‘My heart you press my chest don break my heart. (She gasps.) ight back. dead. Oh God I’m dead, I'm dead. ['m not dead. I'm thinking. My brain is moving. I had a—. ‘A student. Had a, a student said brain activity, she. said after sd body dies brain activity continues for several minutes, five maybe, Jess, I don’t remember, Mr. Kim taught her that in bio class, she said. Mr. Kim Mr. Kim Fuck you Mr. Kim, Hello? I have five minutes five minutes. Less now. (She gasps) spe ishing my chest you idiot it hurts it hurts my heart. T have a brain, brain activity continues for minutes five maybe, hello? A voice just one would help me please. Hello. 1 am Lucy I am a school teacher I was shot I am bleeding stop the bleeding blood is red I remember red all color washed our now, eyes open, open eyes OPEN. I cannot see. (She gasps.) isa ecb lucid and dead lucid and dead, Hello. Voices make it stop, So quiet inside my head make it stop. Make a sound. Mithridatism PAUL D. BAWEK LEE, a self-made businessperson, has made concessions in ber life that leave ber questioning her identity. In this pivotal scene, Lee finaly confronts the man she loves with his racist world view. une: You don—(Lee breaks down. She collects herself) 1 know you think of me as white—but I'm not white—and honey you can keep on trying to convince yourself we're not different and love changes everything, but when we leave this room you’ be white and I'll still be “other.” Thar’ the bottom line. And ir's not just the world outside this room that’s prejudiced, i¢’s you Frank—because as long as you only see me and accept me in your white perspective you'll never truly sec me. So don't you're not prejudiced until you're willing to put yourself in my shoes and see the world from my point of view. Don't tell me you're not prejudiced until you come out from around the illu- sion that we'te all the same, because we are not the same. This is a white man’s world Frank and I am not white. And you seeing ‘me as such negates my entire existence. If you see me as white, im not here. I'm nothing to you. Because I'm not white Frank Tm “other!!” And I know you give money to charities to help the “other,” and you love the “other,” but you only do it so the “other” —inchuding me—will rise above their circumstances t0 be more like you. White like you! And that, Frank, is the worst kind of racist, the one who doesn't even know he is.Doll House to my teacher. “I want to take shop,” I sa precision , pleasantly enough. ‘WILLIAM BORDEN too. One day I led the people were moving, and I the furniture yy brother’ toy Mayflower or, across the A car came along. The people were killed. I forgot 10 they were killed. I really great. Like I'd accomplished something. I made imaginary people—a mom who was never tired never got mad, and me, the little girl who was free to there was no dumb brother and there was no dumb dog. id think, this one day. “Are you going to be 2” “An architect does what you're doing there.” That's when I knew who I was! In the eighth grade, the boys took shop and home ec. into the shop. I saw the T-squares hanging on the wal. I saw the triangles, the protractors. I wenteral. No one I know even knows who he is. le re even mourn. I have to keep it all inside, and its killing me. I've never once. pale is name aloud, not even to him. We agreed, ives too dangerous. We used only pet names. Safe seater transfer easily from each other to our spouses, raise no sus} cion. Honey. Baby. Sweetheart. If | mentioned him twa fend, it would be like he were imaginary. Like he never exist ‘Which, of course, he never should have. No But he was perfect. And I loved him, the ; Excerpt from Timor SHEILA CALLAGHAN SARAH, late swenties, i two months pregnant Saran: Walking ig around the women’s department in Macy's ‘Thete are ch len everywhere, crawling like arachnids, they hhave more legs than I thought children were supposed to have but I guess you start to notice these heads for something simple and angora I recall when angora was simple, when the angora gaze was not flecked with knots of unfiltered U keep my eyes a safe distance above the swarming ick and spot a garment worthy of my once-upon self. I move towards it as smooth asa rollerbail pen. Soon I am close en its static cling. My hand, electric, also electric, and ng sweat our dual reaching pose we are an Italian Renaissance masterpiece. But as my fingers splay for the grasp I feel