Mute
I wrote a little play a couple of weeks ago that I thought you'd like to read, should take about 2-3 mins to read it. I'm still trying to fix it up with the stage directions and staging of the bedroom, etc. Any feedback would be appreciated. This is just one of the plays that I am submitting in my portfolio due in one week! Yipe!
Characters:
BOY
NEIGHBOR
FRIEND
A one-act play about a boy’s journey of discovery and reveal.
(A bed with a dresser located to the right of the bed is located upstage-left. A window is placed upstage a few feet away from the bed. To the left of the bed is a door that leads to the bathroom, located directly behind the bed. Stage-right is outside of the house, in which the BOY has a door leading out to the side of the house. The door has a garden hose to the left side and a small tree just taller than the door’s height. A picket fence is downstage-right.)
(Scene shows a young BOY sleeping in his bedroom stage-right, all snuggled under the covers. Sniffs air and makes smacking sounds with his lips. BOY wakes up from a fully-relaxed sleep, sitting upright in his bed and stretching with his arms. Rubs his eyes a couple of times and yawns come and go throughout the stretching and eye-rubbing. BOY pulls off covers and hops out of bed, standing up and doing toe-touches and other arm-stretches. He looks at his window located upstage and approaches it with one hand scratching head, and the other scratching his bottom. Stares out the window for a moment and takes a loud deep breath.)
(BOY is startled and turns around and looks downstage for a moment, wondering what is going on. Then thinks nothing of it and gets back into drowsy-state of mind. BOY goes to dresser by his bed and strips his clothes off and makes a selection of what to wear for the day. Finds a t-shirt, underwear, shorts, and socks to wear. Puts all garments of clothes on but struggles to find balance while standing on one leg and putting his sock on the other leg. Makes a tumble onto the floor and finishes putting on the socks.)
(While on the floor, BOY takes another glance around the room in wonderment and confusion. Stands up in a nervous way, and realizes he needs to take the morning piss. Heads to the bathroom, unzips zipper and does business. As water is trickling, he realizes he can’t hear anything at all. Leans forward to the toilet bowl still doing business, but turns ear to the toilet to get a sound from the trickling water, but still unsuccessful in getting any sound out of the toilet. Leans back upright and is startled to the find that he has pissed on the toilet rim and part of the floor, finishes trickling, zips up, and unrolls some toilet paper, wiping up the small mess. BOY throws the toilet paper in the toilet and flushes the handle.)
(BOY goes to sink and starts to wash hands, looks back over to the toilet bowl wondering why no sound is coming out of flushing, lifts up the back panel of the toilet to check to see if it’s still working. Flushes toilet again and watches water go down the drain but can’t understand why no sound has come from it. BOY places back panel back on to the toilet and stands looking out to audience for a moment, starting to breathe in a nervous way.)
(Suddenly makes loud obnoxious gibberish noises, high and low squeaks, pitches, burps, all kinds of sounds, trying to get a glimpse of the sounds that he is making, but cannot hear a single thing. BOY is really spooked by this new discovery and takes a step back and places hands on his head, pulling hair back in a frightened way, wondering what to do next. Places hands over mouth, drops to his knees, and Gasps loudly.)
(After a moment, BOY gets up again and looks in the mirror placed above the sink. BOY leaves bathroom in a rush and heads for the outside of the house. BOY bursts through the door, hair in a messy condition and BOY breathing heavily trying to make some sense of what is happening to him. BOY looks at different objects outside of the house to try to find a source of sound. Decides to take the garden hose to the left of the door and turn on the water, puts the nozzle in his left ear and puts the water level on low. Jumps back from the hose realizing the water is frigid cold, but immediately rubs ear and uses finger to clean out the left ear. BOY wipes the ear dry with his t-shirt and then makes more random gibberish sounds but still nothing is heard by him.)
(BOY sees the tree located to the right of the door and looks for an animal in the branches, the leaves, and any noticeable holes in the trunk of the tree. BOY tries desperately to find something that will bring a sound source to him, but gently pounds his fist on the trunk when he finds out that there is nothing on the tree. BOY has a helpless look on his face. BOY starts to sniffle and tries to make sense of the situation he is in, but he spots a stick on the ground, leans his ear towards his knee, and tries breaking the stick on his knee. BOY is immediately hurt after failing to break the stick. BOY rubs knee a couple times and sees a smaller stick nearby. BOY picks up smaller stick, leans over to knee and snaps the stick on his knee successfully, but still not getting any sound out of it. BOY takes one end of the stick and drags it up and down the picket fence downstage. BOY tries different variations of moving the stick across the fence, slower, faster, but still no sound emerging.)
