Play 189: High-Five!

CHARACTERS
BRAD, 17
STEVE, 16
FRANK, 17

(Brad and Steve are walking from opposite sides towards each other in a school hallway.)

BRAD
Hey!

(He lifts his hand into the air, appearing to be asking for a high-five.)

STEVE
Sup?

(When he gets close enough to Brad, he lifts his hand as well.)

(Brad sweeps his hand in, looking to be high-fiving Steve, but at the last second his hand alters course and punches Steve in the face.)

(Steve stumbles backwards clutching his forehead where he had been hit.)

(Brad laughs.)

STEVE
(Angrily.)
What the fuck man?!

BRAD
I know, I got you good, didn’t I?

(Steve takes his hands from his face.)

STEVE
Fuck you!

BRAD
Chill man.

STEVE
You just fucking punched me in the face!

BRAD
I know, you definitely didn’t see that coming!

STEVE
What is wrong with you?

(He starts walking off angrily.)

BRAD
Dude, what’s up your ass?

(Steve turns back, glares at him, and then continues walking.)

BRAD
(Muttering to himself.)
Whatever.

(Frank enters.)

BRAD
Hey!

FRANK
Yo.

BRAD
High-five!

(He lifts his hand up.)

(Frank lifts his.)

(Blackout.)

Play 188: The Morning Routine

CHARACTERS
BEN, 17

(He is lying in bed, a lamp by it is on.)

(He yawns loudly.)

BEN
Finally…

(He turns off the lamp, dim lighting still makes it possible to see him though.)

(He pulls the covers over himself and lies motionless.)

(Pause, he appears and sounds to be asleep.)

(Beat.)

(He suddenly jerks awake with a loud sneeze, followed almost immediately by another one.)

BEN
(Muttering.)
Goddamnit…

(He sneezes again, and then after another second or two, for a fourth time.)

(He groans, then lies back down.)

(He rolls around in the bed, and readjusts his blankets several times, and finally settles down, and after a few seconds, he once again seems to be asleep. After a second or two, the lights gradually turn on, until the room is relatively brightly lit.)

(Pause.)

(An alarm goes off loudly, and he awakes, startled.)

(He groans, and rolls over on his side to turn off the alarm. He turns it off, and rolls back onto his back.)

BEN
(Muttering.)
You’ve got to be kidding me….

(He yawns.)

(He looks down at his watch.)

(Beat.)

BEN
(Muttering.)
Fuck.

(He sits up.)

(Pause, he sits staring forward blankly.)

(He yawns, then looks at his watch again.)

BEN
Fuck, fuck, fuck.

(Beat.)

(He collapses back down to the bed with a loud crash, his head smashing into the pillow.)

(He closes his eyes and smiles.)

(Beat.)

(The alarm goes off again.)

(He groans, then rolls over and buries his face into the pillow, the alarm continues to ring.)

(Blackout.)

Play 187: An Awkward Dinner

CHARACTERS
PAUL, 19
BRIAN, 14
MARK, 56
SUSAN, 52

(They are sitting around a table eating dinner.)

MARK
What is it?

PAUL
Well, it’s about my plans for the future.

SUSAN
Oh?

PAUL
Yeah.

(Beat.)

BRIAN
So?

PAUL
I don’t think you’ll be too happy.

SUSAN
I’m sure we’ll be fine.

PAUL
I’m not so sure.

SUSAN
You can tell us.

PAUL
Okay.

(He takes a sip of his drink.)

I want to drop out of college.

(He looks down at the table.)

MARK
(Surprised.)
What?

SUSAN
Maybe you should think about this more.

PAUL
I have.

MARK
You can’t just drop out of college without having some sort of plan.

PAUL
I do.

MARK
You do?

SUSAN
What is it?

(Beat.)

PAUL
I’m going to be a musician.

BRIAN
Sweet!

MARK
(Unenthusiastically.)
A musician.

PAUL
Yeah, a jazz guitarist.

BRIAN
That’s pretty awesome.

SUSAN
Honey, are you sure about this?

PAUL
Completely.

MARK
A musicians isn’t (beat.) well, you know, the most practical job.

PAUL
I know.

SUSAN
It isn’t easy to make a living like that.

PAUL
I can manage.

(Pause.)

MARK
I guess there isn’t any talking you out of this, is there?

PAUL
No.

(Pause, they each eat in silence.)

SUSAN
(To Brian.)
So (beat.) did anything happen at school today?

BRIAN
No.

(Beat.)

(They sit eating in silence.)

(Blackout.)

Play 186: Homicide

CHARACTERS
1, male, 17
2, male, 17
3, male, 16

(1 and 2 are sitting at a table.)

1
Homicide?

2
Yeah.

1
That sucks.

2
Yeah.

1
How will you live without it?

2
Who knows.

1
I mean, imagine it (beat.) no homicide.

2
I know.

1
So how much longer till it’s over?

2
Less than a week probably.

1
Damn.

(Beat.)

What’ll you do?

2
No clue.

1
You’ll have more free time.

2
Yeah.

(Beat.)

(3 Enters.)

