RunningPlaySAMPLE

Running Play

Ida Cuttler 18 Nash St Apt 1 New Haven, CT 06511 ida.cutt@gmail.com 415 686 7389

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SARAH

CAST OF CHARACTERS Female.

SARAH 2

Is Sarah, but, male.

DEBRA

Female.

DEBRA 2

Is Debra, but, male.

CAMI

Female. An adolescent.

Imagine the stage and the players like a clock and the hands of a clock.

SARAH’S are an hour hand. Steady. Sturdy. Self-Important. Easiest to get.

DEBRA’S are a minute hand. More movement. Harder to read. Seemingly always catching up.

CAMI, when she is on this clock at all, is the second hand. Because that’s the only thing left. She has no other choice, but choice isn’t something she wants anyway. Quick, absurd, small, fighting against her own paradox of being unnecessary, formally and functionally but also she’s essential and at the core of time itself. CAMI is NOT running, until she is. THE BABY is a bundled up sheet. Please don’t use a babydoll.

This is how it is mostly.

But, like everything else in this play, it’s going to switch.

PLACE Except for when noted, the whole play is outside on the sidewalks and streets of a suburban neighborhood in the third biggest town near a big city (like an Evanston, Illinois or a Ridgewood, New Jersey or a Palo Alto, California). The town is slightly less wealthy than all of the surrounding suburbs it is nestled up to, i.e. this town has a Whole Foods but the Whole Foods isn’t as fancy as the other towns’ Whole Foods.

TIME The play takes place over the course of 5 days. Every scene exists on the subsequent day with the exception following exceptions: Scene 6 is one hour after Scene 5.

Cami’s solo scenes which take place outside of time and days itself NOTES The male actors playing Debra 2 and Sarah 2 should strive to play Debra 2 and Sarah 2 the same way the female actors are playing Debra and Sarah, but also vice versa. It’s a blend that is created by the cohesion of any given ensemble influencing one another. Resist any drag tropes, fakey falsettos or baritone etc.

The action is running. Real running. I would love it if sometimes the action happens in a circle around the perimeter of the audience.

I would love it if sometimes they run vertically back and forth.

I would love it if sometimes they run in place I would love if the actors come in and out of the stage via the audience I would love it if sometimes they disappear behind a curtain, a wall, a day, a minute, a second and then come back in front of the audience as their other self.

I would love if sometimes they are just running with their eyes, their hair, in slow motion, and just with their breath Mostly, I would love for the cast to go through the process of figuring out how to figure it out.

And / means overlapping dialogue (but you already knew that)

“His heels hitting heavily on the pavement at first but with effortless gathering of a sweet kind of panic growing lighter and quicker and quieter, he runs. Ah: runs. Runs.”

-John Updike, Rabbit Run

SCENE 1 Outside. CAMI is holding a protest sign with a large circle on it and spinning in a circle making herself dizzy. She sing-chants this to herself and to the audience.

CAMI(singing) THE SUN IS A CIRCLE THE MOON IS A CIRCLE MY BUT IS A CIRCLE AND THE WORLD IS A CIRCLE . . .

THERE ARE CIRCLES IN CLOCKS AND CIRCLES NEAR– COCKS. AND THOSE PARTICULAR CIRCLES ARE CALLED TEST. EH.CIR.CLES. . . .

OH! IN EVERY TEST-EH-CIR-CLE IS THE CHANCE TO MAKE ANOTHER CIRCLE OH! IN EVERY TEST-EH-CIR-CLE IS THE CHANCE TO MAKE ANOTHER CIRCLE . .

IN EVERY TEST-IC-CIRRRRRCLLLLEEEEE IS THE CHANCE TO FIND..

AN EGG. AN EGG. AN EGG… AND AN EGG IS AN EGG IS AN EGG IS A JUST

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ANOTHER. CIRCLE! (CAMI puts her sign down and begins to pass out individually wrapped Lifesaver mints (circles) to the audience. She tries to have everyone get one and makes individual eye contact with each audience member.)

CAMI (cont’d) AN EGG IS READY TO BE HOPED IN, HOPED FOR, DRILLED IN CUMMED FOR WHAT FOR YOU KNOW FOR: TO MAKE ANOTHER CIRCLE! . . .

A HEAD IS A CIRCLE AND A HOLE IS A CIRCLE AND A HEAD IN A HOLE IS A CIRCLE IN A CIRCLE IF YOU HAVE A CIRCLE YOU GOTTA PUSH A CIRCLE OUT THAT CIRCLE IF YOU GOT A CIRCLE PUSH THAT CIRCLE OUT YOUR CIRCLE PUSH THE CIRCLE OUT THAT CIRCLE PUSH PUSH PUSH THE CIRCLE OUT THAT CIRCLE ALONE UNAWARE SCARED UNPREPARED DO IT YOU CAN DO IT PUSHHHHHHHHH YOUR CIRCLE OUT YOUR… . . .

CIRCLE. (She exits.)

END OF SCENE.

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SCENE 2 Outside.

SARAH and DEBRA are jogging. The dialogue is fast paced. Presentational.

