Theatre and Drama Final Perance.doc

Theatre and Drama Final PerformanceThis sequence has two acts and should take around ten minutes, depending on the pace of delivering the lines and the use of dramatic pauses.There are three parts: two female and one male.Jimmy: a photojournalist who has had to take several weeks off of traveling the world doing his job as a photographer because he has a broken leg. He has been limited to sitting in a wheelchair (you may use a regular chair). He is in both scenes.Ethel: a middle-aged nurse for an insurance company. She visits Jimmy once a day to check on his recovery. She has developed a friendly relationship with him over the past weeks. She appears in the first scene.Grace: Jimmys girlfriend. Grace is a glamorous and elegant New York City fashion boutique owner and editor of a fashion magazine. She appears in the second scene.Both scenes take place in Jimmys livingroom.Scene IJimmy is in his living room, watching his neighbors from his windows. Enter Ethel.Ethel: New York state sentence for a Peeping Tom is six months in the workhouse.Jimmy: Oh, hello, sweetheart.Ethel: They got no windows in the workhouse. You know, in the old days, they used to put your eyes out with a red-hot poker. Any of those bikini bombshells youre always watching worth a red-hot poker? Oh, dear. Weve become a race of Peeping Toms. What people ought to do is get outside their own house and look in for a change. Yes, sir. Hows that for a bit of homespun philosophy?Jimmy: Readers Digest, April 1939.Ethel: Well, I only quote from the best. (gets ready to take Jimmys temperature)Jimmy: You dont have to take my temperature this morning.Ethel: (sticks a thermometer into Jimmys mouth) Quiet. See if you can break 100. You know, I should have been a gypsy fortune-teller instead of an insurance company nurse. I got a nose for trouble. Can smell it ten miles away. You heard of that market crash in 29? I predicted that.Jimmy: (with the thermometer still in his mouth) Just how did you do that, Ethel?Ethel: Oh, simple. I was nursing a director of General Motors. “Kidney ailment,” they said. “Nerves,” I said. Then I asked myself, “Whats General Motors got to be nervous about?” “Overproduction,” I says. “Collapse.” When General Motors has to go to the bathroom ten times a day, the whole countrys ready to let go.Jimmy: (taking the thermometer out of his mouth) You know, Ethel, in economics, a kidney ailment has no relationship to the stock market. None whatsoever. (puts thermometer back in his mouth)Ethel: Crashed, didnt it? I can smell trouble right here in this apartment. First you smash your leg, then you get to looking out the window, see things you shouldnt see. Trouble. I can see you in court now surrounded by a bunch of lawyers in double-breasted suits. Youre pleading. You say, “Judge, it was only a bit of innocent fun. I love my neighbors, like a father.” And the judge says, “Well, congratulations. Youve just given birth to three years in Dannamora.” (takes the thermometer out of Jimmys mouth and reads it)Jimmy: Right now, Id welcome trouble. Ethel: Youve got a hormone deficiency. Jimmy: How can you tell from a thermometer?Ethel: Those bathing beauties youve been watching havent raised your temperature one degree in a month.Jimmy: You know, I think youre right. I think there is gonna be trouble around here.Ethel: I knew it. What kind of trouble?Jimmy: Grace Fremont.Ethel: You kidding? Shes a beautiful, young girl, and youre a reasonably healthy young man. Jimmy: She expects me to marry her.Ethel: Thats normal.Jimmy: I dont want to.Ethel: Thats abnormal.Jimmy: Im just not ready for marriage. Ethel: Every mans ready for marriage when the right girl comes along. Grace Fremont is the right girl for any man with half a brain who can get one eye open. Jimmy: Shes alright.Ethel: What did you do, have a fight?Jimmy: No.Ethel: Father loading up the shotgun?Jimmy: What? Please, Ethel.Ethel: Its happened before, you know. Some of the worlds happiest marriages have started under the gun as you might say.Jimmy: No, shes just not the girl for me.Ethel: Yeah, shes only perfect. Jimmy: Shes too perfect. Shes too talented. Shes too beautiful. Shes too sophisticated. Shes too everything, but what I want.Ethel: Is what you want something you can discuss?Jimmy: What? Its very simple, Ethel. She belongs to that rarefied atmosphere of Park Avenue: expensive restaurants and literary cocktail parties. Ethel: People with sense belong wherever theyre put.Jimmy: Can you imagine her tramping around the world with a camera bum like me who never has more than a weeks salary in the bank? If she was only ordinary.Ethel: You never gonna get married?Jimmy: Ill probably get married one of these days, but when I do, its gonna be to someone who thinks of life not just as a new dress and a lobster dinner and the latest scandal. I need a woman whos willing to go anywhere and do anything and love it. So the honest thing for me to do is just call