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RHYTHM DARLINGS by Vynnie Meli A SMITH SCRIPT This script is protected by copyright laws. No performance of this script – IN ANY MEDIA – may be undertaken without payment of the appropriate fee and obtaining a licence. For further information, please contact SMITH SCRIPTS at [email protected] Rhythm Darlings By Vynnie Meli Vynnie Meli C 2019 [email protected] vynnie.com 1 Cast Size: 3w, 2m 5 actors: 3 women: 2 African American, 1 white - all in their twenties 2 men: 1 African American, 1 white - ages can vary 1 female saxophone player – optional The “All-girl” bands of the Swing Era were the Rosie the Riveters of jazz. This play is inspired by true events and the true heroes that lived through them. Sexism, racism, antisemitism - the fear of ‘otherness’ runs through this play, but at its core are the inconceivable lengths people go to to pursue their passion. “Politics and Themes aside, this is a play about music, and about people who love that music, women who will do whatever it takes to play it (wherever it takes them).” — MAT/ METROPOLITAN ATLANTA THEATRE AWARDS CHARACTERS Peggy: An African American woman in her late twenties. She is a tenor saxophone player in the all female big band the “International Rhythm Darlings” from the Swing era. Vi: African American woman in her late twenties or thirtyish. She and Peggy were two of the original “Darlings” when it was a school band. Rhoda: Late twenties, early thirties. She is Jewish and the first white woman in the all female big band the “International Rhythm Darlings”. Jerome: An African American man in his thirties or forties. A jovial, lovable sharecropper. Needs to tap dance a little and Jitterbug. Policeman: A white man from the Jim Crow South. Jazz Saxophone Player: Can double as Billie in prologue. The audience sees her, the characters on stage do not. She plays stylistically from ’40’s swing to contemporary improvisational jazz fusion. PROLOGUE CHARACTERS To be double cast from above Waitress: African American woman in her twenties (can double) Billy: African American bar patron/jazz musician in his twenties or thirties (can double) T.C.: African American man, high spirited jazz musician in his twenties or thirties (can double) Ess 2 PRODUCTION NOTES The saxophone player is optional or open to interpretation. Rhythm Darlings is a straight play, but can be performed as a play with music. A female can play incidental music in the swing style of the 40’s alongside a more contemporary, improvisational underscore. Vintage tracks from the bands of the Swing Era can also be used. The Kit McClure Band is a contemporary jazz band performing the music of The International Sweethearts of Rhythm on their album “The Sweetheart Project”. Kit McClure has granted permission to use their music in this play with program notes attributing the band. Original Sweethearts music is also available. This music could be played with or instead of the saxophone player at points during the play. SETTING The prologue takes place in a dingy after hours bar in Harlem in the 1930’s. The main action of the play takes place in the make-shift dressing room of a music hall in Virginia during World War II. Used for black musicians during the Jim Crow era, the room is shoddy; a broken mirror leaning against boxes, a bare light bulb suspended from the ceiling, cleaning supplies in the corner. A vanity (a table) faces the audience. Old flyers from bands that have played there through the years are taped on the wall, along with the grime and graffiti. AT RISE: Dim lights come up on a dingy after-hours bar in 1030’s Harlem. A lone customer nurses his drink at a corner table while the waitress chats with him. 3 ACT ONE Scene 1 PROLOGUE (Dim lights reveal a table, a few chairs and the lone customer in an after-hours bar in 1930’s Harlem. The waitress is knee deep in conversation with her captive audience.) WAITRESS - so she goes and pulls herself up by that tablecloth and it all went flyin’! BILLY She didn’t. WAITRESS Uh hunh. Plates, glasses, Sunday dinner. Lady peas everywhere for days! BILLY Oh, Nita. WAITRESS And her just sittin’ there like she don’t know how that happened. BILLY What a mess! WAITRESS She cute, though. BILLY I’m sure she is. WAITRESS That beer