All

I
Wanna
Do
Is
Be
Pretty
Like
You

By Katherine Gwynn
Characters

BLISS:
a Black teenage girl who is trying desperately to get back to her younger sister. She/her
And.
An almost 30 year old Black actor who is tired of being an actor while also determined to get her
big break. She/her.

ALEX: a queer gnc teenage non-Black girl of color. She/her.

And.
A twenty something non-Black actor of color who desperately wants to be good. They/she

LUNA: a teenage trans girl who was working as online sex worker since she was cast out of her
parents home. She/her.
And.
Twenty something quietly cuts through the bullshit trans woman who has worked as a high
fashion model previously. She/they.

GRACE: a white teenager raised in a conservative religious family who now finds herself
fascinated by her own sexual awakening during the abduction. She/her
And.
A mid 20s something dry wit asexual actor who keeps getting cast as alluring virgins. She/her.

HARPER: a white and east Asian mixed teen girl whose father is a drug dealer. She/her.
And.
A quiet very famous mixed actor has worked with Matt before. She/her.

DIRECTOR: the abductor, who is directing this sick little pageant. He/him.
AND.
MATT: The showrunner. Auteur. Hot shit. He/him.
They both appear when you least expect him.

SETTING
Now.
Both a basement transformed into a beauty pageant holding 5 girls hostages, and the sound
stage and tv set for a show about 5 girls held hostage. Sometimes we are in the world of the
pageant and sometimes we are on the set where the pageant story is being told. Sometimes,
they blur to together and we’re not sure where one ends and one begins.
The wall of screens always looms behind them.
 Male fantasies, male fantasies, is everything run by male fantasies? Up on a pedestal or
down on your knees, it's all a male fantasy: that you're strong enough to take what they
dish out, or else too weak to do anything about it. Even pretending you aren't catering to
male fantasies is a male fantasy: pretending you're unseen, pretending you have a life of
your own, that you can wash your feet and comb your hair unconscious of the ever-
present watcher peering through the keyhole, peering through the keyhole in your own
head, if nowhere else. You are a woman with a man inside watching a woman. You are
your own voyeur.

~Margaret Atwood

I think of beauty as an absolute necessity. I don’t think it’s a privilege or an indulgence,

it’s not even a quest. I think it’s almost like knowledge, which is to say, it’s what we were
born for.
- ~Toni Morrison
 1

SCENE I: Pre-Pro

The set starts dark. We can just see the outlines, of

the set, of bodies in beds. We stay uncomfortably in
the dark for a moment. And then the sound of a
whir--the flicker of an old boxy ass tv set, snow on
the screen, in the middle of a back wall. And then
another smaller tv screen flickers on beside it. And
then another. And another, a wall of snow screens
casting eerie light and shadows on the stage and
then—lights up.

And the wall of tv screens shows security camera

esque feed of the scene before us which is:

1. a sad basement, with no windows

2. and padlocked door
3. With a stage in the center
4. With five ornate golden vanities circling it
5. And to the side
6. 5 little beds
7. With 5 girls asleep in them

Who are waking up.

BLISS
shuffles from her back to her side
GRACE
Pulls her blanket up further over her chest
LUNA
Sticks a foot out of the bed to get the cool air
ALEX
Stretches and starts to blink sleep from her eyes
And
HARPER
Sits straight up in bed.
Looks at the wall of tvs. Looks back at her own face
watching her.
And screams.
FIRE
FIRE
FIRE
 2

FIRE
FIRE
FUCKING FIRE
FIREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
EEEEEEEEEEE
The screaming rouses the other girls out of bed,
who stumble between trying to wake up, trying to
realize they are not in their own beds, and there is
a girl screaming. They all talk over each other, as
HARPER keeps screaming ‘fire’.
ALEX
Falling out of bed
JESUS FUCKING/
GRACE
Gripping a cross necklace around her neck
What the-this isn’t my house, this isn’t my room, where am I WHERE AM I—/
BLISS
Leaping out of bed and on the prowl, searching
Savannah? Savannah, where are you--SAVANNAH??/
And LUNA, looking terrified and used to being
terrified, walks right up to HARPER who is
screaming and tries to calmly ask.
LUNA
Why are you shouting ‘fire’?
HARPER
And she stops just as suddenly as she started. And
everyone else falls quiet too. Speaking as if she
wasn’t just screaming bloody murder.
People are more likely to come if you yell fire than if you yell that you need help.
My dad told me that once. So.
Thought it was worth a shot.

And then they all look back to the screens--see

their faces up on the wall--And then: a whir of the tv
screens. White snow fuzz. Their images disappear
as we see the shape of a man. He’s wearing a
 3

black neat suit, and a black sock mask, with a

sparkling tiara in his lap.
Voice modified tech is used as he speaks. But it’s
odd. It doesn’t sound like it’s coming from a tv
screen or speaker. It sounds like he’s in the room.
DIRECTOR
The room has been soundproofed.
Then. BLISS who has been searching their person,
realizing.
BLISS
You’ve taken our phones.
ALEX and GRACE immediately go to check
themselves for their phones, finding BLISS’s
statement correct. LUNA and HARPER don’t
bother.
DIRECTOR
Tilts his head
Not a question?
HARPER
It’s obvious—it’s what I’d do.
We can’t see his eyes but we can tell he turns to
look at HARPER. So do the other girls.
And HARPER rolls her eyes.
if I was a fucking psycho trying to kidnap a bunch of teen girls.
DIRECTOR
Smart cookie. You’d be correct.
And he fiddles with the tiara in his lap.
I’ll give you more details as we go on, but I don’t want to belabor it, as it’s quite simple.
Bliss.
And tv screen shows a picture of BLISS, she has
her arm around another black girl, younger, that
looks like her. Looks like a family photo.
Grace.
And then another shows GRACE’s. It’s a picture of
her at pro-life rally, likely taken from her instagram
Luna
 4

Then LUNA. It's a still from cam girl footage. She’s

kneeling on her bed, about to take her top off, her
hands around her ribcage, looking into the camera.
Harper.
HARPER. A selfie she must have taken, her face
reflecting back to her in a perfectly still pool of
water at some art gallery kinda installation.
And Alex.
And then finally ALEX. A photo taken of her alone,
face soft in a well-worn sadness, sitting on some
stone concrete steps, at sunset, looking off camera
at something. Like a candid, from a distance. Like it
was taken by someone else watching her.
Welcome to my pageant. I’m the Director.
You will compete.
One of you will win this crown.
And whoever wins this crown, gets to go free.

There is no other way out.

Beat. the sound of the humming screens, their
faces staring back at them.
ALEX
Why?
DIRECTOR
And he seems to pause, to think.
Why not?
And the screens go black. And the tension lingers,
the girls all giving each other tense looks before—
MATT
(off-stage)
CUT!
We shift suddenly, sharply. The world falls away, as
the lights become hot white soundstage lights. We
see the pageant for what it is—a set.
The girls drop out of character a bit moving,
yawning, stretching their muscles as MATT comes
forward, a script in one hand and a pen in another,
to address the girls.
 5

Okay that last shot was really fucking great you guys—really raw, really potent, though Alex
make sure you don’t lose the energy, okay?
ALEX
Right for sure—
MATT
Felt like I saw you about to lag on at the end there so let’s just remember to keep it up,
sustained. You’re on high alert, you’re trapped—this is the beginning of it all.
Now, we’re gonna take 10 to set up for the next scene, but stay on set okay? Don’t wander, the
crew is going be to shooting some footage still, to show to the producers and execs. Maybe put
it up on youtube, for the fans, we’ll see.
GRACE
Yawning as she stretches out her back.
We don’t even have fans yet.
MATT
Smiles.
Trust me. There’s gonna be fans. Y’all are too good for there not to be.
Anyway, don’t worry about what you’re saying—there’s no sound, it’ll just be some visuals to run
as we do voiceover, maybe some interviews later on.
Nods over to HARPER

Harper knows my process.

Just be yourself.

And he walks off.

The cast begins to wander over to their characters’

vanities—which we soon realize, are also their
vanities. They walk over, open drawers to reveal
packets of snacks, hidden iced coffees, and their
phones, all checking them for messages for a
moment, sipping and eating carefully not to mess
up their character makeup before. We get the
sense that they don’t know each other well. The air
is a little awkward.
ALEX is the one who tries to break it. And turns to
GRACE, whose vanity is closest to theirs.
ALEX
Hey um—Sa—I mean, Grace?
GRACE looks up from her phone.
 6

I really liked you, in DIE DIE DIE.

GRACE
Oh god, you saw that? It was such a small show, like a 100 seat house--
ALEX
Yeah, it was great. Really visceral—um—one of my friends, Darien?—
GRACE
Oh the stage manager!
ALEX
Yes! Yeah I mean, that’s him. Yeah he was the stage manager.
GRACE
He was great—kept lavender oil roller balls in his kit. Loved him.
ALEX
Yeah, he’s the best.
A silence fills the room. The kind of silence when
two people don’t know what else to say and are
also in a room with other people who are nearby
but haven’t participated in the conversation.
HARPER gets out a book to read (the robber bride)
BLISS sips her iced coffee a little too loudly. LUNA
texts. GRACE fiddles with her character’s cross
necklace around her neck.
Matt said they were just doing video right? No audio?
And that makes the others pay attention.
BLISS
Yeah.
ALEX
Cool.
Beat.
So—what do you all think? About the fact that he’s—
LUNA
Not looking up from her phone.
—making us refer to us to each other exclusively by our character names? I think it’s fucking
weird.
And then she looks up.
 7

But also I’m newly a model turned actor, so—maybe this is typical.
GRACE
No, it’s definitely weird. For TV, I mean—it’s the kinda shit devised DYI downtown theatre might
do, and like maybe some film, but TV? Not at least in my experience.
BLISS
Now joining the convo.
White guy method shit, so people don’t think you’re a pussy for making art.
GRACE
Right—like why do I need to introduce myself with my 17-year-old character’s name—what
immersion is that going to accomplish? Also, Grace?
Rolls eyes
What an original choice for an evangelical virgin ingenue.
BLISS
There’s a case for not fucking around with subtlety. When my manager sends me scripts that
include ‘subtle’ in the tagline, it usually means it’s boring. Or an intellectual circle jerk. Or both.
GRACE
Okay fair—but Grace? Let’s just shoot the scene where I get my period in a white gauzy
nightgown and get it over with.
LUNA
At least it wasn’t Hope.
Also—again, only been on modeling sets not acting ones—but—it seemed strange honestly to
go straight into shooting. Without any like pre-pro meetings.
ALEX
Yeah, I mean I—guess he didn’t really want us to meet beforehand. You know to simulate the
idea of us being strangers to each other, thrown into this—pageant. Prison. Hellscape. Etc. Get
us into the headspace.
GRACE
Thinks he’s on some auteur type shit.
HARPER
Not looking up from her book.
He is on some auteur type shit.
They signed him for an overall deal. 8 digits.
A beat as they take that in. As they realize
HARPER makes that kinda money easy, but none
of them have.
LUNA
 8

Well fuck.
HARPER
Still not looking up from her book.
Yeah.
LUNA
That’s cool—that they think it’s gonna be that good. I hope it is that good.
GRACE
She looks at the set around them.
It is a gorgeous set. Like terrifying. But gorgeous.
BLISS
And she looks up at her own reflection in the
mirror.
I don’t care about his overall deal, or if it’s actually good as long as people think it’s good. And
as long as we get renewed for a second season.
ALEX
I think it’s good.
And look embarrassed.
I just meant. I know we haven’t gotten all the episode scripts yet but.
It’s nice to see teen girls, be—allowed this.
I wished I could have seen that when I was a teen girl.

LUNA
Dryly
Funny, I wish I could have been a teen girl.
Awkward beat, as HARPER is the only one who
laughs. LUNA goes on, unbothered.
That was a joke. If we’re going to working together you should know I’m a very funny person.
And If I’m the one making a trans joke, it’s okay—you can laugh.
A little smile.
Just not too hard.
A beat, where they’re not sure what to say. Then.
GRACE
she looks into the mirror. She adds a bit of contour
powder to her face. Sharpening her cheekbone.
I think I just wanted to see teen girls look ugly. Real ugly, not tv ugly.
 9

And she shrugs.

But then we wouldn’t have been cast.
And she stands up.
I’m gonna pee before we start filming this next scene.
LUNA
Oh, I’ll go with you—I still need to find out where the bathroom on set is.
BLISS
I’ll go too—my tampon feels like one of those yoni eggs the wellness girlies used to stick up
their coochies.
GRACE
You know, I actually saw Gwyneth Paltrow at a smoothie place once—she’s pretty but not pretty
in the way I thought she’d be.
And they start to walk off in one direction.
HARPER and ALEX are left alone. At their vanities.
HARPER has returned to reading. And ALEX looks
at her for a moment.
ALEX
Hey, um—Harper?
HARPER looks up.
The rest of us are all at about the same level career wise but you. I mean, I know you’ve worked
with Matt before. And everybody says TV is the new film but also film is still film so—I mean I’m
really excited to work with you. But—why did you accept this role?
And HARPER looks at her. And answers.
HARPER
I’ve never not accepted a role.
And a flicker of the TVS screens—and a whir of
darkness as—
 10

SCENE II: Blind-spot

We transition back into the tv show, the pageant

world. Some time has passed. We walk in on all the
girls traversing, canvassing the room, examining
the security camera angles. We see their faces at
various angles on the tv screen feeds, as they try to
figure out the lay of their prison—from the beds, to
the vanities, to the stage. It seems like they have
been doing this for a while.
Finally, LUNA stops in the middle of the stage.
Neutral tone.
LUNA
Okay well—we’ve been looking for two hours now, but we haven’t found a single blindspot.
BLISS
There has to be something. There has to be SOMETHING he missed.
HARPER
No. I don’t think he did.
LUNA
Unfortunately, some white dudes aren’t incompetent.
GRACE
Why do you think he’s white?
BLISS
He’s definitely white. Or at least not black. Black men can’t get away with this kinda shit.
ALEX
What about R. Kelly?
BLISS
That’s because those were all black girls. Obviously.
And she turns away to look at the group.
Does anyone know anything about like—hacking into security systems or anything?
She looks at LUNA
LUNA
She raises an eyebrow.
Look, I may be a cam girl but I’m not a hacker girl.
 11

GRACE
Wait—you cam? Like for money?
LUNA
I mean, I’m sure as shit not gonna do it for free.
GRACE
No, I just mean like—you get naked on camera?
LUNA
You couldn’t tell from my cute little mugshot our Director showed?
GRACE
No. Not really.
LUNA
Looking at GRACE’s cross necklace.
Right. Well—
And then—the DIRECTOR’ appears on the tv
screens. And his voice sounds out.
DIRECTOR
1st round of the pageant begins soon. Interview round. You’ll find makeup and a rack of clothes
at your vanity.
Racks of clothes suddenly appear, as he says it.
And we can’t see it through the sock mask—but we
can hear it in his voice. A smile.
Remember to smile.
And he leaves, abruptly.
A moment of silence. Then.
ALEX
Fucking—/
BLISS
This is fucking CRAZY/
GRACE
Do you think the police have been alerted? Do you think our parents know we’re gone?/
LUNA
 12

Like the cops are gonna do shit—/

But in the midst of this. HARPER walks calmly over
to her vanity. And opens a drawer. And starts to do
her makeup. And as she does so, the other girls
start to notice, and fall quiet. Watching her.
LUNA
What are you doing Harper.
HARPER
Not looking away from the mirror.
I’m getting ready.
ALEX
To—
HARPER
Play.
She dips a brush into blush, swirls it on her cheeks.
Obviously.
BLISS
That’s fucking insane.
HARPER
Not letting up on priming herself, her face, a routine
of makeup that seems well worn.
It’s not just fucking insane, it’s terrifying. And I’ve been in terrifying situations before. And the
most important thing is that you can’t think too hard about how fucking insane and terrifying it all
is or else you won’t be able to get out.
LUNA
Genuinely asking a question
And you think the way to get out of this is by playing along?
HARPER
Right now, there’s no other option.
Beat.
And then GRACE walks over to her vanity. And sit
down. And applies a lipgloss, as the other girls
stare at her.
 13

GRACE
What?
I feel like shit right now. And I always feel better when I look nice.
She looks at herself in the mirror.
I might as well look nice.
The lights shift down, with the wall of screens
flickering and buzzing with white snow and when
they finally fall quiet, they fill with the DIRECTOR’s
masked face. Shadowed in darkness we can see 5
chairs with 5 bodies lined up next to each other,
facing the audience.
DIRECTOR
We will now commence with the personal interviews. I’ll be interviewing you each one at a time.

