29 July 2015

PROMPT:  How did you love to play when you were a child? And what were you most afraid of? Write from either of those places.

Liz Engleman, dramaturg/educator

Doug, 61, sits at a desk looking intently at a computer screen, vigorously manipulating his mouse and tapping keys on the keyboard.  The audience cannot see the screen.  Marie, 60, enters, stops, shakes her head and glares at Doug, who does not see Marie.  Marie cannot yet see the screen.
MARIE
What are you doing?!
DOUG
(not looking up)
Working.
MARIE
You’re not working!  You’re playing World of Warcraft!  I can’t believe you!
DOUG
(Looking up briefly)
I’m about to start working!... Damn!
Doug manipulates the mouse and taps keys frantically.
DOUG
(sitting back)
Shit.
MARIE
You died?
DOUG
I died.
MARIE
Good!  Don’t you have a deadline?!
DOUG
Tomorrow!  It’s tomorrow!  And it’s just a rewrite anyway.
MARIE
Have you done any of it yet?
DOUG
I’m about half way through and I’ve looked through the second half, I just have a few things that need changing.
MARIE
Don’t you think you ought to get busy?
DOUG
I’m... I’m stuck.  I’m not sure what I need to do.
(gesturing toward the screen)
This is what I do to clear my head.
MARIE
For four hours a day.
DOUG
(hanging his head)
I know I play too much.
MARIE
It’s not your fault.  I knew what I was getting when we got married.  You were a gamer when I met you.  A gamer before there were gamers.
DOUG
That’s how we met.
MARIE
I should have known better than to get involved with my idiot brothers bridge partners.
DOUG
Hey!  When you got pregnant, who joined the Air Force and did four years under jet aircraft.
MARIE
You did.
DOUG
I worked in bakeries, and mowed lawns, and taught pre-school, and wrangled thugs and gangsters for eight years.
MARIE
(going to Doug and putting an arm around him)
And you’ve been a wonderful father to all our foster daughters.
DOUG
And now I’m trying to tell their story...
MARIE
And our story.
DOUG
And sometimes, I just need to step back...
MARIE
(interrupting)
And play a little World of Warcraft.
DOUG
Yea.
MARIE
(shoving Doug playfully)
What a load of crap!  You’re a gamer!  You’d play games if the grime reaper was standing behind you waiting to take you away!
DOUG
Speaking of grime reaper, I’m about to rez and my guild mates are expecting me to get back into this battle.
Doug turns to the computer.
MARIE
(turning and leaving)
I don’t know why I married you?!
DOUG
(loudly, staring into the screen as Marie exits)
We both know why you married me!
MARIE (O.S.)
But neither of us knows why I stayed married to you.
End of play.