Previous Page / Next Page

Scene 9: Hope's Choice
The bird guides Jack to the stage as Hope enters holding the cigarettes, and then flies backstage. Jack sees Hope considering the cigarettes speaks the following line, then exits.

Jack: The place where I can make the most difference… my own country, my own family, my own Hope. I wonder what she would do if she knew…

Jack exits USR. Allure enters, and crosses downstage left of Hope. She, like all the characters in this montage, speaks her lines directly to the audience.
Allure: I just don't like people telling me what to do. Whatever, I look cool.

Hope: Does it really make me look cool? Will all my friends accept my decision to smoke, or not?
May enters, comes upstage left of Hope and notices her holding the cigarette pack.

May: Go ahead try it, then you'll become addicted and you'll have made your choice for life. (These words are delivered to the audience not directly to Hope)

Hope: It freaks me out the way they wanted to pick my brain. I wonder what they really think of me. I wonder if they smoke?

(J.D. enters upstage right of Hope, holding a sign that identifies the source of the quote. Jack enters downstage left of Hope and begins his "addiction dance". The addiction dance is Jack standing with a cigarette in one hand and a handkerchief in the other. He eyes the cigarette, resists, then relents and takes a drag, then coughs into the handkerchief. This pattern repeats twice, using irregular timing, during J.D.'s text. As Hope speaks her line, he takes a third drag and at the end of her line, he coughs and reveals the blood on the handkerchief. )

J.D.: We don't smoke that s#*t. We just sell it. We just reserve the right to smoke for the young, the poor, the black and the stupid.(li)

Hope: My uncle Jack smokes, and he's cool, so why shouldn't I?
All the characters repeat a phrase from their last line. After each phrase all the actors make a quarter turn towards Hope. After Jack says his phrase, May begins the vocal cacophony, in which each character repeats their phrases, increasing their volume, intensity and body inclination towards Hope, creating a vocal collage of pressure with music supporting it. This continues until Hope raises her hand and steps forward. As she does so, the other characters make the final move towards where she had been.


Hope: What are you going to do? To the audience I mean, what are ya going to do?

Previous Page / Next Page