|
ELEMENTS
SETTING
time - 1858 early spring
place - a
very large plantation in the deep south
occasion
- the week of the biggest formal party of the season
Note: all 6 scenes in Act I and Act II are to be
played in various levels of darkness.
CHARACTERS Whether live or recorded:
the Man
the Woman
the three visiting
slave handlers:
Young
Hot-Shot, Older Cowhand, Redneck
the Local Overseer
cousin/friend (female)
group of field
workers
solo singers one
male - one female
TECHNICAL - general notes
set a three walled shack w/
a door (USC) made of sturdy wooden
planks w/ a chain & padlock
lights sufficient to create:
sunset-dusk-twilight-deep night-starlight- moonrise-moonset-sunrise
traveling
hand-held lights as seen through slatted walls
gobo
for slatted effect on house walls
hand
held, or effect for moving, hand-held kerosene lamps (lamps not seen)
a
special for daylight through shack door at end Act II
dimmer
for house lights
speakers - sufficient set up in house, on stage and in
wings to create a sense of continuous
movement, and distances
sounds
crickets - lone and groups
footsteps -set of 2 (+ shackles), set of
three (+ shackles) w/ possible variations
- passing crowd - (of about 6)
horsed-drawn
creaky wagon- approaching/departing w/ speed variations
rain
and thunderstorm - breeze and wind
cock(s)
crowing - from afar and fairly near
padlock
- being opened and locked
keys
chains
-on shackles and another drawn across outside of door
shackles
in the distance- approaching/departing (mixed w/ footsteps)
far
off party noises (mixed w/ classical orchestral selections)
far
off African drumming (mixed w/ down home vocals & party noise)
a
cappella vocal tracks (3-4 selections)
choral
track
also: birds, and various night creatures- owls
bats, stray dog, etc.
props: oil lamp, 2 sets of wrist and ankle
shackles, padlock, 2 set of keys, 2 rough blankets
(folded or rolled), 2 buckets, 1 tin dipper w/ hook handle, 1 tin cup
abbreviations key:
SL =stage left HL =house left DS =downstage
SR =stage right HR =house right CS
=center stage
SLW =stage left wing US =upstage
SRW =stage right wing
ACT I - scene/ 1 – (first night)
preset: gobo that shows slats with the last rays of the setting sun coming between the slats of the shack with enough spill over onto the house walls that the audience feels it is IN the shack watching the sunset (as through a closed door)-
Note: dim house lights until they are picked up by
the sunset tech cue
We hear the first few
crickets
Night
falls with accompanying cricket sounds growing louder--
the sound of a creaky
horse-drawn wagon approaches from somewhere behind and to the right (passing by
House Right and “pulling to a stop” in the Stage Left wing) -- the sounds of
men disembarking and lightly conversing is heard. There is grunting and complaining about the size of the “cargo”,
the eldest voice orders the slave’s blindfold taken off so he can walk since
"the buck is too big for even three men” to be carrying. We hear quite a
bit of cross-conversation between them about this assignment, wherein we
discover their three very different personalities. How each of them feel about being here vs. where they’re from,
their impressions about the plantation they’re visiting for the balance of the
coming week.
We then hear the
faint sound of shackles and footsteps approaching the shack (the sound must
appear to be muffled by the door in contrast to the heavily miked rattling we
hear for all scenes “inside” the shack).
The sound of the slave-handlers fumbling for the keys to the chain and
padlock (a flash of temper over this).
Finally the door is opened and the one and only moment that the audience
sees the inside of the shack unfolds as one of the Overseers the Eldest if
fully cast with live actors-(the Redneck [played by the stage manager] if using
recorded voices) leans in holding up an oil lamp revealing 2 blankets (opposite
each other DSL and DSR), a water bucket with a ladle and 1 tin cup next to it,
and a slop bucket (either side of the door- US).
Satisfied
he pulls head and lamp back out and pushes the Man into the darkness. The Man stumbles, but does not fall-- The
sound of the shackles is like thunder (amplified). While they shut and lock the door and head back to the wagon, the
Young Hot-Shot suggests that they have themselves some fun by staying to see
the prize buck take the virgin-- he is teased by the Redneck and reprimanded by
the Older one who tells him that the girl “ain’t even in there yet” and he’s
got better things to do then watch a couple of niggers “breeding.”
THE MAN DOES NOT MOVE OR SPEAK THE ENTIRE TIME.
The wagon pulls off,
the sound receding until we hear only crickets.
Finally the shackles
stir and we hear the Man explore his environment --he begins to pat the
walls. We hear him muttering, counting
off paces- numbers of feet by numbers of feet as he measures the shack (this
allows the audience to hear his voice & to “see” how large the space is)
testing the strength of the planks, roof and the door as he goes. There’s a splash as his feet find the water
bucket-- a grunt and a sigh as he fills the cup and drinks.
We have begun to get
a sense of him in the dark during this time-- we understand that he’s
clever. We hear him move back to the
center of the room, kneel and begin to pray.
He begins: “Great One...” Then goes on to ask for
strength not to forget the face of his mother and the face of his sister, for
guidance, how not to frighten the poor girl who’s going to be brought to him
that night.
He’s about to
continue, when he hears the approach of voices and shackled footsteps faintly
in the distance (these voices appear to
approach from HL) . He goes quiet and
listens to the sounds of a man dragging a woman toward him-- we all hear the
footsteps coming closer...
