If you haven't read the beginning of it, click here.
Just to warn you, this is a play about a 15 year old on drugs so the subject matter is pretty raunchy. The kids that corrupt her are very vulgar.
Just wanted to warn you so you may shield your eyes now and save yourself should you so choose.
So here it is, installment number 2.
Any input is great!
I just want to give off the vibe of a dark nursery rhyme/ fairy tale.
ANONYMOUS: I keep thinking about our teacher in gym teaching us modern dancing and always saying that it will make our bodies strong and healthy for childbearing, then she harps and harps that everything must be graceful, graceful, graceful.
I can hardly picture sex or having a baby as being graceful.
Jill and Bill let go and stand with their backs to the audience.
ANONYMOUS: December 10th.
Dear Diary, We sold our house today…and I suddenly don’t want to leave!
Anonymous falls forward as if about to hit the ground running but Jill and Bill hold her
back. She struggles through the following.
ANONYMOUS: I’m afraid! I’ve lived in this room all my fifteen years, all my 5,530 days.
I’ve laughed, cried moaned and muttered in this room. I’ve loved people and things and
hated them. Will we ever be the same when we’re closed in by other walls? Will we think
other thoughts and have different emotions? I feel so helpless… I feel so LOST—
Jill and Bill throw her to the ground and exit.
ANONYMOUS: January 6th.
I must leave you, dear diary, and go to school today. Oh I hope I’m not so different
they’ll all stare at me. Oh, how I wish I had a friend!
Offstage [Mother calls out] ***.
ANONYMOUS: But I better paste on the big phony smile, Mother is calling and I must respond with an ‘attitude that will determine my altitude.’
Change in lights.
Anonymous is backlit once again, as in beginning.
ANONYMOUS: 1, 2, 3, and here goes the martyr.
Scene change.
Jill, Bill, and other school kids bring in schooldesks and take up various positions sitting in them or standing around them socializing with one another.
Anonymous enters.
Students take notice, but don’t let it affect their conversation too much.
Anonymous quickly takes empty desk in the center.
School bell rings.
Students take their seats.
TEACHER’S VOICE: Richard Deed?
RICHIE: Here.
TEACHER’S VOICE: William Dunn?
BILL: Here.
TEACHER’S VOICE: Becky White?
BECKY: Here.
TEACHER’S VOICE: Jillian Tweedle?
JILL: Here.
TEACHER’S VOICE: ***?
ANONYMOUS: (shyly) Here.
Students turn and stare at her.
Lights change. Spotlight on Jill.
JILL: Another day, another high, another new kid on the block,
Spotlight on Bill.
BILL: Does she go both ways or does she prefer the rat or the cock?
Spotlight on Richie.
RICHIE: Fuck I care, how am I getting through this fuckin’ week?!
JILL: Rest easy, babe, I got the thing that’ll rest your itchy tweak.
Jill produces a bag of LSD.
Bill and Richie are in awe.
RICHIE: Sweet mother of Christ
BILL: Isn’t—
RICHIE: That—
JILL: Yes.
BILL: Where did you find it?
JILL: I have my source.
RICHIE: How did you pay?
JILL: Cash, of course.
BILL: Where’d you get the cash?
JILL: None of your beeswax.
BILL: You want this to get ugly?
JILL: Dude, sit down. Relax.
RICHIE: So when do we dip in? Tonight? Maybe 8?
JILL: Good things come to those who wait.
I’m thinking the end of the week, with the usual crowd,
My parents will be out so you can be as loud
As your heart desires, and I think for an extra thrill
We’ll bring in a fresh lamb for the sacrificial kill.
Jill, Bill, and Richie perch themselves on their chairs.
Out to the audience:
JILL, BILL, RICHIE: We three babes have nothing to fear,
And neither do you so rest yourself here
With us who enlighten you, guide you through storms.
And show you a world that takes many forms.
JILL: Are you ready?
BILL: Close your eyes, remember to breathe.
RICHIE: Hang on to your hat, kid: 1…
BILL: 2…
JILL: 3.
Lights off of Jill, Bill, and Richie.
Spotlight on Anonymous.
ANONYMOUS: It was so miserable at first. It seemed so lonely and cold…everyone staring at me in a kind of curious, hostile ‘what are you doing here?’ kind of way. Everyone, except Becky that is.
Spotlight on Becky, an easygoing smile on her face.
BECKY: [to audience] My name is Becky White. I’m 15, and prefer books to people.
ANONYMOUS: So do I.
BECKY: My Dad’s a doctor and away from home most of the time.
ANONYMOUS: So’s mine.
BECKY: And my mother nags a lot.
ANONYMOUS: So does mine.
