Playception

Playception

By Matt Horner

Characters:

Director:  A smart man in his late twenties. He lives alone in his apartment in New York. He was accepted to Stanford, but instead went on to pursue a career in theater. Everyone at Peet’s Coffee knows him by name.

Producer:  A businessman in his late forties. He lives in the suburbs of New York, and drives a BMW to his high rise office every day. Part of his duties involve checking in on the theaters and their directors to make sure the company is successful.

Scene 1

                10:00 p.m. An empty ornate theater. A massive chandelier hangs from the ceiling, shedding dim light across the stage. Two men sit in red velvet chairs in the center of the seating area. PRODUCER sits at  SL, DIRECTOR at SR. DIRECTOR has a clipboard in his hands.

PRODUCER:  This better be good. You have until tomorrow afternoon at four to come up with an idea that will give this company a shot at Broadway. (Annoyed) No more of these lame comedies and crappy musicals. Can you do that?

DIRECTOR:  Yes. Fine.  He shrugs. Why the urgency?

PRODUCER:  Because this company is losing money, and fast. And I need to know that my director is creative enough to make a decent show for once. (Calmly) I want to have time to hire a new director if I need to.

DIRECTOR:  I’ll get it done. Gets up to leave. Goodnight, Sir.

DIRECTOR extends hand for a handshake. PRODUCER stares straight ahead in his chair, no acknowledgement.

Scene 2

DIRECTOR sits at home at a desk in a dark room. Two sources of light, one from the writing lamp that casts bright light onto an empty sheet of paper. Another light comes from the TV, where a pirate movie is playing. Three empty cups with coffee remnants litter the desk.

 DIRECTOR:  Ugh. Why did I choose this job? Of all the occupations in the world, I had to choose the only one that I get paid like a laborer, and treated like a slave. I end up spending all my wages at the coffee shop so I can stay up late to do more work that I don’t get paid for. I could have been living in California spending weekends at the beach and building new technology. This reminds me of my sophomore year in high school, always staying up late the night before a writing assignment was due. Oh well. These three lattes aren’t going to let me get to sleep anytime soon, so I might as well make the most of it.

 

Scene 3

10:00 a.m. in the theater. Sunlight shines in from large overhead windows, giving the place a happy feel. DIRECTOR sits in a chair in the corner, with a stack of papers six feet tall.

PRODUCER enters from doors at top of aisle stairs. He walks down to the center of the stairs, where DIRECTOR meets him.

DIRECTOR:  Good morning Sir! I have a surprise for you.

PRODUCER:  (sighing) This better be good.

DIRECTOR:  Instead of one play, I was feeling so funny last night that I just wrote three.

PRODUCER: (Surprised) Really? He reaches out his hand to look at them.

DIRECTOR: Yep. This one’s about Pirates. He hands him a mass of papers. And this one’s set in medieval times with dragons and such. He hand him a second mass of papers. But this one is my favorite…He holds up a third mass of paper, but doesn’t give it to PRODUCER.

PRODUCER:  These both look decent. But what’s the last one about? (Looking intrigued)

DIRECTOR:  It’s about two guys. They need to come up with a hit show to save their theater company. But the problem is… they don’t have any ideas what to write their play about. They think and think, and try out a couple different options, but they finally end up writing their show about two guys who need to write a play.

PRODUCER: That’s brilliant! (Excited) He leaps up out of his seat. This is exactly what I’ve been looking for! Kid, I’m gonna give you a promotion.

I wrote a play about someone writing a play about writing a play. It's a play within a play within a play. The assignment was to write a short one-act play with dialogue, at least two characters, and a central conflict. This play is meant to be a comedy. If I had to revise it, I would add more scene descriptions to give a better feel for the mood. It shows creativity even though I was unable to think of a traditional storyline.