The Woman is very
upset, trying not to cry, her voice heard pleading piteously with the Local
Overseer to let her go, not to make her do this-- (she has never been chained
before).
Her captor is very
business-like; not insensitive, but not mean either. He just wants her to stop her sniveling: “Li’l thing like you
makin’ all that noise...” He goes on to remind her that she doesn’t have to
know anything, just make the master a nice baby; then she can be sure he’ll
never sell her off ...
She’s speaking the
local slave-dialect all this time, becoming more teary and less coherent as
they get closer-- giving lot’s of “massa Overseer please don’t make me, please
don’t shut me in there all chained up like this”, etc. (dialogue overlaps; is
almost simultaneous-- she doesn’t stop her entreaty for one second)
-There are key
noises, the padlock, then the door chain being pulled through. The door opens, and she’s shoved in (once
more the sound of the shackles is much louder “in the shack”). Unlike the Man, She immediately throws
herself against the closed door -
continuing her litany, begging the Overseer to come back. She even dares, in her extremity, to use his
Christian name, reminding him of their childhood together and that it was her
grandmother that mid-wifed them both into the world-- We hear his retreating
footsteps actually pause for a moment (in SRW)-- she holds her breath... Then he curses and keeps walking, his footsteps fading out HL.
There’s a beat-- when
she hears the Man’s chains rattle she suddenly realizes that she’s not
alone. The Woman notes from what part
of the room the sound has come (CSL/HR) and scurries to the opposite side
trying not to make any noise with the shackles and to still her crying.
There’s a tense
silence here.... Some of it filled with night noises from the country outside
(crickets, owls, bats, birds, insects, etc.), but it will mostly be about the
Woman trying desperately to calm down and the Man waiting her out... being true
to his vow not to frighten her. Finally
she starts to get a grip; then he shifts his weight, his shackles rattle and
she loses it. She starts to crying and
praying and doing all kinds of “darkkie babbling“- the Man still does not speak or approach her in any way--
after awhile she starts to calm down again.
Finally he says to her in his gentlest voice: “I ain’t gon’ hurt ya none...”
--the crickets stop abruptly...
With a startled gasp
her crying stops. She is completely
disarmed by the sound of his voice.
There is a “freeze”-- --overlaid by the stealthy rustling of the breeze
“outside” through the grass and trees...
Then the first
extreme time compression. This is done
by sounds: the rustling breeze outside
freshening to a wind -- the fading back up, then out of the crickets with the
ending of night-- the slight alteration of the light, not yet dawn light, but a
lessening of the deep darkness to gray-- a cold fog rolls in (a smoke machine
aimed at the audience from each wing).
Finally a cock crows...
They hear it and
there is a stirring (from mutual corners) of their chains as they wake,
yawning-- and we realize, even as they do, that they have both fallen asleep in
their guarded positions.
He speaks to her
again asking if she’s awake...? She
doesn’t answer.
Before she can change
her mind, they both hear the approach of footsteps (from HL) and go quiet.
The Woman begins to
get ready, brushing off her clothes, etc., and going to wait right by the door.
Just before the Local
Overseer gets close enough to hear her, as he’s getting out his keys we hear
her shuffle half way over to the Man and whisper: “I ’s sorry...”
The door opens; the
Woman’s led out and away. We hear their
retreating footsteps mixed over with the sound of the approaching wagon
arriving from the other side- (HR).
The visiting slave
handlers are back (Hot-shot complains about the early hour). The essential bit of information gleaned
here in the dialogue is we discover why they have to keep picking the
Man up every dawn and dusk. It’s
because the Redneck has “rented him” out on the side to work daytime as a
field-hand at a neighboring plantation -- and is pocketing the money himself;
because in his estimation “ain’t no nigger getting no ‘vacation’ fo’ a
week.” His superiors are not privy to
the scheme.
The three lock up the
shack, load the Man on the wagon and drive away.
-silence...
-smoke machine should
continue as quietly as possible.
Act I – scene- 2 (second night)
dusk
to nighttime cue; crickets this time overlaid with light rain falling which
will soon escalate to a thunderstorm.
Note: there will be less light
in scene 2 than any other.
The scene opens with
conversation between the field workers as they pass by on their way home to the
“Quarter” about what goes on in “that shack.”
They introduce information as to the Woman’s place in the hierarchy of
plantation life (higher-up, “house-nigger”) and give a light sampling of her
personal isolation as well as the segregation that existed between house and
field workers. They resent the “special
privilege” she’s enjoying.
They pass the shack
on the SL/HR side (footsteps mixed into the sound of the approaching wagon).
It begins raining
hard just as the Wagon pulls to a stop. The three men are all in bad moods as they
unload the Man. The Redneck is pissed
‘cause he’s gonna miss a day’s pay-off renting the man out. Young Hot-Shot is
sulky ‘cause the rain’s messing up his party-shirt, and the Older one’s
complaining about the cold and the late hour.
They toss him in, lock up and leave.
The rain is really
pelting down now (no more crickets). The Man has a short speech in which he
wishes aloud that he’d snuck some matches out-- How a fire‘d be good and he
would like to see her face... (There’s another crack of thunder...)
The Local Overseer
arrives wet and muttering with his charge-- after struggling in the rain with
the padlock, he pushes her in, locks up and leaves.
The Woman scurries immediately
over to “her side” of the shack. She is
soaked to the bone and soon starts to shiver--
The Man hears this
and speaks first and holding it out, offers her his blanket “Here...”
