Lodestar Quarterly

Issue 19 • Fall 2006 • Featured Writer • Drama

syzygy

Michael Griffo

Act 1

Scene 1

If the stage has a curtain, this scene should be played in front of it. Otherwise, it should be played on the lip of the stage. BOBBY DEAN BIAZZO, 36, enters SL and stops center stage. He is hit with a spotlight. In this scene he is six years old, but he doesn't need to act like a child or speak in a child's voice, just embody a child. He is standing still, looking straight at the audience, waiting.

VOICE ON LOUDSPEAKER

Attention Huber Street Elementary School first period gym class. Let the dodge ball game begin!

Immediately, BOBBY shuts his eyes tight and pulls his arms closer into his body. We hear gym noises: kids yelling, sneakers scuffing, balls swooshing by and hitting a wall. After a few seconds ALEX McFADDEN, 36, enters SR. He is also an adult playing a six-year-old. ALEX is unaffected by the noise, but looking at the other team and every few seconds he shifts his weight to avoid being hit by a ball. While he moves, he has one eye on BOBBY.

ALEX

You're supposed to dodge the balls.

BOBBY
(HIS EYES REMAIN SHUT.)

No use. They'll get me.

BOBBY opens one eye, just a bit, squints at Alex and then whispers loudly:

They always do.

ALEX

Yuh-huh. If you don't move.

BOBBY

If I move ... they'll throw harder. Almost over ... I always go down first.

ALEX stops moving and then stands in front of BOBBY. We immediately hear a thwacking sound -- a ball hitting a person. ALEX flinches, and all the background sounds stop.

BOBBY
(BEYOND AMAZED.)

You took the hit for me.

ALEX

And now you owe me. What's your name?

BOBBY

Bobby Dean.

ALEX

I'm Alex. From now on Bobby Dean, you're gonna be my best friend.

BOBBY
(SHRUGS HIS SHOULDERS.)

Sure.

ALEX and BOBBY stare at each other. ALEX smiles and after a moment BOBBY does too. Their smiles are interrupted by another thwacking sound. BOBBY falls over as if he's been hit by a ball.

BLACKOUT

Next Page:   Act , Scene 2   (page 3 of 11 pages)

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Table of Contents:   syzygy

Michael Griffo's plays include No More Sundays, winner of the New Jersey Perry Award, and Two/Pieces. His ten-minute plays include "Cloudy" and "5G/10B," both to be published in winter 2007 in The Best Ten-Minute Plays 2005 (Smith & Kraus). Mr. Griffo graduated from New York University and studied at Playwrights Horizons and Gotham Writers Workshop. He is represented by ICM (bthomas@icmtalent.com) for theatre and The Evan Marshall Agency (evanmarshall@thenovelist.com) for literature. Contact Michael at michaelgriffo@hotmail.com.

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