No Title

This doesn't have a title, I wrote it in about an hour for my Theatre Arts portfolio. I, personally, think it's really bad, so critique it how you want, be perfectly honest! I wouldn't mind writing one day, so give me some pointers if you can too!





Characters

Jimmy Baker
17, from poor family, participating for trying to steal formula out of a convenience store, third strike.
Bolour-adar Atchison (crystal-fire)
15, iranian girl living in america with an american mother and iranian father; in juvi for assaulting a 14 yr old girl, taking anger management classes
Michael Glaser
17, has aspergers syndrome, in juvi for locking 15 yr old boy in shed for 2 days, boy was hospitalized
Dominique Phillips
17, alleged pyromaniac, extremely bad temper, set fire to unagreeable teacher.
Dr. Kornin (voiceover only)
Group therapy leader

Statement of Intent

My play’s style stems from a Bretchian style. Brechtian style does not use many dramatic techniques; it is minimal on set and sound effects, etc. He also does not want the actors to become the actors, but more like be actors playing another person. I don’t want this element though, the actors personas and mannerisms and styles are very important to this play.
The point of my play is for the characters to look at themselves and what they’ve done. I also want them to really understand it, to see it from almost a different point of view. One characteristic that they all have in common is that their actions were provoked from a situation that was out of their control. This is what I am mainly trying to achieve, and I will try to achieve it by using certain techniques and concentrating on the actors and their particular characteristics.
Also, the setting of the play is inspired from Brecthian style. The setting is not in a particular place, and it leaves the audience, and the characters guessing, and it puts them in the same situation. I don’t have a specific setting so that it is easier to concentrate on the actors. The introduction of Dr. Kornin, as a voiceover only especially, makes the actors and audience kind of hesitant and wary of what is going on; they wonder whether this whole thing is in their mind.
Jimmy is the only one of the group that has not caused harm to anybody, and his crime was almost justifiable by his situation. This realization leads to the recognition that they have no clue at all where they are.


Bright white lights come up on stage immediately. They highlight the 3 of the members of the group. In this order, from down stage left, is Dominique Phillips, Michael Glaser, and Bolour-Adar Atchinson. They are sitting in plain chairs. Dominique clad in tight blue jeans, and a tight white t-shirt. He is leaning back in the chair and one leg crossed over the other, is looking cool calm and collected. Michael is very stocky, and is dressed in dress pants and shoes, and a button down shirt. He has a Pez container held tightly in his hand and is sitting rigid in the chair. Bolour-Adar has on what looks like an expensive pant suit. She is sitting with her hands folded politely in her lap and isn't making eye contact with anyone. There is one last chair, empty. There is a long silence. Then, all at once, Bolour shifts in her seat, Dominique uncrosses his legs and leans forward, and Michael clicks the head of his Pez container. Then the last group member walks in from upstage right, Jimmy Baker. He is dressed in simply a ratty t-shirt and pants. He quickly walks over to the last chair. He glances around and sits down.


Dr. Kornin: Good morning, and welcome to your first session. I am Dr. Kornin. Will the four of you please state your names and your reasons for being here. Starting with Mr. Baker. (Jimmy looks up, startled to hear his name)