For the second time
we hear her speak: “W, w ...What?”
He realizes she can’t
see it and tells her it’s his blanket, continuing to hold it out at arms
length.
She reminds him she’s
got one of her own (glimpsed earlier in scene-1)
He explains that --
If she gets hers wet drying off, she’ll have “nothin’ to keep warm...” (he is
careful to use the expected vernacular.)
This
surprises her a little. She is caught
off-guard by his thoughtfulness. It
also gives her hope that he doesn’t assume he’s what’s going to be “keeping her warm“ later. After mulling it over a moment, she
acquiesces.
He’s
still holding out his blanket which she can’t see; she finally asks “...Well, where’s it at?” He answers “Here...” She moves toward the
sound of his voice and stumbles into his outstretched arm holding the blanket.
She’s at once embarrassed (and amazed
at his height). She quickly shuffles
back over to her side with the blanket.
We track all this action by the sound of the shackles.
We
hear her wrap herself up, but after a minute she’s shivering again. He hears it and asks: “Ain’t your clothes wet?” She says: “Yeah.” He suggests that she needs to “take ‘em off, wring ‘em, an’ lay
them out” so they dry.
She
comes back with a sassy, negative retort.
He patiently adds that if she then wrapped herself in the dry blanket,
she’d be a lot warmer... She thinks
this over, shivering all the while.
(The storm has escalated outside)
While she’s thinking,
he quietly informs her that she doesn’t have to worry about him... He’ll just
stay on his side of the shack.
She asks how can she
trust him to do that?
He points out-- “If I
was gonna hurt you, or make you do something you didn’t want to, I’d ‘a’ done it by now. ‘Sides you couldn’t stop me...” (in reference to his size).
A short tense silence
(the rain has let up for a moment)- finally we hear her undressing and ringing
out her clothes etc. (a few crickets chirp)
Some cautious dialogue ensues:
(both of them still
careful to keep using “stupid speak”) mostly his questions--
Where are we? That they always bring him blindfolded so he
won’t run away. How long has she lived
on this plantation? What does she do
here?
She talks a little
about life in the Big House giving him “you’re just a lowly-field-hand”,
attitude-- he encourages this by describing to her the hard labor the Redneck has
him doing daytime on the neighboring plantation. There’s a beat where she realizes she’s been really snobby and
insulting while he’s been pretty decent to her. After the silence, he finally asks her for his blanket back.
She reminds him that
it’s all wet.
He tells her that’s
all right he just wants it to pillow his head...
-More sounds shackles
as she takes the blanket back over to him, pauses... then heads back to her
side.
We hear them settle
down and go to sleep to the sound of the rain which is now steady and soft...
it fades...night passes as the song of crickets swell... and then fade...
The cock crows.
At the second crowing
of the cock, they are startled out of sleep even as the footsteps (SR) of the
Local Overseer coming to get her approach (he’s whistling and jingling his
keys). The Woman jumps up in a panic suddenly realizing she’s still half-naked,
and hurries to get on her clothes as the Overseer unlocks the padlock. He’s actually opening the door before she’s
completely finished dressing and telling her to “... get a move on!” When she’s obliged to tell him that she’s
not quite dressed yet.
This pleases him very
much as he takes it as a sign that they have consummated, and makes several
insinuating remarks: “Now, see? That
ain’t so hard is it?” as she gathers her things and rushes out hoping that no
one has seen her nudity. The Overseer
locks up and they walk away.
The Man has been very
still all this time (DSL)(Note: for all these “freezes” the shackles should not
rattle if possible).
As soon as they are
gone, he heads for the water bucket.
He discovers on the floor a piece of cloth (a small personal item, a
kerchief) that she has dropped. Unable
to examine it, we hear him smell it deeply and remark how it matches the smell
that’s on the blanket so he knows it’s hers.
He wonders out loud what she looks like, wonders what she would say if
she knew that he wasn’t just a stupid field hand-- and how he almost might as
well be.
Just as the issue is
raised of who he might really be, the horse and wagon are heard again in the
distance. He quickly finds a hiding
place for the kerchief as the slave handlers are unlocking the door.
One of the three is
absent this morning;. the Redneck is
busy making plans for a new hustle.
Young Hot-Shot gripes about his absence. They hurry the Man out. Lock up and drive off.
Act I - Scene/3 – (third night)
Usual changes to
depict dusk next evening. Note: this is the longest scene in Act l.
The wagon arrives with The Three singing and in high spirits. The Older and the Younger don’t want to climb down and get their party clothes dirty, so since the Redneck is pocketing most of the hustle-money and necessitating all this “nigger-chauffeuring”, they oblige him to escort the Man from the wagon to the shack tonight.
So the Redneck leads
the Man shackled and blindfolded, from the wagon all the while whispering the
vilest threats in his ear. Getting an
insufficient response, when they are nearly at the shack, the Redneck trips him
so that the Man falls hard on his face against the door. He then kicks him in
the head and ribs on the pretext of getting him up faster with the others
yelling for him to hurry up. (slow
fade-in on crickets)
The Redneck drags him
up, gets the door open, shoves him inside and making some evil promises, locks
him in. Sound of a single set of
footsteps running back to the wagon.
The three drive away.
The Man is collapsed
in the middle of the floor. We hear him
drag himself with great difficulty across to his side of the room (SL) and
settle back with a grunt of pain even as footsteps approach from the other side
of the clearing.
