Challenge: Write a play that is the essence of your daily drudgery. Establish a rhythm
in your action. Then break it.
(Again,
too much drudgery already. And the
characters from this other idea keep speaking to me. So, this is a scene I worked on today.)
TV
BOYFRIEND (another scene)
The night they met.
JAKE and JASPER are sitting together in a theater.
A play has just ended – Ken’s soldier play.
JAKE and JASPER are visibly moved. Unsure what to say or do as the lights come
up.
JASPER
(hushed, reverent)
Dude.
JAKE
Wow.
JASPER
That
was –
JASPER can’t find the next word.
JAKE
I
know, right?
JASPER
How
did you find this play, man?
JAKE
Friend
of mine. Knows the actress playing the
mother.
He
said it was –
But
I didn’t think –
JAKE can’t finish his sentences either.
JASPER
I
feel like I want to talk to the guys who played the soldiers, and their –
JAKE
Boyfriends.
JASPER
Yeah. But I don’t really want to talk to them. ‘Cause in my head they’re the characters, and
I kind of don’t want to find out they’re actors.
JAKE
They
could probably talk to you about their characters for hours.
JASPER
I’m
gonna be thinking about this for a while, dude.
JAKE
Sorry?
JASPER
No,
thank you. I never would have found this
on my own, brah.
JAKE
They’re
straight.
JASPER
Who?
JAKE
The
actors.
JASPER
No
way.
Dude.
That’s
some –
JAKE
Pretty
convincing acting.
JASPER
It’s
weird how they do that, right?
Completely
hiding who they are.
JAKE
Yeah.
JASPER
That’s
why I want to take them for a drink –
JAKE
But
you don’t want to take them for a drink.
JASPER
Exactly.
JAKE
Applause
doesn’t seem like enough though.
JASPER
Nope.
JAKE
And
everything they do disappears.
JASPER
Huh?
JAKE
You
and me, we’ve got video and TV and the internet and the record books and
medals. This, here in this room, everything
they do, once the show’s over, there’s nothing left.
JASPER
There’s
the program.
JAKE
Yeah,
but –
JASPER
And
they’ve got reviews and stuff.
JAKE
Yeah,
but –
JASPER
They’re
not a team that travels around like we do.
JAKE
They
go their separate ways.
JASPER
We
all carry it around in our heads, though.
The
play.
‘Spose
that’s enough?
JAKE
Guess
it has to be.
KEN appears, walking over to them a little
cautiously.
KEN
Excuse
me. I hope you don’t mind my saying
hello. You don’t know me. I’m just really flattered you came here to
see our play tonight. Thank you.
JAKE
You’re
with the show.
KEN
Yes. Sorry.
I wasn’t onstage so I should probably introduce myself, shouldn’t
I? Ken Markus. I’m the –
JASPER
You
wrote this.
Dude!
JASPER enthusiastically shakes KEN’s hand.
JASPER (cont’d)
That
was some intense, amazing shit. Thank
you.
KEN
Thank
*you*. After all, when it comes to
intense, amazing shit, you guys are the experts. Olympic medalists.
JAKE
Just
silver, not gold.
KEN
Well,
it’s one more Olympic medal than I got, and I’m twice your age, so let me be
impressed.
JASPER
Dude,
we’re not 17.
KEN
And
I’m not 34.
JASPER
No
shit?
KEN
No
shit.
JAKE
You
carry it well.
KEN
Thanks.
JAKE
Could
I buy you a cup of coffee?
KEN
Sure. Anytime.
JAKE
Now?
KEN
Sure.
JASPER
You
did say anytime.
KEN
That
I did.
JAKE
I
really want to talk to you about the play.
KEN
You
may regret opening those floodgates. I
could go on and on.
JAKE
Sounds
good to me.
Jasper?
KEN
Yes. Join us.
JASPER
Thanks,
but I’m not as quick-witted as Jakey here.
I need a little more time to process before I could form a coherent
sentence about the last two hours.
KEN
“That
was some intense, amazing shit” was a great start.
JASPER
Nah. I’ll leave the arts critiquing to our
resident theater nerd here.
KEN
A
kindred spirit?
JAKE
I’m
not at your level.
KEN
Well,
I’m not at yours.
JASPER
See
you tomorrow for the training run, brah.
JAKE
Thanks
for coming with me to see this.
JASPER
Thank
you, brah.
Bro hug between JASPER
and JAKE.
JASPER (cont’d)
And
thank you, too, dude.
Unexpected bro hug from JASPER to a surprised KEN,
too.
Then JASPER is gone.
Leaving KEN and JAKE alone.
KEN
Well.
JAKE
Yeah.
KEN
We
should get going. Let the stage manager
close up.
JAKE
Oh,
right.
KEN
There’s
an all-night diner in the neighborhood.
Great coffee, and we can stay as long as we want. You have a car here?
JAKE
Yup. You lead, I’ll follow.
KEN
I’ll
take it slow.
JAKE
I’ll
keep up.
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