Da Blogs Da Thang: Excerpt from an old play

Excerpt from an old play

Published Monday, July 11, 2005 by lecram sinun | E-mail this post

Alexandria
I should be able to sell a few of these before the fog rolls in. I'll go now. (About to cross the street, looks back at Ray.) Thank you anyway. (She crosses the street and takes up her position again under the street lamp.) Matches for sale! (Coughs) Buy a bundle and warm my heart! They come with a magic wish built in every one... put there by a famous Arabian magician...

Ray
Hey!

Alexandria
What?

Ray
Is that true? Does every match really have a magic wish in it?

Alexandria
That's what my grandmother told me. (Ray runs across the street to her.) Now what do you want?

Ray
(Taking out his coin.) Is this enough to buy one bundle?

Alexandria
Yes... but what do you need matches for?

Ray
The magic wishes! I could use some magic wishes.

Alexandria
But....

Ray
And there are fifty in a bundle?

Alexandria
That's right...fifty...

Ray
(Holding out his money.) That's fifty wishes!

Alexandria
Are you sure?

Ray
Fifty wishes. That's a lot of wishes!

Alexandria
Here you go. (Gives him a bundle.) And that will bring you extra luck because you are my first customer tonight!

Ray
It is true, isn't it?

Alexandria
Is what true?

Ray
There really are wishes in these matches?

Alexandria
My grandmother says that wishes are dreams. We all got dreams. She says, if we don't have dreams then hope is just a silly word. (Ray looks at his bundle.) Look, you can have your money back....

Ray
No, I want them... even if there are no wishes in them. I can give them to my father. He can use them.

Alexandria
Was that him across the street with you... your father?

Ray
Yes. Do you have a father?

Alexandria
No.

Ray
Oh.

Alexandria
I have a grandmother though!

Ray
Really? I don't.

Alexandria
We're even then.

Ray
I guess we are. You don't have a father and I don't have a grandmother.

Alexandria
No, that's not right.

Ray
You mean you really have a father?

Alexandria
No... but you got to see things different. What’s your name?

Ray
Raymond... but you can call me Ray.

Alexandria
Well Ray, its like this… I got a grandmother and you have a father. It’s what you got that counts... not what you don't have. If you count what you don't have... then you always got nothing.

8 Responses to “Excerpt from an old play”

lecram sinun on July 11, 2005 10:27 PM

There actually is a certain mindset (as you are well aware of) that I'm still trying to shift into. Still too much business to handle for that shift to happen. Hopefully soon. Then again, perhaps I've lost it completly.
airplanejayne on July 12, 2005 8:52 PM

-were there only the two characters in the play? I liked this exchange - makes me want to read the rest of the play!

also made me remember a one-act I did in college -- sumptin' like "Where Did all the fireflies go?"

Thanks for making me remember good memory!
lecram sinun on July 12, 2005 9:36 PM

APJ, there are more characters but these twoare are the primary characters.
airplanejayne on July 12, 2005 10:00 PM

so...
canI readit?

not nice to tease....kinda like poking the bear, or tiger, or whatever animal is there.
lecram sinun on July 13, 2005 7:23 AM

once I'm done editing.
airplanejayne on July 13, 2005 2:56 PM

hmmmm...editing something that was done 16 years ago.

taking after George Lucas now, are we?

:)
lecram sinun on July 13, 2005 5:36 PM

good plays can be written... great plays have always been re-written.

Not that any of mine are good or great...
Lelly on July 14, 2005 3:22 AM

...but you HAVE written them, and produced them and got people to go see 'em, right? Do you realise how impressive that is? Only 'creative' stuff I've ever written is on my blog...which you inspired me to start!