The Woman’s mood is
generally lighter (the Spring Ball is tonight at the Big House -in fact she has
some stolen goodies in her pocket) and the Local Overseer is pleased with her,
telling her to keep up the good work as he shuts her in, locks up and heads
off.
She gets shy again
right away. As soon as the door’s shut,
she moves over to her side (SR) and waits as usual for him to speak first.
In the ensuing
silence she notices his labored breathing and after a few moments we all hear a
low moan and the rattle of chains as he tries to shift his weight.
Startled, she holds
her breath -- she suddenly realizes something’s wrong. She doesn’t even know if she’s locked in the
dark with the same person...
She finally gets up
the nerve to say “Hey?”
The Man, barely
conscious, manages to get out: “Hey...”
She asks what’s wrong
and after a moment’s hesitation about how much to say, he decides to tell her
(still in “stupid-speak”), what just happened with the Overseer outside the
shack.
A startling
transition takes place--
The Woman snaps
immediately into nurse-maid mode without even realizing that she’s done so (her Grandmother is the local healer; the
Woman has assisted her since early childhood and is very skilled). She becomes
very concerned for him-- for what could be a very serious set of injuries and
goes immediately to examine him. She
walks to the bucket, gets him water, and spends a few minutes cleaning him up
while mulling over his possible condition out loud in a running monologue--
assuming that as a field-slave, he won’t understand her anyway. With no light, what’s obviously implied is a
thorough tactile examination from head to toe, with her making (out loud) some
very sharp medical observations all the while
(she has completely forgotten to “talk the talk” and pretend to be an
ignorant slave). After she’s checked him
carefully, she makes him as comfortable as she can-- having him sit at an incline
to ease his breathing and aid his circulation-- still running on about the
medicines she’ll try to bring him the next night...
Meanwhile, the Man is
very excited in spite of his injuries, because he’s suddenly realized that he
is in the presence of a very knowledgeable, very educated young negro
woman who has been doing the same thing he has-- “stealing learning” ; hiding
her education to stay alive. Here was
someone he could actually talk to-- if she didn’t already believe he was an
ignorant field hand.
After some final
fussing, there is nothing more she can do.
She moves away from him again...Although not as far as before. There is a silence. (He sighs, comforted.)
After a moment they
hear (she hears it first) coming softly, at a great distance, very
faintly over the fields (fr: back of HL) strains of music drifting toward them
mixed with laughter and party sounds from the formal party being held at the
main house. She stands and moves
forward (DS) to hear better, holding her chains to quiet them. He sits up when he hears her move. She
shushes him.
They listen...
The music has changed
from a “current” selection to a classic waltz.
Under her breath
without even realizing it she has begun to hum snatches of the melody.
Wistfully, without
even thinking, she names aloud the composer.
He shocks her by
naming both the composition and the year....
She quickly chooses to disbelieve what she’s heard him say and it’s implications.
Demanding what he
could possibly know about such things.
(There is a beat here, filled with how stung he is by her attitude, with
her realization of this, and her guilt at hurting him-- as well as her fear
that she has been found out...)
At this moment the
Man trots out a highly literary quote.
It is adequately impressive that she will realize beyond a shadow of a
doubt that he is a man of letters. It
is a famous quote about music, i.e. “If
music be the food of love, play on..” from Twelfth Night by W.S.)
At this point is the
introduction of the friend/cousin character who has snuck away from the party
to see if the Woman’s all right.
Obliged to reverting to the local slave dialect, the Woman is forced to
claim that she’s “fine.” There’s a brief,
whispered conversation through the slats of the shack (SL side) before the cousin
is sent away and she turns back to the man...
Now they stand facing
each other in the dark-- Both revealed, as bearers of the same lonely secret...
Forgetting their
fear, they talk the night away... avidly discussing how they’ve both come to
love literature, art, music what has touched and fascinated them about each
(even wishing out loud that they could dance). Finally, the Man falls asleep in
exhaustion; he has after all been beaten up today (the African drums and music
coming from the slaves quarters which we have heard playing faintly, begin to
fade) There is a light moment after he has dropped off, where the Woman hasn’t
realized he’s asleep and she is still talking about music.
Dawn
surprises them-- she hears the cock crow.
The Man is still fast asleep. A
last short monologue (about him) ends over the sound of the approaching Local
Overseer.
The
Local Overseer (still drunk) opens up talking non-stop about the parties she
missed. The Woman leaves.
The
Man is finally wakened by the slamming and locking of the door. He listens to her walking away, then goes to
get the kerchief he has hidden (his guys are late, so there is more of the
sunrise today). There’s a monologue
from him, beginning with romantic allusions to the fading scent of this Woman that still lingers in the cloth and how it
represents something wondrous and unlooked for... ... (he clutches the
kerchief); the joy of finding an
intellectual equal, someone to share his secrets with, share what he’s learned
with, to learn new things from. The
relief of not having to hide... and for the first time, the approval of a
peer. Also the sharp doubling of his
fear of discovery since now, he also fears for her. In a sense, he will never feel alone, again...
He groans, stiff with
pain from his injuries of the day before.
He hears the distant sound of the wagon. And quickly moves to hide the kerchief again.
The three are all
hung over and in nasty moods because they’re running late. They come and unlock
the door. The Man is threatened again
by the Redneck that he better not let on about his injuries- or there’ll be
hell to pay. They lock up the shack again for the day, board the wagon, and
drive off.