an icy sludge make its way down my left leg T hear this: “Ir’s not my fault, the bottom fell out!” And then a stall person is galloping away from me rowards a larger Person. I look. My entire calf from knee to ankle is covered in 2 red liquid. Pooling into the side of my sneaker is roughly eight ounces of bright red smashed ice. And lying next to my foot is a Slurpie cup with its bottom in shreds. at night I dream of buckets and buckets of blood gush- ing from between my legsExcerpt from Kate Crackernuts SHEILA CALLAGHAN A female role originally written for Pav’ voice. Paul is a young, sickly looking man. He is pale and transparent. story goes like this. Her name was Mother int most of her days shrouded in a grew tighter and tighter by the day, and you see, sick on a sti aut: Okay. and she was help cither. It was me 3s, wrapped in her affiction like cotton candy, and her pretty sickness was forever aglow. ‘And one day I looked at her and the candy had melted and she was a sticky lump of Mother in a bed and the sheets were ce they were searching for something ‘out Paul I'm sick and I said T 's different this time and I knew but pre- a flipping its Mother was so radi know and she said tended I didnt. She kept a bl by her bedside for me to keep track of her medicines and at this moment she started shouting cds, words that made no sense, random snatches of sen paper so I began writing her words out of arms I took my shirt off and wrote them on chest I dropped my trousers Tran out 46 and wrote them on my turned blue. iy legs and then she ran out of words and she uttered survived our se our separ Thaven’t been able to fetor tossing your or throwing up an ‘nk from one too many Cuba Libres, or. .. ot! king the Ukrainian cleani us sing a cas rome in the door unexpectedly, aan eee Pd thse what we, the Grea Unwashed, vn those instances, you're actually work that no one king: producing the Magnum Opus, the # ne se dono one in he wos nd really very fe can een “understand, Our eyes are clouded because of our severe perp ; tations: we dontt recognize the act 3 Creator ag on whom the mortal rules don't apply, when we see it. Tn Sar eps ay neuroce shi wth a sense of ent a which would have shamed the Emperor Nero. But we know nothing! Practical Jokes JEANNINE COULOMBE ANA, fortes, is about to sign papers to admit her mother, who is suffering from Alcheimer’s disease, into a full-time care center Anna salks to the center’ admnisions attendant, wna: These are the papers then? To put her away. I know 'm not supposed to think of it that way, s isnt easy for me. you hear thata lot. At least you would. O, OF course, yes. Sorry. Okay. st. Yes. Of course. April Fools’. Crazy April Fools. Crazy. You know when I was a kid we actually cel- ebrated, in a way. I mean, not like my mom would bake an cake or make some kind of ie. Oh, but that year the Mom ran up the stairs yelling, “Kids, , its 8:15, you're going to be rs and there she sat on the landing. my mother had to do was laugh and e world. She laughed and we all with her. We got her back, thoug! 10 her ro fom, wake up, wake up the overflowing toilet was always overflowing. Old use. Bad plumbing, Mom hated it. I think that was worst thing abour yy dad not being there. Not so much that she was 9at she had to deal with bad plumbing. Of course, we were just kidding, She ran into the bathroom bling in he toilet mop, still hal asleep. We her old blue nighty, carrying the to . pw wes all Jaughing, April Fools’. April Fools. I know. I kn owl have to sign the papers. She laughed wich us, you know. 7 war, She wasn't mad, She laughed. She always laughed, even if the joke was on her, Seems every is some kind of April Fook now though. I could tell her anything. hone “ould be 6 A.M. ot 4 P.M. 8:15 or 9. April first or January fif- pare i vast matter. At first I could deal with it. T or Sheld just forget dates or misplace her purse, little 7 gs. " just have to remind her a lot. Then, it was like T was always fre to her and my dad was still alive. That didn't even seem so bac But now its like there isn’t much of anything left and she ra ders a lor. I've lost my humor about it. I'm worn out. Its not ing but cruel now. The whole thing. She raised us alone, 80 strong, so capable. And always laughing. Always. She doesn’t laugh anymore. (Pause) Where's a pen? alone, but Excerpt from Life on Pluto STEPHEN R. CULP Mavis: I miss you, Plato. You were always