CHARACTERS
BOY- Played by a male, usually Caucasian, 18-30
GIRL- Played by a female, African-American, 18-30
LOCAL SPIRIT- Played by anyone, at any age
SARAH- Played by a female, 18-20
DARIA- Played by a female, 18-20
DARON- Played by a male, 18-20
MIKE- Played by a male, 18-20
OWEN- Played by a male, 18-20
POLICE OFFICER- Played by either gender, 21-55
HEART }
FOOT } — Played by any gender at any age
NECK }
STOMACH}
GUY- Played by a male, 18-22
FRATERNITY BROTHERS 1,2,3,4- Played by males, all 18-23
RA- Played by any gender, 18-22
HOMELESS MAN- Played by a male, 30-45
Stations of Access
Stations of Access are four mini staging areas in a rectangle in front of the main stage. They are considered to be performance spaces and have the same properties as the main stage. This means that in these Stations, characters have dialogue, there are sometimes props, and the performers can move within the space. Going from the main stage to a station, or from one Station of Access to another, is to travel from one physical place to another. Viewing the stations as an audience member, the stations are set up like this:
1. 4.
2. 3.
Usually performers travel in order from one to two, two to three, and three to four. They also travel in opposite with four to three, three to two, and two to one. From the main stage, a performer would either travel to Station of Access one or Station of Access four.
BODY
(There is a background of a map of two cities, unnamed. Also in the back is a cardboard cutout of a city bus. A strangely dressed person, wearing body paint and clothing with symbols on it, enters to center stage. The symbols on its skin and clothes consist of drawings of buildings, railroads, sidewalks, people, and trees. Every time there is a word with an () on it, it is spoken louder and drawn out.)
LOCAL SPIRIT
(I) am the spirit of these two cities. (With every location uttered, LOCAL SPIRIT points to a spot on their body.) (I) am an unused parking lot, the synagogue’s holiest room, a high school built on a landfill, a bar with blackjack. (I) am concrete and plastic and shit and bugs and people and metal. (I) am past, present, and future.
(GIRL starts to go through the stations of access.)
LOCAL SPIRIT (CONT’D)
Remember, (when) you went to the pizza party after the funeral? (Points to spot on body.) (When) that parking garage was built? (Points to different spot on body.) (When) there were all those massage parlors filled with eighties escorts? (Points to several spots on its body.) (When) everyone smoked so much pot even I was high? (Indicates all of themselves.)
(Soon) we will see many things: an amorous steakhouse, a dream of mint, a horse (kind of), a kindergarten, and fog, lots of fog. (Soon) we will meet some people: here comes one now. (GIRL gets on bus, falls asleep.) With my powers, we can see her dream.
MINT ICE CREAM
(In an ice cream shop with a cash register and a display with ice cream flavors, there are posters on the wall, one saying Black Power and another a dollar sign. The girl (GIRL) is behind the counter, there is a customer (BOY) and the LOCAL SPIRIT. The boy is facing the girl, the LOCAL SPIRIT is eating an ice cream cone.)
LOCAL SPIRIT
Now we have entered a dream scene, where whales can burp and dogs meow.
BOY
I’m hungry, what’s on the menu?
GIRL
Our specials are Black Power and tiny dollar signs.
BOY
No, thank you. How about mint?
GIRL
(frightened) Oh no, please, not mint! I’m allergic, my head swells up and my nose starts coughing. My heart rate goes down and I get diabetes!
BOY
What about strawberry? Don’t you know you’ll have to pass Ice Scooping 300 to serve mint and strawberry? You’ll have to have the answers injected into your head.
GIRL
I know, but on the last test they took away my concentration. My heart got numb and swelled up and then my wrists sweated stop signs and my eyebrows didn’t work.
BOY
Hold on, it’s okay, do some voice acting, practice your script. Try to be inspired.
GIRL
I do every day, I want to be reliable. I want to be able to take out any ice cream, like on TV. You should link it up to your headgear.
BOY
I do, but the reception is bad. There are only three stations, all about skateboarding.
LOCAL SPIRIT
Racial divides took place a long time ago between the newly emancipated African Americans and the European Americans. And everything was good till Lincoln died.
GIRL
Why are you so angry toward me?
BOY
I don’t know, yes, I do. You make me feel funny, elastic, and tall. Like I can’t connect the dots.
