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2007-03-10 - 6:18 p.m. Just a brief overview of what's going to go on in a ten minute play I'm writing.
Characters: Priam Watts: No younger than 50. Pompous, smart. Has a goatee or short beard. David Tyler: Mid 20’s. Emma’s Husband. Timid. Emma is the best thing to ever happen to him, and that isn’t saying much. Anthony Pike: Doesn’t like his job, jittery. Wall Speaker: a cordial feminine voice. At rise: We see what looks like a very dilapidated room with a few odd features. The dirty walls have no windows. One door on stage right is labeled “Waiting Room”. There is one large electronic speaker hung on the wall opposite the door, and an old banner on the back wall reads “Welcome to the Afterlife!” or perhaps “A New Life! A New World! A New Day!” Also, there is a large pile of cushions, pillows (perhaps a mattress) set in the center of the room. EMMA lands into the room, missing the pile of pillows, doesn’t know what’s going on. the SPEAKER introduces the afterlife as if it is a coutry club ad, asks her to proceed to the waiting room. Emma looks for her shot wound, finds nothing, thinks she’s dreaming. Tries to look for a wall switch (because you’re not suppose to be able to turn the lights on and off in dreams), cant find a wall switch. The asks her to proceed to the waiting room, she debates this briefly then tries for the door. It doesn’t budge, she is confused. PRIAM enters through the door she has just tried to open with clipboard in hand and eyes the room warily. Tuts around criticizing the room while she follows him asking a bunch of questions (where david is, why she’s there, why it looks so crappy, etc.) until she grabs him by the arm and forces him to tell her what’s going on, he explains that she is dead and if she would just go to the waiting room things could be figured out. She explains she can’t, and tries the door again. Priam becomes concerned and tries the door himself, it doesn’t budge. He instantly knows what happened, she died too early and has to wait until the correct time to proceed trough the doors. “one fellow killed himself ten years earlier than his schedualed death time, and it caused all sorts of hub bub and havic. People kept falling into the room, but nobody could get out. We had to seal up the room and divert the channel until the door would open, you weren’t a suicide were you? ” She asks him how far away from her death time she was, he mumbles and starts looking through his papers, the lights flicker “Priam: Oh, dear” Light go off, a loud thud, light come up to reveal DAVID has also landed off-center of the cushions. He is freaking out, because he saw Emma die and he loves her very much. The speaker delivers it’s speech again. They embrace, but she want s to know the awnser to her question, Priam doesn’t know, david is more and more confused because no one has explained what going on, they both end up ganging up on Priam because he obviously knows more, until Priam expodes with a shouted “I don’t know!” They have a long pause of stunned silence before simultaneously starting asking him questions again. The lights flicker. David wants to know what’s going on, Emma says “not again” Priam just sighs. Lights go off, a loud thump, Lights come up to reveal Anthony Pike, afterlife “social worker” aka murderer, has landed face down in front of the cushion pile, barely missing it. In a rare bout of kindness Emma offers to help him up until she recognizes his face and shoves him back, yelling at him, furious. David chimes in an occasional “Yeah!” Priam asks what time Anthony murdered them, it turns out he murdered them five minutes and 32 seconds early. They all realize they havn’t tried the door again. Emma goes to it first, and it swings open with ease. She and David walk through. Priam scolds Anthony and tells him he’ll have to work the surface for a little while longer before being promoted to “ground work” Anthony freaks out a little because he doesn’t enjoy murdering people but he knows he has to. He leaves moping, Priam says he’ll probably be promoted in a few years. Priam is left in the room, back to his clipboard he evaluates the room. “Needs to be cleaned, cushions out of place, need to be centered…overall, not bad, not bad. The speaker asks him to proceed to the waiting room. He says “I know, I know” and exits.
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