Revised March 27, 2012
ACT ONE:
FIVE MINUTES OF AFTERNOON
INT – KITCHEN/LAUNDRY ROOM/LIVING ROOM – AFTERNOON
MOM is transferring a load of wet clothes into the drier. At the kitchen table is a mountain of clean clothes. A toddler, IVAN, roams nearby. A daughter, CHAJA, stands at the stove, cooking Top Ramen as she practices her upcoming solo at the fifth-grade music concert. Off-stage are two sons, SAM and MAX. MAX is at the computer.
(singing “We Shall be Free” by Garth Brooks)
(SAM enters, wiggling his tooth. He carries a long string of dental floss and walks over to MOM, who is bent over the drier.)
(twisting tooth)
(looks up from drier and shudders)
(holding up the dental floss)
(off-stage, yelling)
(tying the dental floss around the tooth)
(SAM exits with a long string of floss dangling from his mouth followed by MOM and IVAN.)
(singing and stirring soup)
(Mom enters. She turns on drier and begins folding the mountain of clothes on the kitchen table.)
(off-stage)
(off-stage, speech hampered by the dental floss)
MOM
Coming, Sam! Max, the password is the last four digits of our telephone number.
CHAJA
(singing at the stove, louder)
When there’s shelter over the poorest head …
SAM
(off-stage)
Mom, the thoor!
MAX
(off-stage)
How do you spell Olympian?
MOM
(folding clothes, sighs heavily)
O-L-Y … I’m coming, Sam! … M-P
SAM
(off-stage)
Mom, Ivan pulled out my tooth!
(SAM enters the kitchen. He’s grinning. Mouth is filled with blood and hand is outstretched, showing a small white tooth. IVAN follows SAM.)
Look! He just grabbed the string and pulled!
(still singing, even louder)
this is funny rach. I like how you wrote Sam’s voice with the floss in his mouth.