(POLICE OFFICER enters.)
POLICE OFFICER
I heard someone was trying to serve Mint!
GIRL
Please, I didn’t mean it!
LOCAL SPIRIT
And the European Americans were known for knee injuries and pentagonal bumper stickers. It was even…
POLICE OFFICER
(To LOCAL SPIRIT) Be quiet, can’t you see I’m doing an updown, trying to cross lines?
(GIRL runs to station of access four, goes backward through the stations. POLICE OFFICER tries to follow but can’t.)
POLICE OFFICER
What’s happening, I can’t move?
LOCAL SPIRIT
It’s because we’re in a dream.
POLICE OFFICER
(Points to BOY) Dammit, what have you done?
LOCAL SPIRIT
I would grab some umbrellas; it’s going to pour.
BOY
Oh, no, we’re dissipating. Goodbye world, I’ll see you soon.
(GIRL is back on bus, asleep. The ice cream background, and the BOY, POLICE OFFICER, and LOCAL SPIRIT, disappear.)
VOMIT
Round 1
Set at the stations of access. Two girls talking to one another, dressed to go out on a Friday night at the first station of access. They go up to a boy behind the desk at the second station of access. This scene starts when POLICEMAN is chasing GIRL.)
DARIA
(Whispering) Where should we go, should we ask?
SARAH
(Whispering) Ask the RA at the desk, he’ll know.
DARIA
(Slightly louder, more insistent) You ask him.
SARAH
(Even more insistent) No, you.
DARIA
I asked you first.
SARAH
Fine, chicken. (goes to RA.) Excuse me, would you know where to go for fun? Like any parties or anything?
RA
(BOY passes the RA, DARIA, and SARAH across the main stage.) I’m sure there are parties going on, but if you do go out, you can’t bring any unauthorized guests back with you. Remember drinking excessively, or at all, is against the law, and if I catch you or something happens and I hear about it, you’ll be written up, and I’m here all night.
SARAH
Oh no, maybe we shouldn’t go out? You’re not going to get us in trouble, are you?
RA
Like I said before, if you bring in alcohol or if something bad happens and I hear about it, I’ll have to write you up, but I’ll be here all night.
DARIA
So, what happens if you hear something?
RA
(sighs) I honestly don’t know how to say this clearer…
SARAH
So, we can leave?
RA
Anytime you want.
DARIA
I’ll give my brother Nick a call. He’s two years older. (Pulls out phone, talks nondescriptly) Okay. (Talks slowly) We are leaving now, we are not going to get alcohol.
RA
Okay.
(DARIA and SARAH leave through station 4 and exit to the side of the main stage. On the main stage the next scene begins.)
STEAKHOUSE
The scene is set with tables that hold menus, glasses of water, salt and pepper, silverware, and other things on DC, UC, C, DR, UR, and R. Behind the tables on UR and UC are two toilets separated by a partition. On L and DL are a stove, freezer, and a sink. LOCAL SPIRIT is sitting at a table, watching intently.
BOY
My Mom took a free tour in Berlin once. They stopped at the hotel where Michael Jackson held his baby outside a window, and at a Holocaust memorial filled with columns of stone that got taller the further in you went. She saw statues of the Red Army, the entrance to the Parliament building, historical landmarks and important icons. Halfway through the tour, the guide stopped beside a one-story, dirty, gray building next to a dirty, gray parking lot. She said, “Here beneath us, used to be Hitler’s compound, where he stayed at the end of the war. It’s where he committed suicide.”
And my mother had trouble breathing, because Hitler wasn’t just evident in a book, or video, or memorial. In this crap hole, with no sign he was ever here, was where Hitler slept, ate, and walked. He thought, dreamed, yelled and talked, took up the same oxygen, dressed in the morning. References are fine, but he was real there, in that moment. She told me later she wished she had never gone.
I had my first kiss here, in the steakhouse we’re in now. Back then it was a teen club. (Moves toward table in R) Over by these tables in the back, with the A1 Steak sauce, the salt and pepper shakers, a list of beers—American, we were there: then, humping, her butt rubbing up on me, thrusting back, she grabbed me, and…now there are the seats with ice water even when it’s cold and forks and knives and spoons and napkins. Things were more physical then.
