SHEEPDOG (excerpt) by Kevin Artigue

SHEEPDOG a play by Kevin Artigue

March 21st, 2020 Michael Finkle, WME 212.903.1144 mfinkle@wmeentertainment.com Charlie Scully Anonymous Content

CHARACTERS AMINA – early 30’s, African-American, a ten-year vet of the Cleveland Division of Police (CDP).

RYAN – early 30’s, white, five-year vet of the CDP. VOICES DISPATCHER HUSBAND YVONNE SERGEANT ZARAGOZA ESTEBAN TEENAGER CHIEF SETTING A home in suburban Cleveland.

TIME Summer, 2017.

A NOTE ON SOUND The world outside of Amina and Ryan should be created through sound design -- this includes the off-stage characters.

Dedicated to Naomi Wallace For shining a light And to Rebecca Naomi Jones For sharing her heart

1 Amina speaks to the audience.

AMINA: If you had to say why If someone grabbed you by the scruff and forced you To look To stare at his body until it starts making sense You wouldn’t be able to do it Say why Not because you can’t Because you won’t Because the why of it overwhelms you Puts you on your knees looking up for a God you stopped believing in years ago The day in high school you wrote on the back page of your Harry Potter “I am an atheist” Shit you could use that god now You’re not a forensic psychologist You’re a patrol cop You don’t deal with why’s you deal with objective reality What you can see, hear, grab on to The ugly that’s right in front of your face And that’s what you’ve started calling it You Versus The Ugly You love the Ugly, you thrive in it The Ugly is not your enemy The Ugly is raw, unfiltered life The Ugly is Fairfax, Central, Kinsman It’s Cleveland, east side baby, your home Which you haven’t been afraid of... until now (Ryan appears. Amina takes her hand and adjusts his face in the light, examining it.)

Everything you depend on...

Your uniform, duty belt, even your shoes with their special orthos for your fucked up feet It all feels up for grabs So you go full Nancy Drew and put it all on the line

March 21st, 2020

2 Now here you are You open the door, step into your living room AMINA (softly): Ryan?

Breathe Stick to the plan RYAN: Hey hon. In here.

He’s cooking? The fuck RYAN: So far not good.

I burned the asparagus. Salmon is underdone. But I nailed the potatoes.

AMINA: Can I talk to you please?

RYAN: Um. Sure. Just give me one sec…

He’s in a good mood Seems better You should do this tomorrow RYAN: Trying not to burn the house down.

What’s up?

AMINA: Can you sit with me?

RYAN: Um, sure.

(He sits.)

What’s going on?

Hon? Pause. Rewind. Go back.

----shift---DISPATCHER: Control to 5-4-9 AMINA: 5-4-9 go ahead.

Back two and a half years DISPATCHER: 5-4-9. Could you respond to 1623 E. 78th Avenue on the report of a domestic dispute. I have the caller, Mrs. Beckworth on the line, says her husband just tried to strangle her. Said he doesn't have access to any weapons, but he's been drinking and is quite agitated.

March 21st, 2020

3

It’s 1:00AM when you respond 5-4-9 copy 1:08 when we pull up to the house 5-4-9 arriving You see the victim Out on her front porch Drunk Tangled with a wind chime You notice her neck Red marks from his fingers...

Suddenly, to your leftHUSBAND: You fucking bitch you hit me she fuckingThe husband emerges like a bear You keep eyes on the wife Watch your partners six HUSBAND: Okay man okay I’m not SHIT I was just SHITRYAN: Keep your hands where I can see them!

The suspect has on a jacket with big front pockets RYAN: SIR! Suddenly BOOM the bear charges And down they go The man takes his fist and SMASH Into your partner’s nose And now he’s running And now you’re running after him!

East on Central Like you did as a little girl to buy chips from the corner store This is your neighborhood AMINA: 5-4-9 get me some more cars up here! ABPO! Suspect took off on foot, East on Lex towards 79th!

Suspect is a white male, bald, wearing a red jacket!

In pursuit!!

March 21st, 2020

4 He climbs up a fence Disappears into a backyard...

You reach the fence, think about waiting for backup But instead... you summon your inner Jackie Joyner and with all your strength swing one leg up Then the other Pause to steady before letting gravity do the rest As you drop...

Your feet expect to hit the ground but The ground, it’s not there It’s farther than you thought Eventually you land and when you do you hear a POP You find yourself on your back Howling at the east Cleveland moon Which really is like any piece of shit moon Two days later, after an MRI, you give your partner a quick anatomy lesson AMINA: In the knee, the ACL prevents the lower leg from rotating inward. When an ACL tears – you listening?

RYAN: Look at your knee, it’s fucking huge.

AMINA: I know.