(BOY finally snaps and slams the sticks violently on the picket fence several times while groaning and grunting in frustration. Sits down on the ground and breathes heavily for a couple of breaths with banged up sticks clenched in each hand. BOY sticks finger in left ear to check for any possible signs, earwax, blood, etc, but can’t find anything.)
(NEIGHBOR walks by the house and picket fence, not noticing BOY until he stands up and looks at the NEIGHBOR. NEIGHBOR looks at BOY, does a hand greeting gesture and continues on. BOY stops NEIGHBOR and communicates in garbled speech, he tries to use words, but the words sound like he is communicating underwater. NEIGHBOR looks at BOY as if he was from another planet, and walks on, BOY trying to stop him with more scrambled words but failing to get NEIGHBOR’S attention again.)
(FRIEND walks by the picket fence as the BOY sees a familiar face and breathes a sigh of relief. The two greet each other and right away BOY jumps into explaining his situation in garbled speech, using wild gestures about his day and why he can’t hear and can’t communicate correctly. FRIEND looks concerned as BOY continues with his garbled story. FRIEND calms BOY down by placing both hands on BOY’S shoulders and says something to BOY, but only mouths everything to BOY. BOY stops talking, looks a little closer to FRIEND. FRIEND repeats first line to BOY, but still no words are coming out of FRIEND’S mouth. FRIEND continues concerned and muted talk with BOY.)
(BOY in disbelief, now starting to lose control of everything. Takes FRIEND’S hands off his shoulders, and reverses the role, placing his hands on FRIEND’S shoulders and puts ear to FRIEND’S mouth but grimaces since no sound is coming out of FRIEND’S mouth. BOY steps back and mopes around, babbling to himself.)
(FRIEND opens gate of picket fence, walks in, and looks at BOY, looks around to the right ear of the BOY and looks at it for a moment, the BOY not noticing FRIEND doing this, FRIEND gets BOY’S attention and points to BOY’S right ear. BOY nods head and gets back into garbled story of how he can’t hear anything at all with wild gestures and such. FRIEND gestures ‘No, no, no…’ with his hands and head and goes to BOY’S ear and flips on the switch to the BOY’S hearing aid.)
(BOY snaps fingers and makes more noises, but startled that he can actually hear himself.)
BOY
Oh…
END SCENE.
Characters:
BOY
NEIGHBOR
FRIEND
A one-act play about a boy’s journey of discovery and reveal.
(A bed with a dresser located to the right of the bed is located upstage-left. A window is placed upstage a few feet away from the bed. To the left of the bed is a door that leads to the bathroom, located directly behind the bed. Stage-right is outside of the house, in which the BOY has a door leading out to the side of the house. The door has a garden hose to the left side and a small tree just taller than the door’s height. A picket fence is downstage-right.)
(Scene shows a young BOY sleeping in his bedroom stage-right, all snuggled under the covers. Sniffs air and makes smacking sounds with his lips. BOY wakes up from a fully-relaxed sleep, sitting upright in his bed and stretching with his arms. Rubs his eyes a couple of times and yawns come and go throughout the stretching and eye-rubbing. BOY pulls off covers and hops out of bed, standing up and doing toe-touches and other arm-stretches. He looks at his window located upstage and approaches it with one hand scratching head, and the other scratching his bottom. Stares out the window for a moment and takes a loud deep breath.)
(BOY is startled and turns around and looks downstage for a moment, wondering what is going on. Then thinks nothing of it and gets back into drowsy-state of mind. BOY goes to dresser by his bed and strips his clothes off and makes a selection of what to wear for the day. Finds a t-shirt, underwear, shorts, and socks to wear. Puts all garments of clothes on but struggles to find balance while standing on one leg and putting his sock on the other leg. Makes a tumble onto the floor and finishes putting on the socks.)
(While on the floor, BOY takes another glance around the room in wonderment and confusion. Stands up in a nervous way, and realizes he needs to take the morning piss. Heads to the bathroom, unzips zipper and does business. As water is trickling, he realizes he can’t hear anything at all. Leans forward to the toilet bowl still doing business, but turns ear to the toilet to get a sound from the trickling water, but still unsuccessful in getting any sound out of the toilet. Leans back upright and is startled to the find that he has pissed on the toilet rim and part of the floor, finishes trickling, zips up, and unrolls some toilet paper, wiping up the small mess. BOY throws the toilet paper in the toilet and flushes the handle.)
