Monsters of the American Cinema ______
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MONSTERS OF THE AMERICAN CINEMA _______________ Christian St. Croix Public Copy. Address available on request. 619-616-9625 [email protected] SYNOPSIS When his husband dies, Remy Washington, a Black man, finds himself both the owner of a drive-in movie theater and a caregiver to his late husband’s straight, white teenaged son, Pup. The two have developed a warm and loving familial chemistry but their relationship fractures when Remy discovers Pup and his friends have been bullying a gay teen at his school. Monsters of the American Cinema is a haunting and humorous tale about fathers and sons, ghosts and monsters. Monsters of the American Cinema was selected for a workshop performance as Scripps Ranch Theatre's 2018 Out On a Limb Play Series. It was then produced at the 2019 San Diego International Fringe Festival where it won the Fringe Award for Artists' Pick and Cultural Exchange, earning it a future opportunity to represent San Diego at a Fringe Festival in Australia. The San Diego Union-Tribune called it, “touching and funny”, “honest” and “engaging.” In January 2021, it selected as 1 of 5 out of over 200 international entries to receive a digital workshop and reading with the Prologue Theatre's FOREWARD: New Works Series. It was selected to be a part of the Urbanite Theatre's Outdoor Reading Series in March 2021. CHARACTERS REMY WASHINGTON Thirty-seven. Black. Gay. An aging activist who runs a drive-in movie theater in Santee, California. Remy leads his two-male household with a dry and loving sense of humor, but he knows when to drop the “cool dad” vibe and command respect. He's deliberately unrefined and not particularly interested in extravagance or luxury. His working class roots should be obvious in style and dress. He may or may not have tattoos. PETER “PUP” MILLER Sixteen. White. Straight. Remy's charge. An aspiring filmmaker. Little more than a kid with a camcorder as of now. Pup's an awkward collection of nerves and hormones. He's growing into a set of prom-king good looks, but he hasn't quite left his adolescent geek phase behind. Fueled by peer pressure, he's learned how to successfully mimic a Cali- bro style of speaking when around his friends. He sprouts a little chin stubble. SETTING The action takes place in three areas of a modest mobile home on the lot of a small drive-in movie theater in the town of Santee, California, San Diego County: The Kitchen. Neat, with cheap, studio-issued film memorabilia (the kind of useless stuff sent to all movie theaters in operation) collected and repurposed as decoration. Maybe there's salt and pepper shakers shaped like Star Wars characters. Maybe there's a clock on the wall boasting the Back to the Future logo. It's functional with a sink, cupboards, drawers, and a window that offers an easy weather check. It's also spacious enough to host a table, two matching chairs, and a refrigerator. Somewhere on the counters, there's a knife block. There's a wall-mounted coat rack near a kitchen door that leads outside of the mobile home. The entrance to a hallway leading to the rest of the mobile home may be visible, but won't be used. Nearby, in a section hinting at a living room area, an old and broken-in recliner sits. A door to a bathroom is visible as is another door leading directly into... Pup's Bedroom. A classic monster movie lover's happy place. There's a bed. Film posters crowd the walls. The largest and most prominent is a Creature From the Black Lagoon poster. Mobile Home Rooftop. Flat and even, often occupied. Two worn and mismatched lawn chairs, maybe a cooler. Accessed by a ladder. TIME The Present. High School Homecoming Season. NOTES This play is performed without an intermission. The duologues are thoughts and memories. Neither Remy nor Pup hear the other's side of the duologue. There should be no pauses when they switch from one character's side of the duologue to the other. When one stops, the other starts. El Cajon = El-Caw-Hone. Filippi’s = Feel-LEE-Peez. “A moment” marks short or long dramatic pauses depending on the...moment. MONSTERS OF THE AMERICAN CINEMA SCENE 1 WE JUST EXIST Lights rise on the roof of a mobile home. The sky is clear. The sun's just going down. There's a couple of lawn chairs, but REMY WASHINGTON, thirty-seven, Black, isn't bothering with either. He's sitting cross- legged before a piece of poster board and a small collection of bottled poster