the whole thing off. Let her find somebody else.Ethel: I can hear you now. “Get out of my life, you perfectly wonderful woman.” Look, Jimmy, Im not an educated woman, but I can tell you one thing. When a man and a woman see each other and like each other, they ought to come together, wham (smacks hands together), like a couple of taxis on Broadway and not sit around analyzing each other like two specimens in a bottle. Jimmy: Theres an intelligent way to approach marriage.Ethel: Intelligence! Nothing has caused the human race so much trouble as intelligence. Modern marriage.Jimmy: Now, weve progressed emotionally.Ethel: Baloney. Once it was see somebody, get excited, get married. Now, its read a lot of books, fence with a lot of four-syllable words, psychoanalyze each other until you cant tell the difference between a kissing party and a civil service exam.Jimmy: People have different emotional levelsEthel: (interrupts Jimmy) When I married Myles, we were both a couple of maladjusted misfits. We are still maladjusted misfits, and we have loved every minute of it.Jimmy: Well, thats fine, Ethel. Now, would you fix me a sandwich, please?Ethel: Yes, I will. And Ill spread a little common sense on the bread. Grace is loaded to her fingertips with love for you. I got two words of advice for you: marry her.Jimmy: She pay you much?Ethel: Oh! (walks off)Jimmy: (chuckles)Scene IISame room, several hours later. Ethel left long ago. Jimmy is asleep in his chair. He awakes to find Grace leaning over him.Grace: Hows your leg?Jimmy: It hurts a little.Grace: And your stomach?Jimmy: Empty as a football.Grace: And your love life?Jimmy: Not too active.Grace: Anything else bothering you?Jimmy: Mm-hm. Who are you?Grace: Reading from top to bottom: (moves away) GraceCarolFremont.Jimmy: Is this the Grace Fremont who never wears the same dress twice?Grace: Only because its expected of her. (twirls around to display her dress) Its right off the Paris plane. Do you think itll sell?Jimmy: That depends on the quote. Lets see now. Theres the airplane ticket over, import duties, hidden taxes, profit markupGrace: A steal at eleven thousand dollars.Jimmy: Eleven thousand? They ought to list that dress on the stock exchange.Grace: We sell a dozen a day in this price range.Jimmy: Who buys them, tax collectors?Grace: Even if I had to pay, it would be worth it. Just for the occasion.Jimmy: Why, is something big going on?Grace: Its going on right here. Its a big night.Jimmy: Its just an old run-of-the-mill Wednesday. The calendars full of them.Grace: Its opening night of the last depressing week of Jimmy Jefferies in a cast.Jimmy: Well, I havent noticed a big demand for tickets. Grace: Thats because I bought out the house. (walks toward Jimmy with a cigarette box) You know, this cigarette box has seen better days.Jimmy: I picked that up in Shanghai, which has also seen better days.Grace: Its cracked and you never use it. Its too ornate. Im sending up a plain, flat, silver one with your initials.Jimmy: Thats no way to spend your hard-earned money.Grace: I want to. Lets open the wine now.Jimmy: Alright. (Grace hands Jimmy the bottle and he opens it)Grace: I cant think of anything more boring or tiresome than what youve been through and the last week must be the hardest.Jimmy: Yeah, I want to get this thing off and get moving.Grace: Well, Im going to make this a week youll never forget. What a day I had! I was all morning in a meeting, then I had to dash to the Waldorf for a quick drink with Madam Dufrene, whos just over from Paris with some spy reports. Then I had two Fall showings 20 blocks apart. Then I had to have a cocktail with Leland and Slim Hayward. Were trying to get his new show.Jimmy: Tell me, what was Madam Dufrene wearing?Grace: Oh you! To think I planted three nice items in the columns about you today.Jimmy: You did?Grace: Someday you may want to open a studio of your own here.Jimmy: How would I run it from, say, Pakistan?Grace: Jim. Isnt it time you came home? You could pick your assignment.Jimmy: I wish there was one I wanted.Grace: Make the one you want.Jimmy: You mean leave the magazine?Grace: Yes.Jimmy: For what?Grace: For yourself and me. I could get you a dozen assignments tomorrow. Fashions, portraits.Jimmy: (chuckles)Grace: Now dont laugh. I could do it.Jimmy: Thats what Im afraid of. Can you see me driving down to the fashion salon in a jeep wearing combat boots and a three-day beard? Wouldnt that make a hit?Grace: I could see you looking very handsome and successful in a dark blue, flannel suit. Jimmy: Lets stop talking nonsense, shall we?Grace: If youre saying this because you dont want to tell me the truth, because youre hiding something from me, then maybe I can understand.Jimmy: Im not hiding anything. Its just thatdid you ever eat fish heads and rice?Grace: Of course not.Jimmy: Well, you might have to if you went with me. You just have to face it, Grace, youre not meant for that kind of life and Im not meant for your