3
Hey, what’re you guys talking about?

2
Homicide.

1
And the emptiness of life without it.

(3 gives them a confused look.)

(Beat.)

2
It’s a TV show.

3
(His confused expression lifts.)
Oh.

(Beat.)

That makes a lot more sense now.

1
Wait, you thought…

3
Yeah.

2
No wonder you looked so confused.

(They laugh.)

(Blackout.)

Play 185: Internal Struggle

CHARACTERS
VINCENT, 17

(He stands in the middle of the stage.)

VINCENT
You know, I remember hearing this line somewhere that went something like, every man is a horde of men.

(Beat.)

I remember thinking that was an interesting line.

(Beat.)

But, really, so what? That’s nothing new really, everyone’s a different person in different circumstances with different people, and, everyone has different perspectives and all that, that’s not the problem.

(Beat.)

The problem for me is, all the different “people,” if you will, are pretty much at war all the time.

(Beat.)

But that’s not the real problem. What’s worse is that no one ever wins. The insecure part of me and the narcissistic part tear each other down, the impulsive part of me is stopped by the anxious and worried part, they all are constantly at odds, and yet they always end up in a stalemate.

(Beat.)

So, all the different parts of my mind are never able to fully assert themselves, because the part of me that thinks the exact opposite is always just strong enough to stop me from fully believing in the other, so I never act on anything.

(Beat.)

Sometimes I wish for once that one of the people would finally lose one of those battles, so whichever one won, I could finally act on it. I don’t even really care so much which one it is, none of them are really that much better or more important or logical than the rest, so it really doesn’t matter. All that matters is for once the stasis, the stalemate, whatever you want to call it, for once, I’d get out of it.

(Beat.)

But, now the “you’re-going-way-too-far-with-this-ridiculous-and-overstretched-analogy” part of me is getting ready to brutally kill me, so I think I’ll stop it there.

(Blackout.)

Play 184: Possibilities

CHARACTERS
VINCENT, 17
JAMES, 17

(They sit at a table eating lunch.)

VINCENT
You don’t think so?

JAMES
Not really.

VINCENT
Oh.

(Beat.)

JAMES
I don’t know, maybe, I just didn’t notice really.

VINCENT
You sure?

JAMES
Yeah.

VINCENT
Okay.

(Beat.)

So it didn’t seem strange to you?

JAMES
What?

VINCENT
That she said hi to you and not me.

JAMES
She probably just didn’t notice you were there.

VINCENT
Maybe.

(Beat.)

But I mean, she’s not any closer to you than me, right?

JAMES
Right.

VINCENT
So why didn’t she say hi to me?

JAMES
I don’t know.

(Beat.)

Maybe she’s angry at you for some reason.

VINCENT
I don’t think so.

JAMES
You haven’t done anything that could’ve pissed her off?

VINCENT
Nope.

(Beat.)

Maybe she likes me.

JAMES
It’s possible.

VINCENT
Like, maybe she’s just shy cause of that or something.

JAMES
Could be.

VINCENT
Or maybe she hates me.

JAMES
I doubt it.

VINCENT
Or just doesn’t like me much, I mean, so what if she’s said the opposite, it’s what you do, not say, you know?

JAMES
Or maybe she just didn’t see you.

(Beat.)

VINCENT
Yeah.

JAMES
You do know that’s by far the most likely solution, right?

VINCENT
Yeah.

JAMES
So your thinking of all these other possibilities (beat.) why?

VINCENT
I ask myself that all the time.

(James laughs.)

VINCENT
I’m serious.

JAMES
That’s why I laughed.

VINCENT
Oh.

(Blackout.)

Play 183: Nappy Time

CHARACTERS
BEN, 17
DEREK, 17

(Ben is sitting in front of a computer staring blankly at the screen.)

(Derek enters.)

DEREK
How’s it going?

BEN
An hour and a half.

DEREK
What?

BEN
That’s around how long I’ve been trying to think of something to write.

DEREK
That sucks.

BEN
Yeah.

DEREK
And still no luck?

BEN
None.

DEREK
You’d think it’d get easier to think of ideas after a while.

BEN
I had thought it would.

DEREK
It hasn’t at all?

BEN
Not really.

(Beat.)

Lately it’s been taking longer than it did at first I think.

DEREK
That sucks.

BEN
You have no idea.

(Beat.)

DEREK
You look tired.

BEN
Once again, you have no idea.

DEREK
Go to sleep then.

BEN
I have to write this.

DEREK
Then write a cop out.

BEN
I don’t want to though, done too many already.

DEREK
Not that many lately.

BEN
True.

(Beat.)

But still.

DEREK
Whatever then, stay up if you want to, I’m heading out.

BEN
Okay.

(Derek exits.)

(Ben stares at the screen for a bit, then looks at his watch. He yawns.)

BEN
You know what?

(Beat.)

Fuck this.

(He takes out a piece of paper with the “cop-out” written on it in giant letters, and tapes it to the computer screen.)

(He yawns again.)

BEN
I do believe it’s nappy time.

(He exits.)

(Blackout.)