Alone.

Pease keep your answers succinct.

And don’t worry about what the other girls are saying.
This isn’t about them. It’s about you.
And then—he tilts his head as if to look at
someone.
Now.
Tell me a little about yourself.

Spotlight on GRACE, sitting in a chair. The spotlight

flitters over each of the in turn, moving on as soon
as they finish speaking, moving rapidly, plunging
the others into darkness when they aren’t speaking.
GRACE
Oh, uh—
I’m a Christian.
SPOTLIGHT flickers quick to ALEX.
ALEX
I’m a—
Junior,
in high school?
And I have 2 siblings.
Beat.

I used to want to be a baker but then I realized I wasn’t very good at baking.
 14

To BLISS.
BLISS
How did you get that photo of me and Savannah—
Spotlight swiftly moves on—
LUNA
Flat tone
I’m a biological woman.
Before spotlight falls on—
HARPER
1, I like going to dyi shows in the abandoned industrial parks of West Chicago.
2, I have an Instagram account for found art: attractive women with grey hair, attractive men
who drive uber, rats, shuttered Family Video stores, and obscure anime.
And 3, I always have a knife on me.
Well—I usually have a knife on me.
A coy smile.
You caught me on a bad day.
And lights up on MATT. With a handheld camera.
MATT
Why were you drawn to this role?
And we go down the line but it’s shifted—it’s the
actors answering, not the teen girls they’re playing.
GRACE
Just a little bored.
Yeah, well, you know, it’s got a lot of strong roles for women, showing them in all their
complexity—
ALEX
Um—it’s got—a frayed edge to it? Or sorry, that doesn’t make sense, I meant, a uh, kind of—I
would say, ferality—
BLISS
it’s like this microcosm of everything that affects young women today, patriarchal violence. And
it’s a meaty role. A role with a lot to say, about girlhood, and family—family is important to Bliss.
LUNA
I mean, honestly, it just felt exciting to get a role of any kind—much less with a project like this,
where I can learn from so many other amazing actors—
 15

HARPER
Well—It’s Matt.
A movie star smile.
And I can never say no to working with Matt.
DIRECTOR
Do you think that pageantry objectifies young women?
Back to teen girls.
GRACE
Maybe? I don’t know—my cousin competes in pageants, and she seems to really like it. Gets
scholarship money and stuff.
ALEX
Uncertainly
Yes.
BLISS
Did you do anything to Savannah? I share a room with Savannah—you took me in the night—
she would have seen or heard something—you took me in the middle of the night—
LUNA
Shrugs.
Yeah. But I get naked on camera for strangers so I’m not homeless so—objectification isn’t
always a bad thing.
HARPER
Everything objectifies young women.
The speed of the lights gets even faster, flickering,
flickering.
MATT
Who were your female role models, when you were a teen girl?
GRACE
Deadpan.
Oh, Margaret Thatcher, total girl boss.
ALEX
Oh um—I always really liked Sally Ride, in school I did a report on her once—
BLISS
Ida B Wells. Angela Davis. And Rihanna—but pre-billionare status.
 16

LUNA
Anne Hathaway, simply because I couldn’t tell if I wanted to be her or kiss her.
HARPER
Um—
Awkward beat.
I guess maybe my agent. She’s pretty—female.
DIRECTOR
What do you wanna be when you grow up?
GRACE
A nurse.
And then a wife, and then a mom.
ALEX
Oh—uh—I guess um—maybe a teacher? Though I don’t know that I’m really good at—
BLISS
I wanna be someone who knows WHAT THE FUCK YOU DID TO MY SISTER—
LUNA
Hmm—maybe an actor. Or a model. Though maybe I’ll just keep camming until I can’t anymore.
HARPER
I’m going to be a business owner, with a big family, and a big house, and a little dog, and I’m
going to be safe.
I’m going to be safe.
MATT
What does the male gaze mean to you?
GRACE
Are we talking about in film studies sense of the term or we talking about the buzzfeedification
of the term—
ALEX
Um—I guess—being watched—always being watched—
LUNA
I don’t actually find the male gaze means much to me, by which I mean, it’s forced to mean
everything to me. But if we’re talking about pleasure in looking—there’s been some discourse
right of the female gaze, but even that’s limited, to looking back at a man, to looking with only a
binary lens for perspective. I’m much more interested in the pleasure possibilities for a queer
gaze, a trans gaze—
 17

BLISS
I mean, if we’re gonna get into it—bell hooks was the one who said that that Black women are
forced outside the "pleasure in looking" that’s inherent to the theory of the male gaze—that’s key, the
theory of it, not the reality of it—because we’re excluded, purposefully, as subjects, as objects
throughout culture. The male gaze is a white male gaze—and white men don’t like to look at black
women like they look at white women.

Which you know. Is interesting—for Bliss. As a character.

HARPER

In film theory, for the male gaze, there’s three viewpoints

1) that of the man behind the camera, making the film
2) that of the male characters within the film
And 3) that of the spectator, watching the film.
A triangulation, a panopticon, of looking.
Beat.
Which is interesting, but I tend to side with Camille Paglia’s critiques. When it comes to art,
we’re all voyeurs.
DIRECTOR
Do you think your father is a good man?
GRACE
He’s a pastor, who’s trying to serve God. So I think he tries his best to be a good man.
ALEX
Oh.
My dad is—
An accountant?
But nice.
He’s a pretty good man.
BLISS
Beat.
My dad works way too much. My dad works long hours. My dad works 2 jobs, and he could
work one and we could be okay, but he works two so he can give me and my sister not just
everything we need but everything we want. My dad isn’t just a good man—he’s the best man I
know.
Beat.
Will you please just tell me if my sister is okay?
 18

LUNA
My dad kicked me out so when I came out so—not great.
Before that though, he was good to me. Which made the kicking out thing worse, in retrospect.
HARPER
My dad is a white guy who married an Asian woman. My dad is an opportunist. My dad will do
what people always do—he doesn’t have to be a good man.
BUT.
He’s a piece of shit.
DIRECTOR/MATT
Do you think you’re pretty?
And this time, the spotlight lingers on each of the
girls as they answer the question, until their row of
chairs is all lit up.
GRACE
I’ve been told I am.
ALEX
Um—.
BLISS
I’m not as pretty as my sister.
LUNA
I’m pretty enough.
HARPER
HARPER looks down the line of girls next to her.
Looks forward. To the audience.
TV screens show a million close ups of her face.
I know I’m fucking pretty.
 19

Scene III: Intimacy Directing.

We’re back on set. A slow moment, in between

scenes. We see ALEX slowly eating a sandwich by
themselves, at their vanity. It’s a kind of a messy
sandwich—where most of the sandwich seems to
spilling out the sides of the bread as ALEX futilely
tries to hold it together. ALEX is alone at their
vanity, until we see LUNA stroll in, with a salad in
one hand and a diet coke in the other.
LUNA
Oh—hey.
ALEX
Trying to quickly swallow the bite of sandwich in
their mouth to reply.
Hi! Hey—ha, I thought I was the only one weird enough to eat on set instead of slinking off to
the trailers.
LUNA
Seating herself at her vanity.
The trailers are nice—it weirdly feels too nice to actually hang out in? I’ve never been
agoraphobic, but I keep feeling like it’s going to collapse in on me.
ALEX
Oh yeah?
LUNA
The first time I was given a trailer, it was on this little commercial shoot, and I took pictures to
post but I couldn’t even bring myself to sit on the couch. It felt too—
ALEX
Perfect to touch.
LUNA
Yeah. Exactly.
Beat.
It’s been weeks though. It probably shouldn’t still feel too perfect to touch right?
ALEX
I dunno. It depends.
Beat.
 20

LUNA
Nods
Starts opening up her salad, and starting to eat
bites between conversation.
I think Grace might come by too—I ran into her on my way here.
ALEX
Oh—that’s great. It’ll be nice to bond, as a cast.
LUNA nods, but doesn’t answer that. Eats her
salad. Looks at her phone. ALEX has rested her
sandwich on her vanity, surface, no longer eating it.
So um—it’s your first time—acting, right?
LUNA
Tight smile, trying to play it off.
Yeah—probably easy to tell isn’t it I’m an amateur to someone like you, isn’t it?
ALEX
Oh—no that’s not what I—you mentioned, that this was um, you were um—new to acting. That
first day on set.
LUNA
Oh—right. Yeah. I got invited to audition—I guess Matt had seen some article where I was
talking about modeling, and wanting to act someday, and he saw it and told the producers he
wanted me to audition and so—
Here I am.
ALEX
Wow. He really must have wanted you, huh?
LUNA
I guess. I think I just had the right kind of look for him. He said some stuff about wanting Luna’s
arc to be really raw, and that he thought someone with formal actor training wouldn’t be able to
get into the role the right way, and he wanted someone whose experience was really “authentic”
to her journey, outside of being trans.
ALEX
Oh.
So—were you?—
LUNA
—I wasn’t thrown out by parents when I came out. Nor did I ever strip on the internet for
pedophilic chasers.
 21

ALEX
Right—sorry—I didn’t mean to pry—
LUNA
I mean, you did, because you were curious. But it’s fine. I’d probably be more annoyed if you
were straight.
ALEX
Is it, that obvious?—
LUNA
You have a rainbow flag in your bio.
ALEX
Oh—I mean yes—well I guess I just—don’t think of myself, as a—public figure. So I’m not really
sure if people pay attention to—shit like that.
LUNA
Then looking at ALEX. Really looking.
Even if you hadn’t though. Posted about it. I think I would have guessed. You’ve got that soft
dyke prettiness to you.
ALEX
Oh—Thank you.
Beat.
You’re doing a great job actually. At the role.
LUNA
That’s sweet of you, but you don’t need to compliment me just because—
ALEX
No, no, genuinely—Luna—she reads so different in your voice, than I had imagined when I was
reading the script. You bring such a tenderness to her. It’s—wonderful, to see and, to play
against.
LUNA
Surprised, and then softens.
Thank you too.
GRACE
Walking in with a smoothie in hand, phone in one
hand, with BLISS who has just an iced coffee.
What up my fellow teen beauty queens.
LUNA
 22

Alex was just asking if I had ever been a traumatized girl getting naked online for strangers.
GRACE
Haven’t we all?
Sitting at her vanity smoothly, while BLISS also sits
taking out her script to run lines.
ALEX
I was also asking Luna how she got into acting. Matt requested she audition.
GRACE
Ooo, sought after.
LUNA
I guess.
BLISS
I mean, it makes sense. You’re pretty, you’ve had a Vogue cover, you’re a known quantity. Tons
of models start the move into acting sure, but you? Couture Model turned actor playing teen sex
worker in a torture chamber. It’s a good pitch. It’s good to have something to pitch.
GRACE
Yeah. And it’s a good first role, all things considered.
LUNA
I mean—that is why I said yes. You don’t often get see a trans woman main character written for
a trans woman to actually play.
BLISS
God, that’s sad but true.
GRACE
Hmm—well, soon enough you’ll be swapping sex work roles for sex scene roles, and then you’ll
really know you’ve made it as an actress.
LUNA
Takes a bite of her salad, chews for a moment, and
then speaks.
I mean—it’s all kind of sex work isn’t it.
And then the others stop their eating, sipping,
reading for a moment.
GRACE
What do you mean.
LUNA
 23

Just that what I’ve been doing isn’t all that different than what Luna does, in the show. The
modeling, the acting.
ALEX
I mean—I don’t know about that.
LUNA
Shrugs
Maybe you’re right. For you.
ALEX
Genuinely asking.
What’s that supposed to mean?
LUNA
Look—I don’t wanna undermine actual sex workers or say some annoying fake deep boomer
lobotomy shit like “we’re all cam girls in the social media age” or whatever. But.
GRACE
But?
LUNA
But—for me:
And we see—a screen showing various moments
of trans women being depicted on screen, the good
the bad the ugly: Rupaul’s Drag Race, Laverne
Cox, The Danish Girl, etc. a flurry of it.
People hardly think about women without thinking about sex. But people don’t ever think about
trans women without thinking about sex.
When I model it is about my body. I got this role because of my body, because I’m a pretty trans
woman who can pull off playing a pretty trans teen. And whenever my body is thought of, people
think of how it fucks and is fucked. So. Not very different from Luna the cam girl.
Though she takes it way too much in stride for her age. At least I pay taxes.
Screens blips out.
BLISS
Huh.
You’re not wrong.
Beat.
Beat.
Beat.
 24

LUNA
You all ever done a sex scene?
BLISS
First time I did a sex scene, I was playing a teenage girl getting raped by her brother’s drug
dealer.
GRACE
Ugh god, the worst—
ALEX
I hate it that those count as sex scenes—
GRACE
First time I did a sex scene, I played a teenage girl having a coke-laced threesome on a
religious retreat.
LUNA
Oh woof—
BLISS
And they probably set it to some chainsmokers ass type song—
ALEX
First time I did a sex scene, I was playing a teenage girl having her first time with her best friend
at a sleepover. In a little queer indie short film.
LUNA
That doesn’t sound terrible.
ALEX
It wasn’t.
I’ve done plenty of sex scenes that—but—my first one was. Okay.
Beat.
LUNA
That’s all?
ALEX
When I saw it for the first time it made me wished I could have had something like that. When I
was a teen.
A quick flash on the screens, showing glimpses of
footage from early 00s lesbian media—TATU at the
MTV music awards, the l word, The early days of
 25

the Ellen show. All so briefly flittering, murmuring,

before they flash back out.
I wish I could have seen something that showed me what I might like.
Beat.
HARPER comes in. reading another book. Some
Carmen Maria Machado perhaps.
Oh—hey.
HARPER
Keeps reading, until she sets herself at her vanity.
Wait until she has gotten to the end of her page.
Then shuts the book, looks up. Looks around at
them all.
You all look—in thought.
LUNA
They were talking about doing sex scenes. I’ve never done one, but I did do a shoot where a
Croatian model who didn’t speak a lick of English was facedown in my crotch for half an hour.

Diamond ad.
HARPER

Do you not want to do sex scenes?

LUNA

I would love to see more good queer and especially trans sex on-screen—that shows the joys of
queer and trans sex and bodies so—actually, I’m all for it.

HARPER

That’s good. There’s only so long you can play fuckable.

BLISS

Or play a teenager.

HARPER

Those are the same thing.

And then.

MATT
Coming on-stage, busy with a script in hand.

Hey everybody, places places, we’re getting into ‘the talk” scene okay—
 26

ALEX

Oh but—I thought that was scheduled for later—

MATT

Yeah, but I talked with the team and I just felt like the energy is right to get a run at it right now—
unless—you’re not ready for it—

ALEX

Oh no I’m—

MATT

Everybody else feel ready?

They hesitate—and nod.