On the dance floor, kids were essentially having sex with clothes on, making out on couches right by these customers’ tables. (Walks to the kitchen, starts walking back and forth) That night I was kissed I had entered the club from the front and went to the bathroom, now the kitchen here. By the restaurant’s grill, two teens were chugging forty ounces of malt liquor, another guy was taking a piss by the meat freezer, and a police officer would come in every so often to check with his flashlight. It smelled like urine and stale beer, and the floor was so sticky that my shoes made a krrrp sound every time it pulled away from the ground.
I remember leaving for the dance floor, passing by the kids on the couch (stops by a table in C, motions to it). Today, people were eating there, and before then, I had met my friend who told me to take off my glasses because he said it would look better. We went (goes to C) to the dance floor now on top of tables when people would eat, and there were girls dancing in a circle or with random guys or boyfriends. The restaurant had smelled of sweat and liquor, and we walked up to two girls and started gyrating with them, because back then it was okay to walk up to a girl and gyrate, to hop in.
(DARIA and SARAH enter station of access 1.)
So, as she humped me, I humped her from behind and my friend was humping on her friend and she grabbed me from behind my neck and pulled me toward her and then we kissed. I wasn’t expecting it; my glasses were off so I couldn’t see what she looked like. We lost track of one another as the club closed, I didn’t even get her name. That wasn’t how it was supposed to be, nameless, alone afterward, not even a picture to hold on to. After that, I vowed I would always be able to see whom I was with.
(OWEN, DARON, and MIKE enter main stage.)
Now, with the building torn down, any time I wish to reminisce, it is required to pay for an overpriced steak. But the spaces will always be there, the dancing and the bathrooms and the first kiss. For anyone hearing my story, listen to my mistakes and learn from then. One of the greatest pieces of advice: always wear your glasses.
(BOY and LOCAL SPIRIT exit).
VOMIT
Round 2
(DARIA and SARAH are walking along from stations of access two to three. OWEN, DARON, and MIKE are walking alongside them on the main stage.)
OWEN
Hey man, check out those girls out there, I recognize one from orientation. Let me holler at them.
DARON
Come on, man, don’t.
OWEN
Why not? I’m just being friendly.
DARON
We don’t know them, it’ll be weird. Come on, Mike, say something.
MIKE
Hey, I’m staying out of this.
OWEN
You’ve got to take the moment man. (To the girls) Hey guys, come over here. (Girls look at each other, DARIA shrugs her shoulders, the girls cross to the main stage.) Daria, right?
DARIA
Sorry?
OWEN
We were in orientation together.
(GIRL starts on a station of access from main stage.)
DARIA
Oh, yeah. I recognize you now. Sorry, I forgot your name.
OWEN
Owen. This here is Daron and Mike, we’re new pledges at Alpha Alpha Alpha. We were just going to their welcoming party, want to come? (SARAH looks at DARIA, nods her head.)
SARAH
Sure, sounds good.
OWEN
Awesome. Oh, and don’t worry about Mike here (points to MIKE), he came on a boat from Cuba because he can’t swim (everyone laughs).
(GIRL reaches main stage and disappears.)
DARON
Since we’re pledges, we can skip the line, let’s go.
(A fog is rising on the main stage.)
SARAH
Awesome.
(GIRL appears in the fog, finds a chair, sits down.)
MIKE
(Girls and Owen walk away, MIKE grabs DARON.) Hey man, are those girls prostitutes?
DARON
What? No man, they’re just girls, clear your head out.
(Everyone exits but GIRL.)
SHUTTLE AND A PEARL
(GIRL is sitting on a chair inside; the LOCAL SPIRIT enters from the side. A recording starts playing, it is a mindfulness exercise. GIRL’s breathing slows, she starts to inhale and exhale in a precise rhythm. It starts first with a steady inhale through the nose with the stomach going out, then an exhale through the mouth with the stomach sucked in. The LOCAL SPIRIT watches intently and starts to mimic her breathing. When the recording starts to attempt to pull the listener’s attention to the various body parts (legs, torso, hands, and neck), the LOCAL SPIRIT touches and massages these parts of its body. The recording slowly dies down.)
LOCAL SPIRIT
This tape reminds me of the past people that have been brought into my world. They were connected to me, and took my offer. They became my ankles and elbows, my heart and spleen; but then they left, away from me. But now could be different, the boy and girl could be my new hands, knees, a set of eyebrows. They are connected here, the boy through his steakhouse and the girl through her dream.
