Play # 23

Gena and Father Anthony

__________________________

By Joseph Frost

Originally written for the 2020 "31 Plays in 31 Days" challenge

Contact:
Joseph Frost
710 Newland St
Jackson MS 39211
FrostJosephD@gmail.com
Member, Dramatist's Guild
 ANTHONY, a priest in his early 30s, sits on an
otherwise empty pew. He is in a short sleeve
black shirt with collar, and black pants.

Anthony leans forward, elbows on knees.

He reaches up to the white collar and pulls it

from the shirt.

Anthony examines the white collar, turning it

over and over. Slowly.

The echo of heels on stone announce the

entrance of GENA, a woman in her late 20s,
neatly dressed.

Gena stops behind the end of the pew.

A moment.

GENA
Father Anthony?

Anthony stops examining the collar, but doesn’t

look at her.

ANTHONY
I actually don’t know how to answer that.

GENA
What does that mean?

ANTHONY
It’s Wednesday.

GENA
Yes?

ANTHONY
What are you doing here?

GENA
I came early this week.
 2.

ANTHONY
You’re usually not here until Friday.

GENA
I have an appointment on Friday, so I wouldn’t be able to make it then.

ANTHONY
Oh? Everything ok?

GENA
Um... yes. It’s...
(beat)
Is everything ok with you?

ANTHONY
I guess you hadn’t heard.

GENA
About... sort of, but I don’t really understand. Something about a baptism?

ANTHONY
Something about one, yeah.

GENA
It can’t be that big a deal.

ANTHONY
It kind of is. For them, for me. For our entire congregation. For you.

GENA
For me?

ANTHONY
All of us.

GENA
Did you do something wrong?

ANTHONY
Um... that’s hard to say.

GENA
It is?
 3.

ANTHONY
The basic facts of the situation? No. It was nothing I did wrong.
(beat)
Not that I haven’t done anything wrong...

GENA
I don’t understand. Father Anthony--

ANTHONY
I’m sorry, but for right now, I can’t let you call me that.

GENA
What?

ANTHONY
“Father.”

GENA
Oh.

ANTHONY
Anthony is ok right now.

GENA
Why can’t I call you Father?

ANTHONY
Because it’s confusing to call someone Father if they... aren’t a priest.
(beat)
I need there not to be any confusion.

GENA
What?

ANTHONY
To be a priest, you have to be baptized.

GENA
Baptized.

ANTHONY
Right.
 4.

GENA
You aren’t baptized.

ANTHONY
Apparently, I am not.

Gena sits at the end of the pew.

ANTHONY
My mother came to visit on the weekend - she hasn’t seen me in my duties in a couple
years, so she wanted to see me in action. She brought with her... a tape she’d found while
cleaning out a closet. It was a video of my baptism, when I was a baby. So we popped it
in to watch through with Father Thomas and Father Michael. And the priest who
performed my baptism, a Father Bartholomew... well, he... he said it wrong.

GENA
Said it wrong?

ANTHONY
The wording is very specific.

GENA
And if you say it wrong then it’s not a real thing?

ANTHONY
You’ve noticed by now that the Catholic church tends to be a stickler about things.

GENA
Well, yeah.

ANTHONY
If you didn’t say it, you didn’t do it.
(beat)
He didn’t say it, so I wasn’t. And therefore, I am not.

GENA
What did he say?

ANTHONY
It seems so small a detail. We re-round the tape about a dozen times to be sure.

GENA
I bet.

ANTHONY
He said, “We baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.”
 5.

GENA
That sounds right.

ANTHONY
Most of it is. But the wording is “I” baptize you. Not we.

GENA
You have got to be kidding me.

ANTHONY
I wish.
(beat)
The Vatican has been very clear on the specific wording. It’s been argued for a while,
but they’ve been crystal clear that the wording is “I.” The person performing the ritual, is
a specific person-for-person stand-in for the Son. Jesus is the one who is baptizing, and
the person is representing the person of Christ. “We” do nothing. “He” does everything.

GENA
Some dude misspoke 30 years ago and now you’re not a priest.

ANTHONY
Yes. I am not.

A moment.

GENA
Then you’re not a priest.

ANTHONY
I’m not.
(beat)
Father Michael is setting up to baptize me in a half an hour.

Another moment.

GENA
Wait. If you’re not a priest, then... what about all the, like, things you’ve done. Like, as
a priest.

ANTHONY
They were not performed. Not properly, anyway.

GENA
So, all the confessions I’ve given to you...
 6.

ANTHONY
Nope. You have not been absolved.
(beat)
Nothing I’ve done as a priest has been... valid.
(beat)
If it’s something a lay person could have done, then it’s fine.
(beat)
Baptisms, ironically, are fine. You don’t have to be a priest to do them.

GENA
But you have to say the right words. And in the right order.

ANTHONY
Exactly.

A moment.

GENA
I’m sorry.

ANTHONY
For what?

GENA
Just looking at you now... I can’t say I completely understand, but I can see how it’s
weighing you down.
(beat)
There’s usually, kind of, a light... inside you.

ANTHONY
It just seems that way compared to Father Michael and Father Thomas.

GENA
Well, they’re actually priests, so...
(beat)
Sorry. Too soon.

There’s a long moment.

GENA
Father-- Anthony.

ANTHONY
Yes?
 7.

GENA
I have a confession to make.

ANTHONY
Gena, I’m serious, I really can’t hear your confession right now---

GENA
No, no. Not like that. This isn’t something that... I don’t think I need absolution about
this. I just want to be honest.
(beat)
I don’t have an appointment on Friday.
(beat)
I mean, I do. But it wouldn’t have kept me from being here as usual.

ANTHONY
Ok.

GENA
Father Thomas called me.
(beat)
He told me I should come down.
(beat)
I had told him about something, and he said that if I ever... that I should come and talk
with you now.

ANTHONY
Father Thomas called you.

GENA
I doubt you remember there was a couple weeks a while back where I went to him and...
not you.

ANTHONY
You said he reminded you of your dad, and were dealing with something related to your
parents.

GENA
That was not true.

ANTHONY
I didn’t think it was.

GENA
I had to confess that... I was developing feelings for you.
(beat)
I told him I loved you.
 8.

(beat)
He explained how I didn’t, and that I needed to understand that those feelings weren’t
love in the kind of way we mean nowadays, and I should accept that it was something
familial and not at all romantic.
(beat)
So I tried. I did.
(beat)
But he was wrong.
(beat)
I do... love you.
(beat)
I told him that. And I said that I accepted that those feelings weren’t going to go away,
and even more that I accepted that I could never tell you, and even if I did that you could
never... reciprocate.
(beat)
Then he called me this morning.
(beat)
So, I’m here to tell you the truth. I confess it. I love you.
(beat)
And there’s nothing to respond with, and I don’t expect anything from you, or to do
anything about this, but I just had to say it. Now. Because I not only told these things to
Father Thomas, but I’ve been confessing my heart to the Lord day in and day out for a
long time now and this is just such an absolutely ridiculous way of providing an
opportunity for me to... well... say what has been in my heart for a long time.
(beat)
Because today... for the next half hour, anyway... you are not a priest.
(beat)
So I want to say it one more time and then I’ll go.

Gena stands up, steps into the aisle as if to

leave.

GENA
I love you. Anthony.

Gena walks away, we hear her heels echo into

the distance.

Anthony sits for a moment.

He holds up his collar and looks at it.

Lights go down.

End.