Great—places then.
And as he sits himself down in his director’s chair,
the cast moves rapidly into places on the set .

And—action!
 27

Scene IV: Consent is Sexy

They fall into Pageant world instantly. The girls are

in various states around one the room. BLISS is
writing, very concentrated, in a notebook. LUNA is
laying on her bed on her back, head hanging off,
braiding her hair. HARPER is painting her nails.
ALEX is sitting cross legged, staring off into space.
And GRACE is praying. Her brow is furrowed,
kneeling by her bedside.

BLISS looks over at GRACE.

BLISS

It’s been a half hour.

GRACE
Without opening her eyes.

How do you know it’s been half an hour—there aren’t any clocks down here.

BLISS

I have a strong internal clock.

GRACE

I’m praying for us to get out of here.

LUNA
Looking over, raises eyebrows.

Oh. Well in that case.

GRACE

I don’t think it’s very kind of you to make fun of what gives me comfort.

ALEX

I don’t think they were trying to make fun—

BLISS

No, I was.

GRACE
She opens her eyes, sits on the edge of ‘her’ bed.

Fine. I was done anyway.

 28

She sits.
She plays with her hair.
She thinks.

Do you think
That’s he gonna try to like
Do Anything.

To us.

BLISS

He’s already doing stuff to us.

GRACE

Yeah but like—DO stuff to us. You know.

Like—
sex stuff.

LUNA

You mean like physically, sexually assault us?

GRACE

Yeah.

Beat. LUNA looks at BLISS and ALEX and

HARPER for a brief moment. And then HARPER
speaks up.

HARPER

I mean what he’s doing is already like weird sex stuff to be honest but—I don’t think he’s gonna
come and like. Touch us. If he wanted to do that he would have already.

BLISS

Maybe he’s just waiting. Building anticipation. Waiting until we get comfortable.

ALEX

Looking up at the cameras that watch their every

movement.

I don’t know. If he wanted us to get comfortable—

And then she floats her hand across, while she

watches her hand on the security feed, the girls all
watching with her.
 29

Beat.

LUNA

Yeah. I think he just likes—watching. A lot of men are into that.

GRACE

Oh.
That’s good. I wouldn’t want my first time having sex to be like, with a psychopath who
kidnapped me.

BLISS

It wouldn’t be sex. It would be rape. Sex is only stuff that’s consensual. Sex is only when you
like it.

GRACE

Are those the same thing?

BLISS
And she replies so quickly that you know she’s not
certain at all.

Of course it is.

GRACE

Well—still.

Beat.

Have you? Had sex?

BLISS
A little affronted.

That’s kinda personal.

LUNA

To be fair, I saw you try to piss in the corner earlier before we figured out where the bathrooms
were.

BLISS

Okay. Fair.

And turns to GRACE

 30

And no. I haven’t. I’m only like 17. I live with my dad in an apartment –it’s a nice apartment, but
still—he’d kill me if I got pregnant. Also, I share a bedroom with my sister—where would I even
have sex? The train?

GRACE
And then she turns to the rest of them.

What about the rest of you?

LUNA
Looks around at them, shrugs

No, actually, not like really? Not like stuff that isn’t online.

And they turn to HARPER.

HARPER

No. I haven’t. I will one day though. And, I think I’ll be really good at it.

BLISS

Why do you say that?

HARPER

I’m good at everything I want to be good at.

They sit with that. GRACE turns to ALEX

GRACE

What about you?

ALEX

Um—I’ve like—gotten—received I guess. Hand stuff. Once.

But that’s it.

GRACE

Was she good at it?

ALEX
A little surprised

Who said it was a she?

GRACE

I just assumed.
 31

A moment lingers between them—just a moment,

just a second, but it’s there. It’s there. And then.

Not like in a homophobic way.

Anyway, was it good?

ALEX

Oh.
Um.
Well it wasn’t. A she.
He was nice.
And. I think so—that he was good at it I mean. I didn’t, um, come, I think—

LUNA

If you’re not sure then you definitely didn’t—

BLISS

How would you know, you haven’t had sex—

HARPER

You know masturbation DOES exist—

ALEX
She tries to keep going.

but um—he like touched my hair, really softly. After he did. You know. And that felt nice. And he
looked—so eager. Wide-eyed. Pretty.

GRACE
Are boys supposed to be pretty?

ALEX

I don’t know. But he was.

Beat.

And I got a glimpse of myself in the mirror after, when I went to the bathroom. And I looked—I
felt like I looked how he must have seen me. And that felt good.

They all sit with that.

HARPER
 32

Well—I guess that sounds fine, but women have settled for dissatisfying sexual experiences for
way too long, because the information is suppressed to us an also because clitoris often isn’t
stimulated in sex acts that cis men like. That’s why I’ve been reading about it. So, I’m prepared.

Beat

GRACE

What’s the clitoris?

Overlapping.

HARPER

Oh god/

ALEX

Um—/

BLISS

Jesus wow you are like every stereotype—/

LUNA
Calmly interjecting.

You know what a penis is right?

The rest of them quiet down. And GRACE nods.

The clitoris is basically like a very small penis. Or the, you know, the way I think of it, the penis
is like a very large clitoris. They’re actually made up of the same like—material. But the clitoris is
more concentrated, since it’s smaller, with more sensitivity. So—touching a clitoris is kinda like
touching a dick. But more electric.
Beat.

BLISS

It’s right at the top of sorta where your lips meet. That little nub you might have noticed once or
twice but didn’t think much about. Except when your jeans like—rode up in a specific way.

Another quick beat before.

ALEX

People say it looks like a flower or a bud whatever, but I think it just looks like a part of you. Soft
flesh.
GRACE

Oh.
And she looks at them all.
 33

Thank you.

LUNA

No worries.

Then frowns. Looks at the cameras. And the

screens suddenly flare to life showing their faces.

Maybe we should stop—talking about this.

BLISS

looks up and her face changes too.

Yeah. That fucker is probably enjoying this a little too much—

HARPER

You know—you might not want to aggravate him—

BLISS

Or what? He’ll do something worse than he’s already done?

They all freeze—except HARPER, who keeps on

doing what she was doing. Prepping at the vanity.

What exactly is your plan, Harper, just to, what—beat the rest of us?

HARPER

I didn’t say that.

BLISS

You didn’t have to.

HARPER

I’m just trying to survive.

And she looks at BLISS.

You should give it a try.

And BLISS rises up—looks about to do something

to HARPER before—

DIRECTOR
 34

His masked face fills the screens.

Next section—Talent show.

You’ll find some materials behind the stage.
Don’t think too hard about it.

Just be yourselves.

GRACE
She turns to ALEX.

I still don’t know if I get it—does consent mean I like it? Or just that I’m okay with it.
The moment holds for a second before—

MATT
Walking up, looking at his notes not them

Okay that was good, though I have a couple thoughts.

He looks up—and then Pauses. Looks at them for a

moment. Waiting for a him to speak. To direct
them.

A long beat passes.

GRACE

What?

MATT

I was just thinking, looking at you all together like this.

You look good together.

And then without breaking a beat

Okay—prep for the next scene.

He walks off.
And wordlessly, with no expression, HAPRER gets
up to follow MATT. The other actors look at each
for a moment—before they too get up following.

and the tv screens—briefly—flicker with security

came footage of them walking.
 35

Scene V: Peeping Tom Panopticon.

BLISS is sitting on set, at her vanity, running lines
with a script in her lap. She looks focused.
HARPER is sitting at her own vanity, reading a
book. They don’t pay each other any attention.
GRACE, ALEX, and HARPER walk in, talking
GRACE
I’m just saying, I can still hear literally just the first note of “welcome to the black parade” and my
body reacts like a fucking sleeper agent
LUNA
I mean obviously, OBVIOSLY MY Chemical Romance is god tier, no denying that, but I’m just
saying Misery Business was a cultural reset—
GRACE
Okay but even Hayley Williams doesn’t like playing it anymore and its misogynistic in a dumb
girl hatey competitive way—
LUNA
Well duh, but it still absolutely—
GRACE
Bliss, we’re having a debate—which is the quintessential emo girl song? Welcome to the Black
Parade? Or Misery Business?
BLISS
I mean—it’s gotta be Welcome to the Black Parade.
LUNA
WOW, woooooooooow, I guess I’m the only woman who supports women in music here.
BLISS
Deadpanning.
Choosing the white man over the white woman is an act of radical black feminism. Anyway,
what are we doing, trying to make an emo night playlist or what?
GRACE
I wish—I mean we’re playing teen girls. And it’s all about patriarchy and beauty and stuff or
whatever so Luna and I were taking bets about the likelihood of them asking some artist to do
like, a sad but still sexy cover of Barbie Girl—
LUNA
I say it’s 50/50 between Halsey and Olivia Rodrigo—
 36

GRACE
And then one of the sound guys overheard us and said that they actually did commission an
original song for the show, like for the opening credits, and there’s the demo track for it, but
they’re just shopping it around artists to get a big name to sing it—
LUNA
They MIGHT get Lana—
GRACE
And then he sent it to us to listen to.
And she pulls it up on her phone. And they all
listen.
A song filters through, just a piece of if it. It’s sweet
baby voiced, melancholic sad girl type pop. The
lyrics we can hear are
‘All I wanna do
Is be pretty like you
Glitter like you
Scream like you

I cry
I laugh
And I see you too
All I wanna do is be pretty like you. ‘

GRACE pauses the track.

BLISS
Okay so VERY sexy sad wow
LUNA
Right?
ALEX
Which I guess, fits, but
LUNA
I think they should have gone in a more hyper pop Rina Sawayama kinda direction.
GRACE
And then we just started talking about what other music they might put in the show, like of the
moment teen girl music, and then we started just talking about what music we listened to as
 37

teens. And what songs made us go absolutely fucking feral. Also we’ve been on set since 4 am
and I need to think about SOMETHING to keep myself form falling asleep.
BLISS
Hmm.
Beat.
Lady Marmalade.
GRACE
Oooo that’s a good one/
LUNA
Oh my god all the thigh highssssss/
BLISS
Also Mr. Brightside. Anddddd anything by Rihanna—
GRACE
Sweet Caroline because I was drunk, white and suburban
LUNA
Can confirm—
GRACE
Since U Been Gone—
BLISS
As a society I think we really underappreciate Kelly Clarkson
LUNA
Weirdly, that Naruto song about bluebirds?—
BLISS
Oh my god NARUTO—
ALEX
Smiling, turning to HARPER

What was yours?

A brief moment of disruption, quiet as HARPER
looks up from her script. Considers. Then
HARPER
Everytime We Touch.
 38

An eruption of responses.
GRACE
OH SHITTT—/
LUNA
Fuck, how did I forget that one??—/
BLISS
--okay yeah that one’s pretty good./
ALEX
A little smile

I wouldn’t have pegged you as a Cascada fan.

HARPER
I mean—I’m not. But the song was catchy.
GRACE
Oh yeah—I had so many awkward sweaty dance circles with friends at school dances to that.
ALEX
Yeah, that song was constant company for my post high school theatre basement cast parties.
LUNA
A lot of screaming to it in the car out the window at 10 pm on the way to quick trip.
BLISS
I remember I danced to it at some rancid teen club in a strip mall where boys tried to grind on
you for the first time. But when it came on all the boys left the dancefloor and only the girls
stayed, to dance. And I remember looking around and—everybody was wearing their wet seal
sequined tops, or had their hair shiny pressed and flatironed, or had their lips coated in pink
lipgloss and. I remember the boys, standing at the sidelines; pressed awkwardly against the
walls holding cans of soda, barely able to see their faces in the dark but knowing they were
watching us, watching us move, watching us dance, probably thinking it was for them. And I
remember, looking at all these girls glittering around me, thinking—it wasn’t for them. Not even
a little bit.
HARPER
I heard it for the first time in a club with my manager.
Beat.
ALEX
 39

Right. I guess—ha when we were teenagers we weren’t necessarily getting nominated for
Emmys like you.
HARPER
Yeah. I guess.
GRACE
Yeah—it seems like the whole time I’ve been alive you’ve been fucking everywhere.
HARPER
I don’t know—I mean, I guess my whole life too, yeah.
People used to come up to my dad constantly, just telling him how pretty I was. My dad said it
had been like that even when I was a baby, people always smiling and staring and looking. And
then one of those people who came up to him one day was an agent, who told him I should
audition for a movie one of her clients was working on. And so I did. And then I got it. And from
then on—I would see a screen or a billboard and there I was.
Everywhere. All the time.
BLISS
Trying to aim for light, but missing by a hair.

Must be nice to be just chosen out of a crowd like that.

HARPER
Turning to look at BLISS.

If you want that.

BLISS
I’m actor. Of course I want that.
HARPER
Good for you.
GRACE, LUNA, and ALEX share a brief look, at the
tension. Then LUNA steps forward, walks towards
her phone.
LUNA
You know, I haven’t actually listened to that cascada song in years.
She searches through her phone, selects
something and then—the opening notes of
“Everytime we Touch” start to float through her
phone.
 40

LUNA starts to mouth the words “I still hear your

voice when you sleep next to me”.
She turns with a little move to GRACE, who smiles
and responds mouthing the next line, “I still feel
your touch in my dreams”. She moves with a little
flourish towards ALEX who a little nervously but
with a smile responds mouthing “forgive me my
weakness but I don’t know why”
And she turns to BLISS and HARPER mouthing
hand extended, “without you it’s hard to survive”
And then as it breaks into the chorus, GRACE,
LUNA, and ALEX break into frenzied lip-syncing
bad dancing fervor, and the tv screens behind them
flash with lights and colors like a high school dance
or a cheap arcade. They move around HARPER
and BLISS in their vanity seats, urging them up.
BLISS, at first begrudgingly but then with a bit of a
smile gets up, and joins. HARPER allows herself to
move about by the others, whose moments get
more and more dramatic and as it goes on, her
face almost seems to twitch into a smile
but then she seems to notice something off on the
side, and stills. The others are still dancing and
moving, but she walks towards something—
and suddenly we see the wall of screens switch
from flashing lights to footage of the cast—shaky
cam footage that is moving around, watching them
from a distance, as it is being filmed, as it’s
happening before our eyes as an audience. We
see this before we finally see, coming from off-
stage, what HARPER sees. It’s MATT. With a
handheld video camera, moving around and
capturing footage.
And just as the beat drops in the middle of the
song, they all notice MATT. With his camera.
Filming them.
We see them both on stage and on the screens in
the moment—the confusion and realization of being
interrupted—of being watched.
MATT
That was GREAT
 41

The screens go dark, as he starts to speak.

Fuck, I’m glad I had my handheld on me—! THAT’s the kind of thing I’m talking about—
embodying these girls, their whole selves, not just the terror, but the tenderness amidst the
terror. The horrific sublime. Fuck this THIS moment, this is what is at the heart of the show. This
is what it’s all about. Seeing something you never get to see. We don’t wanna just look at these
girls—we wanna SEE them, every part of them.
Listen, later, after the lunch break, I want us all to watch this video, and then I wanna point out
things that you can bring into your characters—movements and expressions and the joy, Alex, I
think you could especially work on that, we can talk later, but oh you guys, the JOY.
Looking down at his camera, smiling.
You all look so wonderful.
Fuck, I’m glad I had my handheld on me.
Looks up, quick smile and nod at them.
Great work you all.
And he walks off briskly.
They all stand quietly for a moment, looking after
where he went.
HARPER
Neutrally.

He likes to hide on set sometimes. Watch his actors in the wild.

ALEX
Right.
I guess that’s what makes him a good director.
His eye.
BLISS
She doesn’t look at her—but it’s to HARPER

You didn’t think to maybe give us a little heads up?