It is so lonely here.
It is so lonely here.
I’ll have specific places: past people that still stay here to go and meet them, to convince them.
(LOCAL SPIRIT walks in front of GIRL, she yells and the meditation stops.)
GIRL
Who are you?
LOCAL SPIRIT
The spirit around here of these few cities. Anywhere in it and anytime in the last 150 years. The spirit of place and time. We’re talking, temporarily.
GIRL
What do you want with me? Did I do something wrong, piss somebody off? Are you going to hurt me?
LOCAL SPIRIT
No. I’m just lonely, I want you to join me here, with a few others. You could leave anytime you want. Here there is so much to be or see. It is an amazing opportunity. I’ll let these things explain.
(Four people come onstage: NECK, FOOT, HEART, and STOMACH.)
NECK
I am the neck.
STOMACH
Stomach.
FOOT
Foot.
HEART
Heart.
STOMACH
We are part of a greater spirit. I’m from the sewage plant, the rock quarry, the airport.
FOOT
Every park, the wildlife trails, dog parks, lakes, rivers, humane societies.
HEART
Schools, the suburbs, old shopping malls.
NECK
The courthouse, police station, post office, restaurants. Things like that.
LOCAL SPIRIT
Tell her about the benefits. What would you like to be if you could be anything? Any object?
GIRL
A space shuttle, a giant pearl. Something beautiful, shiny and hard to get. Something everyone likes.
FOOT
We can’t give you that, it has to be in the confines of the cities. How about a bird egg? Everyone likes that.
STOMACH
There are airplanes. Two-seaters.
GIRL
I’ve always wanted to fly a small plane, maybe one from WWII.
NECK
We could take you to 1969, to protests, fighting…
HEART
Have…no, be the best house in the city! See it 1,000 miles up, under the ground.
FOOT
You could explore. Nothing better than an old nature trail, young owls.
HEART
A comic from your favorite library that closed fifteen years ago. Isn’t that nice?
GIRL
No, thank you.
NECK
Showing great strength, courage, love.
STOMACH
There are amazing things to see! A rock quarry being drilled twenty years ago.
FOOT
Years ago before the dodos went extinct.
GIRL
This is all amazing, incredible, it resonates with me.
(MIKE, SARAH, DARIA, OWEN, DARON, GUY, FRATERNITY BROTHERS 1,2,3, and 4 slowly and quietly move to stations of access from main stage.)
LOCAL SPIRIT
You could always be a person. Prince, Jimmy Hendrix when they visited, any others.
GIRL
I don’t want to be like them. My identity is square, defined. Not loose: dangerous and artistic and free.
NECK
A special freedom, respect. I know what will convince you! Freedom, your freedom. Freedom from being followed, scared by the police at traffic stops, afraid again for some other reason. Freedom!
GIRL
You’re talking about racism. It’s horrible and I’ll fight it, but it will always be a part of my life. It will hopefully get better but never go away. My rent will usually be higher than those of another race, and I could be passed over for a job for someone with lighter skin.
NECK
No, you deserve the right to be free from it. Anyone does, we can make it like that. You won’t have to even see it, hear it, know about it. Wouldn’t that be better?
GIRL
Not knowing doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen.
STOMACH
Can we even do that?
LOCAL SPIRIT
Yes.
GIRL
I’ll think about it. It’s compelling.
HEART
Anything else?
GIRL
It would also be great to go to expensive restaurants, with fancy cheese ravioli and sixty-dollar steaks. When would I hear from you?
LOCAL SPIRIT
Easy. When you go to your kindergarten, get on the roof, and scream!
VOMIT
Round 3
Set at stations of access. At station 2 are FRATERNITY BROTHER 1 and FRATERNITY BROTHER 2, 4 has DARIA, SARAH and MIKE. At station 1 is OWEN talking to FRATERNITY BROTHER 3 and FRATERNITY BROTHER 4. Station 3 has DARON talking to GUY. DARION, SARAH, MIKE are all pretty drunk, OWEN moderately drunk, DARIA very drunk. They are all holding cups. Hip-hop music is playing in the background, they are talking over each other.)
OWEN
You have no idea how much we used to drink. In Italy, man, we had some absinthe, totally knocked me on my ass.
