SNAPSHOT
3 Characters
1 Man. 1 Woman. The child, or 3rd character, can be male or female
Simple Set
42 Pages
Produced at Dowling College with my adult acting students who I considered to be professional actors.
The play takes place in the mind of the child, now an adult, remembering the last days of his parents lives. The child remembers, and as he does, the parents come to life in chilling, sharp images that penetrate what it means to grow old, the interpersonal relationships we have to our parents, and the common human thread we share together.
Images, like a movie of one’s life shot in quick, transformational snapshots, reflect their parent/child/spouse relationships, the mystery and swiftness of life, and the ephemeral connections they shared together as the child struggles to come to terms with their deaths. Each moment, despite how long it lasted, is but a snapshot of time in the scheme of things and our lives. As if we’re caught in a swift, indifferent river of time. The Child attempts to find a center to these images, memories, joys and pains, as he / she too, grows old.
The last image sums up the experience; the child grasping for air, trying to hold onto the memories of them, like photographic snapshots that hold the memory and the experience, but not the flesh.
WRITING SAMPLEEXCERPT 1
AT RISE:
A blue spot comes up on the bare stage left area. Child, about twenty five to thirty five years old enters and slowly walks into the spot. Child looks at the space around him, and then speaks to the audience.
CHILD
It’s like a mirror. You see yourself in them. You see yourself tomorrow. You see your mortality in theirs. It becomes one thing. One whole, on-going thing. Nothings separate. Though you try to separate. And you feel their fear. Their passion. Their frustration. Their inner beings. Their whole lives. Hidden behind their eyes. Trying to avoid the inevitable.
A Woman seventy five enters in a wheel chair. She wears a white bath cap, blue robe, oversized slippers and dark sunglasses. There is a sense of hiding out in her. She simply sits, looking out.
CHILD
You try not to think about it. You try not to say it. You try to forget. But it creeps back in, like a maggot. It stares you in the face. Hangs over you. It won’t let go.
WOMAN
(to MAN who is off stage left)
I REMEMBER NOW. I remember it all. Right from the beginning. Strait back to the first day I knew. It was then. Then when I remembered. Don’t go accusing me of not being able to remember. Don’t go on saying I’m losing my memory. They’re there. Steady as a heartbeat. Right inside my head. Here
(points to her head)
and it’s mine. All mine. Not yours or his or anybody’s. Mine. I earned it. I lived. And it’s all right here. Even if my toes have been chopped off and I can’t walk so good anymore. I can remember. DID YOU HEAR WHAT I SAID? HUN?! DID YOU HEAR WHAT I JUST SAID?
MAN
(offstage)
YEAH I HEARD I HEARD.
WOMAN
What time is it?
MAN
TIME TO DIE.
WOMAN
WHAT?
MAN
YOU HEARD ME.
WOMAN
What?
MAN
I SAID YOU HEARD ME.
WOMAN
COME IN HERE FOR GOD’S SAKE AND STOP TORTURING ME.
MAN
(poking his head in)
Are you alright?
Woman coughs.
MAN
HUN?
Woman coughs louder.
MAN
I can’t come in there now I’m listening to tapes.
WOMAN
To hell with the tapes.
MAN
What?
WOMAN
I said “TO HELL WITH THE TAPES”. COME SIT.
MAN
What do you mean to hell with the tapes? How can you say a thing like that? It’s us.
WOMAN
Bring me my feet.
MAN
Not now.
WOMAN
I want my feet.
Opera music comes on, a Woman singing.
She pulls out a teddy bear from the wheel chair seat. Winds it and holds it up to her making it dance. It speaks to her. Releases the winding key.
TEDDY BEAR
MMMMMwhaaaa I’m your friend. We’ll always be together. Right up to the last moment.
WOMAN
(to the bear)
I love you. I love you.
(throws a kiss winding up the bear, releases)
MAN brings out THE FEET. A large pair of white shoes, that when wound, and set on the floor walk. MAN and WOMAN watch the feet as they cross to the center of the stage, and stop.
Tableau.
____________
EXCERPT 2
Child rises, moves off and watches them transform through a lifetime of quick snapshots. Each living moment ends in a snapshot pose. A flash ends the moment frozen in time. flash.
Man on back, infant.
Flash.
Woman on back, infant.
Flash.
Man making inaudible sounds.
Flash.
Woman making inaudible sounds.
Flash.
Man on fours trying to stand.
Flash.
Woman on all fours trying to stand.
Flash.
Man walking wobbling.
Flash.
Woman walking wobbling.
Flash.
Man running and jumping like a Child.
Flash.
Woman running and jumping like a Child.
Flash.
MAN
(making machine gun sounds)
Gotchya!
(sounds)
You’re dead. Ugh! YOU GOT ME!
(sounds)
Flash.