Fade in sound of
birds twittering with morningsong over the receding sound of the departing
wagon...
House lights come
slowly up to full -- as with the coming of day...
INTERMISSION
bird-song mixed with
period vocal music to played throughout the 15 minute break
Note: This event should be specially catered.
The intermission
refreshments consisting of popular Southern specialties: (suggestions)
Molasses and Ginger
cookies - Tea cakes
pork rinds (!?) cornbread sandwiches
Apple, Pecan, and Mud
Pies - by the slice
Teas, Lemonades, and
Cider - hot and/or iced, Coffee - hot and/or iced
Mineral waters
Act II - scene/day 4
sunset scene is
preset as at top of play-- cross fade
with dimming of house lights
there is a Negro
spiritual being sung by a lone slave (female) returning late from the fields
and passing the shack at sunset -- first few crickets and then...at dusk the
usual chorus kicks up as we hear the approach of footsteps from HL (the
Big-house)
They arrive-- the Woman and the Local Overseer. Some incidental conversation in progress
(like what a great party she missed etc..). He opens up, she enters, he locks
up as usual.
She moves slowly to
her side of the shack, and waits, as she always has (although this time
eagerly), for him to speak first...
Almost coyly, she clears her throat...
After a few moments
(the audience must have just enough time to appreciate her error) she realizes
she doesn’t hear his breathing. That in
fact, she is alone in the room.
She does a quick
search of the shack, understands he’s not there and panic ensues.
She
goes through many transitions here- worry, calm, panic, fear, grief, etc.(&
back again)
The monologue covers:
Why he’s not here? Are they just late bringing him? Was he hurt worse than she thought ? “Professional” guilt at her possible misdiagnosis and having not been able to treat him or not signaled his condition at the Big House. PS: he asked her not to). Did they beat him again? Is he dying or already dead? (!!)
She
is interrupted here by another visitation by the friend/cousin. An intense whispered conversation follows
through the slats of the shack... The
Woman inquires about any beatings the day before and asks if the friend’s heard
anything about a Man being taken away for more punishment? She learns nothing from the girl (who is a
ninny) and sends her away for the last time admonishing her to keep quiet; that
they’ll both be in trouble if she sneaks out to the shack again.
The monologue picks
up... What if it’s known that they’ve both been reading? Is he being punished for that? Did they kill him? Will I be next?? Are we
both gonna die before we’ve had a chance to cherish what we’ve found just
because we were careless? She realizes
that even if they don’t kill her, she may never in her life find another black
man who she can share her whole self with-- share her mind with, or really,
really talk to. She goes through the
singular grief of finding something extraordinarily rare in life and losing it
before it can be appreciated fully.
She has a very bad
night with all this. There are moments
where she gives in completely to her fear (there are periods of crying and
despair) she feels more utterly alone now with her loss of this stranger than
she ever felt even all her years of growing up alone with this secret-- when
her education, her inquiring mind separated her from everyone she knew.
*Note: Somewhere in the middle of this section she
searches the shack again
--ostensibly looking
for a place to stash the medicines she’s brought for him, and she stumbles
across his hiding place and her lost kerchief. This is unexpected and she is
very moved by this. This discovery
fuels the last section of the monologue and she will eventually cry herself to
sleep holding it.
The cocks
crow-- and the Woman is startled awake out of an exhausted, fitful
sleep... She realizes it’s morning and
that he hasn’t come. Defying the
obvious, she puts back the kerchief in it’s hiding-place in the hope that the
Man is not dead. She stashes the
medicine with it as we hear the approach of the Local Overseer. When he opens the door she starts to
exit...
But before he shuts
the door he declares how he’s been hearing talk about this other Plantation’s
“prize stud” that everyone’s making such a fuss over-- that he maybe wants to
get a look at what the Master is paying so much money to have bred...
She instinctively
blocks the door. To keep him from
looking inside, she tells him that the Man is sleeping really hard-- that she
supposes she must’ve “wore him out” (or some such lie that she makes up on the
spur of the moment) and besides she’s got to get back up to the Big House and
“...git dese shackles off,” so she can get to work serving the missus-- He can see the “buck” later-- Anything to keep him from looking inside. It turns out that this is the best thing
she could have said. The Overseer is
very pleased with her “work” (wearing the Man out) and in this way, out of
desperate necessity, she once again involuntarily perpetuates the perception
that they are consummating as ordered.
They lock up the
shack and walk off- exit SRW (before the day gets too bright).
ACT ll - scene/ 5 (fifth night)
Reverse of previous
light cue from sunrise to sunset - mix in the first few crickets, with the distant wagon.
From the bitching,
belittling conversation between the Overseers, we discover that the Man was
kept away the previous evening and day in order to help the Local Plantation
Owner with an urgent piece of business for which the Man is uniquely skilled
(he’s a tailor). The Three are still very
unhappy about this; especially the Redneck who lost a day’s blood-money from
his latest scheme-- renting the Man out as an arena fighter in forced combat
with local slaves.
They reach the shack
and throw him in. As soon as they’ve
locked the door, he listens for the Woman, then begins to carefully search the
premises for traces of her presence the previous day.
He looks last for the
kerchief in his hiding-place; finding the medicines, he realizes that the Woman
was there the night before-- probably all-night. He wonders what she thought had happened to him realizing that
she was probably frightened. Holding
the kerchief, he smells it again and is surprised to find that it smells more
strongly of her not less, and that she must have held it close to her for a long
time-- before putting it back where he hid it (CSL).