HARPER
Not really. It was gonna happen anyway.
Beat.
BLISS
I’m gonna go to my trailer.
And she walks off without another word.
 42

GRACE nods, walks off as well. And ALEX, looks

back at HARPER for a moment, who has gone
back to her vanity, to sit. And then ALEX walks off
too.
Only LUNA stays behind.
LUNA
Harper—
HARPER
What.
LUNA
Falters for a moment. But then steels herself,
brings her usual confidence to the front.

Look, be straight with me—

HARPER
10 years too late for that—
LUNA
Alright wow, normally any other time I would love to dive into a casual coming out but—for real.
Please.
Beat.
HARPER
Okay. For real.
LUNA
What is Matt’s deal?
HARPER
A beat. As she considers this.

Once, I was shooting a film with him and there was this scene where I was in a ballet studio with
my character trying to watch themselves in the mirror. The moment wasn’t coming together. I
kept getting in my head, just staring at myself in the mirror. And after like 6 takes of the ugliness
of my incapacity just saturating the scene —he looked at me. Walked up. And then he tilted my
head just a little to the left.
She does this.
And dropped my shoulders, just a bit.
She does this.
 43

And he had them bring down the lights until I was just backlit.
The lights shift.
And suddenly, in just a few moments—he was able to pull the beauty of the scene. Out of me.
He’s always been able to do that. Pull the beauty out of even the smallest most grotesque thing.
He cares a lot about creating beautiful things.
One screen lights up with this image behind her.
Stunning.
And it fades as quickly as it came.
Everybody says it was that scene that got me the Oscar nom. He’s a good director.
LUNA
But do you—like him? As a person?
Pause.
HARPER
I like how he gets what he wants. And he wanted me in this.
And she looks in the mirror.
A flash, like a channel interference, on the screens
behind them. HARPER’s face in the mirror. Like
there’s a camera in the mirror. And it’s scrambles
out in a flash.
Blackout.
 44

SCENE VI: Talent show

The pageant stage lies with an empty spotlight in
wait.
Then the wall of screens flickers to life, showing
screens all filled with the DIRECTOR. still covered.
Still with the crown sitting in his lap.
DIRECTOR
People think pageants are just about looks. They’re wrong.
Pretty means nothing if you aren’t useful. If you don’t have something to give to the world.
He moves the crown up, lets it hang from a single
finger.
I’m looking forward to what you have to give.
The screens flash off, and the Director disappears.
A beat. And then we hear off-stage, quietly
ALEX
(off-stage)
Oh shit, is it—
And then ALEX, steps into the spotlight. She’s
holding a couple of balls.
Um—
Today I’m going to juggle.
We had to do it for a course in P.E. Freshman year? Which I thought was really weird—like why
am I’m going to get graded on my physical expertise in juggling like why are we doing this, why
can’t I just maybe learn how to like take care of myself—But, I was weirdly good at it?
Like weirdly good at it. Like even the teacher commented on it. And—It’s not cool or meaningful
or sexy or interesting even really. But it is something I’m good at it. And it feels good to be good
at something.
Beat.
ALEX juggles. It is in fact weirdly good. It’s not the
most impressive juggling you’ve ever seen. But it’s
solid.
At a certain point, ALEX just kinda suddenly stops.
Um. That’s it.
She bows. Looks embarrassed at having bowed.
 45

Then leaves.
DIRECTOR
Grace.
GRACE walks up.
GRACE
I wanted to sing a song that means a lot to me. It’s one of my favorite songs.
She closes her eyes. And then begins to sing
‘Mighty to Save’ by Hillsong.
Everyone needs compassion
A love that's never failing, let mercy fall on me
Everyone needs forgiveness
The kindness of a Savior, the Hope of nations
Really belts it.
SAVIOR, HE CAN MOVE THE MOUNTAINS—
DIRECTOR
Harper.
GRACE stops singing, a bit confused.
Then she curtsies. Then starts to leaves. But then
she looks out, maybe at the director— maybe at the
audience.
Um—I don’t know if you laughed, but people laugh at me a lot when I talk about how much I
love God. But God, and that song, makes me feel safe. And I don’t know why it’s funny to want
to be safe.
She leaves.
Then
HARPER walks into the spotlight, confidently.
Strongly.
She is carrying a flashlight, a stool, and a sculpture,
made of what looks like found objects in their
basement prison—makeup and toilet paper rolls,
and even mirror shatters. Clustered in one area. All
of them all together in a strange shape
HARPER
I usually use photography as my medium. But this will work.
 46

And then she sets the sculpture on the stool, just

outside the spotlight. And then she sets the angle
just right. She adjusts it. Nods.
Can you kill the spotlight.
A beat.
Please.
The spotlight turns off.
And then HARPER turns on the flashlight to shine
straight on the sculpture, making across the back
wall—
The shadow from the sculpture looks like a monster
with great big jaws, looking into a small vanity
mirror. And the fragments of mirrors glitter and
shimmer across the shadow, making beautiful
prisms all around.
It’s horrifying and beautiful all at once.
HARPER steps into the beam of the flashlight,
disrupting the shadow.
It’s called Give me the Mirror Then Call Me Vain.
I’m applying for art school next year.
And then she switches off the flashlight, picks up
the sculpture and stool, and walks off.
DIRECTOR
Bliss.
Spotlight comes back on. With Bliss in it.
BLISS
She sits on the floor. And looks out. And sits
quietly. For long long moment. And then she gives
a long loud squelching raspberry sound that lasts
impressively long.
That was my performance art piece titled “Eat My Fucking Dick, You Creepy Stupid Smelly
Incel.” It’s not my “tYpiCAl meDIuM” but I guess I’m not normally held hostage so.
A moment where she looks out. And she suddenly
falters being under the spotlight. And she looks
very small.
 47

But then she steels her face. And then she gets up
and walks out of the spotlight, knocking over the
microphone in the process.
Beat.
DIRECTOR
And Luna.
LUNA walks out.
LUNA
I danced for years. Ballet. I honestly could’ve maybe gone professional—not a principle maybe,
but a corps for sure—if I hadn’t transitioned. But ballet is about looking effortless. And
everything about me existing is effortful. So now I just dance when I cam sometimes.
I can’t see them when they’re watching me. But I know they’re watching me. That they would do
anything to watch me move.
And maybe she tries—and fails—to find GRACE’s
gaze.
I don’t like this, but I guess I’m consenting.
Beat.
And then she starts dancing. Beautifully, briefly,
angrily—but wonderfully. You wish you could be in
the room with her—right now.
She finishes. And she stands there. In the spotlight.
Breathing hard. Looking out.
And then MATT walks out into the scene, looks at
LUNA.
MATT
Great work everybody, though Alex, you’re looking a little stilted, keep it loose—and Luna that
was great, but can we get one more take of that?
LUNA
Oh—but, it was great—
MATT
Yeah yeah—you looked great, stunning. I just think it could be even better. I don’t want just
great, I want beautiful.. Don’t you wanna make it beautiful?
He waits for her response.
She nods.
 48

Wonderful—let’s make it beautiful! From the top.

And he exits,
And the screen lights up with her image—her
image refracting in on itself, showing an endless
tunnel of her standing in the spotlight—very still.
Breathing hard. Looking out.
 49

Scene VII: Simulacra

We enter on set. In front of the wall of screens,
turned off. There is a row of empty set chairs,
names printed on them—BLISS, LUNA, ALEX,
GRACE, HARPER and one that says DIRECTOR.
And MATT walks onto set, leading BLISS, LUNA,
ALEX, GRACE and HARPER towards the chairs,
the wall of screens. And he throws himself amiably
into the director’s chair, while the others file in, and
delicately set themselves into their seats.
MATT
Okay alright, everybody let’s gather round, we’re gonna review the dance footage okay
Let just go and hit play –
He reaches into this pocket for a remote, pushes a
button—and the cascada footage he got of them
starts playing. There’s no sound. Just their motion.
They just all watch it for a few seconds as it begins.
MATT
He points to the screen

Which one of you started this? Luna?

LUNA
Um, yeah—it was me.
MATT
Yeah.
Beat. Watching, nods.
You can tell you model, the way you move—effortless.
LUNA
Oh—thank you—if you, want me to bring that, to my character more—
MATT
Who did you pick out to dance with first.
LUNA
Uh—Grace? I think.
 50

MATT
Hmm.
And still watching the screens, asks
How did you react to that, Grace?
GRACE
I mean—like a friend
was asking me to dance.
And I guess it’s like nostalgia.
Childhood.
Girlhood.
MATT
Yeah, you can tell the moves are coming from somewhere DEEPER inside you.
GRACE
That’s uh—generous of you, Matt.
They finish watching the dancing. It’s only about a
minute and 40 seconds. Not very long at all. But
then it starts to play from the beginning again. The
dancing keeps playing on a silent loop.
And MATT gets up.
MATT
Okay, I’ve gotta go ahead and check on crew real quick, about setting up lighting for shots later,
but I’ll be back in a few, and then we can discuss more about what you’ve learned.
Just keep watching it.
And he leaves. They stay quiet for a few moments
after he’s left. Watching themselves.
ALEX
This is weird
GRACE
Of course it is.
Points.
He, look at the way you’re dancing though.
ALEX
What about the way I’m dancing?
 51

BLISS
It’s a lot of like—bopping around. Like you know
Shuffles her shoulders.
ALEX
Looks at herself on screen. Then wrinkles her nose.

Ugh, you’re right.

Beat. A few more moments pass, as they watch.
My agent didn’t tell me we were gonna dance, I would have prepared more if I knew we were
gonna dance—
LUNA
At least your hair looks good.
Also, my hair looks good. Honestly, if he was gonna spy on us, I’m glad he picked a day where
somehow we were all having good hair days.
GRACE snorts a little at that, ALEX shrugs in
acknowledgement
They watch some more.
BLISS
It’s like a candid photo but—
And she doesn’t finish her sentence.
LUNA
Yeah
Beat
Watching
Beat
GRACE
Why are we doing this? Like how does this—help our characters. I mean it’s not like they have
any—
LUNA
Spontaneous dance parties in the pedo basement?
Laughter from everyone (but HARPER)
A little quiet
 52

ALEX
Turns to HARPER

So.
Um.

This is normal for you.

When working with Matt.

HARPER
I guess.
Beat.
GRACE
What—that’s it?
HARPER
I don’t know what else you want me to say.
He has a vision. It’s part of helping his actors’ process.

He films you, and then you watch yourself

again and again
and again.

That’s all there is to it.

LUNA
Has it helped your— “process”?
HARPER
He keeps casting me so— maybe.
BLISS
Right. He keeps casting you.
Silence.
Their bodies move joyfully, silently before them.
LUNA
I thought I looked good. But the more I look at it—when I modeled, I knew when I was being
looked at. I could prepare to be looked at.
I wasn’t prepared.
And MATT comes back
 53

MATT
Wasn’t prepared for what?
They all try not to look startled by his
reappearance. To let him see it.
LUNA
Oh—um. Just for how—illuminating the footage would be.
MATT
And he looks at the screen.
Hmm. Yeah.
Harper. What are we thinking?
HARPER
Yeah uh
I think it’s a good blend of fun and joy and, having it cut short—
I think that’s gonna add to the stakes.

Of my character.
MATT
Yeah.
And he turns to look at HARPER.
We’ve done a lot of solo leading lady stuff. This is your first time really being part of an
ensemble.
And then he turns to watch HARPER on screen.
You look so light.
I’ve never seen you look so light.
HARPER doesn’t say anything.
Beat.
ALEX
Um
I’m just like wondering
I mean.
In the SHOW
We’re all experiencing something that’s pretty—traumatizing right?

(looks around at the group.)

 54

So I guess I’m just wondering where does this—joy—fit into it all.

MATT
Yeah, I mean
I think it’s like a contrast, like in the depths of war and hell and ugliness, it’s never just pain— it’s
not always just suffering, this never-ending barrage. I mean, don’t get we wrong it’s important
we see good intersectional representation of like, the realities of misogyny in our society,
obviously, but also—it’s about these girls. And part of these girls is their joy. That’s where the
beauty is.
It’s an open question of how much that actually goes into the show though—really that all is up
to you guys, like I give you all the power.
GRACE
I actually had a—
MATT
But he’s looking at the screen, watching them
dance.

Let’s actually—here everybody up on their feet.

He stands. And waits.
Come on now everybody! We’re gonna try something—we got to be willing try things, in the
room.
They get out of their seats, and stand. And he
gestures to the video of them.
Okay so let’s try to mimic what’s happening here.
ALEX
The—dancing.
MATT
With a smile that still stings.

Yes, Alex—the dancing. I wanna see if we can recreate it.

BLISS
But—it wasn’t really choreographed it was just, us—moving, as if we were alone—
MATT
YES and that’s why it’s so potent. I want to see if we can harness that. So let’s just—pick up
where it is—
And he waits.
 55

HARPER starts to dance first. Puppetting her own

movements from the video on screen. The rest start
to slowly join in, ALEX, then LUNA, then GRACE
then BLISS
DIRECTOR
He watches for a bit, nodding, and nodding. Then
talking as they mime their own motions for him,
standing in the midst of them.

Think about how this feels in your bodies, as your character this time. There isn’t ever a moment
when these girls aren’t thinking about if they’re being watched or not. But if they acted like they
weren’t? What if they took that for themselves? What if they let themselves be free from the
Director for just a moment? That’s what can’t be achieved just writing on my own, that’s why we
wanna use these moments in the room, doing improvisation.
GRACE
Stopping.

I had a question. About some of those more unscripted moments.

Everybody else stops dancing too.
MATT
Oh?
GRACE
Yeah, definitely not trying to question the process but, um—if we can have a deadline for—
MATT
Yeah, I totally hear you, I just wanna make sure the looseness stays in the room, you—like
Harper, we’ve done a lot of sorta mid shot sorta willingness to devise something new, pull from
the personal—right?
HARPER

Right.
MATT
—like in Jete, Petit, there was the bit where the scene just wasn’t clicking so we paused
shooting and I just had you start talking about your mom. And you pulled from some specific
moments about her, and her immigrating, and her meeting your dad, and how isolated she was
–I don’t know if you could speak to that at all, Harper, tell her about that.
Beat.
HARPER
Yeah.
 56

Um
I—
A text delivery sound. MATT’s phone. He takes it
out.
MATT
Oh fuck, I gotta go put out some fires
He looks to HARPER
Look, go ahead and just tell them how that devising went in Jete and
and then talks to them all
I think it will make what I’m looking for much clearer. Ah and you can just leave the video
running when you’re done, the PAs will take care of it.
And he takes one more look at the screens. Smiles
You all make just such a good picture.
And he leaves.
Quiet.
GRACE
What the fuck was that, about your mom?—
And HARPER suddenly gets up out of her chair
and starts walking away. The others stand up too, a
little caught, and ALEX tries to move to HARPER
ALEX
To HARPER’s back, reaching out a hand.
Harper, hold on, are you okay—
HARPER
Stops.
Don’t tell him I left early
Beat. And she meets ALEX’s eyes briefly.
Please.
ALEX looks at HARPER.
ALEX
Of course.
 57

We—we won’t say anything.

and then meets the eyes of BLISS, LUNA, and
GRACE.
Right?
And the rest of them nod.
HARPER looks at them all—and then gives a sharp
little nod, before she walks off quickly.
And we end with them, BLISS, ALEX, LUNA, and
GRACE backs turned to the footage of themselves,
watching HARPER walk off.
 58

Scene VIII: trauma rama

BLISS, LUNA, HARPER, are all lounging on their

beds in their prison. ALEX and GRACE are sitting
on GRACE’s beds—not cuddling, or even touching,
but sharing space together. They are quietly doing
their own activities—a lull in the pageant activities.
Bored.

