Lodestar Quarterly

Issue 13 • Spring 2005 • Featured Writer • Drama

Vessels

Kim Yaged

Post-War

(AGED steps out of formation.)

AGED

A-troc-i-ties. I had difficulty saying that word when I first came over -- four syllables. Atrocities. Special words for unspeakable deeds -- impossible choices. It loses its impact upon repeating. Age groups. There are different values on different places, stages, ages. Because your worth will change to them and just as soon to yourself. Once your utility has gone. Your perceived utility -- of a woman, girl -- not man lover -- no baby machine -- no use. We covet age, utility. Much has changed over time but not quite enough.

12-17

Split consciousness

25-54

Schizophrenic reaction

AGED

Pervasive

12-17

Atmosphere of fear

25-54

Modern pathology

AGED

Crisis in industrial class society

25-54

Monopolists

12-17

Capitalists

25-54

Developmental policy

(12-17 hits on an imaginary woman walking past.)

12-17

Hey baby --

AGED

Race-corroding

25-54

Race-debasing

AGED

Demand for criminalization

25-54

Ethnically threatening

AGED

Your sin against humanity

12-17
(flirtatious)

Or mine?

AGED

Blind

25-54

To issues of individual human culpability

12-17

Contributed

25-54

Outbreak

AGED

Rise

12-17

Threatening

25-54

Thriving

AGED

Totalitarianism

12-17

Anything to survive.

25-54

But this is all in my mind. Stories. So many stories that are not mine. Because there are so few tellers.

AGED

I am a storyteller of others' stories -- stories otherwise left behind.

12-17

It is left to me to do all the remembering.

AGED

Juxtaposition

12-17

impact

25-54

irony

12-17

Rationalization

25-54

My place in history

AGED

I would rather have been anonymous.

12-17

Exceptions

AGED

I am exceptional by virtue of my survival.

25-54

These stories are all exceptions.

12-17

All survivor stories

25-54

All survivor stories

AGED

All survivor stories

ALL

Are exceptions.

(BUILDING.)

AGED

I don't have words

12-17

For my anger

25-54

For my anger

AGED

For my anger

25-54

I don't have words

12-17

Hate

AGED

And anger fuel me

12-17

I don't have words

AGED

For my anger

12-17

For my anger

25-54

For my anger

AGED

I refuse to let

25-54

Hate

12-17

And anger fuel me

AGED

I don't have words

25-54

For my anger

AGED

For my anger

12-17

For my anger

25-54

I refuse to let

AGED

Hate

25-54

And anger fuel me

AGED

I don't have words

12-17

Hate

25-54

And anger fuel me

12-17

I refuse to let

25-54

Hate

AGED

And anger fuel me

12-17

I don't have words

25-54

For my anger

AGED

Hate

12-17

And anger fuel me

25-54

I refuse to let

AGED

Hate

25-54

I don't have words

12-17

And anger fuel me

AGED

I refuse to let

(Each turns as she speaks.)

25-54

Birth

12-17

Death

AGED

What happens in-between.

(ALL stand in a circle.)

THE END

Next Page:   Production History   (page 7 of 8 pages)

All Pages:   See the entire play on one page

Table of Contents:   Vessels

Kim Yaged is an award-winning playwright whose work has been performed throughout North America. Her chamber opera www.love was showcased by the New York City Opera and subsequently performed in Ann Arbor, Michigan. This production won four Best of 2001 Awards, including Best Musical and Best Original Production, and was runner-up in two other categories. Kim was a recipient of the Kennedy Center's Meritorious Achievement Award for the Diego Rivera Theatre's production of her play America. She was also an ArtServe grant recipient. Kim has written children's books for Disney Publishing. Her short stories and poetry are included in anthologies published by Ballantine Books, Cleis Press, and Arsenal Pulp Press. (Photo credit: Sarah Grace Shierson Dumser)

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