happy to sce me. Poor c dog. You weren't the same after you ran head firs nativity scene. You were running through the snow, barking at the falling flakes, not watching where you was goin’. You made such a crash. The baby Jesus was shattered into a million pieces All the shepherds, the three kings, Joseph, Mary, and the heav- enly hosts looking with wonder ac an empty manger. Chri wasnt the same that year, One night after too much eggnog, I went outside in my nighty to make a snow Jesus, To give the plaster shepherds something to look at. When I was donc, with Frosty the Snow Jesus all tucked in his straw, from out in the sky the biggest light in the universe shone down on the stable. Turned out to be the search light of a police licoprer, scanning the neighborhood for a Salvation Army Santa gone amok. But for a second there, sitting in all that light, I saw why they were looking at che manger. Somewheres deep inside those plaster heads, they knew Jesus was am of snow. And it didn't matter one bit. It was the looking thaz mattered. Ir was the looking. ‘The plaster Jesus gave Pluto a con- cussion. He kept wandering off and getting lost after that, so we tied his chain to a tree. Held run round and round. Round and round the tree, the chain wrapping around his circle getting smaller. Then hed run the other way. The circle would get big get then smaller again, And now... . now I'm all wrapped uy ny chain. If my circle gets any smaller, I'l disappear. I'll just curl up and die. They'd bury me by Pluto. He was always happy to see me,Excerpt from Anna Bella Fema LISA D'AMOUR mee speaks, wu: My name is Irene and I have been alive here in this trailer home for as long as T et. When you are alive in one space for such a long time the things that you six with the things that are happening now, and the tht you dream about. What I mean is, sometimes the pening are equal to the things that are not happening ease do not ask me to come clear on such “did not happen,” “is happs pen.” They are all simmering in one pot. Here on the elec ic radar range inside this trailer home. You can see [am a time someone tried to poke a stick through ground. They poked and poked and poke the s not go through. The scar is long gone, as you ‘can see. This kind of thickness goes for the rest of my body too, Father is leaving, Learn to warch my mother smash bot Go to school. Math. Learn how to not get made fun of. Camping out with the kids in the trailer park Learn how not t he thick braids of the rich girls. He is smiling at me. Darkness and breathing in dust. Mother, I feel a bird flutcering. I am having a baby. Look at her beautiful teeth! I am fifteen and then now I am owenty-five. (She considers the audience.) Here we are. Bella Eema LISA D'AMOUR ANWABELLA, & ten-year-old girl, speaks about her home, then. As you can see, we are the o: tailer park, I guess that blo fates park. I gues that blows the pak (The actress playing her mother takes out a 9 and pre ay 7 of a child's trailer park pleats one vit? lived one home over with his mom Val. Vi me Year younger than me and a fucking boy bent ine all he ever begged for was blow jobs. if he'd kiss me with his » on soap operas. He thou both out of luck. Across Crystal and their mom Ci art. But there used to ight that was way too gross so we were the dirt from us was C} a from us was Chris and Curtis never seen a Las Vegas sh “gas show Us how to put on the fishner sto also Joanie and Forrest and theis ie Be Hevkocebae nd Misha, Alexis, and their mile monitor.) cif you're a bomb. Simpler. ‘This is--was—an enemy command post, which for devious reasons was placed next ¢o an orphanage. You will have rouble telling them apart. Warch now. Wete ig in. And down. ‘Anybody got nausca? Grab onto something, we're coming in fast. Compl ring the orphanage, zeroing in on the win- dow of the—now ‘There's a guy coming out of He's standing there thinking—come on, do 1 of there! Get out! Move! Good ecause now here we go! This is it, by! Yes! Yes! Yes! (Beat; awed) Look at that. Look at that. Precise, efficient, no collate damage. That is what we call one smart bomb. IFT had ddren—which I don't—if I had any, and they were orphaned, God forbid, if they bad no wed in that orphanage, you know wh: 1 perfectly safe if the US ‘Army bombed the building next door. Those babies are safe thanks to our bombs. Not one of them but rolled over in his sleep. Nighty nig! (Big smile) Any questions? 