Suddenly it occurs to
him to wonder if she was put in here last night with someone else-- or would
be... But just as he voices this, before he can really complete the thought, he
hears the sound of hurried footsteps approaching and moves away from the door
over to his side of the room.
The Local Overseer
unlocks the door and the Woman walks quickly in. As he’s shutting the door, before he even has a chance to lock
her in, she hears the shackles, and recognizing the sound of the Man in the
room, runs straight into his arms....
She’s babbling,
hysterical with relief --and he’s trying to talk at the same time:
“I thought you were
dead... I thought you were dead! I was
here all night...I didn’t know what to do....”
He’s shushing her and
holding her (squirming a little because she’s hurting him some, as he’s
actually still in pain). He’s stroking
her face, when they both suddenly become aware that they’re holding each other
and before they know it, they’re kissing and kissing... until they realize what
they’re doing and make themselves stop.
They take a
collective breath having grasped that they have some decisions to make.
She first administers
the medicines she brought the day before.
Then they put their
blankets together and curl up to talk.
(Crickets going full
blast some of our deep-night noises here:
owls, field-mice, etc...)
They start out
talking about how she thought they might have been overheard talking like
educated people and that that was the reason they’d taken him away-- this leads
to a conversation about their families and friends -who their mentors and
teachers were, and the whole subject of education for Negroes- how they each came to steal their knowledge,
how this single fact of their lives set them apart from everyone; about freedom for Negroes and a long debate
on current events and politics which treat some historic topics (from a black perspective).
They also discuss:
-How close is
freedom?
-The Presidential
race, tension between northern and southern states (imminent civil war)
- her mother
-The fact that
Negroes now have families (when for many generations they were separated and
deliberately sold away from each other in order to destroy family ties and
weaken resistance)
-That now negroes had
roots in the south, family in the south and we discover through this
conversation that each of them is very committed to the south and to staying
there vs. the idea of trying to run north-- they want freedom for more than
just themselves.
Room is made here for
some brief, beautiful passages about what each of them loves most about the
south and the part of it they’re from. (crickets
begin to fade...)
They talk about
consequences to their families if they try to run away and both realize that
it’s not an option for either of them.
That what they want
is to keep what they have, know what they know, and have the freedom for it to
flower in the south because that’s where they’re from. That they want to help bring to the south
all that life has to offer, so it will be there for their children.
-By the end of this
speech there has been that barely perceptible lightening of the sky that comes
before dawn...
The very earliest day
bird has beaten the rooster to the punch.
They shift, stand,
stretch and yawn, then get close again aware that their time is short. Just as this leads into some kissing that
gets a little heated, the rooster crows.
Other day birds start
to chime in as the inevitable footsteps approach along from HL.
They stiffen and
(holding their chains)we hear them back up, in measured paces, away from each
other to either side of the shack walls to wait; their entire attention still
focused intensely each on the other, even until the moment that the Overseer
opens up the door. Indeed this time he
actually has to call for her to come out.
And after a moment’s hesitation, she slowly goes-- even as the wagon approaches from HR. In fact this time the timing is such that
the two barely miss actually glimpsing each other’s faces. Indeed the Redneck in an attempt to provoke,
tells the Man as they’re opening the door that they just got a glimpse of his “
sweet heart” disappearing behind some trees toward the main house as they came
up. They load him up and drive off.
ACT II - scene/ 6 – (last night)
tech cue is the
slightly earlier sunset that we see preset in scene 1 and in scene 4
Note: scene 6 is the longest scene in Act ll.
This is a Saturday evening and tomorrow everyone has the day off for church, so the workers, though tired, are in good spirits and are singing as they come in from the fields. This is a rustic, harmonious choral piece. It’s sung in its entirety; fading into the distance (SLW to SRW) as they walk to the “Quarter” toward the setting sun. The sound of the approaching wagon is mixed in over the last couple of measures.
Conversation between
the Three is about their departure the next day after church.
They open up, push
the Man in, lock up, and walk away bickering about the extra money the Bigot’s
made sneaking the Man over to the next plantation to fight.
They drive away.
Here the Man has a
final monologue where he’s speaking aloud to his God about the dilemma he finds
himself in… wherein he has finally
found the woman, the one person he really wants to be with yet he realizes he
can’t do this now with her, this thing they were both sent here to do--And
which he now longs to do more than ever before in this world. He doesn’t know if she’ll understand. This is the one woman he really wants to
“know” and it looks like he’s going to have to leave not knowing her.
Just as this irony is
sinking in, he hears the sound of her shackled footsteps approaching and goes
to wait-- right by the door.
When the Local
Overseer unlocks the door- she steps immediately into the Man’s arms. They’re holding each other kissing-- the
shackles going a mile a minute. Then
they pause... waiting for the Overseer to depart. The Local Overseer (who has come to understand that something
special has developed between them) drops the key, which lands near the
door. Careful to lock up the shack from
the outside- he strolls away... Together they fish out the “dropped” key from
under the door, unlock each other’s shackles and hug for a moment.
She’s brought them
special food that she’s snuck out of the main house from the party leftovers
and they sit together to eat and marvel over it.
Then they settle down
to talk about the repercussions of what they haven’t done-- which is
make love...
-that doing it, doing
what their masters want, maybe getting pregnant would mean bringing another
slave into the world.