RYAN: Nasty.

AMINA: And until the swelling goes down, I can’t have surgery.

RYAN: How long will that take?

AMINA: Could take weeks. And recovery takes months. And it might not ever…

I can’t lose my job.

RYAN: You won’t.

AMINA: If I’m not medically cleared I’m done.

RYAN: You will be.

AMINA: My mom, what’s going to happen to her?

RYAN: Your mom will be fine.

AMINA: You know she hides bills from me?

Unpaid medical bills, a stack this high.

RYAN: Look at me: if you need to borrow money, I got your back.

AMINA: What? You don’t have to…

RYAN: I have savings. I’m good, if you need it. (a BEAT) AMINA: I’m not asking you to do that.

RYAN: I know, I’m offering.

AMINA: Thank you.

March 21st, 2020

5 (a BEAT) RYAN: Come on, let’s get ice cream.

AMINA: I don’t want any.

RYAN: Who doesn’t want ice cream.

You learn a lot during recovery About pain...

About Disability and how screwy the system is And you learn about Ryan RYAN: What happened to you sucks, but you’ll come back. Maybe not a hundred, but you’ll be back.

He spends more and more time at your place Grocery runs, errands…

You see his provider instinct, his need to give, which you learn to accept Which is not easy for you Some days you feel like giving up it all hurts so much And you do Six weeks post-op, two weeks into PT, you say screw that elliptical And you give up (She opens a bag of chips and gives up.)

AMINA: What are you doing?

RYAN: Your exercises. Come on.

AMINA: Why? RYAN: Because you can’t skip.

AMINA: I’m not skipping, I’m quitting.

RYAN: What did the doc say?

AMINA: That depending on PT I could be back on the beat in three and a half months.

RYAN: That’s awesome!

AMINA: If I want to quit, you should let me quit.

RYAN: It doesn’t work like that.

AMINA: It doesn’t huh?

RYAN: Nope. From here on out, we’re a team.

AMINA: Then we need a team name.

RYAN: Okay your last name is Duckett and mine is Tilson.

So we go with Team Dilson or Tickett.

Or Tuckett...

I think we do Dilson.

AMINA: Me too.

RYAN: Ready?

March 21st, 2020

6 (Half-heartedly Amina begins to do knee strengthening exercises with Ryan.)

RYAN: Don’t be sad.

AMINA: Well I am sad.

(Ryan begins to massage her knee.)

RYAN: Too hard?

AMINA: Uh uh.

RYAN: Cool.

AMINA: Cool, huh? How does a hick from Ohio end up talking like Kelly Slater?

RYAN: I don’t talk like that.

AMINA: “Awesome. Sweet brah.”

RYAN: Dude. I don’t sound like that.

AMINA: Dude. You do.

RYAN: I love you.

He stuns you with this Despite your training Your years of being defensive and closed off You don’t see it coming He waits...

For you to say it back...

You don’t say it RYAN: Alright where’s your special oil thing.

Ry moves on like it never happened Face a couple shades more Irish pink RYAN: What is this, motor oil? Smells good. Alright give me your knee.

(Amina kisses Ryan.)

A few weeks later, you’re ready to say it (Ryan kisses her back.)

A few weeks after that, he moves in (They unpack boxes.)

AMINA: Tell me more about your hometown. Tell me about Cambridge.

RYAN: The way you say it makes it sound so exotic. (with bad British accent) Tell me about this place Cambridge, Ohio.

March 21st, 2020

7 AMINA: It sounds pretty.

RYAN: It’s a dump.

What do you want to know?

AMINA: Anything. What’s it like?

RYAN: Small.

Boring.

There are trees.

People live there.

AMINA: Come on.

RYAN: I don’t really remember.

AMINA: Alright new angle. Tell me more about your mom.

Róisín. Her name is so pretty.

RYAN: Let’s see. Mom. She was… uh… nice.

AMINA: If you don’t want to talk about itRYAN: It’s good -- that you force me to -- okay...

She was quiet. Didn’t advertise her personality.

AMINA: Kind of like someone I know.

RYAN: After my dad died she got depressed became a hoarder and now she’s in a home where I assume she’s being taken care of I don’t know my sister chose it she’s a bitch we don’t get along, so.

AMINA: Was she a good mom? (a BEAT) RYAN: She loved us. She was the reason we had food on the table, even if it was shit.

Even if it was pretzels and coke.

Bit by bit, you learn about Ryan’s childhood RYAN (mid-story): Before my dad died he got this ear thing...

Not kidding! The guy couldn’t walk in a straight line.

Which makes your family look like The Cosby Show A Thursday-night staple -- now part of the Ugly RYAN (mid-story, energized, it feels good to open up like this): Probably the worst thing he ever did was...