74 Work from Nosegays on Monday MATT DI CINTIO MARGARET, a homel — z homels woman, middle-aged, speaks to Aaron, a 5 4 corner grocery in Midtown, New York. a 0 to bed anything. Istated out a receptionise fora veeriaarna, tee nyhing ist for a veterinarian, work ’n come home ’n ‘n git up 'n do it all aga peep a ag: i that usually Up, work, down, eae sooner so Tm : gon’ do it for longer. 'N ng ‘cuz I wanted to wi rs 2b. Ie sup o think shows nc ke Ei makes no damn sense. I st wanna work. I washed 5 ltbes as, » served breakfast, served drove people around, called peopl mop. jus wanna werk, Toe aIe dontt make no damn sense Why wi want their mon x shoe off my back 'n lemme work. wanna work. I dor wont he get his T wanna work take pride in ‘work! [ wanna work! wanna work I wanna work is high position. But take pride in his low position, bec fade avay even hi im I gon’ go ’bo Tvanne wore wanna work [wanna work oe ed Why Look from 1 wanna work. Why Training. My. Hands 5 for War MATT DI CINTIO. in humble circumstances oughtta a who is rich should beauty is destroyed. In the same ov he goes "bout his ‘my bizness? I wanna SUNNY, a young and tensuccesful prostitute with dreams of dancing catches herself in her lover’ mirror. sunny: What are you looking at? Di face, whar it means. face, and 1 just heart. Maybe ose things, yes. the rest of my life mov- was me, I have ing away from hi age for my bow and my appl ave on my face is nothing anybody has ever seen anywhere before. Ever. It’s the look of some where they'te going. Do y my father with my feet in perf position—under the feet were on the floor ind they were in the dd have taught classes about. The that table was the one his eyebrows formed in was, as the word goes to describe it 1e who's gorten to I sat across from me 7he wears cheap shoes. The poor to understand anything ie, at look? hh wide eyes and a quarter smile. Do you know that i ae Nose b hough cause dimples, nothing big enough to ieve that Kind of mark. B the ps ae oP bigand He hee ead’ made osu with fee rinks. Ye th rhe oe « looks like you're trying and you know y e the look you're giving me now. man who wore looks casi man who tried so desperate Excerpt from The Soft White PAUL Dios A withered, yet luscious meadow at the edge of a two-lane interstate roads a porch and the front sting of a rundown shack make for scenery in the background: tree stumps and logs are sparse and make for good sitting = That night everything changed. There was enough tate to make us feel lst, because at some point and I casts remember when, 1 fle his bands on my shoulder ag they slowly made their way down my neck, By this poins she bus ie going 2igzags I reckon. Dontt know which way Im driving while he ses my neck and whispers in my ear, "Christ is in my under. swear.” So I start yelling, “Were gonna di none of it matters. Instead, the bus goes li grabbed o he can’ listen, ing off the road, as Iin ightly from flying out. I tell bim that I want out, but because the music grows louder as Tin tosed out of the chair. I begged to get off and promised shat [ would never alt arpene about what bad happened. Instead, I dropped my panties and biked my skirt up like he bad wanted me to. So I run to the back of the bus to the emergency ext and iry 10 budge the door gpen. Just as Tin about to turn the bandle, be comes from behind and slams me down onto the floor I dragged myelf up rhe ai Lil] caught flight and started running, but het holding on tightly around my ankles like a deadweight (Pause; frightened) Ob, but thea, he started to plow into me, spreading me apart like he were a shovel digging for gold. After hands our, che smell of blood lingered on his fing staining the ridge of my dress. By now, he is ramming his Jesus in me so that I can feel his manhood sting, He started off low, making soft moans and groans, biting my chest like I were 79jee of meat while blood started to form a pudile seen en ny mind | thought, his what ie mus fe ike to finally become a woman. Pause) he ie all was said and done, he walked back to the dash board and started to smoke, Eventually, he would lowes ie radio and ask me to get up, but I tll bim T can, Instead, he lifts me up and steers me dead straight into the ce walked for quite awhile uni finally ws gow pond and hes alleary eyed while stroking my hair.The ast thing L semember was a fist ewice across my face and boots slamming against