Jimmy: Uh...Jimmy Baker. 3rd offense. Stealing...
Bolour: Bolour-Adar Atchinson. (hesitantly) I assaulted a girl. (She looks left to Michael. He is not paying attention, but has his mind fixed upon his Pez container. She clears her throat. He does not budge. She taps his shoulder. He looks up.)
Jimmy: It's your turn.
Michael: (very nonchalant and robotic) Michael Glaser. I locked a boy in a shed. I believe he had to go to hospital. (he looks back down to his Pez container)
Dominique: (with a certain smugness) Well I guess it's my turn...Dominique Phillips. I set a teacher on fire. (a smile forms on his lips) It was damn well worth it. (Jimmy sits up at this, Bolour glances to the right, but doesn't change the way she's sitting)
Dr. Kornin: To start, each of you are going to tell each other one thing about you that not many other people may know. (Michael is now paying attention, but is still fiddling with his Pez container. They all look around at each other subtly) Do not be afraid to be open with each other. This is just between us. (there is a long silence)
Dominique: I like fire. (he laughs) If you didn't already guess .
Michael: (eagerly) I have Aspergers Syndrome. My mom says I'm very smart. And very special.
Bolour: I am of noble Iranian blood. My great-great grandfather was a Duke in Iran.
Jimmy: I work two jobs to take care of my family. My mom and four brothers and sisters. (a short silence. He looks down. Slowly) My mom is more of a kid than I am...
Dr. Kornin: I want each of you to tell the story of the situation that placed you here. Mrs. Atchinson?
Bolour: (Short silence. She is looking displeased that she was picked first. She still does not make eye contact) I am of noble Iranian blood. My peers, if I can call them that, do not seem to understand that. Not only do they not understand this, but they must also discriminate against me, at my Middle Eastern heritage (she slouches a bit more in her chair and her voice is a bit more raised and tense but hesitant) They like to heckle at me, and call me names. Names like ‘the Arab’, ‘towel head’, and ‘filthy terrorist‘ (she spits out these words as if they burn her tongue as she says them. (She leans out of her chair and shouts at the audience) I am not Arab, nor do I wear a turban, and I am certainly not any sort of terrorist! (she ends up out of her chair. She realizes what she has done, and moves back to her chair and composes herself again) There is this one girl, Tiffany. Everyone at school likes her and follows whatever she does. Except me of course. I have some common sense. One day, in the cafeteria, while I was saying my daily prayers before eating my lunch, she walked by. Seeing me in mid-prayer, she decides to announce to the whole student body ‘Look at the ‘Arab‘, praising Allah, right in the middle of OUR cafeteria!’. She took my food and threw it to the floor. The whole cafeteria roared in laughter. This, of course, was not the first time this had happened. But this was the last. When she turned around to look smile and laugh for her ‘crowd…I picked up the cafeteria tray and hit her over the head. Then I turned the cafeteria table over onto her unconscious body on the floor. I’m sure she won’t bother me again. Nor will anyone else. (Jimmy, Michael, and Dominique are all staring at her. Michael has stopped playing with his Pez)
Dominique: Damn girl! Who woulda thought all that woulda come outa lil old you! I heard about Tiffany. I missed that lil episode! That’s kinda ironic, cuz at the same time, I was doing the deed that got me here too. I was in Mr. Baston’s, or should I say Mr. Bastard’s room, you know the chemistry teacher. He was trying to tell me that I was failing his class! How can I be failing, I come to almost all of his classes! Ha! (he sits forward in his chair and becomes more animated with his hands) I tried to (suggestively) reason with him. He didn’t listen, then he tried to suggest something about telling may parents, blah blah blah, like I cared. And he tried to get me in trouble for smoking in his room since it was (mockingly) ‘a highly specialized chemistry laboratory‘. He had never caught me, so what was the big deal? Well, just to spite his ass, I lit up right there, at his desk, right in his face. But then he got this look in his eyes. I thought he was just trying to stare me down, freak me out. But then he took my cigarette and stuffed it in one of those test tubes and BAM it blew up, and set all his clothes on fire! I thought it was THE funniest thing ever! Seeing that man flailing, on fire! He ran out the room, screaming at the top of his lungs. I walked out and left, with a big smile on my face. I thought he had got what I deserved. But next thing I know, I’m being dragged into the Principal’s office, them claiming that I set him on fire! The f-in nerve of that guy! Talking about how I tried to set the lab on fire by setting him and some chemicals on fire! Yeah right! Like I would do it with him around! (the other members don’t look phased nor amused by what he has just said. They look uninterested there is a short silence). Ok…well I pushed him into the fire, (raised voice) but he started the fire in the first place! Bastard! Shouldn’t have done something that stupid in the first place! Serves him right. Trying to fail me! Tell my parents! He deserved it! (jumps out of his chair) Karma at its BEST! (the other member are staring at him, the same way they stared at Bolour. He backs down back into his chair and calmer) Well it don’t matter anyways, he’s still alive, aint he? Even though I’m still failing.