-that there are
things they want for themselves and things they want for their children-- -that they’ll never see each other again and
maybe this is the only thing they can give each other.
The conversation
continues:
There’s a lot of
money involved-- a lot of time involved.
They discuss the prospect of punishment if they don’t produce
offspring-- beatings, possible torture-- or, if it’s ever found out it was
intentional, death. Even if it’s
believed that it was just bad luck or “didn’t take”, their owners may castrate
him if they think he’s impotent or simply willful. She’d probably just be
locked in with someone else-- and she’d rather have the Man’s child when he’s
gone than be forced to carry someone else’s.
Wouldn’t that be more
true to how they feel...? To go through
with it? And on and on...
They vacillate-- they
go back and forth on either side of the question. There’s remorse,
recrimination, revelation-- but finally they both resolve not to give in--
either to temptation, or fear, or the powers that be. And to take control of their fate the only way they can.
They are
resolved.
They go on tearfully
again when they acknowledge that the ones they love may be hurt or punished by
this decision. They may be sold away.
It may be hard to live with such a choice.
They still realize
that this is the only gift they can give each other. And they do.
(The crickets are
fading...)
At this point there
is the passing voice of a lone singer (male).
A black man walking alone singing a song of grief; unaware of their
presence in the dark. They stand in the
middle of the room close together listening until the song is done.
(The crickets are
gone.)
There is a silence…
The cock crows. They realize that their
time together is nearly gone.
They hold each other
a last time. He recites a short
wonderful piece of writing to her to say good-bye.
Finally we start to
see the changing light-- and just before we hear the birds the Woman declares
that before he leaves, she would know his name... And she would know his
mother’s name. We are made once more
acutely aware that we don’t know their names- and that they haven’t known each
other’s names in all their time together.
So, standing face to
face and holding hands, they each name their names and they name their ties
(their mother’s names and grandmother’s).
We hear the approach
of the wagon.
Kissing
his wrists, she puts his shackles back on.
And backs away from the door (DSR).
Two of the three
wagon guys show up in high spirits-- the Young Hot-Shot and the Older Cowhand--
pleased because they got some reward money.
The Redneck was thrown in jail for cheating his employer by renting out
his employer’s slave-property without permission (the other two ratted him
out).
They round The Man up
quickly and are off again as soon as they can lock and load.
She is alone.
The light is high
enough that she can see a little and she sees that the Man has dropped the
kerchief (DSC) which he had been holding all night and drying both their tears
with. She smells it now-- and is
pleased to discover that it now smells like his palm, which she remembers the
scent of from every time he traced his fingers over her face in the dark.
She realizes how
bereft he’ll be to have dropped it.
And she hopes his
memory of the scent of her will never fade from his mind.
She
hears the Local Overseer approaching.
As she moves toward the door her feet touch the discarded shackles on
the floor, which she picks up. As the
door is unlocked, the house lights have begun almost imperceptibly to come up,
and (from an additional BS speaker) the rising sound of the singing birds
beckons as she walks toward the opening door--
As she crosses the threshold she turns and with a last look, lets fall the shackles. Then tucking the kerchief next to her heart-- walks through the doorway into the light of day...
Birds to full chorus.
House up to full.
Curtain call.
About the Composer
Ken Norris
was born and raised
near Cleveland, Ohio. Writer of musical
comedy and student of piano and voice , he continued on to Yale University
where he received a degree in architecture while developing his vocal skills as
a member of Yale's premier vocal jazz ensemble Redhot & Blue. Upon
graduation, Ken relocated to Paris, where he has since established himself as a
vocalist arranger and composer for stage and screen. He has received commissions from, among others, the New York University Tisch School of the Arts and La
Compagnie Musiques en Scène, Paris.
He has written and sung a number of successful radio-oriented
productions, and recently interpreted the role of Lynceus in François Ribac's
contemporary opera Le Regard de Lyncée. He is a member of Paris' New Music Association (promotion and
development of New and improvised musics) and a participant in the 1999 Suoni e Sound Festival in Elba (Italy). At present, Ken Norris is developing an original repertoire for
his new jazz ensemble with pianist Pierre Bertrand.
About
the Author
Janine Carter
After several years in France adapting French texts to English for
pop artists writing lyrics “for hire”
to pre-existing musical themes—Ms. Carter finally moved her work-base
back to her native New York where she was again able to find her quiet but
unique voice.
Her first play,"What
Light from Darkness Grows...” a period piece set in 1858, has been both
rewarding and exhausting to research-
"This is a turn I never expected my creative energies to take,” she
reports. “Now that the play's done, I realize yet again that I write because I
have to; because I am so impassioned by the power of words, and because there's
always another point of view to be explored.
I guess those are the same reasons I do stage-work- or for that matter, anything else…"
Count Stovall- Director
NBTF Reading Series
He has directed a variety of dramas and
musicals. Some of his directing work includes: CRUMBS FROM THE TABLE OF JOY at
the Billie Holiday Theatre, STILL LIFE GOES ON at the Henry Street Playhouse,
OPHELIA_S COTILLION at the Rites and Reason Theater, A SONG FOR YOU: THE LENA
HORNE STORY at the Marble Collegiate Theater, NO PLACE TO BE SOMEBODY, at the
Queens College Theater, MAMA I WANT TO SING at the Hart Theater, LIFE’S LAYERS
at the Aaron Davis Theater, SEARCHING 4 A SHOW at the Tallahassee-Leon Civic
Center, EL HAJJ MALIK at the Live Oak Theater, and the DUTCHMAN & CLARA’S
OLD MAN at the Oakland Playhouse. He has directed the of the Summer Youth
Performance Workshop at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center’s Victoria
Theater for four consecutive years. He has also written and directed children_s
theater for the Theater Workshop, Newark Community School of the Arts, and
Sharron Miller’s Academy for the Performing Arts.