Then LUNA gets up very carefully, calmly, and

grabs a chair from one of the vanities, stands on
the bed

An image fills the wall of screens of LUNA staring

the camera dead on, a chair in her hand like she’s
holding a pillow at a sleepover. And then calmly,
aims it at one of the security cameras. Sparks and
electricity fill the air. And a good chunk of the
screens in the room at the same time go dark,
snow out.

For a second it seems to have worked. The girls

move from shock to hope as they think, maybe this
is how we get out.

But then, an old damaged camera retreats into the

wall. And a new one comes out.

And the screens all return to normal.

a long long beat.

And LUNA speaks up.

LUNA

Do y’all wanna do each other’s hair and makeup?

They all turn to look at her.

BLISS

You want us to do hair and makeup.

LUNA

No—do each other’s. it’s more fun that way.

BLISS

You want us to have fun. Doing hair and makeup. Like it’s a slumber party.
 59

Looks around. Gestures to the room et large.

Here. Now.

LUNA

Yeah. I’m bored. And I’m terrified. And I’m bored of my terror. And there’s no books or phones
or anything and I’m tired of staring at the walls and I’m tired of waiting around wondering when
he’s next gonna pay attention to us, when he’s gonna appear next, when he’s gonna be looking
at us and we’re gonna know he’s looking at us so—yeah. Why not?

Plus, the shit he got us is like way nicer than my shit at home. It’s like a sephora in here.

The other girls look around at each.

GRACE

I do love Sephora. It’s so much nicer than Ulta.

BLISS

Fine.
But none of you are touching my hair.

LUNA

Fair enough—Bliss, I’ll do your makeup.

BLISS moves from standing to sitting on the bed

while LUNA goes to retrieve supplies.
ALEX looks over at GRACE—blushes, and then
makes herself look over at HARPER

ALEX
Um—
HarperIcandoyourmakeup.

HARPER and GRACE both blink at ALEX.

ifyouwant.

HARPER

Fine.

GRACE

Um—I guess if Alex is doing your makeup, I can do your hair?

I’m pretty good at braiding.
 60

Beat.

HARPER

Can you do a French braid.

GRACE nods.

Okay.

And then she gets up off her bed, walks over in

front of where GRACE sits on the edge of her
bed—then turns her back to her and sits down on
the floor.

ALEX and GRACE’s eyes meet—and ALEX looks

away and goes to gather makeup. GRACE looks
after ALEX for a moment after, but then turns her
attention to braiding HARPER’s hair.
LUNA comes back to BLISS’s side with supplies
and sits on the bed in front of her criss cross
applesauce. All of them get quiet for a minute or
two—getting into the ritual of beauty making.

LUNA

Do you think we’ll get renewed?

And a shift—in the lights. A shift in their bodies.

They still do makeup and hair and ritual but they’re
not teens anymore.

GRACE
Of course it’s gonna get renewed. It’s of the moment.
LUNA
Girls being forced to perform beauty pageant for a sick misogynist is of the moment.
GRACE
Yes. It’s dark, it’s grey moral, it’s Hot Teen Trauma served on a platter.
ALEX
Okay I mean—don’t know that I would say it’s like—hot
BLISS
Why not? It is.
Every angle, every shot, every frame is meant to make the audience want us. And people want
to think of adolescence as like some bildungsroman bacchanal—just look at that one show, you
 61

know—fuck I forget the name—you know, from the comic, with the bland throuple and the serial
killers. Or the drug addicts and the outfits and the pretty lighting. Or any of them. Any of them at
all.
Beat.

GRACE

Do you think they’re still looking for us?

Another shift.

HARPER

Most missing persons, if they aren’t found in the first 24 hours are never recovered.

Beat. As everyone stares at her.

Or maybe it’s 48 hours.

And another shift.

LUNA

Well you know. It’s the

Moves her hands briefly from doing BLISS’s
makeup to heavily air quote

“post me too” effect.”

BLISS

UGH god what a fucking load of—

ALEX
Begrudgingly

On the one hand, it’s like—I am getting some better offers than I have been in the past? I’m
seeing some more interesting scripts—

GRACE

But on the other it feels like nothing really changed and I keep getting told how much it’s
changed

BLISS

And you just feel gaslit into not being happier that you get to play a hot teenager in a short skirt
who also happens to say the word feminism.

LUNA
 62

Right right—because nothing is wrong with that, honestly I have great ass and I like wearing a
skirt that shows exactly how great my ass is—

GRACE

But it feels so fucking weird, to feel like even as I’m being told over and over and over that it’s
our time now that my time is running out—

BLISS

I panic at every pound I gain or wrinkle that threatens to form or every moment I don’t seem
perfect absolutely perfect, every second feels like my life and my chance for a life, a life that is
good and joyful and more, is slipping through my fingers, into the hands of someone who is 21
and just started a fortune 500 company while maintaining a clean beauty routine someone who
is better than me someone who was just born to be better than me and every second I am
further from the life I am trying to have—

HARPER

And the terrible things is, there’s this moment now, where we’re finally talking about women’s
pain in media right?

They all turn to her. They didn’t think she was

paying attention, attached to her phone.

We’re getting books, and plays and movies and tv shows where we’re talking about the trauma,
of all kinds, the daily ins and out, quiet and large violences, the #metoo ness of it all. This
incandescent rage, this fucking long scream that’s been ripping our throats red and raw, and
finally everybody’s sitting in the audience, eyes turned on us, listening with bated breath. But
they only wanna hear the scream.

No one is going to listen to me if I don’t scream.

Beat.
Beat
Beat.

How’s does the braid look.

And another shift.

GRACE
It’s looking good.

ALEX

It’s looking really good.

A few moments, in quiet—separating hair, adding

blush to cheeks, etc.
 63

GRACE
While pulling off a hair tie from her wrist.

What are you most excited for when we get out?

BLISS

That’s a—

GRACE
Calmly, not looking up from HARPER’s hair.

Don’t tell me it’s silly. Just play along. Like a game.

It can be nice to play games.

Beat.

BLISS

My sister. I’m excited to see her.

HARPER

You always talk about her.

BLISS

Right, I forgot it’s a sign of weakness to care about other people and not just try to Lord of the
Flys your way through life—

LUNA
Interrupting

Savannah right? That’s her name?

Beat.

BLISS

Yes.
It’s her birthday next week. She’s turning 13. We were gonna get our nails done. Manicure and
pedicure. And then get boba.

GRACE

That sounds really nice. I miss boba. I wish he would give us boba.

BLISS
Quietly.

Me too.
 64

ALEX

I’m excited to see my dog.

She’s really old, like has way too many semi-cancerous lumps and tumors all over her small
matted body old, but she’s still alive and she really can’t walk well anymore but she runs to meet
me at the door and –

Tears start welling up.

and she’s a really good girl.

LUNA

I get it. I have a frog at home. She’s also a really good girl.

And then GRACE looks down at HARPER’s head.

GRACE

What about you Harper?

HARPER

I dunno. My phone I guess.

BLISS
I mean—well duh, I mean maybe we could actually call for help if we had our phones—
HARPER
No, not for that reason. I mean, yeah of course that would nice but—I had photos on my phone.
Beat.
GRACE
Like—bad?—
HARPER
Rolls eyes.

Not nudes Grace. Other photos. Of things I liked. Things I found beautiful.
And of my dad’s drugs.
LUNA
What?
HARPER
My dad’s a drug dealer. He thinks I think he sells used cars across state lines but I know it’s just
a front for selling drugs. He for some reason thinks I don’t know what drugs looks like. He keeps
them in his drawers at home. I took pictures just in case I needed evidence.
 65

ALEX
Evidence for—what?
HARPER
Emancipation.
ALEX
Oh.
GRACE

Couldn’t that—put your dad in jail though?

HARPER.

That’s the point.

None of them really know what to do with that.

ALEX

What do you think the critics will think.

And shift, again.

GRACE

It will be mixed—some will hate it, some will love it.

BLISS

More men will hate it and more women will say they love it.

LUNA

They’ll be that subset of male critics that will see what’s it’s trying to say

BLISS

And then there will be the subset that is way, way too into what they think it’s trying to say.

GRACE

I feel like male critics are sometimes holding back a hard on when they watch shows where
women talk about their experiences of sexual harassment and assault. You know?

LUNA

Oh absolutely. Which sucks because it feels good to be able to talk about it, to get to unhinge it
from my body. But the way certain men react, it feels
 66

HARPER

Hungry.
When I read the reviews of my work sometimes I can almost see the saliva staining the page.

GRACE

Yeah.

ALEX
Hesitantly.

I remember the first time I was catcalled.

I was 12 and I was walking with a friend, along the sidewalk and talking about I think Kim
Possible and whether Ron and Kim really should be together and then this guy
I don’t even remember what he said. But I remember afterward—I remember a lot of the girls,
especially the white girls in my grade that year being so much thinner than me. Wearing
American eagle jean and Abercrombie polos that smoothed over the flat planes and angles of
their bodies, the beads from Caribbean vacations clanking in their thin straight sunkissed hair.
And I never felt pretty around them. And so in that moment, it felt good. Because I felt like I
might be pretty for the first time.

Beat.

Isn’t that fucked up?

LUNA

No. it isn’t. At least you were a kid.

Summer I turned 23, like two years on titty skittles, I went to the park with some friends, and this
one guy turned to us and said “look at these gorgeous women sitting near us now.” And all I
thought was
“wow”.
When I transitioned I knew I could become a woman but I didn’t know if I could become a
beautiful one.
But yesterday a guy tried to follow me into target so. I guess beauty has a cost.

Beat.

ALEX

What do you think He thinks?

Who don’t know which HE Alex means. And

suddenly, frighteningly, we don’t know which world
we’re in.

BLISS

Of us?
 67

ALEX

Yeah.

I don’t think he likes me.

LUNA

Who cares if he likes you?

HARPER

He likes me.

BLISS

How are you so sure of that?

HARPER

Because. He didn’t pick me to play a version of someone else. He picked me to play myself.
The kinda of me he wanted to see. Prickly, sharp, a bite to her—and above all pretty. A version
of me. And he wants the same from all of us.

And she looks at ALEX.

A version of you.

Looking at her assessing.

The queer thing is an element, men love the idea of a certain kind of queer woman, queer girl,
and you’re that kind. Counterculture just to the left of conventionally attractive. But it’s sadness
that sells you.

ALEX

I’m not sad.

And the tv screen flickers. Showing us her

face. Just her face.

Beat.
Beat.
Beat.

LUNA
To BLISS. Back to pageant world.

I really like this green eyeliner I chose for you. It looks fucking amazing on you.

BLISS
 68

Thanks.

A beat.

And LUNA stills her hand still on the brush, so

close to BLISS’ face.
Really looks at her.

LUNA

You look really pretty.

A quiet moment. Where they look at one another,

across the bed.

BLISS

Thank you.

Beat.

GRACE

You know, it’s funny. People will try to be nice to girls and go out of their way to say “you’re not
just pretty”—as if pretty is something small. But it’s not. It’s not small at all
 69

Scene IX: through a looking glass.

We’re in the dark.
MATT
(oftstage, unseen)

We’re in the backstage area. The getting ready area, near the vanities.
Lights up. We open on the pageant set. The light is
dramatic bi lighting. Pinks and blues and purples,
casting shadows lovingly, eagerly on the surfaces.
There’s a double sided vanity with one mirror between them, a chair on either side. Where did
this vanity come from—did the Director bring it? Did the girls make it? Is this a dream? We don’t
know. But then we see—Grace.
And We see GRACE, who walks into the scene.
She’s wearing all white. She looks ethereal—soft, so soft. Like if you were to touch her she’d
cave in, a dimple the shape of a fingerprint left behind soft. She sits down at one side of the
vanity, and starts applying her makeup. Natural look, pinky neutral tones.
GRACE does this.
And then Alex comes in. Even though she looks tougher on the outside, some of that softness
that aches inside her comes through. She seats herself on the other side of the mirror. She
starts doing her makeup as well. Electric, bright, wild makeup, look at me makeup.
ALEX does this.
They each go through the motions of doing their face while looking through the mirror—through
to each other, keeping their gaze steady. We see that they don’t see their own reflections—they
see each other. As they near the end, only the lips are left. Grace picks up her red lipstick
GRACE does this.
And starts to lean through the mirror to the other side, to Alex—just as Alex in turn picks up a
pink lipgloss and leans through the mirror to Grace.
ALEX does this.
They meet in the middle. And they reach through the mirror to apply the lipstick/lipgloss on the
other girl. Softly. Carefully.
They obey.
And now they are fully made up. They observe one another’s completed looks. And then they
lean through their shared mirror. And they kiss.
We freeze here. As they look at one another.
Their lipstick and lipgloss smearing across each other’ mouths as they so tenderly, and then
desperately, try to find something in one another to survive.
 70

And instead—we see the lights and sound go

wrong, glitching discordant, as they reach their
hands out, to smear the lipstick on each other’s
faces. Like smears of blood. The pageant lights go
off for a second, the tv screens flickering with white
noise buzzing before
Lights up. Normal, soundstage lights. ALEX and
GRACE are sitting in their chairs, at their vanities,
scripts in their hands, looking at their pages.
ALEX

I—don’t know that I really saw a romance coming with our characters.

GRACE

I mean I figured you would have one, as the, you know, designated queer of the cast, but I
thought it might be with Luna.

ALEX

Yeah. Still. I guess it makes sense—your character gets a sexual awakening. Who else is she
supposed to have a sexual awakening with. The Director?

GRACE

I mean would that really surprise you?

ALEX

No.

It’s prettily written. I can imagine watching the scene, and being enamoured. Feeling it wash
over me. Feeling a kind of magic.

GRACE

Where did the double sided vanity come from?

ALEX

I don’t know.

Do you think we have a sex scene later?

GRACE
 71

Probably. Second season maybe. I get put in sex scenes a lot. Something about the
incongruence of the innocence of my appearance with the erotic. So says my agent.

ALEX

That’s a lucrative typecast.

GRACE

Yeah.

Beat.

I’m asexual, you know.

ALEX

Oh—oh? I didn’t know that.

GRACE

Of course you didn’t. Nobody really knows. I mean, people in my life do, a few people do, but it’s
not really something I talk about. I’m not like Harper levels famous but I’m getting there. And
people might be slightly better about casting queer actors but they won’t want to cast me as
virgins or ingenues if they think I have no sexuality. The allure of a virgin is the promise of sex—
not the lack of it.

ALEX

Is that how you think of yourself?

GRACE

What do you mean?

ALEX

As lacking.

GRACE

No. Not at all.

But that’s how everyone else sees it. It doesn’t matter what I say.

ALEX

Yeah.
 72

Beat.

What is it then? Your sexuality?

GRACE
Stops. Thinks on that for a moment.

Touch. It’s wanting touch. I want to be touched so bad sometimes it makes my body ache.
Sex doesn’t do that for me. Give that to me. A touch on the cheek though. An embrace.
Someone running their hands through my hair. It makes me feel so

Like my body is my own again

And then I don’t ache as much.
But I can’t ever ask for that. Because then the other person always wants something I can’t or
won’t give them. And then they move on to someone who can give them everything they want.
Every part of them they want. And even talking about it with my friends, who hold my hand and
say I’m valid, I get this lurking feeling that they think I maybe got raped and am traumatized and
am just repressing it but eventually I’ll heal. Or I just need to realize I’m a lesbian and go to town
eating pussy. Or that I just haven’t met the right person, that one day I’ll meet someone who will
make me want touch the right way, and will turn me into a good 21st century feminist who likes
to fuck and get fucked like everybody else.

A moment.

ALEX

Why did you tell me all that?

I’m not—I’m mean I’m honored, um that you told me, and trusted me with that but uh—why?

