Monday, November 5, 2007

play

1-Act Play

By Cooper Foyt

[ANTON wakes suddenly, breathing hard with a faint sharp noise in the background. He takes a moment to gather his wits and realize that he is in his own bed. He moves legs out from the covers but remains seated in bed. His eyes move towards a picture frame that he picks up and stares at it for a moment. He places it back down gently and begins to quickly put on his clothes and brush his hair down with his hands. ANTON walks out the door and into the main apartment]

ANTON

[Looking around]

Laura! You here?

JEFF

[Watching television]

Cmon, Anton, keep it down!

ANTON

Sorry… have you seen Laura?

JEFF

You barely ever say a thing until someone’s got a massive hangover. Just ridiculous.

ANTON

Sorry…

JEFF

Anyways, they’re probably still in Rob’s room. Well, that’s where I saw them go last night anyways.

ANTON

Oh…okay.

JEFF

You shoulda been out here last night Anton, it was ridiculous. Some kid got up on the roof and was tossing balloons filled with shaving cream over the ledge. Ha he must have hit about 5 people that were walking by. Then some guy tried to get with Jackie, Brett’s girlfriend ya know? Well anyways they ended up going out back and fighting. Brett wrecked the guy in about 20 seconds, I think he had to get stitches ha. The whole party didn’t die down till around 7 or 8 or whenever the sun came up today.

ANTON

Yeah, I heard… what time is it anyways?

JEFF

Like 5 or somethin… I don’t know. Oh man, also, last night this….

[Lights begin to fade and only a solo light remains on ANTON. His speaking is inner-monologue and much more confident than before.]

ANTON

The dream last night, it was so… beautiful. The gentle caress of the sunrise, the dull hiss of the breaking waves, the glassy sea tinted vibrant reds and oranges. The breeze moving across my skin like her finger’s used to. Salt saturating every mouthful of breath…

[Lights quickly go back to normal as ANTON is interrupted by the sudden opening of a door and the appearance of LAURA and ROB. ROB silently proceeds to sit next to JEFF on the couch. LAURA moves to the kitchen and starts to try and find a cup for coffee. ANTON moves towards LAURA]

ANTON

Hey…

LAURA

[Briefly looks at ANTON before continuing to try and find a cup]

ANTON

So, how was the party?

LAURA

How do we never have any clean coffee cups?

ANTON

Did you check up here…?

[ANTON reaches up to higher cupboard]

LAURA

[Yelling]

Rob! Wanna go grab some Starbucks?

ANTON

Yeah, here’s one up here, here you go.

Laura

[Yelling]

Nevermind!

[ANTON hands jar to LAURA who takes it without speaking and begins to pour coffee into cup]

ANTON

So Laura, I had this dream last night I wanna tell-

LAURA

[Patting herself searching for something]

Hey Rob! Where’s my cell phone at?

ROB

Why would I know where your phone is? Probably on the bed stand.

[LAURA rushes off back to the bedroom leaving ANTON in the kitchen. He begins to overhear ROB and JEFF talking]

ROB

[Whispered incoherently]

Dude last night I must’ve made out with at least 10 other girls, I was so drunk.

JEFF

[Whispered incoherently]

Oh nice, did you….ya know?

ROB

[Whispered incoherently]

Of course man, with Laura and then Katie too after Laura passed out in my room.

[All lights fade. When they are lifted it is a different scene. ANTON is asleep in his bed. The room is lit by warm colors glowing from the window. The room has a pile of dirty clothes at the foot of the bed, and book shelf with many poetry and psychology books. LAURA enters the room in a towel, her hair is still wet, and walks over to the bed. She sits down gently near his feet and smiles at him. ANTON wakes up slowly, becoming aware of her presence. He sleepily meets her gave and smiles, moving his hand out towards hers. He moves his hand up to her thigh— A sharp, stinging noise erupts from the scene. All lights fade suddenly.

Lights return to normal with ANTON back in kitchen. He is caught in a zoned-out stare at nothing in particular]

[LAURA re-enters the kitchen focusing on her cell phone, as if texting]

LAURA

[Holding phone up in air]

We never get any reception in this crappy apartment….

ANTON

Hey Laura…

LAURA

[Not looking up from phone and taking drink of coffee]

Hmm?

[Laura looks up at ANTON as the lights fade. A solo light remains upon ANTON]

ANTON

I had this dream last night, you know, like the ones I used to have last year and tell you about. I was on this, indescribable beach, and a few feet away from me I saw these flowers, these brilliant roses. When I moved towards them they started to emit these strange and lovely sounds, like hearing a love story in a language you will never understand. And I just felt compelled to keep moving towards them, they were pulling at my chest, pulling like-

[ANTON is interrupted by the crash of LAURA’s coffee cup smashing on the floor. The room is shaking and there is the low rumble followed by a piercing whistle of a passing train.]

LAURA

[Can’t hear at first over sound of train]

…….knocks everything down at 5:15 [bends to clean spill]

[The telephone is now noticed to be ringing. ROB turns up the volume of the TV in the other room. Phone rings several times]

ROB

Laura! You gonna get that?

[LAURA rushes to answer the phone, obviously annoyed. ANTON crouches to clean broken cup and spilled coffee]

LAURA

Hello? … Yeah one second…

[LAURA walks over to ROB and gives the phone to him, wrapping her arms around him from behind. ANTON sees this from the corner of his eye as he is cleaning.

ANTON

[To self]

…they were pulling like gravity.

[All lights fade. When they are lifted they are in the other room again. LAURA is sitting on the floor looking through a book near the bookcase. ANTON is lying on the bed reading a book as well. ANTON sets his book down and his gaze falls upon LAURA who is illuminated by golden lights. ANTON mouths something but there is no sound. LAURA looks up at him, sets her book down, and gets into bed next to ANTON, resting her head on his chest. A sharp, stinging noise sounds the moment they touch. All lights fade suddenly.

They return to normal with ANTON still crouched over the broken coffee cup. He finishes cleaning and throws the broken parts away.]

[LAURA comes back towards ANTON, calling back at ROB and JEFF]

LAURA

….Yeah let me just grab my stuff and we’ll go. [Catching ANTON’s eye but quickly looking away] We’re just going to some bar downtown with some friends.

ANTON

Oh… ok. Did you wanna hear the rest of the dream?

LAURA

[Grabbing coat, purse, etc.]

Wha..? Yeah, hurry.

[Lights fade and only a solo light remains on ANTON]

ANTON

Well, these flowers, they kept changing colors. The colors would flash and vanish instantly and continuously. So many colors I had never seen before and they flowed out from these flowers like they were crying, their mourning spreading out across the sand. And they were growing too; vines flowed out in every direction, moving in and out of the soft dunes like crackling organic snakes. The vines created a wake of hundreds of more flowers like the first, all singing their exotic tones and seeping beauty. All of them kept pulling harder and harder at me until I became completely surrounded by them, and then in front of me, at the center of this orchard, at the center of this dream was the most beautiful sight, and that…

[Lights return to normal and ANTON is alone in the apartment. Everything is completely silent.]

ANTON

…was you, Laura.

[ANTON walks back into his room and sits on his bed, mirroring the way he awoke. He holds the picture frame in his hands, then places it face down back onto his bed stand. A piercing sharp noise sounds as the lights fade.]

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