The Boundary

The Boundary by Tom Stoppard and Clive Exton

4 Male, 1 Female
Johnson
Cricketeer
Operator
Bunyans
Brenda

Comedy.

Johnson, a lexicographer, arrives at his library to find that the place is in shambles. Papers are everywhere and completely out of order. Bunyans, his collaborator, arrives to help him put the place back together, sorting through various pages of the dictionary being worked on. As they search for the source of the ransacked library, they conclude that it must have been vandalism done by Brenda, Johnson’s wife, since she was scorned for her lack of talent as a lexicographer. When they discover that Brenda has actually been buried underneath all of the papers, they continue to search for the source. They hear a sudden crash of breaking glass and discover a second broken pane in the cricket window. As they discover the cricketer opening his French window, a snowstorm picks up causing the papers to blow everywhere yet again.

Great Falls: A Play In several Towns

(Note about the picture: There were words where the blank box is, but I deleted them)

Great Falls: A Play in Several Towns
by Lee Blessing

Character Break Down:

Money Man: Male, older, most likely middle aged
Bitch: Female, a week from turning 18

The play opens with Money Man and Bitch driving in a car. They are somewhere in the midwest. Their relationship is unclear at first. Money Man is insistent on having a good time with Bitch, taking her out for a talk. Bitch is angry, saying that Monkey Man will be raped in prison for kidnapping. Money Man at first ignores her, and then insists that he's not kidnaping her, saying that they are on a drive for a talk. As the scene progress, Bitch calls her mother telling her that she's been taken by Monkey Man. Monkey Man takes the phone away from her, and talks to her mother. We learn that Money Man is not actual "kidnapping" Bitch per-say, but really did just want to talk. He and Bitch have an ambiguous relationship. At this point, we're not sure what it is, but he clearly knows her and her mother very well. His relationship with Bitch's mother is strained. Bitch says several times that Monkey Man is not her father, and accuses him of having lusted after her. Their relationship is very strained. We find out that Monkey is actually Bitch's father, of some sort.

In Thermopiles:
Later in a motel room that Bitch and Monkey Man share:

Bitch asks Monkey Man if he wants the bed by the door so she can't "escape". Monkey Man tells her to pick a bed, and she does. The stage directions leave it open as to which bed she decides to take.

Monkey Man asks Bitch if he can use her real name, and she says to just call her Bitch. Bitch talks to her mother on the phone without him in the room. She lies to her mother saying that they are sleeping in different rooms. She also tells her mom that he's been spending way too much money on her, trying to buy her love.

Monkey Man tries to get Bitch excited to see the different sites of America that he saw with his parents when he was little.

Later in the scene we find out that Monkey Man is Bitch's step father. While Bitch is the shower, Monkey Man rehearses his side of a conversation that he plans to have with Bitch. The conversation is about why he and her mother divorced.

Bitch comes out from the shower only wearing panties and a towel, accusing him again of being a pervert.

In Yellowstone:
Monkey Man tries to get Bitch excited to see the geyser, but she is uninterested and pulls a blanket over her head.

In Anaconda:
At  picnic table off the road.

Bitch is writing in her note book. Monkey Man accidentally calls Bitch "insane" for pulling a blanket over her head, and we learn that there is a lot of history behind that word, without learning what the history is.

We learn that Monkey Man is a writer. He writes novels to make money, and wishes we could go back to poetry. His book is rather successful.

As Money Man talks about going to these great American landmarks with his parents, Bitch angrily says that she can’t ever enjoy these places because she doesn’t have two parents and never will.  We also learn that Bitch’s brother hates Monkey Man, and cut up all the pictures of him in the house.

Bitch presses Monkey Man for details of his affairs. He had 3 over 8 years. He began to cheat on Bitch’s mother because of the lack of sex in their marriage. After going into an awkward amount of detail of his affairs and his sexual relationship with his ex-wife, Monkey Man blows up saying that it’s not his fault that both Bitch and her mother were sexual abused.

In Kalispell:

Bitch is driving.

They are on their way to see some glaciers when Bitch tells Monkey Man is pregnant and her mother doesn’t know.

(Said to Monkey Man, not acted out) Bitch doesn’t know who the father is. Because she was sexual abused by her father, she doesn’t feel comfortable being intimate with her boyfriend. She decided she would just sleep with a random guy to get over it. The boy in her class she picks gets her drunk and high, and rapes her with his friend. After they clean her up and send her home, and she calls her boyfriend.

Angry, sad, and hurt he tries to understand why she did that. Bitch feels bad for him and has sex with him.

Therefore she doesn’t know who the father is. Bitch asks Monkey Man to go to an abortion clinic with her. Monkey Man is resistant.

In Great Falls:

Monkey Man and Bitch are getting ready for the abortion. Monkey Man takes the keys from Bitch. She becomes angry thinking he will take her away from the abortion clinic. She begins to yell that he’s kidnapping her, alerting the police.