Becky and Anonymous look at each other and smile.
BECKY: Hi.
ANONYMOUS: Hi.
Becky and Anonymous scoot their desks closer to each other to socialize over a book.
Lights up.
Jill, Bill, and Richie surround the kindred spirits.
JILL: What’s up, Becky?
BECKY: Oh, so you decided to speak to me again?
JILL: What are you talking about?
BECKY: Ever since Jack’s party you’ve been treating me like I don’t exist.
JILL: Have I? Well, sorry if I offended you, sweetie. We all have our bad trips, so how ‘bout we let bygones be bygones?
RICHIE: Who’s your friend?
BECKY: Her name’s ***.
RICHIE: ‘Ey. How you doing?
ANONYMOUS: Okay.
JILL: (putting her arm around Becky) Listen Becks, we were thinking of having a little get together later. You want to come? Get the old gang together again?
BECKY: I don’t know…
BILL: C’mon, Becks. We really miss you.
Becky looks up at Bill. Hesitates for bit.
BECKY: Yeah, sure.
JILL: Groovy.
BILL: Oh, and uh, bring your friend.
Jill, Bill, and Richie exit.
ANONYMOUS: What was that all about?
BECKY: You want to go to a party?
ANONYMOUS: (to audience) January 10th.
Oh, Diary, I’m so happy I could cry! It’s the end of my first week at the school and I’ve made some friends! They’re all so cool and sophisticated and they invited me to come with Becky, so they must think I’m cool and sophisticated as well!
School desks and chairs have been replaced by pillows, blankets and cushions center stage which are brought on by Richie and young ensemble members. Fun, relaxed atmosphere.
Becky enters the space with Anonymous.
ANONYMOUS: The kids at Jill’s were so friendly and relaxed and at ease that I immediately felt at home with them. They accepted me like they’ve known me all our lives and everyone seemed happy and unhurried. I loved the atmosphere. It was so great. Anyway, a little while after I got there…
Jill and Bill enter, Jill holding a tray of red cups.
JILL: Hey, everyone!
Children cheer for Jill and sprawl out on the cushions and blankets.
Bill sets himself next to Anonymous.
JILL: Tonight, we’re playing “Button, Button, Who’s Got the Button?” You know, the game we used to play when we were kids.
BILL: (laughs) Only it’s just too bad that now somebody has to babysit.
He’s looking at Anonymous. Anonymous looks up at him, meets his gaze, and shyly smiles.
Children reach for drinks, Bill grabs two and hands one to Anonymous, who takes a sip.
Everyone slowly begins sipping their drinks, looking around the room at each other, waiting for something to happen.
ANONYMOUS: (to audience) Everyone sipped their drinks slowly, and everyone seemed to be watching everyone else. I kept my eyes on Jill supposing that anything she did I should do.
Lights begin to fade, change color, and psychadelic music begins to rise with a hum.
ANONYMOUS: Suddenly I began to feel something strange inside myself like a storm.
Anonymous rises.
I remember that two or three records had played since we had the drinks, and now everyone was beginning to look at me. The palms of my hands were sweating and I could feel droplets of moisture on my scalp at the back of my neck.
A few more kids have begun feeling similarly, while the rest watch, amused, except perhaps Becky.
Jill rises to mime closing shades upstage.
ANONYMOUS: The room seemed unusually quiet, and as Jill got up to close the window shades completely I thought, “They’re trying to poison me! Why, why would they try to poison me?!”
My whole body was tense at every muscle and a feeling of weird apprehension swept over me, strangled me, suffocated me.
Bill has risen and approached Anonymous from behind, putting his arm around her, trying to calm her.
ANONYMOUS: When I opened my eyes, I realized that is was just Bill who had put his arm around my shoulder.
Overlapping each other:
BILL: Lucky you.
ANONYMOUS: “Lucky you” he was saying in a slow-motioned record on the wrong speed voice.
BILL: But don’t worry, I’ll baby-sit you. This will be a good trip. (sits her down)
Come on, relax, enjoy it, enjoy it.
ANONYMOUS: “Enjoy it.”
Bill begins caressing her face and neck tenderly. Anonymous looks up at him, stoned, focuses in on his mouth.
BILL: Honestly, I won’t let anything bad happen to you.
ANONYMOUS: “Honestly, I won’t let anything bad happen to you.”
BILL: Honestly, I won’t let anything bad happen to you.
ANONYMOUS: “Honestly, I won’t let anything bad happen to you.”
BILL: Honestly, I won’t let anything bad happen—
Anonymous begins laughing wildly, hysterically. This continues for a few moments, and she settles down again when she notices the ceiling. Points up.
ANONYMOUS: Oh look at that. Look at that.