th lower ha of my ribcage | tasted dirt Fr the fire ime tha day ‘When the serif found me three days later he gave 2 report on, che news, saying my body was bruised in almost every crevice of ny frame. The auropsy reprced jor injures of hypothermia andl facture from behind the head to the right side of my ja That caused some swelling and bleeding in the brain, I choked on my own blood. There were teeth marks on the back of my neck and all over my chest. (Pause) Tonce smelled pretty, you know. Excerpt from Viper _ STEPHANIE FLEISCHMANN ueten: When I dic, I want to be burned in the fires of a crema- torium. Bue I don't want my ashes kept standing useless in an um. And I don't want to be scattered by the winds over the four far corners of the earth, either. Just to end up as dust on somebody's windowsill? No, uh wh. I want to be cooked up so hot my ashes turn; they crystallize. When I die, I wanna be a diamond. But not just a ring-finger diamond. To be banged about in dirty water when Janie does the dishes? No—I wane to be worn around her neck. On a chain so tiny it's just about invisible. So I shimmer and shine every time she says a word, So she remembers me every time she breathes. Like I used to be. Buc dont just want to bea diamond. I want to be a pencil, to0. Diamonds, graphite, they both come from carbon, Graph. ite is an excellent conductor of electricity. Its expensive, I know, but I've gor just enough saved, I think, to make it hap- Pen. So, There you go, A diamond it is. A diamond for Janie and there should be just enough of me left over for a pencil after the diamond's done. A pencil for writing Jimmy to write his words down with: So many words he'll write with the sraphite pencil chat is me, they'll add up to a book. He'll write and write until there is no more left of me but the book and a pencil stub he can put away in one of his little aluminum fly- fishing boxes. Stick it in a drawer and keep it for his kids when he has them—if he has them—so that his kids, my grandkids, lord knows if I'm gonna live to see them, rate he’s going, sothat my grandkids can sharpen the stub, and draw stick figures cartoons in the margins of their books. Wi ‘Ask me—being made into a pencil is better ian going to Excerpt from Viper | _ STEPHANIE FLEISCHMANN: six. Six white horses pul ‘Then came the li ing from here to kingdom I stood and watched. And then I asked. Who's in that car- Flage looking like a fairytale? I asked. That's Jam Master Jay, said the man standing next to me. But he ain't no fairytale. Dead is Because that's what horses and a car- in white, Right down to the answered: When I die? When I die I don't want horses. I want tigets. A pack of tigers, harnessed to one of the black heatses—coal black (don't see what whise i)\—put in neutral, hearse rolling alon, is pin-drop quiet. So you can he what [ want. One of them black hearses with flames airbrushed on the chassy. Like I'm riding straight to hell. That's what I want when I die,Excerpt from Jim Breathing the Water Now ASHORE HALOW ‘A hospice muse in her fortes defends her relasianship tothe black sheep of the town. parry: Because I'm lonely, Mr. Riley! I'm lonely. Do you PaTerstand that? You had a wife. You had a good long marriage ace What do I have? I'm in my fortes. Al I have to show fortis a tiny one-bedroom house, thar I rent, that T don't even sun for godsakes. 1 realize Ted is not Mr. Perfect. He is not 8 steady job holder. And yes he doesnt cu his bait and he is not “he best, or the better or even a good boyfriend, but he is alll vaswe: Whar do you think 'm made out of? How do you thin itis possible for me to hold the hands of people who die and 1 through that, co watch that and chen go home to that life? You've seen one death. I've seen dontt even help because I'm stay strony to that home too many to count, I sit there. I 100 led until all hope is gone. 1 just watch. Just «referee ale bit Afterwards everyone cries It is not pur on. Tt is genuine, rock bottom sadnes. Its living a horrible, answet™ Pee th, And then you know what I do? I get my coat five years old now, and my shoulder bag and T get inco sy Ne year-old car, char hopefully stars, and I drive home where I sit eront of the'TV and figure out something to have for dinnet So youll forgive me if | admit to you that | enjoy the part of poy night when { hear Ted’ track pull into my deivewe Or when I'm pushing the gro Je and picking wre food