strength to
out worrying about your legs giving in.” kneel and lay it down gently . . . He just
He was right, Thami. I have seen it. It is opened his arms and let it fall. I was very
all there in the books just as he said it was upset when the program ended. Nobody had
and I have made it mine. I can stand on the thought to tell us his name and whether he
banks of all those great rivers, look up at the was the child’s father, or grandfather, or
majesty of all those mountains, whenever I uncle. And the same for the baby! Didn’t it
want to. It is a journey I have made many have a name? How dare you show me one of
times. Whenever my spirit was low and I sat our children being thrown away and not tell
alone in my room, I said to myself: Walk, me its name! I demand to know who is in
Anela! Walk! . . . and I imagined myself at that bundle!
the foot of the Wapadsberg setting off for that (Pause) Not knowing their names doesn’t
horizon that called me that day forty years matter anymore. They are more than just
ago. It always worked! When I left that little themselves. The tribesmen and dead child do
room, I walked back into the world a proud duty for all of us, Thami. Every African soul
man, because I was an African and all the is either carrying that bundle or in it.
splendor was my birthright. What is wrong with this world that it
(Pause) I don’t want to make that journey wants to waste you all like that . . . my chil-
again, Thami. There is someone waiting for dren . . . my Africa! (Holding out a hand as if
me now at the end of it who has made a he wanted to touch Thami’s face) My beauti-
mockery of all my visions of splendor. He ful and proud young Africa!

Monologues for Men
245

 Application
ACTIVITIES
Scenes
1. From “A Treasury of Scenes and Monologues,” choose a scene for
two people that you will direct. Review the entire play to better
understand the characters and the subtext of the scene. Hold auditions
for the parts (pp. 349–355) and issue critiques (p. 336). After you have
cast the roles, review the different approaches to characterization as
well as stage business and blocking found in Chapter 4. Hold several
practices, and then present your scene to the class. After you have
directed the short scene, try directing a short play or a longer scene.
2. The time and place in which a play is written often have a tremen-
dous effect on the work. Select one of the scenes from “A Treasury
of Scenes and Monologues” and research the history of its setting.
Also, investigate the trends in theater at the time (see Chapter 7).
After doing this, evaluate and analyze the historical and cultural
influences on the play. Does the play directly reflect its time
period? Does it follow the trends in the theater at that time?
Describe the effects in an essay. Cite examples from the play.
3. Working in a group, choose a scene from “A Treasury of Scenes and
Monologues” and focus on portraying the particular time period
and culture that are represented in that selection. This may take
some research. As you prepare the selection for presentation, pay
close attention to dialect (see pages 147–150), costumes (see
Chapter 12), and the characterization (see Chapter 4). Make sure
your portrayal is a valid representation of the culture and the time.

Monologues
1. Choose a monologue from “A Treasury of Scenes and Monologues”
and study it carefully in the context of the entire play. Present your
interpretation of the monologue to the class. You might choose to
rewrite or reword the selection, placing it in another time period or
setting. It is important to simplify or intensify the meaning for your
audience. Remember that this should not be a word-for-word pre-
sentation, but your interpretation of the work.
2. Choose a character from one of the monologues. Study the mono-
logue within the context of the entire play. Either write a response
to that monologue in the voice of the character who is addressed or
rewrite the monologue in any voice you choose. Deliver your
monologue to the class, emphasizing the emotions that the original
monologue stimulated.

246
Readers Theater

Plays that might be difficult to stage can
often be presented from scripts by a reader or a
group of readers. Strictly speaking, readers theater is
not acting, but it is most definitely theater. In readers
theater, a reader serves as the medium to bring the drama
and its characters before an audience. Through voice, facial
expressions, and controlled but meaningful gestures and
stances, the reader creates an imaginary stage peopled with
interesting characters.
The appeal of readers theater depends on the interpreters’
capacity, through vocal and facial expression, to involve the
audience emotionally in the ideas of the author. Unlike conven-
tional theater, the action in readers theater is imaginary rather
than physical.
Readers theater takes many forms. The possibilities are limited
only by the imagination. The subject matter can be any form
of literature: poems, novels, short stories, or plays. It might
involve many readers or a single reader. It can include an intro-
duction, selected scenes, narrative connections, or summaries of
certain portions of the action. Stage sets, lighting, and costumes
are always simplified. Although by using simple movements a
reader might provide a general impression of a character, the
play is actually being read to the audience—there is no illusion
of a fourth wall.