Anonymous tries to rise up, but Bill pulls her down and rests her head in his lap.
ANONYMOUS: Look at the strange, shifting patterns…changing to swirling colors…great fields of reds, blues and yellows….
Everybody look!
BILL: Shhhh…
ANONYMOUS: (chuckles) My words are soggy. Wet. Dripping…tasting of color.
Anonymous pulls herself up and begins walking around the room. Feels a rush.
Children are dancing, intermingling, kissing, Richie has cozied up to Becky.
It’s practically an orgy but not quite.
ANONYMOUS: Oh. I felt a slight chill. A chill that crept inside as well as outside my body.
Soon whole trains of thought started to appear between each word. I had found the perfect and true and original language, used by Adam and Eve, but when I tried to explain, the words I used had little to do with my thinking. I was losing it…
Anonymous falls back, Bill catches her, lays her down parallel to the audience.
ANONYMOUS: …It was slipping out of my grasp, this wonderful and priceless and true thing which must be saved for posterity. I felt terrible, and finally I couldn’t talk at all and closed my eyes and the music began to absorb me physically.
Anonymous closes her eyes for the following.
Bill runs his hands over Anonymous’ body.
ANONYMOUS: I could smell it.
Bill buries his face in her hair and inhales her scent.
ANONYMOUS: And touch it.
Bill brushes her lips with his fingers.
ANONYMOUS: And feel it.
Bill feels her face.
ANONYMOUS: As well as hear it.
Bill whispers something in her ear.
Anonymous giggles.
She opens her eyes and turns her head to the audience.
ANONYMOUS: Never had anything ever been so beautiful.
She sits up, more energized and enthusiastic.
Bill stays with her, continues to caress her.
Intensity of the music and the intermingling of the kids behind her has increased.
ANONYMOUS: I was part of every single instrument in the music, literally a part. Each note had a character, shape and color all its very own and seemed to be entirely separate from the rest of the score so that I could consider its relationship to the whole composition, before the next note sounded. My mind possessed the wisdoms of the ages, and there were no words adequate to describe them.
Anonymous looks up to the ceiling again.
ANONYMOUS: I looked up to the patterns on the ceiling and I could see them in 100 dimensions. It was so beautiful I could not stand the sight of it and closed my eyes.
Anonymous shuts her eyes and begins to collapse.
Bill lifts her up in his arms and twirls her around.
ANONYMOUS: Immediately I was floating into another sphere, another world, another state. Things rushed away from me and at me, taking my breath away like a drop in a fast elevator. I could tell what was real and what was unreal…but it didn’t really matter, for whatever I was, (opens her eyes) I was wonderful.
For the first time that I could remember in my whole life, I was completely uninhibited.
My senses were so up that I could hear someone breathing in the house next door…
Group of kids share an audible breath in and out, and then cease to move.
ANONYMOUS: …And I could smell colors: oranges, reds, and greens.
After what seemed eternities I began to come down…
All in one moment:
Anonymous plops down to the floor, and Jill, who has been regally observing the whole event and is now standing behind Anonymous, Jill mouths her name…
JILL: ***
…And music stops abruptly and lights change to normal upon ***.
Anonymous perks up as if woken from a dream.
ANONYMOUS: (looking up at Jill) Jill! Wha—what just happened?
JILL: Well… 10 out of the 14 cups of coke had LSD in them and, Button Button (pinching Anonymous’ cheeks) no one knew just who would wind up with them. I guess you were one of the lucky ones.
Jill joins Bill and Richie on the pile of cushions as the party gradually starts to break up and exit.
BECKY: Come on, I’ll take you home.
ANONYMOUS: Oh, Becky! Were you one of the lucky ones?
BECKY: No.
ANONYMOUS: Oh. Did you have fun though?
BECKY: I had fun watching you.
ANONYMOUS: Oh, ha ha ha-- ow! (grabs her forehead)
BECKY: Come on, let’s get you to bed.
Becky exits holding Anonymous, leaving Jill, Bill, and Richie on the cushions.
JILL: Everyone came; even Becky but hey, I knew she would.
RICHIE: What a night! My favorite cocktail! I’d have another if I could.
JILL: (to Bill) You sure liked the new girl.
RICHIE: Any new tricks to unfurl?
BILL: No tricks, just more of what’s good.
RICHIE: Speed?
JILL: Pot?
BILL: Maybe cocaine.
JILL: Knowing Bill, probably a trip down Young Lovers’ Lane.
RICHIE: Whatever the thrill,
BILL: She’ll have her kicks.
JILL: And then some.
BILL: 4.
RICHIE: 5.
JILL: 6.
Blackout.
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