Mr. Stovall has been a teacher for over
thirty years. Some of his faculty positions include: Queens College, City
College of New York, Newark Community School of the Arts, New Jersey Performing
Arts Center, Theatre Workshop of Irvington New Jersey, Lincoln Center
Performing Arts Inc, The Center For Theatre Techniques, Local 237 Teamsters
Retiree Division, Tony Randall’s National Actors Theatre and Sharron Miller’s
Academy for the Performing Arts, Inc. He is also a produced playwright, a
journalist, a published poet, and has been a lecturer/motivational speaker in
various colleges, prisons and for many national organizations since the
mid-sixties. 38 Normal Avenue, Upper Montclair, NJ 07043
Hm : (973) 744- 8123, Fax (973) 744-3321Serv: (212) 465-2521, E-mail icount@attglobal.net
Erica Gould – Director Serialized Radio Play
Ms. Gould has directed, sound designed, and co-produced numerous works of radio-theatre on WBAI in NYC and on National Public Radio. She has taught radio-theatre in the NYC Public schools through the Broadway Theatre Institute and for New York Stage and Film/Vassar, where she co-founded and ran the radio-theatre program. Her 6-part radio-theatre series with writer and co-producer Lillian Ann Slugocki, The Archaeology of Lost Voices, was commissioned by National Public Radio and began airing nationally in July 2001. Ms. Gould's recent stage credits include a mainstage reading of Ms. Slugocki’s Rough House at Playwrights Horizons and the world premiere of Slugocki's trilogy about the 17th century witch trials, The Witches’ Triptych, winner of a 2000-2001 Off-Off Broadway Award for Best of the Season. Most recently, Ms. Gould was selected for a NYSCA-sponsored development grant to workshop her theatrical adaptation of Milorad Pavic’s novel Dictionary of the Khazars at the Blue Heron Theatre in NYC. Other stage work includes productions for the Williamstown Theatre Festival, Yale University, New York Theatre Workshop, Franklin Furnace, Circle Rep, New York Stage & Film, New Jersey Shakespeare Festival, and The Hangar Theatre. Ms. Gould has been a recipient of the Drama League Directors Project Fellowship, the Senior Boris Sagal Directing Fellowship at Williamstown, an NFCB Silver Reel Award for Best Radio Drama, and numerous grants and residencies. She has taught at Yale University, NYU/Playwrights Horizons, and the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan, and is a member of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers.
Goeffrey Owens-
Director Off-Broadway Premier
Education
B.A. (cum laude) in English and Theater Studies, 1983, Yale University
Studied with Uta Hagen (Acting and Shakespeare) at HB Studio, 1992-2000
One month intensive workshop with members of the Juillard School of Drama at
Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY: August, 1978
Teaching
HB Studio (Acting, Shakespeare Performance, Shakespeare Text), 1992-2000
Gene Frankel Studio (Shakespeare)
Mark Twain Junior High School: Romeo and Juliet Workshop, 1991
Hunter College High School, guest director: Tartiffe, The Taming of The Shrew,
1988
Guest panelist/lecturer at "Shakespeare's Worlds" symposium at
The Long Warf Theater: October, 1999
Guest teacher/lecturer at University of Alabama Department of Theater:
December, 1998
Guest speaker at Yale University, Theater Studies Program: October, 1999
Guest speaker at The Dwight School (New York City): December, 1999
Awards
Dummy Kaye Award ("Danny") for Artistic Promise
BACA Brooklyn Bridge Award for Cultural Achievement
Herbert Berghof Memorial Class, "Taking the Fear out of Shakespeare",
HB Studio
Experience
Founder and Artistic Director of The Brooklyn Shakespeare Company, 1988-1991
Directed productions of King Lear, Much Ado About Nothing and Richard the Third
Assistant Artistic Director of The Rapp Arts Theater Company, 1987-1998
Employed as an actor at The New York Shakespeare Festival
under the auspices of Joseph and George Wulf, 1985-1998
Productions
Romeo and Juliet, As You Like It, Macbeth, Richard II,
A Midsummer Night's Dream, Timon of Athens, Othello and Pericles
Played the role of "Elvin" on NBC's "The Cosby Show",
1985-1992
National Shakespeare Competition judge for The English Speaking Union,
1992-2000
(Connecticut, New York and National semi-finals)
The Mission
As Literature-
For this play, "What Light From Darkness Grows...", to be the first work-for-stage by an African-American author to be published on-line as historic fiction by a major publishing house.
As Oral History-
For "What Light ..." to reintroduce through performances and staged readings the art of "attentive listening" through storytelling, extol the empowerment of education, and uplift the value of the written word.
As a portal to the Technological Age-
"What Light Form Darkness Grows..." a Serialized Radio-Drama for the World Wide Web- is dedicated to helping bridge the "Digital Divide" presenting its universal content and themes in an Internet-Age technology venue, that will speak to young and old alike and unite a generation...
Spread the Light! Log onto www.whatlight.com.