paint. Paint brush in hand, he's putting the finishing touches on a sign. A pack of cigarettes and a lighter sit on top of a small radio set. These are thoughts. REMY (to the audience) We met at a rally. Transgender Equality. Have you noticed how corporatized rallies and protests have become lately? They’re practically sponsored. Half surprised a Red Bull blimp doesn’t fly over every last one of them. Last protest I went to, this man had his little girl selling merch. No shit. Cute little thing, her barrettes matched her little dress. She walked up on me with a Melanin Magic T-shirt and tried to talk thirty bucks out of me for it. I mean, she succeeded. Even threw in a tip. She was too adorable to say no to. (a moment, realizes he hasn't introduced himself) Oh. Sorry. Remy Washington. Age thirty-sev--four... (a moment) ...two. Owner and proprietor of the Good Time Drive-In, here in Santee, right outside of San Diego off the fifty-two. Santee is...small. Population: mostly white. The, um, red kind of white. Quiet...for the most part. This charming pair of locals--husband and wife team--they decide to do a little shopping at a Food 4 Less grocery store, both with large swastika designs on their matching T-shirts. Another customer, she sees this. Things gets hot, words are exchanged, a fight ensues. The wife takes a hell of a wind-up punch to the grill and lands chin first into a bread display. One of the store clerks gets this on phone cam, puts it on Twitter, it goes viral, and two days later, an article comes out in the San Diego Union-Tribune that officially unofficially nicknames the city, “Klan-tee.” That Food 4 Less grocery store? It's two blocks from here. 1 REMY [CONT'D] We get a good sized crowd, all things considered. Multiplexes play the new shit, but we cover the classics. Casablanca. Psycho. Citizen Kane. We even do the old musicals. Singin' in the Rain, West Side Story. Every Christmas, we show It's a Wonderful Life, and every once in awhile, we'll even do Grease. I mean, it was shot in '78, so it's not an oldie-oldie technically, but this particular clientele doesn't seem to mind that. Our biggest nights are the Monster Movie Double Features, Fridays and Saturdays, starting at dusk. Two-for-one admission, children under four are permitted free. If dining at our lovely snack bar, we offer a limited range of enjoyable snacks and beverages. Hot dogs, nachos and popcorn--also two-for-one on Monster Movie nights. Lights up on Pup's bedroom, its door open, and PETER “PUP” MILLER, sixteen, white. He's in an undershirt and a pair of boxer shorts. A dress shirt and a pair of slacks lie on his bed. As he speaks, he begins putting the shirt and slacks on. A pair of dress socks also lie on the bed, but he doesn't put them on yet. There's a Creature From the Black Lagoon poster on his wall. PUP (to the audience) Peter Miller. Everyone calls me Pup. It’s, like, a nickname. I’m sixteen-- just turned sixteen. Um. I’m a Junior. I live in Santee, the mobile home behind the Good Time Drive-In. Ummm. (a moment) I don't know what else to-- (a moment) I live with...his name's Remy. He's, like, my guardian. He was married to my dad. He owned the Good Time. My dad, not... But when he died, it went to Remy. Remy's gonna let me run it when I'm old enough, if I want to. Remy drops the paint brush, taking a break. He takes a cigarette from the pack on top of the stereo and lights it. 2 REMY (inhaling, blowing smoke out) So this rally, it was at a gay bar in Hillcrest—Hillcrest, that’s the “gay friendly neighborhood” in San Diego. The organizers invited some politician to give a speech and I’m like...ehhhh. Like, if you know me, I don’t do politicians. So when the suit took the podium... (wags the lit cigarette) I took a ten-minute cigarette break. Protests, rallies, they're exhausting. And they've changed, like I said. The sponsorships, and now there's a lot of rich and guilty white folks from freshly scrubbed neighborhoods, all in their designer blouses and CrossFit gear, trynna get on the news and best one another with the most creative protest signs. Remy shudders dramatically. PUP (gestures at the poster) Creature From the Black Lagoon. It's my favorite. I mean, I like most of them, but in “Creature”, there's this part where Gill-man kills Richard Denning, then climbs up the side of the boat, and when Richard Carlson-- two Richards, right--when he's distracted by the fallen logs, Gill-Man grabs Julie Adams and pulls her overboard into the water.