WOMAN
SEE MY DOLLY? I’m gonna be a Princess when I grow up.
Flash.
MAN
FIREMAN!
Flash.
WOMAN
NURSE!
Flash.
MAN
YOUR IT!
Flash.
WOMAN
GOTCHYA GOTCHYA!
Flash.
MAN
Girls… yuk.
Flash.
WOMAN
Yuk.
Flash.
MAN
Look at that beautiful… Wow… Hey guys? Guys? Let’s go…
Flash.
WOMAN
Is that all you want from me?
Flash.
MAN
We won the game, Man. We won, we’re the champs.
Flash.
WOMAN
Please dad? Please let me go with him?
Flash.
MAN
I don’t feel the same way you do that’s all, sorry.
Flash.
WOMAN
love you. How can you say you don’t love me.
Flash.
MAN
We lost. Shit. Life sucks.
Flash.
WOMAN
(to mother in coffin)
Mom. I love you. You look proud… It wasn’t a bad life.
Flash.
This continues for a while going through their lives, each changing roles, throughout the length of their lives.
____________
EXCERPT 2
Child winds LARGE WHITE toy feet and in silence they walk in the opposite direction they walked in the beginning of the play to center stage and stop. They are lit by a red pin spot.
WOMAN
(all of a sudden)
I feel sick.
MAN
(jumping to his feet)
WHAT’S WRONG?
WOMAN
Angina pills. PAIN…
Man runs into the other room and rushes out opening a small brown medicine bottle.
WOMAN
Oh…
CHILD
Calm… calm now…
MAN
Here, under the tongue… relax…
WOMAN
I know…
MAN
HURRY…
WOMAN
DON’T RUSH ME I’LL DIE MY WAY…
Pause as they both watch her. Pause. She removes her hand slowly from her chest. Man and Child relax.
MAN
My baby…
WOMAN
That was a close one…
CHILD
Are you alright?
Child and Man look at each other. Woman looks at the toy feet in the red spot and smiles at them. They put their heads together, comforting each other.
Tableau.
Lights lower on him in an amber silhouette, glowing sadly.
Woman wearing her white bath cap, sun glasses and robe, sits looking off into the audience unfocused, as if looking eternity in the face. Her smile turns to fear and slight anger. Man looks at her.
A pool of blue light engulfs Child as he enters the stage left area. Child sits on the floor and is thirty. The feet are still center stage in the red spot.
CHILD
I think back. I see and hear all the years of my youth living in this place. Like shadows, echoes, moving through the hallways and rooms. Right here… Flashes of experience. The baby sitting. Your first bicycle. Holidays together. The family coming over. Having crushes on each other standing at the bus stop for school. Being sensitive and not knowing how to express it. Trying to look naive, so your parents wouldn’t think you had a sexuality lusting out in all directions. Pretending to go to school to learn instead of seeing your latest crush. Separating. Going away from home. Beginning to feel your youth pass, but not believe it’s happening. Writing letters. Feeling loves that were never resolved in youth because you didn’t realize it would end. There’d be time. Never hearing from your friends again. A time. A whole time… dyeing. Like the day turning black. The dreams and hopes and thoughts and loves and fun and pain and… dyeing away… so fast… you can’t re… mem…ber… them… echoes… echoes of a life… You lose yourself to it. You lose the memory of the time that passed. You can’t remember who you are because you begin to forget who you were. All the dreams of tomorrow are now faded memories of yesterday. And you open your eyes. And you walk in the door and they’re old. And you’re older. And you die inside again but try to feel alive. The pain whips you silently as you smile to comfort them. And yourself. You hear the thoughts. The words. The things you fabricate to make it all make some kind of sense. You run outside in the middle of your life into the black night and look up at the eyes in the heavens so immense it’s impossible to keep looking… because it’s so unreal. Yet so… real… and you feel your feet on the ground and you stamp them to be sure you’re there… and you are… but where are you… time passes under them like a raging river, each moment taking your precious breath away, as if pulling you into the ground like quicksand…
(pause)
You look at them
(he looks at his parents)
I don’t want them to die. I can’t bear to think I’ll never see them again. I want to always have them here to hug. To feel their flesh. To know I’m alive. I don’t want them to become a faded memory…
He begins to slowly, rise up to standing. As he does, he becomes older and older until very old. He looks at Man and women. Man continues to look at Woman, Woman out at the audience unfocused. The feet are still in the red spot down stage center.
Very slowly, Child, now old, desperately grabs the air. Stares in horror at his hand and the empty air he attempted to grab hold of.
Tableau. Long moment of waiting.
Fade out very very slowly over 30 seconds.
End Of Play
Related Writing
3 Characters
1 Man. 1 Woman. The child, or 3rd character, can be male or female
Simple Set
42 Pages
Produced at Dowling College with my adult acting students who I considered to be professional actors.