GRACE
Not really looking at ALEX,

You like holding people’s thoughts, right? Diving into the nitty gritty—plumbing their secrets,
their vulnerabilities, their truths? I just felt like—telling someone. Giving it over. Might as well
give it to someone who wants it.

Beat.

ALEX
I do want it.

Thank you.
GRACE

Well—
thank you for the queer stamp of approval.
 73

ALEX

Of course. You’ll get the official letterhead in the mail in 4-5 business days.

A comfortable silence. They return to looking at

their scripts, the scene they are supposed to
perform.

Beat.

I don’t think this scene is how Alex and Grace would get together. It’s pretty. It’s really pretty.
Sweet even, in a way. But it feels like they’re putting on a show still.

GRACE

Isn’t that the point?

But you’re right.

I feel like I know her, and Grace—she performs a lot. For her church. For her family. For God.
But this feels like a moment where she would want to let that go from her body. I would hope
she could let that go from her body.

ALEX

Yeah.
Beat.

I think it would be at night. When everybody was asleep.

And then the lights shift. Pageant world. and we are

near the beds and bunks of the girls. HARPER,
LUNA, and BLISS walk over to their bunks, and
tuck themselves in, sound asleep. GRACE and
ALEX look them sleeping, and then walk over to
their own bunks. They sit on the edge of the beds.

I would be sitting underneath the covers, eyes wide in the dark, unable to sleep. Trying to think
about if I’m going to live the rest of my life in this basement, grow up and grow into an adult and
grow old, always being watched.
And ALEX lays herself into her bed like this.

GRACE

And I would be sleeping on my side. And my back would be to you. Also awake. Hand around
my cross necklace. Trying to pray. Trying to think of something to pray about. But unable to.
Feeling tired. Feeling bored.
 74

And GRACE lays herself into bed like this.

ALEX

I wouldn’t know you were awake.

GRACE

And I would know you were. And so I would eventually sit up—and I would turn to you, and I
would say
she does this, and she becomes her character.

“You’re awake too?”

ALEX

And I wouldn’t sit up at first, but I would say

“yeah. I am ”
And then I would sit up.
Alex sits ups.

GRACE

What are you thinking about?

ALEX

I would tell you that

I’m thinking about how I’m very afraid. And also how I want to win. And how I kinda hate how
much I feel the need to win.

GRACE

Oh.
I was thinking about how much I think he’s invested in us.

ALEX

You really think so?

GRACE

And I would say

Yeah. I do.

ALEX

I would consider whether I should say it. And then—

 75

I think he likes you the best.

GRACE

I don’t think that’s true—why?

ALEX

Why wouldn’t you be? Look at you.

And then I would look at you.

And then I would realize I was looking too much.
And I’d look away.

GRACE

And then. I’d say something like

I try so hard to be good. In church, I would just pray that God would let me be good enough for
Him. And then I learned at some point that to be a good Christian woman meant being beautiful
for God. So I tried my very best to be beautiful for Him.
But now—I still wanna be beautiful.
But I don’t know that I want to be beautiful for God anymore.

And then she looks at the security camera. And

then her face fills the tv screens behind them.

Do you think he ever sleeps? Ever closes his eyes?

ALEX looks at her looking at the cameras. And

then they look at GRACE. And then they stands up,
picking up one of the thin sheets from the bed.

ALEX

Look, there—there aren’t blindspots in the room but—

I’d step towards you. At first confidently, then hesitantly, as I got closer to you. Sheet
outstretched, in my hand, hovering, uncertain of how to say it.

And GRACE looks up at her—and understands.

GRACE

But you wouldn’t have to say it.

 76

I would take the sheet in one hand, and the hem of your nightgown in the other. And I would pull
you down to sit on the bed, and pull the sheet over us.

They do this. And as the sheet is pulled over them,

the interior of the sheet is filled with light, like it
glows from within. We can see the shadowed.
silhouettes of ALEX and GRACE sitting on the bed
inside the sheet, facing each other. Their voices
can be heard, softly, within their shroud.

ALEX

There.
Now we don’t let him have all of us.
He doesn’t get to look at all of us.
GRACE doesn’t answer. But we see her shadowed
hand raise—we see it move to ALEX’s cheek. We
see it sit there heavy, still.

GRACE

And then I would say

But you’re looking at me.

Beat.

And then the shadow of ALEX leans in. we see

their shadowed faces meet. And as they do, the
lights fade away, leaving them in the dark.
 77

SCENE X: BRUTAL

Lights on soundstage. The cast is prepping at their

characters’ vanities. We aren’t quite sure in this
moment if they are being their characters or
themselves, preparing to be their characters. They
touch up lipstick, smooth hairlines, etc.

And then when they all are done, they give each
other a glance--a shared nod--and then they start to
line up at the end of the stage catwalk. They all
glitter in the hot set lights.

MATT

His voice--just his voice.

Are we ready on set?

They nod.

Okay.

And a pause. Sincere.

You all look fucking amazing.

Evening wear.

Action.

Lights shift to the pageant world.

And some slowed down hyper pop remix plays.

Some shit like Perfume Genius’s Good Ones
Remix. Or maybge it’s a some versin of the
opening credits song they heard a snippet of
earlier. The words floating around them—
all
I
want
to
do
is
be
pretty
like
you.

All the girls start one at a time walking in a crisply

but sexy choregraphed dance sequence, down the
 78

catwalk, in their gowns. It has the ghost of their

movement from the cascade scene in it, but tightly
laced.

MATT

Softer—not like a woman, but like a girl. Your softness is a knife waiting to come out. You’re
terrified but you’re also terrifying.

The girls wave gentilly as they walk down the

catwalk, to their invisible pageant audience, twisting
and turning.

Smile—big smiles. Right now, he wants you to smile. Right now, you’re a perfect pageant
queen.

They smile wider. And they begin to twirl around

one another, grinding around one another, around
the stage, perfectly in step.

He’s as scared of you as you are of him. See the thing is men—we want beauty. But we’re not
allowed beauty the way women are. We can hold, possess, capture, kidnap beauty. But women
become beauty. And it’s there, a seed born within them, enveloped into their flesh, their skin,
their nervous system, the way they look at anyone—anyone at all. Women are beauty. We can
look at women and see that beauty and it's not within us because from day one it was ripped out
of us, torn out of us, so now we have to roam the earth seeking it—but when we look at women
we can see it. We can see our own reflection in the retina of your eyes, see beauty reflected
back at us—That’s why you’re the scariest thing this man has ever seen. And that is why he’s
trapped you. So—

Harper, turn to the camera more—we can’t see your eyes.

HARPER turns to look. Her gaze fills the tv

screens.

That’s right.
yes.
Look at us like that.
Just like that.

What was I saying? Oh—yes—he’s trapped you so he can look at you. And believe, for a
moment, that he can have what he was never given the chance for.

Your beauty is a weapon. Make him bleed.

The screens and music fade to blank and silence.

The girls finish their dance. They move, and they
are lined up on stage before a microphone on lone
stand.
 79

MATT
(off stage-but like he’s in the room)

Remember.
We’re playing with improvisation here.
So—improvise.
Be your character.

Be Her.

Stillness.

It is quiet for an uncomfortably long moment.

But then the spotlight shines on LUNA. And they all
know what to do now.

LUNA steps up to the microphone, the light

following her.

DIRECTOR

Hi Luna. What is the most important issue your generation is facing?

LUNA

I mean
Everything?
But you want me to give you one single thing, as if all the things aren’t horrifically connected
And I kinda want to say climate change or white supremacy or capitalism or maybe the semi
obvious of how much we hate women, how much we hate trans women even
but I don’t think I can talk about one without the others so
Maybe media portrayals of teenagers?
Specifically, how we talk about teenage girls
How we tell their stories
Because
Adults always earnestly consider how to empower teenage girls. But what the fuck does it mean
to empower? Because it seems to mean, from everything I see and hear and read that it means
I get to have experiences that in 10 years I’m going to realize were traumatizing. And I don’t
want to be strong I don’t want to shout down catcallers I don’t want to carry pink fucking pepper
spray, I want to be able to be a girl—a child. Because that’s what I am, a child. But I’m only
allowed to be a child in selective circumstances, when it suits someone who wants to dismiss
what I’m saying. I’m not allowed to be a child when it comes to actually protecting me or caring
for me. No—then I’m a young adult. A young woman, if they’re progressive and generous. And
that fucking sucks.

And she steps back from the microphone.

DIRECTOR
 80

Hello Bliss. ‘What makes you different from the other girls competing today?

BLISS

I know what you want and expect me to say is that I’m Black. And how because I’m Black, I’m
often not seen as a girl. Or that a lot of the time when they write about Black teenage girls they
write about this idea of me this colorblind light skin Netflix best friend of the main character ideal
of me. I’m both sanitized and infected. I’m made milquetoast and mildewed. A funhouse mirror
idea of who I actually am.

And yeah, that’s a difference. But actually what makes me different, different to the core of me,
to the center of me is that I have grown up never doubting that I had people that loved me. I
have been loved and wanted and given what I loved and wanted. And that is so good and so
rare and I know how lucky I am to have that and still, still it has never felt like enough. It has
never been enough.

She blinks tears from her eyes.

You probably think I don’t like being looked at. You’d be wrong.

Lights off on BLISS. Up on HARPER.

DIRECTOR

‘Harper. If you could only have one wish, what would you wish for?

HARPER
No hesitation.

I want to be so beautiful that I never feel afraid again.

I’m pretty. I’ve known my whole life that I’m pretty. But I wanna be beautiful--you know what I
mean. Objectively undeniably, parting the red seas, Helen of Troy, unreal, girls look into the
mirror and hate themselves because they are not me beautiful. I want my beauty to be so good
and so bright and so stark that even as it hurts their eyes to look upon me, people just can’t stop
themselves from trying to get close to me. Like a moth to a flame. I want to be so beautiful that
people would let themselves be burned by me, their flesh charred, their bodies cooking, all so
they can look at me. Because if they look at me they burn and if they burn then they can’t touch
me and if they can’t touch me I will never be alone but I will be safe which

seems like the best of both worlds.

She steps back. Lights on GRACE who steps up.

DIRECTOR

Grace. Sweet Grace. Why do you think people have a negative image of pageantry?

She thinks on it for a second. Then.

 81

GRACE

I think they’re jealous because they fear they couldn’t do it. Because it’s really hard. And I think
people worry that they don’t have something sublime within them. And I think it’s easier to be
angry than it is to acknowledge your fear—to acknowledge your want.

And she steps back.

Finally. ALEX. Lights on them. And they step

nervously to the mic.

DIRECTOR
Alex.

What would the crown mean to you?

ALEX

Oh

Uh
I think

I think

BEAT

I think I think about myself all the time, in a way that I can’t tell is self-reflective or self-obsessed.
Like, I’m

MATT
Walking on.

Hold.

ALEX is surprised. It always a little surprising when

you’re getting the momentum going on a
monologue and the director yells cut. But she tries
to take it professionally.
The DIRECTOR stills looms on screen, frozen
behind ALEX.

Okay, so when you’re getting ready to get into this scene—this is the big moment for Alex,
right? where she shows some of her cards? Gives us the lead into that. Let that beat hit. Lead
us there, okay?

ALEX

Right. Got it.

 82

MATT walks back to his director’s chair, now just

off to the side of the action on stage.

MATT

Okay, let’s take it from “I think I think about myself”

Lights back, ALEX settles herself

Action.
ALEX

I think I think about myself all the time, in a way I can’t—

MATT
Hold. Again. Slower. Let’s do it again.

ALEX

I think
I think
About
myself
All the time

MATT

Actually try it faster. Again.

ALEX

IthinkIthinkaboutmyselfallthetime

MATT

Hold. Let’s go sadder. You’re ashamed, you’re frightened, you’re 17. Again.

ALEX
On the verge of tears

I think I think about myself all the time.

MATT

Hold—But also alluring. You’re coming into your own. Again

ALEX
Coquettishly

I think I think about myself all the time

 83

MATT

Hold—You’ve got say it like you want to win. Again

ALEX

I THINK I THINK ABOUT MYSELF ALL THE—

MATT
Snapping.

NO not like you wanna be Miss Congeniality. You wanna WIN. You wanna win even if you hate
to admit it. Even if you’re trying to so hard not to think it, about everything, even as you’re trying
to find out everything about everyone else so you don’t have to face who you are—you wanna
fucking win. Act like it—
Again!

ALEX

I think I think about myself all the time.

In a way that I can’t tell is self-reflective or self-obsessed. Like, I’m constantly thinking about
myself, about who I am as a person and who I want to be as a person and who I think other
people want me to be as a person, I think about how as a person I often feel like a failure of a
person because I’m too much of a person with all the bits and pieces that that comes with,
blackheads and sexual dysfunctions from childhood trauma and wanting more than is
reasonable for a normal person to want. Because I want a lot. I sometimes worry that I want far
too much, I get these waves of emotion that threaten to overwhelm me, drown me, submerge
my lungs in it, as a person, the want is so much larger than it seems I can contain or even
achieve, that any person can achieve, it scares me, I scare myself, sometimes I get so scared
that I go all the way around and I stop being scared and I just—think about myself. And my life.
And the person I am and am not. And the things I don’t know about myself. All the time.

Like how I wish my grandfather would die because he once pushed my grandma down the
stairs? I didn’t see it, I only got told it by my older sister, she saw it, but I CAN see it, in my mind
I see it perfectly, her perfectly crumpled at the bottom of the stairs of the basement I spent
nearly every summer watching toon disney in growing up, her and her vacuum--she was
vacuuming the steps--and I think of my grandfather at the top of those stairs, looming over the
perfectly crumpled bird bone body of my grandma not caring about the fact that my older sister
saw him. And I think about the fact that my sister told me but not my mother. And I think about
the fact that I haven’t told my mother about what her father did to her mother because she
knows, I think, I’m actually pretty sure she knows, but it’s the kind of knowing that’s too awful to
say aloud. Because as a person, as someone who is just a person and nothing more, it would
be too painful to name it, our simple personhood having to acknowledge this awful eldritch thing
that we can’t bare to look at for too long so it sits within our body like a weight, like a cyst, like a
blood clot, fluid congealed beneath thin skin. And you can ignore it, it’s actually fairly easy to
ignore if you can learn to adjust to the new heft of your body, how every step you take now there
is a pulsing pressure in the back of your head that is tied to gravity, a taut line of connection that
would like to gently lower you to the asphalt and force you to acknowledge it, seep out around
your head and soak the roots of your hair with it, spill out in a slow deluge and be witnessed at
last by the world--but you can’t. And I wish I could be a person who was able to lie on the
 84

ground and let knowledge pool around my head in a puddle, staring up at the blue sky without
flinching back from the halo it makes around my head on the concrete. But I think that I am not
that person.

So. To answer your question. I think having the crown would mean I would for once know
something undeniably good about myself.

Matt looks on.