The two of them are questions by the police. They are on opposite sides of the stage, answering inaudible questions from police officers who are not seen. Monkey Man and Bitch cannot “hear" each other.

Next scene they are at the abortion clinic. Bitch tries to be nice, and make a depressing situation not so bad. Monkey Man -for once- isn’t in the mood to talk, and begins to cry as he thinks about what his step-daughter is about to do.

In Miles City:

After the abortion. Bitch and Monkey Man are at a hotel. Bitch is on the bed with a bad fevor. She is hallucinating. She keeps saying that her kid is haunting her, and that he will haunt her forever for killing him.

Monkey Man tries to help her, but Bitch accuses him manic-ly of raping her, and that he raped her. Monkey Man wants to take her to a doctor, but she doesn’t want people to know she had an abortion. She also doesn’t want to go back to the clinic because her boy’s ghost will be there waiting for her.

She pases out.

Next scene. They’re back from the doctor’s. Bitch had chlamydia. No one knew because one of the rapists probably gave it to her. She is ok and cured.

Monkey Man presses Bitch to tell him why she refereed to her unborn child as a “he” and a “boy”. She tells him that she saved up a $1,000 for something else and used it to get blood work done.

Monkey Man presses Bitch, and becomes worried that she only aborted her fetus because it was male. Bitch explodes, confirming Monkey Man’s concerns that she aborted her male child because of how she has been emotionally and sexually abused by men.

In Fermont:

They are pulled over on the side of the road. Bitch gets out of the car, looking as if she had been sleeping. They’re less than an hour away from Bitch’s home.

Monkey Man decides this is the time to part. He gives her the car, saying there’s no strings attached. Bitch doesn’t want him to go. Bitch tries to give him a poem she wrote but Monkey Man doesn’t want it.

Bitch calls him “Dad”.
Monkey Man corrects her “Stepdad. Ex. Monkey Man”.

As Bitch leaves Monkey Man calls out “Thank you!”

He walks in the opposite direction of the car.

Lights fade.

End

Tender Offer by Wendy Wasserstein

Tender Offer by Wendy Wasserstein

Characters:
1 Male, Paul (35)
1 Female, Lisa (9)

Audiences get a clear idea of the father-daughter relationship from the beginning of the show. Opening with Lisa idling dancing and singing while she waits for her father, Paul, the play starts to paint a picture of the typical businessman father who isn't around much for his child. He starts by trying to be friendly and joke around with her in attempt to make up for the recital that he missed while away at a meeting. Awkward tension floats around between the two, as this happens often, and the characters aren't as close as they'd like to be. Paul uses vocabulary more fit for his colleagues that his nine-year-old daughter, and Lisa goes on emotional tangents stemming from the dysfunction of their relationship. They continue talking over each others heads, and not quite meeting on the same page while still at the dance studio where Paul came to pick up Lisa in the first place. From searching for the girl's leg warmers, to complaining about an ugly trophy, they can't seem to bring themselves to head home yet. Stalling and even arguing continues until Paul realizes that something needs to change, regarding their relationship and the fact that they haven't left. He makes Lisa a "tender offer" basically promising to meet her halfway in creating a closer bond between them. This seems to close the gap in communication that has been present throughout the play and results in their singing and dancing to end the show happily.

The Happy Journey

by Thornton Wilder

3M 3F

The Stage Manager
Ma Kirby
Arthur (age 13)
Caroline (age 15)
Pa (Elmer) Kirby
Beulah (age 22)

This play is set on a blank stage. The show opens to Ma, Caroline, and Arthur onstage, putting on a hat, talking to (imaginary) friends and playing (imaginary) marbles, respectively. The stage manager is stage left, smoking. Ma is trying to get her children ready for a journey they're all about to take (from Newark to Camden, as is revealed in the lines) and anxiously awaiting Elmer's return so they can leave together. She takes a break to talk to the neighbors, who the stage manager reads lines for, about their upcoming journey to visit her married daughter, who's been sick. Elmer returns, and the family is off in their set-piece car that the stage manager places. The family leaves town while sending their good-byes to neighbors, who send their good-byes right back as read by the stage manager. There is very much an eerie 1930's "perfect family" vibe to the whole thing. The family discusses family matters and passing billboards as they drive. Arthur says something insulting about God to Ma. They stop at a "gas station" and the stage manager jumps in fully as the garage hand. They're off again and Arthur begs a for forgiveness, which she gives him. The family eats hot dogs for dinner, sings, and wishes upon the appearing stars. They soon arrive at Beulah's house, and everyone greets her and she greets everyone as the stage manager takes the car offstage. Pa and Arthur leave to go to the "Y.M.C.A." where they're staying, and Caroline goes inside to meet Beulah's new puppies.  Ma and Beulah talk, and it is revealed to the audience that Beulah recently had a daughter that was essentially stillborn. They talk a bit more, and the curtain falls.