READINGS BY ONE PERSON

Platform readings of a play by one person usually take one of two different
forms: a play review or a dramatic reading. In the former, the play is pre-
sented through selected scenes in conjunction with a well-prepared dis-
cussion of the author and the literary value of the play. In the latter, the

Readers Theater
247

 play, usually in condensed form, is read without comments or possibly


with a short introduction and narrative connections between scenes. Some
dramatic readings, called monodramas, involve “becoming” a single char-
acter or the author. Although these two forms of platform readings differ
in their purposes and their degrees of formality, both require careful selec-
tion and editing of the play and any connecting or background material.
In selecting the literature for presentation, always consider the audi-
ence that will hear it. Your selection should not only suit your talents but
should also be one you thoroughly enjoy. Your enthusiasm will be
contagious.
Because both the play review and the dramatic reading involve inter-
pretation, the principles that apply to all work in drama apply here. You
must understand the play as a whole and
how the specific selection you have
chosen to read contributes to it. You
must understand every character you
A dramatic reading
present, including his or her relation- requires a simplifica-
ship to other characters tion of the play,
and to the theme of the reducing descriptive
and informative mate-
entire play. You must be
rial and emphasizing
able to re-create their compelling situations.
emotions in your pre-
sentation.
One-person read-
ings require attention to
the following elements:

Play Reviews
• Choose passages for
reading that are interest-
ing in themselves. They should serve to
exemplify the author’s style as well as to bring out the
personalities of the characters.
• Choose passages that lend themselves to effective reading.
Occasionally it is wise to read one act in its entirety, but usually
cuttings from a number of scenes are more interesting.
• Take particular care in condensing the plot. Read and study the
play thoroughly; then consult any available sources for concise
summary information.
• Avoid boring your audience with lengthy discourses on the
author’s philosophy and literary style.

248
Scenes and Monologues

 • Before performing the scenes from the play, briefly describe the

main characters. If possible, quote lines that characterize them,
using either their own lines or those of other characters.

Dramatic Readings
• Choose passages with strong emotional appeal, preferably with an
intermingling of humor and pathos.
• Reduce all descriptive and informative material to a minimum,
leaving only compelling situations that lead up to a dramatic cli-
max.
• Choose contrasting characters so they will be easily identified.
• Assume a suitable voice and move sufficiently to suggest the pos-
ture and location of each character when he or she speaks.
• Give necessary stage directions, and describe the set clearly.
Although subordinate to the dialogue, these should never be pre-
sented casually.

GROUP READINGS
A play read by a cast demands careful planning and rehearsal. The play, of
course, must be cut carefully to make the action flow properly. The main
thrust of the plot must be clear; detailed subplots and lengthy speeches
should be eliminated. The passages containing the best scenes of conflict
and those essential to the theme should be retained.
In readings of this type, it is sometimes necessary to have a narrator
read any introductory or descriptive material and summarize important
parts that have been omitted. The narrator can affect the entire presenta-
tion, perhaps more than any other person. Situated outside the cast on a
platform or behind a lectern, the narrator must have a voice that is clear
and pleasing. An effective narrator must possess a strong sense of timing
and climax.
Group readings offer unusual opportunities for creative presentations.
If you have black or very dark drapes, the performers can wear black
clothes and be lighted by spots so only their faces stand out. Spotlights or
other individual lighting units work well against neutral curtains, screens,
and walls. The performers might stand behind music stands or sit on
stools. The stage might contain essential furniture, and the performers
might dress in limited costumes to bring more reality to their roles.
Settings and costumes, however, should help to create an illusion, so they
should not be too striking or realistic. Group readings can take several pop-
ular forms.

Readers Theater
249

 Choral Reading In a choral reading, a number of actors serve as a chorus


or as a narrator. They speak or chant lines individually, in small alternat-
ing groups, or in unison. Choral reading can be a powerful form of theater
if the script is carefully designed.

Chamber Theater Chamber theater takes a non-dramatic literary work,

such as a short story, a children’s tale, or an essay, and turns it into a script.
Stage directions and narrative phrases are often read. Lines are not neces-
sarily limited to the one actor reading the part; they can even be broken
into fragments and read by other actors.

Combination Reading and Performing This type of readers theater com-

bines reading actors and performing actors. As the readers deliver the lines,
the performing actors pantomime the action. This approach works well
with children’s theater and can be varied in many ways. For example, chil-
dren might be invited to participate by furnishing sounds or by becoming
objects, such as trees or doors.

BENEFITS OF READERS THEATER

One great advantage of readers theater is that it does not require memo-
rization, so rehearsal time can be spent developing interpretation skills.
Therefore, when a readers theater production is being cast, careful atten-
tion must be given to vocal effectiveness and facial flexibility.
Readers theater offers unique opportunities for actors. It is the only
form of theater in which one person can take two or more parts without
the help of makeup or costume. Because of its focus on the script, readers
theater offers excellent opportunities for actors to perfect their interpretive
skills while involving the audience in a genuine dramatic experience.

Group readings, such as Love

Letters, by A. R. Gurney Jr., per-
formed here by Kitty Carlisle Hart
and Tony Randall, allow readers the-
ater to be creative and flexible.