The play takes place in the mind of the child, now an adult, remembering the last days of his parents lives. The child remembers, and as he does, the parents come to life in chilling, sharp images that penetrate what it means to grow old, the interpersonal relationships we have to our parents, and the common human thread we share together.
Images, like a movie of one’s life shot in quick, transformational snapshots, reflect their parent/child/spouse relationships, the mystery and swiftness of life, and the ephemeral connections they shared together as the child struggles to come to terms with their deaths. Each moment, despite how long it lasted, is but a snapshot of time in the scheme of things and our lives. As if we’re caught in a swift, indifferent river of time. The Child attempts to find a center to these images, memories, joys and pains, as he / she too, grows old.
The last image sums up the experience; the child grasping for air, trying to hold onto the memories of them, like photographic snapshots that hold the memory and the experience, but not the flesh.
WRITING SAMPLEEXCERPT 1
AT RISE:
A blue spot comes up on the bare stage left area. Child, about twenty five to thirty five years old enters and slowly walks into the spot. Child looks at the space around him, and then speaks to the audience.
CHILD
It’s like a mirror. You see yourself in them. You see yourself tomorrow. You see your mortality in theirs. It becomes one thing. One whole, on-going thing. Nothings separate. Though you try to separate. And you feel their fear. Their passion. Their frustration. Their inner beings. Their whole lives. Hidden behind their eyes. Trying to avoid the inevitable.
A Woman seventy five enters in a wheel chair. She wears a white bath cap, blue robe, oversized slippers and dark sunglasses. There is a sense of hiding out in her. She simply sits, looking out.
CHILD
You try not to think about it. You try not to say it. You try to forget. But it creeps back in, like a maggot. It stares you in the face. Hangs over you. It won’t let go.
WOMAN
(to MAN who is off stage left)
I REMEMBER NOW. I remember it all. Right from the beginning. Strait back to the first day I knew. It was then. Then when I remembered. Don’t go accusing me of not being able to remember. Don’t go on saying I’m losing my memory. They’re there. Steady as a heartbeat. Right inside my head. Here
(points to her head)
and it’s mine. All mine. Not yours or his or anybody’s. Mine. I earned it. I lived. And it’s all right here. Even if my toes have been chopped off and I can’t walk so good anymore. I can remember. DID YOU HEAR WHAT I SAID? HUN?! DID YOU HEAR WHAT I JUST SAID?
MAN
(offstage)
YEAH I HEARD I HEARD.
WOMAN
What time is it?
MAN
TIME TO DIE.
WOMAN
WHAT?
MAN
YOU HEARD ME.
WOMAN
What?
MAN
I SAID YOU HEARD ME.
WOMAN
COME IN HERE FOR GOD’S SAKE AND STOP TORTURING ME.
MAN
(poking his head in)
Are you alright?
Woman coughs.
MAN
HUN?
Woman coughs louder.
MAN
I can’t come in there now I’m listening to tapes.
WOMAN
To hell with the tapes.
MAN
What?
WOMAN
I said “TO HELL WITH THE TAPES”. COME SIT.
MAN
What do you mean to hell with the tapes? How can you say a thing like that? It’s us.
WOMAN
Bring me my feet.
MAN
Not now.
WOMAN
I want my feet.
Opera music comes on, a Woman singing.
She pulls out a teddy bear from the wheel chair seat. Winds it and holds it up to her making it dance. It speaks to her. Releases the winding key.
TEDDY BEAR
MMMMMwhaaaa I’m your friend. We’ll always be together. Right up to the last moment.
WOMAN
(to the bear)
I love you. I love you.
(throws a kiss winding up the bear, releases)
MAN brings out THE FEET. A large pair of white shoes, that when wound, and set on the floor walk. MAN and WOMAN watch the feet as they cross to the center of the stage, and stop.
Tableau.
____________
EXCERPT 2
Child rises, moves off and watches them transform through a lifetime of quick snapshots. Each living moment ends in a snapshot pose. A flash ends the moment frozen in time. flash.
Man on back, infant.
Flash.
Woman on back, infant.
Flash.
Man making inaudible sounds.
Flash.
Woman making inaudible sounds.
Flash.
Man on fours trying to stand.
Flash.
Woman on all fours trying to stand.
Flash.
Man walking wobbling.
Flash.
Woman walking wobbling.
Flash.
Man running and jumping like a Child.
Flash.
Woman running and jumping like a Child.
Flash.
MAN
(making machine gun sounds)
Gotchya!
(sounds)
You’re dead. Ugh! YOU GOT ME!
(sounds)
Flash.
WOMAN
SEE MY DOLLY? I’m gonna be a Princess when I grow up.
Flash.
MAN
FIREMAN!
Flash.
WOMAN
NURSE!
Flash.
MAN
YOUR IT!
Flash.
