Rosemary McLaughlin's One Act Plays
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One act comedy, 2 females, 1 interior set. TERRY and LUCY celebrate
their tenth anniversary with fast-paced repartee and the purchase of the
ultimate bed. What will they have to look forward to now?
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SETTING: Cherry Grove, Fire Island, New York; early morning
in late May; RANDY, 36, European-American, enters dressed in a Brooks
Brothers suit and dress pumps, dragging a red wagon onto the beach; it
is lined with a tarp, filled with rocks; she pauses, stands
for a moment staring downstage, out to the sea; she blesses
herself and begins cramming rocks into all of her pockets.
Offstage, JOY, a 25-year old Chinese-American, is cursing. RANDY is momentarily
distracted but continues stuffing rocks in her clothes until JOY
enters, still cursing, hopping on one foot, holding the other, offering
other-worldly plans for RANDY.
The Chair |
Dark Comedy; two male, one female; one exterior set
(essentially, one chair)
SETTING: The place is America, North or South or
possibly Cambodia. It could be Europe. More specifically, this is
a fairly prosperous town with a good-sized population. The weather
is sunny, for the present.
CHARACTERS: Should be cast without regard to race/ethnicity.
JUAN- a zealous and energetic man, certain his moment has come. TU- a little
older, wiser, wearier than Juan; accustomed to power. WOMAN- may
be younger; moves like a squirrel; impestuous, living more on instinct
than principle.
The play opens with JUAN and TU in a tableaux
that recalls the infamous photo from the Viet Nam War when a South
Vietnamese officer was about to shoot another man point-blank in the temple.
Here the gun is in place but the tableaux is broken by TU's sneeze.
For now...
To Your Health |
AT RISE we see the office of a stationery supply store, with two desks, phones, file cabinets, etc. It is a Friday, the end of a long work day. WHITNEY, a robust man in his thirties, founder and C.E.O. of the company, works on some papers at his desk, jotting down figures in pencil, then furiously erasing them and jotting down some more.
ALFRED, an average looking 35, a sales associate,
enters carrying cleaning supplies. WHITNEY does not look up
as ALFRED methodically wipes down the other desk and everything
in his path, including phones and staplers.
He is about to be fired.