I was mouthing off being a little asshole and my dad took a uh a brake drum for a dirt bike and I wouldn’t say he threw it AT my head but… it was close.

Really it was the things he said.

Personal attacks but also stuff about the world.

Jews, Blacks, Mexicans...

And by Mexican he meant anyone Latino too redneck to get specific.

AMINA: Would he use the n-word?

March 21st, 2020

8 RYAN: Sometimes.

AMINA: He’d use it around you?

RYAN: Yeah.

AMINA: Would you use the n-word?

RYAN: No. AMINA: Truth?

RYAN: You serious? (a short BEAT) Would I speak up when I heard it around me?

When my buddies said stuff? No but…

You have to understand…

I hate how I grew up.

Hate everything about it.

I’m trying hard to forget it.

AMINA: And I’m part of that?

RYAN: You’re a huge part of it! So is becoming a cop.

Do a little good in a big shitty world, you know?

AMINA (absently): Yeah.

That’s cool.

RYAN (picking up on something): What?

What did I say?

AMINA (with strength): I’m not an experiment, right?

You love me.

Not because I’m black and you’re hot for teacher.

RYAN: You’re not my teacher.

But sometimes you have to be At least Ryan had dated a few other brown women before But sometimes you want to scream AMINA: James Baldwin. You have zero idea??

RYAN: Sorry.

AMINA: Wow. You need toYou need to take a class.

To be fair, it goes both ways RYAN: Pearl Jam. AMINA: Nope.

RYAN: A grunge band. From the nineties. Still really popular.

AMINA: Sorry.

RYAN: But it’s Pearl Jam. It’s Pearl Jam. AMINA: I don’t really listen to rock music.

March 21st, 2020

9 RYAN: You are such a nerd. Who doesn’t listen to rock music? And who calls it rock music out loud?

AMINA: The woman of your dreams?

Not that you can compare Pearl Jam and James Baldwin but RYAN: Have you even read James Baldwin?

Or is it just sitting there on the shelf...

From undergrad...

AMINA: It’s…

I’m going to read it.

It’s on my list.

Shutup.

You’ve never been with someone like him Who asks questions RYAN: But I don’t get it, why?

Real questions...

And he listens when you answer AMINA: Look, there are white officers with whom I’m like this. (she intertwines her fingers) I would put my life on the line for them and vice-versa.

But there are also officers -- and I know exactly who they are -- who I don’t mess with.

Who I stay the fuck away from because I know.

RYAN: Damn, I’m sorry.

AMINA: Don’t be sorry. You didn’t create the world.

RYAN: Yeah but... maybe I could do more to change it.

You encourage Ryan not to hang with just white officers To find that mixed group in the cafeteria, hang with them And he stumbles upon a kind of mentor A 25-year vet namedRYAN: Zaragoza!

The guy is fucking awesome, hilarious, he knows how toHow to likeTalk to them.

AMINA: Not “them”.

RYAN: The community.

Some of these kids...

March 21st, 2020

10 They’re under so much stress from having to be the man of the house.

Luis tells me, you can’t know what’s going on underneath until you stop and try to know.

You have to get in there! Mix it up a little.

AMINA: That’s true.

RYAN: If he sees me acting too uptight and white he punches me in the legWACK! And that’s my sign to relax...

To breathe and chill.

Maybe throw out an f-bomb.

AMINA: Alright player, alright bro, let’s practice.

RYAN: What?

AMINA: Pretend I’m standing on the corner.

I have a blunt in my hand, I’m chilling with my friends, you walk up.

(Ryan gets nervous.)

AMINA: Come on. Imagine you see me take out the joint, light up…

(Ryan “walks up”.)

RYAN (putting on a voice): Hey guys... s’up?

(She busts up laughing.)

AMINA: You need work. You need WORK. You both do You don’t date men who are projects, that was called your twenties You’re looking for someone who pushes back, who can teach you about yourself AMINA: Hey hon.

RYAN: You’re late.

AMINA: Yeah I got fucked on a late report. Always when you have plans right? This shit…

RYAN: But you made me wait. You could have texted.

AMINA: I was on my way, don’t stress.

RYAN: Just text. Is it really that hard?

AMINA: It is when you’re rushing to leave, it’s not personalRYAN: It sucks when you’re late for things.

AMINA: I’m a late person.

RYAN: It hurts me... when you’re late. Okay?

AMINA: Okay.

RYAN: And...

AMINA: And... I’m excited for our date night?

RYAN: You never say you’re sorry. Never. Or admit when you’re wrong. I have to drag it out of you.

(Amina is about to say something -- but swallows her feelings.)

Your mother March 21st, 2020