WOMAN
GOTCHYA GOTCHYA!
Flash.
MAN
Girls… yuk.
Flash.
WOMAN
Yuk.
Flash.
MAN
Look at that beautiful… Wow… Hey guys? Guys? Let’s go…
Flash.
WOMAN
Is that all you want from me?
Flash.
MAN
We won the game, Man. We won, we’re the champs.
Flash.
WOMAN
Please dad? Please let me go with him?
Flash.
MAN
I don’t feel the same way you do that’s all, sorry.
Flash.
WOMAN
love you. How can you say you don’t love me.
Flash.
MAN
We lost. Shit. Life sucks.
Flash.
WOMAN
(to mother in coffin)
Mom. I love you. You look proud… It wasn’t a bad life.
Flash.
This continues for a while going through their lives, each changing roles, throughout the length of their lives.
____________
EXCERPT 2
Child winds LARGE WHITE toy feet and in silence they walk in the opposite direction they walked in the beginning of the play to center stage and stop. They are lit by a red pin spot.
WOMAN
(all of a sudden)
I feel sick.
MAN
(jumping to his feet)
WHAT’S WRONG?
WOMAN
Angina pills. PAIN…
Man runs into the other room and rushes out opening a small brown medicine bottle.
WOMAN
Oh…
CHILD
Calm… calm now…
MAN
Here, under the tongue… relax…
WOMAN
I know…
MAN
HURRY…
WOMAN
DON’T RUSH ME I’LL DIE MY WAY…
Pause as they both watch her. Pause. She removes her hand slowly from her chest. Man and Child relax.
MAN
My baby…
WOMAN
That was a close one…
CHILD
Are you alright?
Child and Man look at each other. Woman looks at the toy feet in the red spot and smiles at them. They put their heads together, comforting each other.
Tableau.
Lights lower on him in an amber silhouette, glowing sadly.
Woman wearing her white bath cap, sun glasses and robe, sits looking off into the audience unfocused, as if looking eternity in the face. Her smile turns to fear and slight anger. Man looks at her.
A pool of blue light engulfs Child as he enters the stage left area. Child sits on the floor and is thirty. The feet are still center stage in the red spot.
CHILD
I think back. I see and hear all the years of my youth living in this place. Like shadows, echoes, moving through the hallways and rooms. Right here… Flashes of experience. The baby sitting. Your first bicycle. Holidays together. The family coming over. Having crushes on each other standing at the bus stop for school. Being sensitive and not knowing how to express it. Trying to look naive, so your parents wouldn’t think you had a sexuality lusting out in all directions. Pretending to go to school to learn instead of seeing your latest crush. Separating. Going away from home. Beginning to feel your youth pass, but not believe it’s happening. Writing letters. Feeling loves that were never resolved in youth because you didn’t realize it would end. There’d be time. Never hearing from your friends again. A time. A whole time… dyeing. Like the day turning black. The dreams and hopes and thoughts and loves and fun and pain and… dyeing away… so fast… you can’t re… mem…ber… them… echoes… echoes of a life… You lose yourself to it. You lose the memory of the time that passed. You can’t remember who you are because you begin to forget who you were. All the dreams of tomorrow are now faded memories of yesterday. And you open your eyes. And you walk in the door and they’re old. And you’re older. And you die inside again but try to feel alive. The pain whips you silently as you smile to comfort them. And yourself. You hear the thoughts. The words. The things you fabricate to make it all make some kind of sense. You run outside in the middle of your life into the black night and look up at the eyes in the heavens so immense it’s impossible to keep looking… because it’s so unreal. Yet so… real… and you feel your feet on the ground and you stamp them to be sure you’re there… and you are… but where are you… time passes under them like a raging river, each moment taking your precious breath away, as if pulling you into the ground like quicksand…
(pause)
You look at them
(he looks at his parents)
I don’t want them to die. I can’t bear to think I’ll never see them again. I want to always have them here to hug. To feel their flesh. To know I’m alive. I don’t want them to become a faded memory…
He begins to slowly, rise up to standing. As he does, he becomes older and older until very old. He looks at Man and women. Man continues to look at Woman, Woman out at the audience unfocused. The feet are still in the red spot down stage center.
Very slowly, Child, now old, desperately grabs the air. Stares in horror at his hand and the empty air he attempted to grab hold of.
Tableau. Long moment of waiting.
Fade out very very slowly over 30 seconds.
End Of Play
Related Writing
Legal Notice: These works are copyrighted multiple times, including several versions of each script, most dating back to the 1980's and 1990's as well as every one of them in 2020. Downloading any of my work registers important digital identification information. Scripts can be read, but if you want to use parts of them, or entire scripts for any reason, you will need a contract signed by me agreeing to it. Thanks for taking an interest.
To Obtain Rights to use my scripts please contact me and we will take it from there. Thank you.