(BOY goes to sink and starts to wash hands, looks back over to the toilet bowl wondering why no sound is coming out of flushing, lifts up the back panel of the toilet to check to see if it’s still working. Flushes toilet again and watches water go down the drain but can’t understand why no sound has come from it. BOY places back panel back on to the toilet and stands looking out to audience for a moment, starting to breathe in a nervous way.)
(Suddenly makes loud obnoxious gibberish noises, high and low squeaks, pitches, burps, all kinds of sounds, trying to get a glimpse of the sounds that he is making, but cannot hear a single thing. BOY is really spooked by this new discovery and takes a step back and places hands on his head, pulling hair back in a frightened way, wondering what to do next. Places hands over mouth, drops to his knees, and Gasps loudly.)
(After a moment, BOY gets up again and looks in the mirror placed above the sink. BOY leaves bathroom in a rush and heads for the outside of the house. BOY bursts through the door, hair in a messy condition and BOY breathing heavily trying to make some sense of what is happening to him. BOY looks at different objects outside of the house to try to find a source of sound. Decides to take the garden hose to the left of the door and turn on the water, puts the nozzle in his left ear and puts the water level on low. Jumps back from the hose realizing the water is frigid cold, but immediately rubs ear and uses finger to clean out the left ear. BOY wipes the ear dry with his t-shirt and then makes more random gibberish sounds but still nothing is heard by him.)
(BOY sees the tree located to the right of the door and looks for an animal in the branches, the leaves, and any noticeable holes in the trunk of the tree. BOY tries desperately to find something that will bring a sound source to him, but gently pounds his fist on the trunk when he finds out that there is nothing on the tree. BOY has a helpless look on his face. BOY starts to sniffle and tries to make sense of the situation he is in, but he spots a stick on the ground, leans his ear towards his knee, and tries breaking the stick on his knee. BOY is immediately hurt after failing to break the stick. BOY rubs knee a couple times and sees a smaller stick nearby. BOY picks up smaller stick, leans over to knee and snaps the stick on his knee successfully, but still not getting any sound out of it. BOY takes one end of the stick and drags it up and down the picket fence downstage. BOY tries different variations of moving the stick across the fence, slower, faster, but still no sound emerging.)
(BOY finally snaps and slams the sticks violently on the picket fence several times while groaning and grunting in frustration. Sits down on the ground and breathes heavily for a couple of breaths with banged up sticks clenched in each hand. BOY sticks finger in left ear to check for any possible signs, earwax, blood, etc, but can’t find anything.)
(NEIGHBOR walks by the house and picket fence, not noticing BOY until he stands up and looks at the NEIGHBOR. NEIGHBOR looks at BOY, does a hand greeting gesture and continues on. BOY stops NEIGHBOR and communicates in garbled speech, he tries to use words, but the words sound like he is communicating underwater. NEIGHBOR looks at BOY as if he was from another planet, and walks on, BOY trying to stop him with more scrambled words but failing to get NEIGHBOR’S attention again.)
(FRIEND walks by the picket fence as the BOY sees a familiar face and breathes a sigh of relief. The two greet each other and right away BOY jumps into explaining his situation in garbled speech, using wild gestures about his day and why he can’t hear and can’t communicate correctly. FRIEND looks concerned as BOY continues with his garbled story. FRIEND calms BOY down by placing both hands on BOY’S shoulders and says something to BOY, but only mouths everything to BOY. BOY stops talking, looks a little closer to FRIEND. FRIEND repeats first line to BOY, but still no words are coming out of FRIEND’S mouth. FRIEND continues concerned and muted talk with BOY.)
(BOY in disbelief, now starting to lose control of everything. Takes FRIEND’S hands off his shoulders, and reverses the role, placing his hands on FRIEND’S shoulders and puts ear to FRIEND’S mouth but grimaces since no sound is coming out of FRIEND’S mouth. BOY steps back and mopes around, babbling to himself.)
(FRIEND opens gate of picket fence, walks in, and looks at BOY, looks around to the right ear of the BOY and looks at it for a moment, the BOY not noticing FRIEND doing this, FRIEND gets BOY’S attention and points to BOY’S right ear. BOY nods head and gets back into garbled story of how he can’t hear anything at all with wild gestures and such. FRIEND gestures ‘No, no, no…’ with his hands and head and goes to BOY’S ear and flips on the switch to the BOY’S hearing aid.)
(BOY snaps fingers and makes more noises, but startled that he can actually hear himself.)
BOY
Oh…
END SCENE.