cold enough for you? (T.C. enters loudly, first addressing unseen bartender. He joins Billy.) T.C. Hoo! Yeah! Ben-nay! You missed a real clambake tonight! Hoo! We were somethin'! You tell ‘em, Billy? (to waitress) Ess 4 Hey there, gorgeous. Get me a cold one. And you take care of the best horn player north of New Orleans here yet? Man, y’all shoulda heard him tonight. Eighteen karat!! Boy got rhythm in those jaws. BILLY Sit down, TC. T.C. Played us some jazz tonight! Nita, you shoulda been there. We were smokin’. (WAITRESS serves T.C. his beer.) WAITRESS Do it look like maybe I was busy elsewheres? T.C. You shoulda called in sick and come and seen us. WAITRESS Bennie'd a loved that. T.C. You wouldn't be liein'. You come out sometime to hear us and you'll catch somethin' for sure! Jazz, it's a disease. And it's spreadin' like a fever! Take my tempature, beautiful. Go 'head, touch me. I'm a man in flames. WAITRESS I brought you somethin' cold to put out that fire. T.C. You come out and see for yourself. C’mon out tomorrow night. WAITRESS I take off a here to come see you, you’re gonna have to give me a job with that band ‘cause I won’t have this one anymore. T.C. Ha! Yeah, and whachoo gonna do in our band? WAITRESS Maybe I play an instrument. 5 T.C. Ha! Yeah, sure you do, sugar. WAITRESS What do you know? Maybe I do. WAITRESS You want another one, too, Billy? T.C. 'Course he do. Bring it, sugar. BILLY No, thank you, Nita. I'm fine. T.C. Go ahead, just bring him one. And a rye back for both of us. BILLY No thanks, T.C., I got to - T.C. And tell Benny, don’t be stingy. BILLY No, I’m done. T.C. Man, you was fast tonight. Chasin' me on that horn like a jealous husband! Better than sexual relations, man. Like you knew where I was goin’ before I knew myself!. Like we was building somethin'. We come from New Orleans to New York City– surrounded by all these tall buildings –and we here buildin' somethin’, too. Jazz, it's architecture, man. BILLY Save somethin' up for tomorrow night. WAITRESS Here you go, T.C.. T.C. Billy tell you we gonna start our own band? Ess 6 BILLY Now don’t go startin’ up with that again. T.C. We can be the Jazz Architects. No, more like with our own hands. The Jazz Carpenters. BILLY Carpenters? T.C. Like Jesus. Buildin’ something with this gift we got from God. BILLY Drink your beer. T.C. We’re ready, Billy. It’s time. (sips) Mmm, you sure lookin' good, Nita. Mm mmm. WAITRESS Let me get that ashtray for you. T.C. You the best lookin’ woman in here. WAITRESS I do believe I’m the only woman in here this late. T.C. Even so. Now, he gotta let you off sometime, let you get outta here and have some fun. WAITRESS This don’t look fun to you? T.C. This little flower just aching to get out and open up her petals sometime. C’mon, Nita. Sit with us awhile. Ain’t nobody here but that drunk asleep on that table, and he sure don’t need anymore. Do ya, Cap? Go back to sleep, old man. C’mon, Nita, pull up a chair. Hell, you don’t need a chair. C’mere - (T.C. grabs her wrist.) BILLY Leave her alone, T.C. 7 T.C. She don’t mind. Do you, sugar? BILLY She’s working. Let her be. T.C. Do me again, then. Just the whiskey. And ask Benny if he’s this tight with his money. (WAITRESS walks to bar.) Why you always do that? Spoil it like that? You sweet on her or somethin’? (yelling towards bar) And bring another one for my partner. BILLY It's late. I'm going up to bed. T.C. That must be it. You sweet on her yourself. That’s probably why you stay upstairs in that dank room instead of staying with the rest of the band. She is somethin' though. I don’t blame you. Mmm. BILLY You wear on me, T.C. (BILLY gets up to leave.) T.C. You never just hang out and have a drink with me. BILLY I’m tired, I’m going to bed. But, you watch yourself here. And, watch those C notes, too. I don't know as you hit 'em all tonight. T.C. Oh, I hit ‘em. Don't you worry yourself about that. BILLY G’nite, Nita. T.C. We’re ready, Billy. The Jazz Carpenters. Ess 8 WAITRESS 'Night, Billy. (BILLY exits. T.C. yells after him.) T.C. The Jazz Carpenters! (pause) … It’s time. (T.C. grabs NITA and pulls her to him. She doesn’t resist. They flirt as music plays. Lights go down on the bar and up on BILLY entering his dark, sepia room.

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