He looks at ALEX for a long moment.
MATT
We’ll try it again after lunch.
And he walks off.
ALEX stays where they are.
And the screens glitch.
A crown flickers in the grey and white tv snow light
above ALEX’s head.
Blackout.
 85

SCENE XI: If a girl falls in the forest, and

nobody is around to see it, does she even exist
We enter right in the middle of pageant world—right
in the midst of a scene—a fight. The lights are
tense, focused in on BLISS and HARPER, who are
circling each other, as the other girls look on,
worried, and uncertain how to intervene.
BLISS
You’ll never be free with that mindset—
HARPER
I don’t care about being free, I care about being safe.
BLISS
You’re so fucking stupid for thinking that winning this is safety—
HARPER
You’re just made that you don’t have what it takes to win—that you’re never gonna get home to
see your sister—
BLISS
Don’t fucking talk about my sister—
HARPER
She’s probably dead—he probably killed her—too bad she wasn’t prettier—he should have
killed you instead—
And BLISS opens her mouth
Is supposed to say something
But then
The character slips away from her.
And her anger is all her own.
BLISS
Cut.
A moment—where nothing happens. Beyond just
awkward stillness.
I said fucking CUT.
And suddenly the lights go up and we’re in set
world. ALEX and LUNA hang back, looking on, but
 86

GRACE walks up to BLISS. Harper moves simply

to grab her water bottle, no expression on her face.
GRACE
Hey are you okay—
But BLISS is moving quick, to the edge of the set,
and yells out.
BLISS
Matt?
And unrushed, MATT walks up, a tight smile on his
face.
MATT
You know, traditionally, a director yells cut—not the actor.
BLISS
I didn’t feel right in the scene.
MATT
Okay. Did you feel unsafe?
BLISS
I’m not safe anywhere.
Beat.
MATT
Did you want to go over the fight choreography again? Because earlier today, when we were
rehearsing, you told me you felt good about it, but we can run through it again—
BLISS
It’s not a matter of fight choreography or feeling unsafe it’s—
She is angry and frustrated and find she doesn’t
have the words to express it.
MATT
It’s…?
BLISS
Turning alert to him, sharp. Focused.
Why is my character solely defined by her father and her sister and her anger?
Beat.
 87

MATT
I wouldn’t say solely—
BLISS
Can’t I have—something else to me? At first it felt like we were doing something different, that
you were giving me something different, you let me want more for her, hope for more for her
but now
But Now
We don’t even know who my sister is—we haven’t’ even gotten so much as a flashback—and
the. HARPER, fucking Harper of it all, Harper is invoking her death like some fucking carrot and
I don’t even know who she is, much less who my character is? And now I’m fighting? What are
we trying to say in this scene? What are you trying to do with me?
Beat.
Beat.
MATT looks at the other actors. Who are watching
this.
And then he looks back at BLISS.
MATT
Bliss. You’re a good actor. I like you. I like your work. But if you decide to make this ugly—there
are a lot of actors out there just as good as you.
And he walks off.
And BLISS is left there.
The other actors stand there, watching.
LUNA
Fuck him.
GRACE
Yeah really—that was fucking –
ALEX
Are you okay? Do you need to?—
BLISS
Cutting them off.
I’m fine.
ALEX, LUNA, and GRACE look at each other.
 88

I’m FINE.
Just go get lunch.
Another beat.
ALEX
Are you sure—
BLISS
Yes I’m fucking sure Alex okay, now can you just for once stop trying to mine my fucking psyche
and go?
Beat.
ALEX leaves. LUNA follows. GRACE also starts to
follow. Stops. Then turns to BLISS.
GRACE
Do you want that one tandoori chicken salad?
Beat.
BLISS
Yeah. That would be nice. Thank you.
GRACE nods. And leaves.
BLISS stands. She closes her eyes. Thinking she’s
alone. But then. She tenses. She turns. And she
realizes—
There’s HARPER. Just sitting at her vanity. Sipping
at her water bottle. Looking at her phone.
BLISS looks at her for awhile. HARPER doesn’t
look up.
And then finally, BLISS walks to her own vanity.
And sits down.
BLISS and HARPER are alone on the set. They
each sit quietly on their own, at their vanities. Some
time has passed. HARPER has moved on from her
phone, and is calmly reading her book. BLISS is
just sitting. Itching underneath her skin. Tense.
Finally she stands up.
BLISS
Wanna go over the fight choreography.
 89

HARPER
Neutrally.
I don’t know if we’re supposed to do it without the fight choreographer present.
BLISS
Look if you’re worried about getting hurt—
HARPER
I didn’t say I wouldn’t do it.
Beat.
BLISS
Okay.
She tenses her hands. She waits.
HARPER stands up calmly.
Do you wanna review the steps—
HARPER
I lash out first. Quick.
And she calmly, methodically, crosses the distance
between them
My right fist to your left shoulder. Contact.
And BLISS moves her shoulder with the motion,
with the movement.
BLISS
I move my shoulder with your motion, I stumble, and then I respond, with my right knee to your
stomach. Contact.
She moves her knee, holds it gently to HARPER’s
stomach.
I hold it here for a second but then—
And HARPER moves her hand to grab it. Faster
than either of them have been moving.
HARPER
I grab it—I try to grasp it.
BLISS
I twist away—
 90

And HARPER closes in—

HARPER
And I follow.
And you say
Holding her tight.
BLISS
He was gonna kill you. You couldn’t see that, you refused to see that but he was—he is. You
played his game. Everything you thought he wanted to see. And he still doesn’t think you’re
worth looking at.
HARPER
Huh. That was pretty good. Maybe if you manage to hold it together for the next scene, Matt
won’t fire you.
A moment.
And then BLISS abandons the fight choreography,
and just tries to grapple HARPER.
And HARPER fights back just as hard. Like she’s
been knowing this was coming since the moment
BLISS asked, and is just as ready, just as hungry
for it.
They try to throw each other to the ground, kick out
wildly, use moves they’ve learned from sets, and try
furiously to take each other down. Eventually,
BLISS manages to get HARPER on the ground,
underneath her and she not hitting her, but she’s
restraining her, keeping her captive.
And she starts talking, while HARPER fights back
BLISS
STOP FUCKING MOVING YOU
YOU FUCKING
WHY
WHY
WHY
Why are you so FUCKING—
and you don’t even care, you don’t even CARE
you don’t even give A FUCKING SHIT
 91

HARPER
Breathless. Struggling.
Do you want it?
BLISS
And as she speaks she begins crying with
frustration.
Of course I do! I want it so bad my body enunciates it with every throb of my blood. I wanna
have my choice of roles, and I want to be fawned over and I want everyone to look at me and
think I’m amazing, see something amazing but I’m almost thirty and you’re not and you’ve had
all the things I’ve ever wanted and probably will never get and—why?
HARPER
Looking up at her from underneath her.
I don’t know.
I told a girlfriend once that I hate looking at myself in the mirror, which is true. And she said “but
you’re so pretty.” And I said thank you, but I just wanted to tell her “I didn’t say I wasn’t pretty.
Just that I hate looking at myself.”
BLISS
And BLISS slumps back. Lets up. Lets go.
What a fucking waste.
HARPER
She stays underneath her.
I know.
Beat. She rubs her arms.
You’re like—really strong.
BLISS
I started powerlifting a few months ago. I could probably deadlift you.
HARPER
Hot.
BLISS laughs—just a little scoff of a laugh. And she
looks at her. Swallows.
BLISS
You gonna tell Matt.
 92

HARPER
No.
I wanted you to hit me as much as you wanted to hit me.

BLISS
So you were baiting me.
She puts her hand in her hands.
You baited me into a fight on set, a move that is possibly career ending for me, so you could
what—hold it over me? Hold it against me?
HARPER
No—it didn’t have anything to do with you. I just.
I wanted to feel awake in my own skin.
I just wanted to feel something.
BLISS
And she looks up from her hands.

You are more fucked than I thought, huh.

HARPER
I’m sorry.
BLISS
No, you’re not.
Beat.
HARPER
You’re as a good of an actor as me.
BLISS
Laughs louder now. A little bitterly.

I know that. Too bad you’re just an actor.

HARPER
I don’t know. Every so often studios realize they haven’t had a woman direct something in like 2
years, and they toss a directing opp to an A list female actress. Maybe I’ll be next.
BLISS
Do you want to direct.
HARPER
Maybe. Yeah.
 93

BLISS
She looks her up and down.

Well. Maybe I’ll hate you a little less if you cast me as the lead.
HARPER
And. a small smile.

How generous.
BLISS
Something where the story is fully about a woman. About her. Not her dad. Or her fucking sister.
Not about who she is in relation to other people. It’s about her. It’s just about her.
HARPER
Doing what?
BLISS
Something beautiful. Or something ugly as fuck, filthy and vile. Anything. Everything. But the
camera has to look at me the whole time. It has to look at me without flinching the whole time.
Beat.
My sister.
She has cerebral palsy and she’s so smart and so fucking funny and so fucking great in every
fucking way but she’s black and a woman and disabled and because she’s a black disabled
woman people just—
I grew up with people staring at her all the time, but even as they stared it was like she was
invisible? And I hated that it scared me so much—that somebody might look at me and still not
even see me. And I feel like I shouldn’t want it so much but I do. It’s why I love acting so much
even though I also hate it. The first time I acted was in high school, in a play. And I remember,
looking out, seeing the audience and just thinking—everybody in this room is looking at me right
now. Everybody in this room has to look at me right now.
I don’t want to be good or clean. I just want to be seen.
And HARPER looks at BLISS.
You probably think that’s sad bullshit.
HARPER
No.
I was gonna say I don’t know if I ever loved acting. I think it’s just the only way I know how to
exist.
BLISS
Do you wanna exist?
 94

HARPER
A moment. She thinks about it.

I don’t know.
BLISS
Yeah.
Beat.
I think you’re doing an okay job at it.
HARPER
Blinking.

At what?
BLISS
Rolls her eyes.

At existing—dumbass.
HARPER
You don’t mean that mean that.
BLISS
Actually, I do. I shouldn’t, and you don’t deserve it, but I do.
HARPER
Oh.
Sincere. Throat caught.
Um.
BLISS looks at her. Stands up. Dust herself off.
And then offers a hand to HARPER—who looks at
it like something she’s never seen before.

BLISS

Come on. If we go now maybe we can catch up to them and you can buy my chicken salad for
me.

HARPER looks at the hand—

and then takes it. Lets herself be lifted up. And then
follows.
And the image, a close up of just their hands,
together flickers briefly on the screens before the
walk off.
 95

SCENE XII: Something Else.

BLISS, HARPER, GRACE, and ALEX are on the

set. Quiet in the downtime. They’re wearing
character costumes. GRACE and ALEX are sitting
close by each other. HARPER and BLISS aren’t but
HARPER is eating a little pocket of cookies—offers
one to BLISS—who takes it. A small sense of quiet
and peace.

And then LUNA comes in with a coffee, staring at

her phone and scowling.

LUNA

I hate men and I hate last stage capitalism and I hate fucking tech dude overlords.

GRACE

I mean—absolutely cosigning all that, on a typical daily basis but—what’s going on?

ALEX

Yeah—are you okay?

LUNA

So a guy dm’ed his dick—which, happens all the time whatever, right—but his was
accompanied by a particularly creative and also disgusting explanation of what he wanted to do
to me, and so I figure fine, this guy wants to message me this shit, let me screenshot it and post
it. But now MY account was banned and now I can’t post and it’s bullshit—what like I’m banned
for posting what this guy said to me, but he’s not banned for saying it to me? What the FUCK.

BLISS

jesus christ—/

HARPER
That does suck—/

ALEX

Oh god, I’m so sorry Luna, maybe you can get your followers to contest it?—

GRACE
Rolling her eyes, trying to commiserate.

Fucking welcome to womanhood.

And then there is a beat.

 96

LUNA
She repeats GRACE, flatly.

Welcome to womanhood.

ALEX
Turns for a moment, looking at GRACE, murmurs

Grace—

GRACE
Continuing, not realizing.

Honestly, Luna, count yourself lucky that you didn’t have to experience teenage girlhood. Now
you just have to suffer through adult womanhood for the whole world to see, on a platter.
Fucking men.

Beat.

LUNA
Almost neutrally.

You condescending cunt.

GRACE
Surprised

Whoa, what?

LUNA

I’ve been a woman. For a minute.

GRACE

I didn’t mean—

LUNA

And you think what—you get to welcome me to it? Just because you have an assigned female
at birth pussy?

GRACE

That’s not what I meant—

LUNA

Yes, it is—whether you realize it or not, it is exactly what you meant Grace. So let me tell you,
just this once, because I do actually like you most of the time even if right now I want slap you
across your pretty little shocked face—you don’t own womanhood more than I do.
 97

GRACE

I’m—
I’m sorry.

LUNA is about to say something when

MATT
(off-stage)

Bliss, Harper, Grace, can you come here? Wardrobe wants you.

GRACE looks a bit helplessly at LUNA.

LUNA
And her anger deflates.

Whatever.
And she walks to her vanity. GRACE looks at
LUNA, who does not look back at her.

MATT
(off-stage, sounding annoyed)

Wardrobe.
And GRACE, turns to follow MATT’s call, with
BLISS and HARPER following behind.

It’s just ALEX and LUNA left, LUNA at the vanity,

and ALEX standing behind her. They stay like this
for a long beat—maybe 30 seconds, before ALEX
speaks up.

ALEX

I’m sorry.

LUNA

You didn’t do anything.

ALEX

I mean—yeah. That’s the point.

Beat.

LUNA

I don’t usually like to let myself be angry in front of other people. When I had to smash the
camera earlier—
 98

I didn’t say anything, but I was fucking terrified. Of what people would think. Because when
people like Grace get angry, it’s feminine rage, it’s divine, it’s gorgeous and raw. Or even if it’s
negative, being seen as shrill or nagging or a bitch—it’s still feminine, you can still be a woman
who is angry—But when I get angry, people don’t see it as divine feminine rage. It’s just

masculine.
Manly.
Ugly.

And I know she didn’t mean to hurt me. But I was just tired. And I wanted to vent.

Lifts up a contour powder for ALEX to inspect.

Do you think this shade?

ALEX nods.

Cool, thanks.

ALEX

I don’t—I don’t wanna like “mine your psyche” or pry or anything. I don’t really know what else to
say except that fucking sucks.

LUNA

It does.

She looks in the mirror.

‘Welcome to womanhood’.
What an unfunny joke.

ALEX

Right. Like “Welcome into our shitty little club we all hate being a part of.” As if you don’t already
know. As if you don’t know more than others even.

LUNA
Pauses, meeting ALEX’s gaze in the mirror, before
looking away.

Yeah.

I suppose.

I kinda

I kinda fucking hate this idea of like—womanhood as pain though.

 99

ALEX

Oh—I’m sorry I didn’t mean to—

LUNA

I don’t need you to apologize just or reflexively wring your guilt out of your body before I even
finish my thought JUST—
just listen?

You’re good at listening.

Beat. No sound from ALEX.

LUNA meets her own gaze, doing her makeup,

adding her character’s bruises, and dirt artfully for
the next scene they’re filming. We can see ALEX in
the mirror, watching LUNA apply her damage.

Womanhood is joy too. I didn’t transition for pain, for suffering—to make my life some white cis
woman Margaret Atwood ghost-written trauma. I did it for a chance at joy. Euphoria. Ecstasy.
And it’s not always that, but that’s usually because of other people’s shit—not my own
relationship with it. I’m more than my womanhood, but god—it is so much of me. And for me,
womanhood is something delicious.

I lay next to my girlfriend, sometimes, at night,

and our bodies are so different,
but they are women’s bodies, through and through
and to see them in joy next to one another
to see them in harmony next to one another, to see them in quiet monotonous difference with
one another, existing in those moments only for each other and ourselves and no one else—
I wouldn’t trade it for anything.
For me, womanhood is fucking fantastic most of the time.

Carefully not meeting ALEX’s rapt gaze.

So—if you find it so painful—maybe it’s just not working out for you? And maybe you could
choose something else.

ALEX
Something else?

LUNA
Looking to meet ALEX’s gaze in the mirror now.

Yeah. You don’t have to be a woman. I know because I chose to be one.

Who knows though, I could be full of shit.

 100

And she stands up and walks to the clothing rack,

as ALEX stays looking in the mirror. As we see
ALEX looking at themselves.
LUNA comes back, holding a gorgeous dress.
Something that seems exactly her, LUNA, the
actor’s, style—not LUNA, the character’s.
And ALEX turns to her. And stares at her.
What, does my makeup look like—
ALEX
Earnestly.