that someone else likes, Or when I'm climbing inte ty bed and itis warm with the heat of someone clse alive and the last ery cart down the alone like me. I make I make ewenty-six thousand dollars a year. I haveExcerpt from The Museum Play JORDAN HARRISON Hallway suey is a museum guard, As she speaks 0 Jere, various ebibis seek behind him: a plumed bird; a family of makes; a wax Napo- leon, stify. They are escaping. Every time Jame' attention drifts, cry time he suri Took over bis shoulder, Leys story seems 0 dhecome more sensational. uoy! Fist off Mother dropped me hard on the noggin right out of the starting gates dl my teeth with too much Suga, for my bran on te tleruloy and stay out inthe rah S98 Jong every night each and every wit just to teach me a lesson never ‘ne from all four basic food groups. Nothii trough of candy corn, “Bat” Wash the candy doven vi was never to drive careful, she sai play fat or share and by age ewo I wa apetty spectacular mss al hen” Mother said. “Spoiled her with too much joned me over in the Egyptian bulrush basket exhibi the old Curator igh me the differ- cence between genus, Jurassic and Paleozoic—nursed me back age he put a walkie-talkie work, earn my keep and eventually I .e Board of Directors on sorry, what was the question? (Astonish (Astonished silence. Jame: You were raised in the Museum?) dead-as-a dodo big evergreen in and we'd gather rou always got to be le a by and oh what a celebration oe Food eae pein ger ake the melody, and thon were Sine day weap erly the old Curator ran out of breath an dy vey sudden almost a ithe tof breath‘And Janet ing into my house wich a key left there by someone wl . ee Bobs hat wl be found under Margaret’ bed recall my weeping. for my murder. And in this state, Will be. Soon as the pills take hold. ow they might not get the chair. Old people, after cople go fast in prison. Bob becoming the bitch of er named Baby Lard. And Margaret taking c girls” in the di Y’m not a stickler. showers with all those “ Tes not perfect justice. But chen Excerpt from Across the Desert CORY HINKLE says to me my friend, my pal, my confidante, she says, “Natalie! What get whac I want like everybody, like all human beings and what I want is this guy Whav’s wrong with that? She says, “What wrong is that people shit on you over and over aj keep coming back for more,” So, fon. You see, my friend, my strong, she’s such a feminist or whatever but the only, only reason she’s never been shit on before, as she so wonderfully puts 1 in her mediocre and mundan erself in the position to be shit on because y order to get to that point you must love and sometimes the , but I do. I come s feeling because I és real and you can call me obsessive and crazy and you “Naalie, there are so many fish i about this one?” But, I ca {gor some hang. see us working past all that and for us to de his hang-ups, I have to master my 0%super powerful lens. And everybody apologies to Daly Unele Jesse, and Bo, and Luke especialy, because he can Be 2 sometimes because he's the oldest, and he was in the Marines. And Luke says he’s real sorry he never believed hei when she said she di mec im is heart he knew that Daisy woul nox pose f tuts like that beause ae is pure. a Dag fr chin, ‘be ety ha lin, They all each other bas in the So they We to look out for each other, That is what ic ‘means to have a Duke heart Excerpt from A Modern House KIRA OBOLENSKY HLUZABETH, a woman in ber thirties 0 fortes, Shes building a modern house, in the late 1940s to early 1950s, and a well-known architect has designed it. mmestic dreams, ital. fool ion, the endless problems wi am excited about this house. And I ask o1 mpathy in his eyes says, “Lady, we got to get the glass special order and the air.” I have all sorts of imme ‘© the house are made of glass? It abso human sense, to make a glass house, unless y teach of sick lesson. And how we could go hrough this interminable relationship——oh excuse me, design Process, and I would not know Glass, well. How do you expect me to live in a house with no privacy? I am an extremely private 'm a doctor. Doctors are not © a total and abso- ing and ahhing aboutgenius, and not one of them actually has to live in some- | | Excerpt from ing you designed. Except for me optimist, I can see that, Richard. You sok Wonderment of Air first half of the oo wh xn ha ce me t of Air t's time to say look at us, sn, we are frce. We are