Every year the Creative Writing department of the Ruth Asawa School of the Arts puts on a show of plays written and performed by its students. Due to the COVID19 pandemic and resulting stay-at-home orders, the 2020 show, Shelter in Playce, was produced instead as a reading over Zoom.

 

The excerpts below are the openings of three short plays that were
staged in the Spring 2011 Playwriting show, titled “My Playce Tonight?”

Inheritance
by Sayre Quevedo ’11

AT RISE:                      The stage is split. HIVELY is sitting in a tacky
hotel room. She is watching a TV, which is playing
from a camcorder. Across the stage is a bed where
RED and JIM are laying. This room has a small
lamp and a bedstand. Their clothes are strewn about
the floor.

HIVELY

She set the bag down. She sat down. She remembered this place. Anniversaries. Their … first night. Back in college. She couldn’t sneak him into her dorm. “There’s always the Old 86 off the highway.” That’s what he said. “You and me, let’s make this happen,” he said. And they did and now … she was going to make the decisions. She started the tape.

(HIVELY grabs the remote from the table beside her
and presses Play. RED rolls off of JIM and lies down
beside him.)

JIM

Something is up …

RED

What?

JIM

You’re quiet, You’ve been … distant …
(beat)

RED

It’s not — I’m not … I’m fine.
(long silence)

JIM

I can’t believe this is my first time in your house … I like it … it’s really, uh, homey …

RED

Thanks … I didn’t really organize it … That was Hively … f— … Hively …

JIM

What’s up?

RED

Nothing. It’s just — she left this morning — I think she might be catching on …

HIVELY

She was catching on. She had her suspicions … sure … She knw that men … men … they play tricks but it was innocent … that’s what she told herself … it’s just your head … for a while that’s what she said … then she bought the camcorder … just in case … just to check … just to, you know … make sure …

(RED wraps an arm around JIM then suddenly
perks up.)

RED

Did you hear that?

JIM

What?

RED

Nothing … Sorry, I thought I heard a car pull up ………..

The Pirate
by Yaul Perez-Stable ’11

AT RISE:          NORMA is asleep on her bed but she is not under the covers.
She is in her nightgown. The door is stage left. There is a
knock at the door. NORMA startles awake.

NORMA
(speaking to herself)

Can’t fall asleep! Did I? But I can’t! I can’t go back there. What time is it?                       (NORMA checks her watch)
2:35. But don’t fall asleep. After tomorrow maybe. Not now though. Listen — not now. Remember, it’s not your fault. You were just sleeping. They’re gonna ask you what happened. You were sleeping.
                       (Pause)
But you saw it happen. What are you gonna say? No! No! They told you what happened afterwards. You’re just so tired. What’ll the pirate say? He wanted you to —
(NORMA covers her mouth)
No! Don’t think about him!
                       (Beat. Enter OSCAR. He comes up behind NORMA.)
You gotta tell them something Norma. Tell them — I don’t know. Tell them he threatened you. He couldn’t sleep. He was an insomniac. He never slept. Tell them —
                       (OSCAR lays his hand on NORMA’S shoulder. NORMA
screams, then jumps out of her seat, backing away.
                        NORMA does not make eye contact with OSCAR until
                        indicated.)

(agitated)
Who the f— are you? Stay away from me. Don’t come near me.

OSCAR

It’s me, Norma. It’s Oscar.

NORMA

No you’re not! No you’re not! Oscar’s dead.
(NORMA closes her eyes, speaking to herself.)
You’re just seeing things. He’s not there. He’s not there. You’re just tired. Now, I want you to go downstairs and make yourself a cup of coffee and drink it and then he’ll be gone.
(OSCAR approaches her again and touches her shoulder
from behind. NORMA again jumps and runs to the opposite
side of the stage.)
Don’t touch me!
(NORMA closes her eyes, speaking to herself.)
He’s not there. You’re tired. You’re so tired, Norma. He’s just a figment of your imagination. That’s all. A figment.
(OSCAR wraps his arms around NORMA. NORMA doesn’t
fight it. she is still not looking at OSCAR.)

OSCAR

Do I feel like a figment?

NORMA
(speaking to herself)

He’s not Oscar. Oscar jumped out the window. Fifteen stories. It was suicide. Pronounced dead on the spot.

OSCAR

Is that what you’re going to tell the police tomorrow? That I committed suicide?

NORMA

It’s what happened.

OSCAR

You know that’s not what happened Norma…….

Milo and Bones
by Aly Robalino ’12

SETTING: Nowhere specific. Perhaps a patch of green. Near a bush. Just somewhere secluded and where the sky is clear.

                           (Lights up. MILO [a frog] is sitting at the edge of center
stage, looking out. He’s lost in thought. Immediately,
BONES [a cat] starts to sneak out on stage, trying to
come up behind him, lowering herself to pounce. As she
raises her hands over him, as if to strangle him, MILO
mutters, almost bored, without looking away.)

MILO

You’re late.

BONES

Sorry. Friends wouldn’t get off my tail.

(She laughs at her own joke. MILO rolls his eyes. He
seems a little spacey, thoughtful. BONES slips to his side
and wriggles into his lap until she’s looking upside down
at him.)

MILO

They didn’t follow you, did they?

BONES

They tried. They were like, “Where ya’ going’ Bones? You ain’t off to see that — frog — again, are you? You’re gonna get warts!”
(Pause.)

They called me a wart kisser.

MILO
(Offended)

Wartkisser? I’m not a toad for god’s sake.
(MILO absent-mindedly reaches a hand to scratch
her behind her ears.)

BONES

I don’t get the weird taboos we have. If a cat wants to be friends with a frog without — oh to the left, left! — causing a scandal why can’t she?
(BONES, lifting herself up from his lap, accidentally
digs her claws into his leg. MILO flinches.)

MILO

Ow! Because you have claws.
(He briefly looks to his leg, irritated, to see if any damage
is done and scowls, brushing fur off his lap.)
You know this is how my friends can tell when you’ve been with me.

BONES

Sorry. Cat thing. Hey Milo?
(Pause.)
Does it make you nervous, knowing very well that at any moment I could shred you open like a can opener does to … um …
(Thinks hard.)
… a can? I think.

MILO

I thought about it once.

BONES
(Dramatic)

Yet … neither claws nor teeth keep you from me!
(She opens her arms up, preparing to embrace him.
He holds out his arm to stop her.)

MILO

Don’t. You’ll get more fur on me ………