I’m so glad you chose.

And LUNA stands there for a moment, taken aback.
And she’s holding the dress in front—holds it tight
in front of her chest. She looks small. Vulnerable.
LUNA
Softly, with a bit of a laugh.
Me too.
Zip me up?
Beat.
And ALEX nods. LUNA starts to take off her robe,
revealing a pale pink slip beneath. Startingly simple
in how out of place it seems.
LUNA steps into the dress, pulls it up. Alex steps
up to zip her up.
And at this the lighting changes—pageant world.
The rest of actors come in, as themselves, and go
to their clothing racks. They pull gowns/outfits that
again—seem perfect for themselves, not their
character. And the take off their robes, revealing
slips nearly identical to LUNA’s, that same pale
pale pink. And ALEX goes around helping all of
them—LUNA, HARPER, GRACE, BLISS—get into
their outfits, find their shoes, resecure a fake
eyelash. After they are all ready and glittering, they
turn to ALEX.
ALEX nods. And they all gently converge on ALEX
to prep them—to fetch a gown, to slip on a heel, to
paint their lips. It is carefully intentionally lovingly
 101

done. And at the end, their backs are to us but we

can see in the reflection of the vanity mirror—
LUNA, BLISS, GRACE, and HARPER all stand
behind ALEX, looking at ALEX’s reflection, who is
sitting in their vanity chair. Looking beautiful.
And they turn to look at LUNA.
ALEX
I um.
LUNA reaches out. Squeeze their hand.
I’ve been—I’ve been thinking about whether I might be non-binary.
Or genderqueer.
Or—something. This thing in my body that just—craved the word, craved something else. But—
even though womanhood is hard and hurts sometimes, I didn’t want to leave it, didn’t want to
leave it behind, and—
I didn’t know.
LUNA
Know what?
ALEX
And ALEX turns back to the mirror. reaches out.
Touches their own reflection. Traces the contours
of their face on the surface.
That I could choose. That I could choose both.
And GRACE looks at LUNA, looking at ALEX.
Reaches out to hold her hand, tentatively, asking
permission. And LUNA squeezes it—tightly.
And then LUNA extends s a hand to ALEX, gentilly.
Who looks at it before, taking it, rising out of their
seat with both LUNA and GRACE’s hands, who are
in turn flanked by BLISS and HARPER. And then
all 5 of them move as one unit of beauty towards
onto the runway of the pageant stage. They stand,
in a line up. Holding each other’s hands. Waiting.
Until.
 102

SCENE XIII: Sight for Sore Eyes

MATT hopes onto the runway, a pen behind his

ear, a notebook in his hand running notes. He
doesn’t make note of his cast’s outfits, the effort
their have put it. He rolls onward with what he came
here for.

MATT

Hey all
Just wanted to gather you up real quick to make an announcement. It’s really big—though, I
think some of you might have guessed this was coming, if you were paying attention.

He turns in particular to HARPER. Looking at her.

Who looks back.

I wanted you all to hear it from me first though.

They expect MATT to announce they’ve been

renewed for a second season. They all see it
coming. Their eyes shine with it.

And as he says each name. Behind them, on the

set.

Bliss
One tv screen on the set flashes. With an image.
For a second. Before flicking off

Grace.
another screen on the set flashes, with an image.
For just a second. Flickering off.

Luna.
Another screen, flash image, off.

Alex

Another.

Harper.
And finally. It stays on. It’s a brief soundless clip.
Behind the scenes on set, of all 5 of them,
laughing, talking—being with one another.

This will be the only and final season of the show.

Beat.
 103

The video freezes.

HARPER

What the fuck did you say?

MATT
Unphased.

We’re not doing another season. This will be the last scene we shoot for the show.

LUNA

But—

GRACE

The producers love the show. They told us they love the show.

ALEX

Was it--what happened what changed their minds—

BLISS

I just had a meeting with my agent and he told me they wanted to renew. He told me they
approached you about renewing. That they fucking LOVED it—

MATT
Calm

They did want to renew. I just told them no.

Silence.

They were very understanding, after I explained my vision for the other projects I wanna get
moving on. As the showrunner, my role is to look at the whole vision of the project. But I just
realized—I'm tired of looking at it. And it wouldn’t be fair to this project if I tried to make another
season knowing that. Better to leave it on a high note.

BLISS

So we just
End.
Trapped in his basement still?
MATT

Yeah. Honestly, I think it’s the best choice—it’s more realistic. After all, would a guy like that,
ever really let you go free? It’s actualizing, physicalizing the metaphor. Making the abstract
 104

horror tangible—young women are always going to be trapped by the male gaze. No matter
what they do. It’s like that quote by Margaret Atwood, right? Oh, how does it go?

And suddenly pageant spotlights on the 5 of them

ALEX/GRACE/BLISS/LUNA/HARPER

Up on a pedestal
Or down on your knees
You are a woman
with a man inside
watching a woman.

And it fades as quick as it came.

MATT

Right. Something like that.

Anyway. Proud of the work y’all done. Let’s prep for this final scene and kill it.

And he starts to walk off. And then HARPER starts

to go after him.

HARPER

Wait Matt, WAIT!

He stops.

Are you sure

Are you sure it’s done that it’s not
There’s gotta be more, to the story right, there’s gotta be more—you said it’s about the contrast,
and the joy too, right, and I don’t think, I don’t think we got enough time for joy with these girls,
we didn’t get enough time for—

MATT
Stops. Looks at her, with a little bit of pity.

Oh, Harper—no.
It’s done.

And he walks off set.

The cast stands there. And the lights fade down on

them. Until the only light is the tv screen. Showing
the frozen still of them together.
 105

Scene XIV: refraction reflection, that echoing

end
And the lights go back up, on BLISS, GRACE,
LUNA, HARPER, and ALEX. Exactly where they
were standing before.
And the DIRECTOR comes on screen.
DIRECTOR
Traditionally there has often been a swimsuit section to the pageant.
I find this distasteful.
Crude.
Ugly.
And I’ve seen enough.

The winner is

A drumroll.

Alex.

A moment of feral happiness. Then horror. On their

face.

And then the DIRECTOR’s face disappears on the

screens, replaced with—a crown, perfectly placed
above ALEX’s head.

And a door opens.

And the DIRECTOR steps onto stage. Still masked.

But there all the same. The girls stand frozen.

And The Director extends a hand to ALEX

Time to go.

ALEX

What why—
Looks around at HARPER, GRACE, BLISS, LUNA

Why—why me?
I’m not—I’m not any—

DIRECTOR

Why not you? And now you get to leave.

 106

And he steps forward, and touches ALEX’s cheek.

With me.
Beat.

ALEX

But—I thought the winner—you said the winner would get set free?

DIRECTOR
And the director tilts his head.

Why would I free my beauty queen?

Alex. You wanted to be beautiful enough for me. Good enough for me—and I decided you are.
You finally are.

And the screens behind the girls lights up suddenly

showing—the audience.

This audience.

Watching this show.

ALEX’s face contorts.

ALEX

I am so tired
Of being something
You get to just
Fucking
LOOK AT

And they turn and slam their hand into the wall of
screens, shattering it. The pageant lights break.
Set lights.

The rest of the cast/girls stand in horror for a

moment. Then the blood starts to drip down ALEXs
hand as they realize what they just did to themself

And then we hear clapping.

THE DIRECTOR takes off the mask to reveal

MATT underneath.

MATT
His face is ethusive, delighted
 107

Oh my God, Alex, ALEX—your anger—your rage. God—you were something to behold.

And he puts down the camera, and then moves

towards ALEX—and cups their face in his hands.

I was wrong, I was so wrong—I had my doubts about casting you but.

He holds their face between his hands.

You were perfect.

And he holds their face tighter for a moment.

Maybe too tight.

Thank you. For letting us witness that. Thank you.

Fucking beautiful shot.

He lets go of ALEX’s face. Runs back to set up a

new shot, a new angle. ALEX is still being filmed.

Now, can you try that again? I just want to make sure we have enough coverage to give the
editors.

ALEX is touching their cheek lightly. Then pressing

their fingers in tight. Too tight.
And ALEX looks to their castmates. They look back
to her. And LUNA steps forward.

LUNA

Actually, we had an idea.

For a different scene.

MATT
Looks up

Oh?
LUNA

Yeah.

And we go back to pageant lights. And MATT looks

around confused.

MATT
Crew, we’re not ready on set yet—

And then
 108

BLISS, LUNA, GRACE and HARPER rush him,

while ALEX, armed with a piece of shattered screen
glass, cuts him. He cries out in pain, but no matter.
In a flurry, they attack him, grab him, gag him with a
ripped piece of clothing, and push him towards the
double sided vanity, that has emerged into the
center of the stage. It happens almost too fast,
rehearsed and choreographed. Like a dance.

Before MATT can process what’s happened he’s

bound to the vanity. Staring through it while the
HARPER, LUNA, GRACE, BLISS, and ALEX all
surround him. Spotlight on him. MATT is screaming
against the gag. It’s hard to hear him.

And then GRACE moves slowly, to the other side of

the double sided vanity. Looks through the mirror to
him.

GRACE

You shouldn’t scream like that.

It makes you look very ugly.

MATT fights against the restraints, tries to get out

of the chair, fights to escape. And GRACE moves,
circling back, making way for BLISS to look through
the other side of the mirror.

BLISS

Oh come—you never been bound and gagged before? Please—I’ve been on 3 different
episodes of SVU.

And she moves, making way for LUNA, this winding

circle of reflection, refraction, gaze.

LUNA

Hmm. Once on a shoot I got to dress up as a domme. They had me pretend to crush a man’s
balls. I wonder what it would like to actually do it?

And ALEX comes up, taking her place smoothly

ALEX

If beauty is pain, then pain must be beauty. And don’t you like beauty? Arranging beauty?
Surveilling beauty. Trapping beauty?

And then—HARPER. Steps up. And just looks at

MATT. And then leans forward through the mirror,
 109

with their piece of shattered glass. Close to his

throat.

HARPER

Do you know what’s it like

to be the image of an image,
not even a reflection,
a refraction,
a mirror in a room of mirrors where the lights are never turned on

and then—
her brow furrows.

Wait so—in this scenario, what is the crew doing?

The lights come up. The actors come up. They are
all casual, relaxed. All a sudden it’s not like we’re
on set—we’re in a green room, someone’s trailer.
Somewhere away from prying eyes.

GRACE

Look, we don’t need to worry about the crew.

BLISS rolls her eyes.

BLISS

Grace oh my god, of course we have to worry about the crew—

Turns to HARPER.

Okay in this scenario, we’ve talked to them beforehand. Gotten them on our side. Convinced
them to like—mutiny—

LUNA
Stretching, yawning.

Mutiny? Isn’t that for pirates—

BLISS

Okay well in my dream version of the scene, mutiny feels correct.

GRACE
Leaning back against the vanity where MATT is
bound like it’s a normal piece of furniture.

We’re brainstorming—this is a brainstorming session.

 110

LUNA
She somehow now has an iced coffee. She sips it
loudly.

I mean—look I’m all about manifesting especially manifesting murdering Matt, but it would take
a lot of convincing to get everybody on set behind no just mutiny but murder.

ALEX

Honestly, I’ve heard what some of the crew is getting paid, I don’t think it’d be that hard—

GRACE

AND it doesn’t have to be realistic—we’re just—venting. Pretending. Dreaming.

We don’t need to worry about what’s realistic—let’s just imagine what we want.

HARPER

I—

And they all turn to look at her.

And HARPER looks at MATT. Him. Not the screen.

She lifts the hair off his brow. Really looks at him.
And he looks back

Personally,

You know we’re about to go into our last night shooting

Our last night together and
I don’t want to spend our last night shooting thinking about him.

LUNA
Politely, but tightly.

Well neither do I but we can’t necessarily help that, can we?

HARPER

I mean, I know—

ALEX

He’s been a fucking tyrant. He needs to face consequences.

HARPER

I’m not saying he doesn’t –

GRACE
 111

I know not all of us are his muse or whatever—

HARPER
Sharp

I never asked to be his muse—

ALEX

Yeah, but you still benefited from it—

LUNA

Look, Harper I know you must have complicated feelings—

HARPER

OF COURSE I have fucking complicated feelings!

Of course I do.

But I don’t want to think about HIM I just want

I want to—I’d rather focus on.

You.

And if I imagine endlessly all the ways in which I could make him hurt the ways he’s made you
hurt—
I can’t focus on being with all of you.

And then all of their faces—the way HARPER looks

at them—is splintered across the screens. And they
look at how HARPER looks at them. Like HARPER
sees something so beautiful it hurts. And then the
others look at one another—nod—and then slowly,
go about untieing MATT. Releasing him.
Once he’s free, BLISS, ALEX, HARPER, LUNA,
and GRACE move together in a circle--like it’s been
waiting within them this whole time.

ALEX

So.
What now.

HARPER
She looks around the glittery messy broken up set.
And she looks at BLISS.

Does this place kinda look like a rancid teen nightclub to you?
 112

BLISS
Gets it.

Yeah. Definitely.

HARPER nods. Then she goes over to her phone.

Looks at it. Picks out a song. “Everytime We
Touch”. And instead of just sounding like it came
from it phone, the sound swallows up the room.
And she starts shuffling to it awkwardly. Trying to
dance. That like jump up and down sweaty
dancing.

BLISS joins her.

And then ALEX and LUNA and GRACE.

The music fills the room. They’re all dancing

together, hard, and it’s like the set is a rancid teen
nightclub. Or a school dance. Or a somebody’s
parents’ basement. It’s cringey and it’s beautiful.
When the song finally ends, they all collapse, and
they’re all holding hands and they’re laughing and
crying and sweating and panting, and through all
this, HARPER just looks around at them and says.

HARPER

All—

All I wanna do
And she grips the hands she has tighter.

is be pretty like you.

Glitter like you

Scream like you

I cry
I laugh
And I see you too

All I wanna do is be pretty like you.

And then—all 5 of them. Start to say it together.

ALEX/HARPER/BLISS/LUNA/GRACE

All I wanna do is be pretty like you.

Glitter like you

 113

Scream like you

I cry

I laugh

And I see you too

All I wanna do is be pretty like you.

They say it again, chanting it now, louder

ALL I WANNA DO IS BE PRETTY LIKE YOU.

GLITTER LIKE YOU

SCREAM LIKE YOU

I CRY

I LAUGH

AND I SEE YOU TOO

ALL I WANNA DO IS BE PRETTY LIKE YOU.

And then they’re shouting it, yelling it, in rhythm

with one another.

And they are chanting and screaming and moving

with one another as one force—and we see—both
onstage, and on the screen, mirrored—MATT.
Approaching. On his knees. And when he is outside
of the circle—they see him—and they seamlessly
integrate him. And he starts to chant with them

ALEX/HARPER/BLISS/LUNA/GRACE/MATT

ALL
I
WANNA
DO
IS
BE
PRETTY
LIKE
YOU.

GITTER
 114

LIKE
YOU

SCREAM
LIKE
YOU

I CRY

I LAUGH

AND I SEE YOU

TOO

ALL
I
WANNA
DO
IS
BE
PRETTY
LIKE
YOU.
And the screen fades from footage to them, to
white noise static. And the stage lights begin to
dim.

And as it does all their voices soften. Quiet. And

they lower themselves to the ground with one
another. Looking at one another.

All I wanna do is be pretty like you.

Glitter like you

Scream like you

I cry

I laugh

And I see you too

All I wanna do is be pretty like you.

And the play ends with all of their voices echoing,

unseen, tv screens flickering white noise static until
they shut off.

END OF PLAY.