SIDE 1 - Ms.

Keating, Tess

MS. KEATING
Miss Anderson, I see you sitting there in agony. Come on, Tess, step up! We’ll put you out of your misery
once and for all.

TESS
I…I didn't do it. I didn't write a poem.

MS. KEATING
Class, Miss Anderson thinks that everything inside of her is worthless and embarrassing. Correct, Tess?
Isn't that your worst fear? Well, I think you're wrong. I think you have something inside of you that is
worth a great deal…"I sound my barbaric yawp over the rooftops of the world." Walt Whitman. Now, for
those of you who don't know, a yawp is a loud cry or yell. Now, Tess, I would like you to give us a
demonstration of a barbaric "yawp." Come on. You can't yawp sitting down. Let's go. Come on. Up.

(TESS reluctantly stands and follows Keating to the front.)

MS. KEATING
You gotta get in "yawping" stance.

TESS
A yawp?

MS. KEATING
No, not just a yawp. A barbaric yawp.

TESS
(frightened)
…yawp.

MS. KEATING
Come on, louder.

TESS
(quietly)
Yawp.

MS. KEATING
No, that's a mouse. Come on. Louder.

TESS
Yawp.
 MS. KEATING
Oh, my God! Yell!

TESS
(shouting)
Yawp!

MS. KEATING
There it is. You see, you have a barbarian in you, after all.

(TESS goes to return to her seat but Keating stops her

MS. KEATING (CONT’D)

Nope, you don't get away that easy.

Keating turns TESS around and points out a picture on the wall.

MS. KEATING
The picture of Uncle Walt up there. What does he remind you of? Don't think. Answer. Go on.

Keating begins to circle around TESS.

TESS
A m-m-madman…

MS. KEATING
What kind of madman? Don't think about it. Just answer again.

TESS
A c-crazy madman.

MS. KEATING
No, you can do better than that. Free up your mind. Use your imagination. Say the first thing that pops
into your head, even if it's total gibberish. Go on, go on.

TESS
Uh… uh…a sweaty-toothed madman.

MS. KEATING
Now there’s the poet speaking! Close your eyes. Close your eyes and think of the picture. Describe what
you see. Now!

TESS
(nervous and shaky as hell)
 I close my eyes. His image floats beside me.

MS. KEATING
A sweaty-toothed madman…

TESS
A sweaty-toothed madman, with a stare that pounds my brain.

MS. KEATING
Excellent. Now, give him action. Give it rhythm!

TESS
His hands reach out and choke me. And, and all the time he's mumbling
Drenched in rain, unending pain he mumbles slowly,
"Truth…truth is like, like an old blanket that always leaves your feet cold."
You push it, stretch it, it'll never be enough.
You kick at it, beat it, but it'll never cover any of us.
From the moment we enter crying, to the moment we leave dying
It will just cover your face as you wail and cry and scream.
Until you fall asleep, and waste away in a dream

(TESS stands still for a long time. Both he and the students have felt the magic or what has just taken
place. NELL starts applauding. Others join in. TESS swells and, for the first time, there is a hint of
confidence in her. The applause stops.)

MS. KEATING
(whispering to TESS)
Don't you forget this.
SIDE 2- Keating, Nell

NELL
I'm sorry. Here…Gosh, they don't give you much room around here, do they?

MS. KEATING
(wry)
It's part of the monastic oath. They don't want worldly things distracting me from my teaching.

They return to their seats. Nell looks at a photo on the desk, a very attractive man in his 30s.

NELL
He’s a dreamboat.

MS. KEATING
He’s also in London. Makes things a little difficult.

NELL
How can you stand it?

MS. KEATING
Stand what?

NELL
You can go anywhere. You can do anything. How can you stand being here? I mena, with all this
seize-the-day business, I’d have thought you’d be out seeing the world or something?

MS. KEATING
Ah, but I am seeing the world, Nell. The new world. “What we have loved, / Others will love…and
we will teach them how.” Wordsworth. Seeing a student like you take root and bloom. It’s worth
everything. That’s why I came back here. A place like this needs at least one teacher like me…But I
don’t think you’re here to talk about my teaching, are you?

NELL
Every time you talk to us about “Carpe Diem” and seizing the day and all that stuff, the more I
realize I’m in prison. I just talked to my father. He's making me quit the play at Henley Hall.
Acting's my dream, and I’m good at it. I-- He doesn't know, and he refuses to understand, and I can
see his point. We're not a rich family like Charlie's, and they’ve always had big plans for me, but
they’ve never asked me what I want.

MS. KEATING
Have you ever told your parents what you just told me? About your passion for acting. You ever
show them how important it is to you?

NELL
I can't.
 MS. KEATING
Why not?

NELL
I can't talk to him that way, my father would kill me.

MS. KEATING
Then you’re playing a part for him too, aren’t you? A dangerously self-destructive one. Look, I
know this sounds impossible, but you have to talk. You have to show him who you are, what your
heart is. You can’t just sit here and play the role of the dutiful daughter, Ms. Future Doctor of her
dad’s dreams forever.

NELL
I know what he'll say. He'll tell me that acting's a whim, and I should forget it because they're
counting on me. He'll just tell me to put it out of my mind, "for my own good."

MS. KEATING
You aren’t an indentured servant, Nell. Just because you’re his daughter doesn’t mean you have to
abide to his every command. If it's more than a whim, you prove it to him by your conviction and
your passion. You show him that. And if he still doesn't believe you, well, by then you'll be
eighteen and out of school and you can do anything you want.

NELL
Eighteen?! But what about the play? The show's tomorrow night.

NELL
Isn't there an easier way?

MS. KEATING
Not if you’re going to stay true to yourself.

NELL
I'm trapped.

MS. KEATING
No, you're not. Give your father the benefit of the doubt. Talk to him. Let him see who you are.
SIDE 3 - Keating, McCalister
MCALLISTER
Quite an interesting class you gave today, Ms. Keating.

MS. KEATING
I'm sorry if I shocked you, Mr. McAllister.

MCALLISTER
Oh, there's no need to apologize. Though misguided, it was very fascinating.

MS. KEATING
You think so?

MCALLISTER
Undeniably. You take a big risk by encouraging them to be artists, Jane. Encouraging them to think
for themselves when there are millions of books and one school that you went to that teaches
them exactly how a woman should think? You know, when they realize they're not Sylvia Plaths
or Emily Dickinsons… they'll hate you for it!

MS. KEATING
We're not talking about art, we're talking about free thinkers.

MCALLISTER
Free thinkers at seventeen?

MS. KEATING
You know, I never pegged you as a cynic.

MCALLISTER
(taken aback by the comment)
Not a cynic, Jane, a realist. Show me the heart unfettered by foolish dreams, and I'll show you a
happy man.

MS. KEATING
But only in dreams can one be truly free. Twas always thus, and always thus will be.

MCALLISTER
Is that…Tennyson?

MS. KEATING
No, Keating.