MIKE
(Speaking over OWEN) I feel drunk before, now, before I was never drinking.
DARIA
I want, I want, a soda, really, really bad, my stomach hurts. Mike, get me a soda! Now, please.
(MIKE goes to station 2, grabs a drink.) He’s kind of cute.
SARAH
But isn’t he Colombian?
DARON
(To GUY)) Man, you have no idea how many girls I pulled in high school. Like every weekend, it was crazy. And, I mean, (OWEN starts to talk over) like, now that we’re here in college, it will be so awesome. You know, in a fraternity, the girls just come here.
OWEN
(Motions to girls) You see them back there? I’m totally getting some pussy tonight. So looking forward to it.
(On the main stage, a fog has gone up and the setting has changed to a park. There is a sign that says, “Horse Run Park.” BOY enters, walking in circles as if going along a path. He is closely followed by the LOCAL SPIRIT.)
DARIA
Hey, this is a fraternity house, right?
SARAH
Yeah.
DARIA
So, would they like, I don’t know, poison our drinks or something? Oh my god, they totally would! They could be trying to rape us. Are you trying to rape us!
SARAH
Daria, quiet. It’s not like they would admit it. (MIKE returns with the soda.)
MIKE
Here is your soda.
(BOY sits on a bench, suddenly tired. The LOCAL SPIRIT touches his shoulder, and the BOY suddenly falls asleep.)
DARIA
This is bad, this feels weird, I want to go.
SARAH
Okay, let’s get out of here.
MIKE
I’ll get the guys. (Motions to OWEN and DARION, they come over to station of access 4, everyone exits.)
FRATERNITY BROTHER 1
(To FRATERNITY BROTHER 2) Yeah, people have been drinking at my place for a while. I’m going to see what’s available. (All characters but BOY and LOCAL SPIRIT exit stations of access.)
HORSE RUN DUMP
(BOY is asleep on a park bench center stage. He starts to dream, and LOCAL SPIRIT puts its hand on his head and starts to massage his back, going lower. BOY starts to get up, LOCAL SPIRIT jumps back, then quickly gains composure.)
LOCAL SPIRIT
I’ll use the same techniques with the boy as I did with the girl.
BOY
Where am I?
LOCAL SPIRIT
In my world, for a short period of time.
BOY
Who are you?
LOCAL SPIRIT
The spirit around here. Of these few cities. Anywhere in it and anytime in the last one hundred and fifty years. The spirit, of place and time.
BOY
(Cautiously) What do you want?
LOCAL SPIRIT
For you to come to my world, I’m lonely. It’s just some individuals, part of me. (HEART, FOOT, NECK, STOMACH enter). They are:
HEART
The heart.
STOMACH
Stomach.
FOOT
Foot.
NECK
And Neck.
LOCAL SPIRIT
All parts of me.
FOOT
I’m every dog park, lake or river, park or wildlife trail.
NECK
The police station, courthouse. Post office and restaurants.
HEART
Suburbs, old shopping malls.
STOMACH
I’m of the airport, the rock quarry, the sewage plant.
LOCAL SPIRIT
There are many positives, like time travel.
NECK
We could take you to nineteen sixty-nine, to the protests, fighting.
HEART
To the seventies and eighties with massage parlors.
STOMACH
You could be a plane, and fly.
BOY
I’m scared of heights. What do you mean, become?
NECK
Criminals calling themselves activists, breaking just laws, minorities trying to stir up trouble.
LOCAL SPIRIT
To become a building, to eat it, stand above it.
FOOT
Or to become an animal, to experience an existence as another species. Even as a plant, to find out how that feels.
HEART
An old house.
STOMACH
Or maybe just to explore, as yourself or anything? Now or in the past?
NECK
They were dangerous, challenging the status quo, getting more power to be more annoying.
STOMACH
The rock quarry before it was mined, when it was a speakeasy in the middle of the woods.
FOOT
Old parks, closed off now that would be open.
HEART
Or your favorite running store, that closed off two months ago.
NECK
Dangerous people…
BOY
Jesus!
(DARIA, SARAH, OWEN, DARON, MIKE all enter from main stage to station of access 1. They are quiet but move as if drunk. DARIA is being supported by SARAH. They slowly move through the stations of access.)
LOCAL SPIRIT
Prince came here in the nineteen nineties. You could be him, sing his songs.