Scene Six — But It’s All About Me!
Start from the beginning HERE.
SCENE SIX
Set: It is a bare workshop space. There are 12 chairs in a semi-circle. Beneath each chair is a notebook, a pen, and a few candies. In the centre of the semi-circle is a box of tissues.
Style: Movement based. Physical storytelling. Rhythmic, and poetic.
Invitation to:
Consider the three characters are interchangeable.
Consider choosing an issue of the ‘time’ and infuse it through the script.
Consider exploring a theme where reconciliation is the yearning behind the text.
Characters: The workshop junkies.
They don’t live ‘out there’, they live ‘in here’, in workshop spaces.
HE and SHE move to each side of the audience and whisper something about THEY to an audience member and get them to pass it on as THEY watches — horrified.
THEY is trying to meditate while this is going on.
THEY: I’ll never get there.
I won’t.
I won’t.
Everyone knows it.
I don’t try.
I don’t want to try.
I can’t try.
I mean, really try. Like I care about it. Like I believe in it.
I don’t.
No.
I fake.
I’m a freak
a disastrous, out of my mind, self indulgent
crazy
overbearing…
No one wants to hear it. I don’t want to hear it.
I know.
Neither do you.
I know.
You can all see right through me.
I’m a skeleton of dangling lies
and you know it
and so do they
and them
and you
and you.
HE: For God’s sake
THEY: What?
HE: Please.
THEY: What?
HE: Enough already.
THEY: I’ll go.
HE: Where?
THEY: Out.
HE: Where?
THEY: There.
HE: Where’ll you go?
SHE: I was locked up.
HE: Okay now, that’s enough.
THEY: But
SHE: Totally locked up.
THEY: Can you be more specific?
HE: Not now!!!
THEY: But…
SHE: I…
THEY: I need you to tell me…
HE: For Fuck sake just shut up.
SHE: I was locked up. I stayed there. I couldn’t get out.
THEY: Right…. Right…. Sorry.
HE: Pffffffffff…
SHE: I was locked up.
Expectations all over me.
Locked up by choice
and quiet.
It’s not shocking.
Oh come on. Don’t look at me like that.
It’s not so.
Oh please…. shocking!
I’m not… You’re not… We’re not…
I wanted it that way.
I set it up to stay there.
I could laugh.
I have a choice you know.
I choose this, all of this. I am entirely to blame.
I am the centre of all that I do.
I create all the things…
all the things…
these things…
I was locked up
I own it.
Sometimes I don’t even notice when my hands are numb.
HE and THEY write furiously.
HE: Too much information.
THEY: I need to use the bathroom. Do we get a break soon?
SHE: No one is keeping you here.
SCENE.
There is a festival in Vancouver called: Theatre Under the Gun. In it, writers and actors come together to write, rehearse, stage and perform a one act play in 48 hours. At the time I wrote this, I was heavily involved in personal development work and the character of ‘the workshop junkie’ arrived. I have always loved physical theatre, clown work, mask and poetic dialogue. This piece is my exploration of storytelling this way.
And yes, we did stage the show. It was performed at the Vancouver East Cultural Centre a very long time ago with: Cyndi Mason, Judi Closkey and a guy named Ryan… oh man… I couldn’t tell you his last name. We met at a workshop.
For real.
TinaO is a storyteller, performer, and a professional listener who works with narrative and story structure as a vehicle for human connection. Her work is rooted in Myth, Mysticism, and the practice of personal faith. She is the founder of Live Your Best Story, a weekend retreat of deep listening held on Bowen Island, BC, Canada and is the voice and story behind TinaOLife. Tina is a proud associate of PowHERhouse Impact Media Group where she listens and supports the ‘stories’ of whole and integrated leaders of tomorrow.