unfettered. oP think tha we can dictate what is and isnot ILL with her boyfriend. spaces for a display of everything that came before us? Your wife is quite beautiful. [like to meet het. just erying to talk to you. class. Yes, Listen to me. They videotaped us. —singing, trying to—and at the last class they’ the videos, and I—there was this ‘one girl. The picture blinked on and she turned, she turned like she was doing something else and just noticed the camera-—she turned— Garching for the word)—shyly She looked at us shyly and her eyes were so wet and tender and us—T never saw anything, anyone, so—and arted to sing. She opened her mot ke she was moving into a kiss, and the IT think I started joddess, whatever, ic ‘ta word, or an idea or some, some, a sound, and she, she— 1 was me. The gir in che video. I only know because people ‘tated coming up to me in the middle oft just touching me genty 37onthe sles, or the arm, jst being near me and the famy thing, the funniest thing—shere was nothing familiar a eur her : sme. Noshing a all. Sh, she was an angel, ad mewel, Ti a ‘hase things you say, right? Tin a litle love, and, and cumay, and— what was that great word you used? “Burden.” Tim a 4 yen 7 re—1 woke up next to you this morn- Ob, don't worry, Iknow. I agree— up ing and I could feel it, I could feel the burden of being me a complete shit—and I dragged myself into the bathroom, and picke up the toothpaste and my brush, and— synth dhe ‘And there she was. That git! from the video. Wid Juminous eyes. And there was the mouth that made that, that incredible sound. And I envied her because 1 to think of her as me ill. That ; 1g people want to win. And I think she go. I think if someone comes for her, she’ wanted you to know. to know that. Excerpt from Falling Flowers JEANY PARK (OK YEU is eighteen years old, and a Korean sexual slave at a Japa nese comfort station located in Manchuria in 1944. She is in the infirmary, recovering from a forced abortion and relating the expe- rience to her friend. 0 raise a bastard ¢ I had time to get used to the idea, and get attached to her, him—i Tnever wanted to be a mother. Not me, it was the last thing Tever thought about. (Silence) Jes just that I didn't have a say in the matter. (Beat) Ie’ bad enough what they do to me all day long, even when sid I cant stand to on top of me, but they keep on coming. One after another, and there's nowhere to go, escape, not even in my mind. I just want to scream and rip off those ugly, panting faces, like they'te gy I don't know what I ever did to them! You see, the d at when the doctor told me I was pregnant, for a second it all went away and I the have sworn that I felt something—move inside me. S a butterfly wing, a quicker ‘was too soon. But I know what I felt. And I couldn't help Despite where we are, despite a thousand reasons to hate my life—for that moment, I felt joy. (Beat) And now But why? Thar’ figure out. Why are they doing lence) They want me to return to work in a weekExcerpt from An Unfinished Room MARK ROSENWINKEL sour is a young activist nun preparing herself for an act of civil disobedience at an animal research site, She speaks to a reluctant middle-aged professor. aot: You're damn right you're angry. An angry young man. Well, maybe not young, but... There's nothing to be afraid of You can't live in this world without getting angry at something. In fact, you're probably more angry than the rest of us. Because you bury it so deep. Look at me. Yes, yes. [can see it Under: heath a thin veneer of inhibition and shyness, there's fire, and passion. Oh, yes, I can see it. You'e so full of passion it scares you and you hide it. Bue don't worry, you're in good company: Why do you think I'm doing this? I could have gone off, gotten some nice secretarial job. Maybe ended up running some com- pany. What would chat prove? People I went to school with, they're all running around in cars and boats, big houses in the suburbs. And here I sit, hunkered down in the dirt, ready to put ‘myself in jail. And why? Because I have passion! And so do you, ot you wouldn't be here. Don't be ashamed. Revel in itt T mean, who do you think Christ was anyway, some anemic white guy ‘on sympathy cards? He was a firebrand, a rebel, a man of ulti mate passion. The saimts, they speak of being ravished by Him, Do you hear me? Do you follow me, Cab? They imagined themselves actually being taken up by this, this