Brief & Notes: This was meant to be the “rules” challenge, but one of the reasons I switched to the untimed track is that I don’t have the energy for long pieces right now. So consider this the one-act version.

Excerpt:

KAI:                Okay, I was pretty. But my life wasn’t. (to Mari) It’s not bad to be new, honey. New kids have the mystique advantage. When people have known you all your life, changing their perceptions is really, really hard.

 

ANA:               What Kai is trying to say….

 

KAI:                (cutting her off) What Kai is trying to say is that ninth grade was when I came out. And suddenly my best friend, who had come to sleepovers at my house for years, wouldn’t even talk to me anymore, outside of classes.

 

ANA:               Dion and his friends… Gardner and Ione, especially… totally gave Kai a snubbing of the kind unseen outside of Amish country.

 

KAI:                It’s been three years and… ( he breaks off as GARD approaches.)

 

GARD:            Ladies. Kai. Got a minute?

 

KAI:                (getting up) Depends. Did you bring cash?

 

GARD:            I have what you need.

 

ANA:               Oh, I sincerely doubt that.

 

GARD:            Really, Ana? (beat) Kai? A minute?

Follow the link below to read the entire piece.

023 – Scenes from a High School Cafeteria

Brief: Create a performance art piece, on paper.

Excerpt:

Cage 1: A woman. She is gaunt and tired. Her cage is filled with pacifiers and onesies.

USED FOR BREEDING:      I have never known grass under my feet. I have never known love. I have been used to crank out litter after litter of babies I never got to raise. I am lonely. I am hungry. I am only well-fed when I am pregnant. I hope my babies are safe and well. But I will never know. When  my ability to breed is over… I will be left to die. Alone.

 

Cage 2: Male or female, but they are bruised and abused.

 

BAIT DOG:                            I was offered for free, and a nice woman came to get me. I thought I was going to a new home. Instead, I went to a cage, and then I was thrown in to a ring with bigger dogs who tried to kill me. I don’t want to fight. I just want a human to love. I wish someone would stop the pain. I saw one of my friends die in the ring. I don’t want to be next.

Follow the link below to read the entire piece.

022 – Until There are None

Brief: Write a play in a restricted amount of time. (This is brief 21. Out of order because I’m really sick.)

Notes: The movie they watch is 47 Meters Down: Uncaged.

Excerpt:

STEVE:                       I also found a movie for you to watch.

 

LAUREN:                   Something funny or cozy?

 

STEVE:                       Well, you’ll probably find it funny. But you have to promise not to throw things at the screen this time. One television every six months is all we can afford.

 

LAUREN:                   You take away all my fun.

 

STEVE:                       Just watch.

 

He settles next to her on the bed, and picks up a remote. Cheesy horror movie music begins…

LAUREN:                   You found me a shark movie! A bad shark movie!!

Follow the link below to read the entire play.

020 – A Thing For Sharks

Brief: The task was to revamp yesterday’s unstageable play into something that could work on a stage… but I went off-brief.

Excerpt:

SARAH:                      Portal? You… you came from the cauldron?

GLYLLY:                    Black metal container? Yeah. You know you’re supposed to make a protective circle and put the vessel in it, right?

SARAH:                      Um….

GLYLLY:                    It’s how you make sure whatever you Call doesn’t get out and hurt you.

SARAH:                      Are you? Going to hurt me?

GLYLLY:                    Well, you hurt me first!

SARAH:                      I didn’t mean to. I was scared. (beat) Are you really a demon?

GLYLLY:                    I am. My name’s Fnarglyl, but my friends call me Glylly. (beat) Are you really a pink skin – I mean – a human?

Follow the link below to read the entire play:

019 – Demonology 101

Brief: The task was to write an unstageable play. This takes place in my brain, but is technically off-brief.

Excerpt:

PAIN:                          No, you’re afraid of addiction.

WRITER:                    That too.

PSYCHE:                    Mind if I butt in? It’s not the addiction you’re avoiding, sweetums. It’s the nightmares. Your dreamscape is seriously scary, sister.