A Memory of Two Mondays

by Arthur Miller
drama
12M, 2F

The play takes place in an auto parts company in New York during the Great Depression. It takes place on two different Mondays, one in the summer and one in the winter. The play really speaks to the importance of being grateful, especially when there is little to gain. The play mainly focuses on the characters, and there are many, but primarily shines light on a young man, Bert, about to leave the company and leave for college. One of the main conflicts dealt by with a few characters is alcoholism. In a way, this seems to be "real life" theatre within theatre where the workers were "on stage" and Bert was an observer and then the actual audience watches all of this. I'm not sure if there really is a plot as much as there is a message to be delivered. By the end of the play, Bert realizes that leaving is probably the best thing to do, otherwise, like everyone else here, he'll be stuck in this one place versus the opportunity given by a college education. There is a constant routine done by all these people and they don't really hold on or connect to anything deep. By the end, Bert's farewells are constantly cut short and realizes they don't even matter much since he will soon be forgotten.

The Moon of the Caribbees

The Moon of the Caribbees

By Eugene O’Neill

Characters—

Crew:

Yank

Driscoll

Olson

Davis

Cocky

Smitty

Paul

Lamps

Chips

Donkeyman

Big Frank

Dick

Max

Paddy

The First Mate

Girls:

Bella

Susie

Violet

Pearl

Synopsis—

On the deck of the Glencairn—a British tramp steamer—just off an island in the West Indies, the crew sits under the full moon as they listen to the song of the people on the island.  The crew finds the song particularly irritating.  Driscoll complains about not having anything to drink and that he is waiting for Bella, a native of the island, to return with liquor, even though it is forbidden to have liquor on board.  He warns the men that they need to keep quiet about the liquor so that the Mate does not know.  Paddy and Cocky get impatient, as it takes awhile for the girls to get on deck, and they start to fight, quickly separated.  The girls finally come on deck, and everyone goes into the forecastle so that they can drink without disturbing the Mate.  Smitty and the Donkeyman stay on deck, and Pearl has taken a particular interest in Smitty, though he prefers to be left to his own sadness.  The singing from the shore strikes up again and Smitty curses it, though Donkeyman appreciates the song.  Smitty dislikes the song because it brings up “beastly memories” for him and he resorts to drinking to forget them.  Donkeyman believes that Smitty is broken because of a woman, due to the way Smitty reacts to music.  Pearl comes back on deck to flirt with Smitty, but he turns her away.  She returns to the forecastle heartbroken.  Soon, the crew, in all drunkenness, pours out on to the deck, singing, dancing, drinking, and making a great deal of noise, despite Bella’s fear of being caught and losing her money.  When Paddy trips Cocky as they dance, a brawl breaks out that ends with Paddy unconscious on the ground with a knife wound on his shoulder.  The crew hurries into the forecastle before the Mate comes on deck.  The Mate concludes that Paddy’s knife wound was only a flesh wound and that he must have hit his head on the deck.  Seeing the liquor bottles on deck, the Mate sends the girls away without pay.  Smitty and the Donkeyman are left alone on deck once again as the song from the shore begins again.  The Donkeyman decides to go to bed, though he tells Smitty that the song is not as loud inside the forecastle.  They say goodnight and Donkeyman goes inside, leaving Smitty alone with his memories in the moonlight.

A MARRIAGE PROPOSAL

A Marriage Proposal
by Anton Chekhov

A farce



Characters: 2M, 1F

Stepan Stepanovitch Tschubukov- a country farmer
Natalia Stepannovna- his daughter (age 25)
Ivan Vassiliyitch Lomov- Tschubukov's neighbor (age 35)

Summary:

Lomov and Tschubukov (Tschub), and their respective families have been long time neighbors. Lomov comes over to Tschub's home to propose marriage to his daughter Natalia. Tschub is excited about Lomov's intentions and calls Natalia in, leaving her alone with Lomov.  Before Lomov has a chance to propose, he and Natalia get into an argument about which family owns a meadow between the two households. This trivial matter escalates into a full blown argument in which Tschub becomes involved. Tschub throws Lomov out of his house. When Natalia finds out Lomov intended to propose, she becomes hysterical and demands that her father bring Lomov back. Tschub brings Lomov back for a second chance at proposal. Before Lomov can propose this time, he and Natalia get into another trivial argument over the families' dogs.  Lomov is a hypochondriac, and he becomes faint as his nerves escalate in parallel to the arguments   By the end of the second argument  Lomov faints, causing Tschub and Natalia to believe that they killed him. When Lomov wakes, Tschub essentially forces Lomov and Natalia to seal the proposal with a kiss. After the engagement, Lomov and Natalia continue to argue about the dogs...