power, this driv- ing, divinely passionate force (Suddenly realizing she’ getting carried away) Tim sorry, I don't know why I said that. I have co confess, ve been thinking of leaving the church. It's getting harder for 156 me to remait obedient member of the flock when I fe ‘ lock when I feel so one aus these things. You understand me, don't you? Ther al Kinds of rap that’s going on in the word, and 7 ee to lo something about it. Tes like a craving, an insatia- rive 1¢ thing I don’t want to do, that I do.” And the thing that I do want, that I don’t do. Here pean Lie fora If they give you any trouble, kick them right where it counts We shall be the thom in their sh che obstacle in thet side! Sess! Come on now! No turning back! NO TURNING (Sings) "We shall, we shall, we shall not be moved ” stroExcerpt from Honeymoon DANE STAUFFER Nora is a middle-aged housewife starting out on her own afer ‘years of barely fulfilling marriage. wifiers door to door): This health guard norma (Selling water purifiers doc ioe Std sent here may... Tim up at the source, but why tring 10 make a fat buck, Mr. Z, 1 be du Ti not just some housewife out yng to eum 2 net ew so she cn leave her husband who behaves as if we perpen a he 1950 not trying desperately to establish my own identity Te ne . my fears that my life has been wand on sel children lot of lawn we worked 50 ateful children who rejected the plot hard ogre them, [am not afraid my life has been insufficient, ym not eying to aser my rights asa woman, Iam jus to make ae! Can [come in? Thank you Excerpt from Magnificent Waste CARIDAD svicR Lzzlt takes another bit of oxygen as her face comes up on TV soreen. A vérite moment caught by the camera Lazzit w: So, [go into you do now. You put You feel exhilarated and blue bar to get oxygen, ‘cause that’s what a mask. You breathe pure fucking air, . The bar is dark and the lights are ke something out of Naked Lunch and avalanche, oxygen feels good, ic fels right, “cause y every smart drug you can imagine, and they didnt make you and the stupid ones are old stand-bys, and heroin 0 damn rock star doesn't last, does cam, ani down, and placebos do no good, and absinthe for, except you have to hunt Underground, in New Orleans, San Francisco, at the low end of the meat district in New York, and that gets ‘king tiring, ‘cause wormwood is lley and Byron day kes too damn long, and the (0 waste, so oxygen is wh makes you feel human again, ‘cause it reminds reminds you of being a perso: facking air.at got as boring as drugs and L used to believe in art, but chat g pond dlidn't get me anywhere, not fast enough, so I changed my view T put ona pai of mirrored sunglasses and started to reflect resything around me. I started picking up kids of the set Hungry kids. Hungry for fame, money, and drugs sp these installations with them. Bodies on bodies: make z dressed om cispay and for sl. This i art you can a and fuck, do wich it what you wl. pawn them off ro the sof re tycoons and the virtual CEOs and new money and newer money, and seventeen-year-old fucking junior Ivy League yw what to do pranksters who ve gor more money a they know what & with, and they spend on me, and I love b _ ‘ma ‘every daran screen. Everybody wants total to ne. | have oxygen. It goes into me. I breathe. I am whole, The ‘ma pop star. I'ma road to glamour is a dead end. (Lizzie B exits bar.) Excerpt from Prodigal Kiss CARIDAD SVICH Mancrta: There were five of us. A plumber, a factory worker, a ‘mother, her child, and myself, No one else. Only sea and sky. We had food and water for two days. All we had for power was oars. We took turns rowing, ‘We would row for eight hours and stop. Tf we were lucky, a current would catch us and we could rest our After wo days, there was only a bit of water left—drinking water, that is— and we hadn't spotted a plane or fishing boat anywhere that could save us, So we bobbed in the waves, tired of rowing, and watched the sharks swim pase We started praying. The child fed on his mother’s dry tit, and the plumber screamed. He screamed of fire, snow, and of a head full of shit. He screamed so much he couldn't get a word out After a while, his eyes became fixed. Like gla. He was staring. At nothing. But he was still alive, The factory worker grabbed the child and began to strangle ic with his large hands. ‘The mother looked at him with a half-bent smile, and offered the factory worker her tit to suck, W7