DEBRA Run Club?

SARAH Yeah.

DEBRA Where is everyone?

SARAH It ended last week.

(DEBRA begins to slow her pace but SARAH keeps going.)

DEBRA Well, well, well, look who is off the hook. You and me! I guess we can Chill and Net-flix, Unwind and Showtime, do some hard dro-oh’s and HB– (SARAH increases speed) DEBRA (cont’d) Oh…okay.

SARAH You can leave if you want. I’m gonna keep running.

DEBRA Oh yeah, me too. Obviously. I was kidding.

(Their rhythm picks up. Higher knees.)

DEBRA (cont’d) Running is so…good.

SARAH Love running.

DEBRA

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I always run. I run in the rain.

SARAH I run in the acid rain.

DEBRA I run in the acid snow.

SARAH I run so much that every food that I eat becomes celery.

DEBRA I run so much that MY CALVES LOOK LIKE THEY ARE PREGNANT WITH OTHER CALVES. SARAH I’m Sarah DEBRA Debra SARAH I love my calves. My calves, my thighs, my elbow, my back I love every part of my body.

DEBRA Me too SARAH I hate my calves. My calves, my thighs, my neck, my back, my pussy and my crack. I hate every part of my body DEBRA Me too, me too, me too.

SARAH You’re so inspiring, I still wanna be running when I'm 100.

DEBRA Do your leggings have phone pockets or are you just happy to see me?

SARAH Your gray hair looks amazing and it’s completely covered in sweat.

DEBRA It’s a hot flash, silly!

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SARAH It’s a LU-lu, LEH-mon!

DEBRA Sarah SARAH Debra (They stop. Catch their breath. Vibe changes.)

DEBRA What I am about to say is going to make you look at me differently SARAH What I am about to say will make YOU look at ME differently.

(They run to make themselves more comfortable) DEBRA You first SARAH No. please. Age before beauty.

DEBRA No, please. Pearls before swine

(Now they have disappeared from our sight. We can hear but not see them.)

SARAH Fine, here I go–

SARAH 2 Fine here I go(Enter SARAH 2 and DEBRA 2, replacing Sarah and Debra)

SARAH 2 I, Sarah, need to confess: there was no actual run club, I made it up so I could make friends with people in the neighborhood. Okay! Your turn!

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DEBRA 2 And I…Debra. I don’t have an H at the end of my name.

SARAH 2 (gasps, stops running) It’s Debra? No H? SARAH 2 Oh, god. You are one of THOSE? DEBRA 2 ‘Fraid so.

SARAH 2 No H…No… DEBRA 2 I don’t understand. You made up the run club? But there were flyers!

SARAH 2 Yeah, I made the flyers.

DEBRA 2 How? NOT possible.

SARAH 2 It was kinda nuts of me, I know DEBRA 2 It was so professional, dude! It had a square box with…mushy…dots! And everything!

SARAH 2 A QR Code.

DEBRA 2 Are you in tech?

SARAH 2 Yes. You?

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DEBRA 2 Real Estate.

(They run.)

SARAH 2 Hey, look, anyway if you don’t wanna run with me anymore after this, I get it– DEBRA 2 Maybe you could help me with my new website.

SARAH 2 and I’m sorry DEBRA 2 Because that website you made was highly impressive, bro.

SARAH 2 Awww, thanks!

DEBRA 2 Highly. Impressive.

SARAH 2 No one ever compliments me

DEBRA 2 I rarely compliment people.

SARAH 2 I’m highly competitive DEBRA 2 It wasn’t how I was raised SARAH 2 Tell me I’m talented I want to hear you say it

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DEBRA 2 You’re talented.

SARAH 2 Thanks.

SARAH 2 (stopping) Last night, I had no-pull out sex on our pullout couch. Last night I went to bed being like, okay this is how we start a family but this morning I woke up like, no, no no– SARAH This isn’t me.

SARAH 2 This isn’t me.

(SARAH 2 exits, now replaced by SARAH. DEBRA 2 exits, now replaced by DEBRA)

SARAH Went to work. Went to the Walgreens. Now there’s a morning after pill waiting for me at home.

Plan B pill. Just sitting on my desk. Are you lonely Debra-no H? DEBRA Loneliness is one of the only emotions I know that I for sure experience.

(SARAH exits, now replaced by SARAH 2. DEBRA exits, now replaced by DEBRA 2)

SARAH 2 I get so lonely the entire world turns blue.

DEBRA 2 I get so lonely I forget how to speak, I try and instead what comes out are bird noises SARAH 2 I get so lonely astronauts who have to spend years away from earth have seen me and then have been like, “Oh wow, I actually don’t have it bad”

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SARAH 2 I want to run with you tomorrow DEBRA 2 I’d like to run with you everyday this week (DEBRA 2 and SARAH 2 replaced by SARAH and DEBRA) SARAH Wait, Debra?

DEBRA Yes, Sarah?

SARAH I was almost named without an H too. But then my mom reconsidered. Please don’t tell anyone.

It’s embarrassing.

DEBRA I won’t.

(They run in separate directions)

END OF SCENE

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