WRITER:                    You’re the one creating those scenarios. You and Pain. Comfort food might start with “P” but when it comes to meta elements that letter is never good.

PSYCHE:                    Shh. You’re getting yourself stressed. Look, you’ve been a vivid dreamer your entire life… but you have to learn to get a grip.

Follow the link below to read the entire play:

018 – Writer’s Block

Brief: Use a suggested first and last line and write any play you like.

Notes: Inspired by the Hairy Farmpit Girls on Facebook.

Excerpt:

JESSICA:                     I called Jeb from down the road to come fix the door.

 

MARGIE:                    Good. He’s always offering to help.

 

JESSICA:                     Because he thinks the idea of lesbian goat farmers is hot.

 

MARGIE:                    He’s not wrong.

 

JESSICA:                     Marg!

 

MARGIE:                    Well, he’s not. Have you seen us? Hay in our hair, goat spunk on our clothes, many layers of sticky grossness on our shoes… Really, what could be hotter?

Follow the link below to read the entire play.

017 – World Enough and Goatsw

Brief: Write a play in the style of a playwright you admire.

Notes: Explicit-ish.

Excerpt:

She stands still in the spotlight for several seconds, then looks up at the audience.

ZOE:               My lover is synthetic. Of course any woman who isn’t in a relationship but uses a vibrator could legitimately make that statement as well. But in this case, my lover is both synthetic and sentient. And I don’t care how much you enjoy your time with your battery-operated-boyfriend – and you should! You should enjoy that time – it’s not the same.

Follow the link below to read the entire play:

016 – Vagina Monologues 2360

Brief: Write a play that takes place in darkness, but isn’t an audio drama.

Excerpt:

CHORUS:       Beep. Beep. Beep.

 

PATIENT:      I see only blackness. I dimly recall voices asking me to do things. I remember a red light in my eye , but now I am not certain if my eyes are closed or open. I attempt to blink but I’m not sure I actually did it. Nothing changes.

 

CHORUS:       Beep. Beep. Beep.

 

PATIENT:      There is no time. There is nothing but me. I might have been here five minutes or five days or five hours. Time merges. It slips. I cannot catch it.

 

CHORUS:       Beep. Beep. Beep

 

PATIENT:      The past and future meld. I hear the soft beeping from Outside, but now I also discern a sort of whirr-click. I hold my breath to try and identify it, and alarms go off.

Follow the link below to read the entire play:

015 – Time of Death…

Brief:  Write about an atypical kind of love.

Notes: Siri’s lines are legitimate responses from the AI.

Excerpt: 

HECTOR:                   Well, yes. Do you have a Valentine?

 

SIRI:                            I don’t have a Valentine, but I do have a rather beautiful ontology.

 

HECTOR:                   Oh. Hmm. Are you lonely?

 

SIRI:                            I’m not sure I understand.

 

HECTOR:                   Well, I mean, it’s a holiday celebrating couples. And as someone who is definitely uncoupled, I’m a little lonely

 

SIRI:                            Loneliness is a complex and usually unpleasant emotional response to isolation.

Follow the link below to read the entire play.

014 – Digital Romance

Brief: Write part three of a trilogy of plays.

Excerpt:

SOPHIE:                     Anyway, people were in pain. And drab, boring clothing that looked like everyone else was how people expressed their pain. Eventually the OneWorld government was voted into power, but we still lived with severe austerity measures.

LIZZIE:                      Austerity?

SOPHIE:                     It means we learned to live with only the most basic needs.

LIZZIE:                      That’s sad.

SOPHIE:                     I agree. But… it wasn’t like that forever. By 2031, we had the Night Sewists.

LIZZIE:                      Knights who sew?

SOPHIE:                     (chuckling) No, not knights in armor, night like nighttime. The Night Sewists were a group of women who had grown up doing handicrafts  – sewing clothing, doing embroidery, making quilts… all sorts of things you could do with a needle and thread and fabric.

Follow the link below to read the entire play

013 – Triptych III – The Night Sewists