Bolour: (with her noise turned up and a certain snobby indignation, but looking at Dominique) You’re sick.
Dominique: (angry) Me?! Sick? You beat up a girl with cafeteria furniture! And you have the nerve to call me sick? Take a look at yourself before you go around saying that…(Bolour looks away, and her posture slouches a bit more. To Michael) Go ahead, what happened with you?
Michael: My name is Michael Glaser. I have Asperger’s Syndrome. My mother says I’m very smart. And she says that I’m very special. (the other members give him anxious looks)
Dominique: Yeah, you said that already…
Michael: (cheerily) I’m not done! Well one day, I was walking home, taking the route I take everyday, down Chancery Lane, over to Lake Road, through the tracks, and-
Dominique: (frustrated) OK just tell us what happened, we don’t want you life story!
Michael: (cheerily) Ok, well I shall get to the point where I locked Justin in the shed! (members give him questioning looks, but he goes on) I was walking on the tracks, right where past where there is an old shack on the side of the track, do you know it? (he looks around, expecting everyone to answer)
All: (mumble) Yes…
Michael: Justin Goshen, my mother calls him a ‘bully’, she says that that means that he is mean to people for no reason and to stay away from him, well he walked past and me and must have seen my Pez containter, much like the one I have here! (he raises his hand with the Pez container in it and shows it around to the other members) He shouted, ‘Hey, give me some candy!’ I was not about to give him some candy with that kind of attitude, my mother says, always ask politely with a ‘May I’. So I said to him ‘If you ask nicely, I will surely give you some candy!’. He must have got mad, and he hit me in the face! I then sensed that he had no good intentions and decided that I must always do what my mother says, ‘Fight back you must always protect yourself!’. So, I figured that he must be about 175 pounds, and I know that I am 203, so I had a 28 pound advantage on him. So I took that advantage and used it. I hit him back in the face so he was knocked to the ground. I believe I knocked him out. I then dragged him over to the shed, and put him inside. I then found a large stick and wedged it in the door handle. I figured this would prevent him from harming anyone again, or trying to steal their candy!
Dominique: So you just left him in there? To die?
Michael: Death? No, death was not my intention. I just did not want him to do any more harm!
Jimmy: But he would have died. Is he alive now?
Michael: (matter-of-factly) Why of course, he was found in two days!
Jimmy: But you still left him to die!
Michael: (raised, anxious voice) No I did not, I did not wish for death!
Jimmy: But he could have!
Michael: (he leaps out of his chair and into Jimmy’s face, pez container in hand) NO! (Jimmy shrinks back. Michael has a look of desperation and fright on his face. He is shaking. He glances down at his Pez containter and scuttles back to his seat. He looks down again at his Pez container, and starts to click it again. The tension in the group loosens again)
Dominique: (to Michael, almost under his breath) Yeah, well you don’t seem to be in the capacity to judge what you did anyways…(to Jimmy) Now that we got YOU speaking, why don’t you tell us why you’re here.
Bolour: Yeah, you’ve been quite. I’m sure your crime is so heinous, it could top all of ours. (Dominique gives her a mean look, but let’s Jimmy go on)
Jimmy: (loudly and angry) All I did was steal something and got caught. It was my third strike, so I guess they thought I should be punished.
Bolour: And what did you steal? A car? Some expensive jewelry?
Jimmy: (he gets out of his chair and turns to face the other members he is shouting at pointing in their faces) Some formula! Some formula for my baby sister! I didn’t have money to pay for it because my mother fluffed the money off on some drugs or something, I don’t know. What was I to do, leave my sister crying at home with nothing to eat? No, I was justified with what I did. You all just have excuses. (to Michael) Just because you have some sort of ’syndrome’ does not give you the right to lock someone up in a shed and leave them to die! (to Dominique) Just because you think you’re some sort of bad-ass and your teacher started a fire to get you in trouble does NOT mean that you have to make the situation even worse by causing him to be scarred for life! And you! (his head snaps over to Bolour) You think you are the cream of the crop! You aren’t anything special. Just because you’re great-GREAT grandfather is royalty does not make you anything special. You wear your expensive looking clothes, and turn your nose up to everybody, but you have no right. No wonder you were picked on, you brought it upon yourself! (he is shouting at the top of his lungs, his face has gone red) Hurting someone in the manner that you did it completely unjustified, royalty or not, being teased or not! I don’t belong with you people, you are all crazy lunatics! I shouldn’t be here, wherever we are!

There is a long silence. Bolour is sitting in her same way, but tears can be seen falling from her eyes. Dominique is sitting forward on his knees, with his face in his hand. He moves to take out a pack of cigarettes and a lighter. He lights up and sits forward again, harshly dragging back on his cigarette. Michael has moved to sit on the ground. He glances up at Jimmy and has started to moan. He is ferociously playing with his Pez container. The head pops off and flies onto the front of the stage.

Dominique: Here…where is here…?

Blackout